Segregation, Education and Space - a Case Study of Malmö

Abstract: This dissertation takes its point of departure in two questions about segregation and its implications for architectural research. The first question is whether examining segregation in terms of education is a fruitful tool for analyzing segregation in general. In answering that question, the dissertation describes how educational segregation relates to segregation by income, ethnicity and age. This first question is analyzed with the aid of the theoretical framework created by Pierre Bourdieu, especially in his work Distinction – A Social Critique of the Judgement of Taste. This dissertation concludes that education differs from other social variables in describing segregation and deserves to be analyzed on its own merits. The second question is whether, how, and in what ways segregation relates to spatiality. In answering that question, the dissertation examines whether segregation is better described using spatial variables such as building age or ownership structure than through typo-morphological classification. This dissertation concludes that typo-morphological classification gives different starting points for analyzing segregation than other spatial variables. This dissertation analyzes both questions through an empirical case study of the city of Malmö, using descriptive municipality statistics and geographical data (GIS). The data is then sorted into social variables (education, income, ethnicity, mobility,age, employment, political inclination) and spatial variables (property area, room units, centrality, building age, ownership relations). This dissertation makes extensive use of the statistical methods linear regression analysis and correspondence diagrams in order to answer the questions.