In April 2024, Delmi will launch the study "The importance of the built environment in reducing residential segregation, spatial segregation and unequal living conditions". The focus is, among other things, on providing an overall picture of the research situation regarding aspects of the built environment that are important for reducing and counteracting socio-economic segregation.
The research overview is the first part of an ongoing collaborative project with the Swedish Research Council, with the aim of contributing knowledge that increases understanding of segregation and enables evidence-based reforms that can reduce and counteract segregation in Sweden.
Segregation is essentially a spatial concept, so the issue is closely linked to the built environment and how it creates spatial proximity or distance between different groups. The built environment is therefore a central factor in the understanding of segregation, but also constitutes an area that still appears to be less illuminated in Swedish segregation research. Previous studies have mainly framed institutional dimensions of the built environment such as tenure types, or described it on the basis of rather rough descriptions such as district types and settlement types. However, research today has taken many steps forward and descriptions have become more nuanced.
Integral to this is also the question of what form of segregation we are talking about, where current descriptions of the built form mainly lead to studies of residential segregation, but where other interesting forms of spatial segregation are less illuminated. The current knowledge review aims to increase understanding of segregation based on socio-economic background, focusing on the built environment and how it creates situations of spatial separation or proximity between groups.
The research overview is based on a systematic method for literature search, which includes searching several databases, websites and reference lists to find relevant studies that answer the question.
The authors of the review are Lars Marcus, Professor of Urban Planning at Chalmers University of Technology, and Ann Legeby, Professor of Applied Urban Planning at the Royal Institute of Technology.