The Political Ecology of Segregation

Racial segregation is well understood as an entrenched feature of cities with wide-ranging social impacts, including economic inequality. Yet the environmental consequences of historical segregation for cities and their communities remains an open area for inquiry and action. While environmental justice research and advocacy has long called attention to the convergence of race, class, and place in the making of highly uneven social ecological landscapes that routinely harm the poor and communities of color, more research is needed to understand the dynamic social, economic, and environmental feedbacks that perpetuate segregated urban patterns over the long term. Working in collaboration with the Baltimore Ecosystem Study (BES), a long term research project of the National Science Foundation, the project seeks to specifically examine the role of segregation in the construction of ideas about race and nature and in structuring processes of social-ecological change. Combining various data sources including census, land cover, and historical data, this project advances understanding of: the long term ecological consequences of urban segregation, how ecological disparities may perpetuate segregation, and how socio-environmental strategies may remediate patterns and conditions of segregation and promote sustainability.