Micro-Segregation

Abstract Micro-segregation occurs in social situations where interactions between individuals from distinct groups are not inhibited by sheer physical distance, but by institutional constraints and spatial configurations. In micro-segregation, social groups are separated by such features as physical barriers, floors or sides of a building, plots of land, streets, or regulations regarding the use of amenities. They are often within eyesight or a short walk of one another, but institutionalized proscriptions prevent personal contact. Despite these ostensibly fragile boundaries, micro-segregation presents both a historically durable and pernicious constraint on human interaction. Drawing on archaeological, archival, ethnohistorical, and geospatial materials, this book documents micro-segregation in a variety of societies and economic systems. Serfdom, slavery, colonialism, and modernity have all borne witness to the spatial separation of individuals in close quarters by caste, class, or status group. This book addresses how social groups are kept apart in a variety of activities and settings and what this sorting process reveals about underlying social hierarchies and inequalities.