Premium
Segregation, Social Polarization and Immigration in Athens during the 1990s: Theoretical Expectations and Contextual Difference
Author(s) -
MALOUTAS THOMAS
Publication year - 2007
Publication title -
international journal of urban and regional research
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 2.456
H-Index - 114
eISSN - 1468-2427
pISSN - 0309-1317
DOI - 10.1111/j.1468-2427.2007.00760.x
Subject(s) - polarization (electrochemistry) , immigration , inequality , economic geography , sociology , demographic economics , economics , political science , law , mathematics , mathematical analysis , chemistry
This article investigates trends in segregation, polarization and inequality in Athens during the 1990s, and focuses on what may seem a paradoxical coexistence of decreasing segregation with increasing social polarization and inequality. To explain this coexistence, the article examines the distinction between social polarization in specific contexts and the dominant assumptions about social polarization, which derive from the global city thesis, and the structure of the city's housing market, which prevented the substantial wave of immigration during the 1990s from intensifying segregation. Arguing for more context awareness, the article does not try to stress the specificity of the Athenian case, but, mainly, to reveal the context‐dependent character of the dominant assumptions about segregation and social polarization and, therefore, to show their limitations.