The Schelling Segregation Model

2269 Words5 Pages
bulb-icon

Recommended: Urban segregation

Introduction

In this essay, I aim to show that given Carl Hempel’s (1942) deductive-nomological (DN) theory of explanation and Bas C. van Fraassen’s (1980) pragmatic theory of explanation, Schelling only partially explains neighbourhood segregation, because multiple causal factors and background conditions ought to be taken into account. I will first outline how Schelling explains neighbourhood segregation, and then discuss the following aspects to show my conclusion:

1. Schelling’s model in the context of the DN theory of explanation
2. Schelling’s model in the context of the pragmatic theory of explanation
3. How to explain neighbourhood segregation…

An emphasis will be placed on the first and second to allow more thorough justification.

In this essay, neighbourhood will be defined in terms of “neighbourhood spaces” .

Schelling’s Explanation

Schelling’s explanation of neighbourhood segregation is outlined below:

In a local mixed neighbourhood of groups A and B, everyone is happy, given that:
(i) Relative to their location, everyone of a given colour has the same tastes and preferences for the colour mixture of their neighbour(s),
(ii) Everyone defines their neighbourhood according to their own location,
(iii) Everyone’s identity is publicly observable,
(iv) Everyone cares about the colour of their neighbour(s),
(v) Everyone is able to observe the number of people (i.e. the effective colour ratio) in the neighbourhood,
(vi) Individuals of group A are not outnumbered by the neighbours of group B by more than two-to-one, and vice versa. Alternatively, at least half of her neighbours ought to be the same type as them.

Schelling studies two random individuals at every point in time in the model. If the individuals are both ...

... middle of paper ...

...n the Philosophy of Social Science. United States: MIT Press. Pg. 71-78.

Van Fraassen, Bas C. (1980). The Scientific Image. Oxford: Clarendon Press.

Zhang, Junfu. (2011). Tipping and Residential Segregation: A Unified Schelling Model. Journal of Regional Science. 51 (1), Pg. 167-193.

Cariani, Fabrizio. (2001). VAN FRAASSEN AND THE PRAGMATIC THEORY OF EXPLANATION. Available: http://fitelson.org/290/fabrizio_vf_sk.pdf. Last accessed 6th Nov 2013.

Folse. (2003). The D-N Model of Justification. Available: http://www.loyno.edu/~folse/DeducNom.html. Last accessed 6th Nov 2013.

Merriam Webster (2013). Feng Shui. Available: http://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/feng%20shui. Last accessed 8th Nov 2013.

Woodward, James. (Winter 2011 Edition). Scientific Explanation. Available: http://plato.stanford.edu/entries/scientific-explanation/#2. Last accessed 6th Nov 2013.

Show More
Related

  • Eduardo Bonilla-Silva's Book, Racism Without Racists

    1656 Words  | 4 Pages

    Charles, Camille (2003). The dynamics of racial residential segregation. Annual Review of Sociology, 167. Retrieved from http://jstor.org/stable/30036965.

    Read More

  • Life as a White Man in The Autobiography of An Ex-Colored Man

    819 Words  | 2 Pages

    "...the effect is a tendency toward lighter complexions, especially among the more active elements in the race. Some might claim that this is a tacit admission of colored people among themselves of their own inferiority judged by the color line. I do not think so. What I have termed an inconsistency is, after all, most natural; it is, in fact, a tendency in accordance with what might be called an economic necessity. So far as racial differences go, the United States puts a greater premium on color, or better, lack of color, than upon anything else in the world."

    Read More

  • Pynchon's Gravity's Rainbow

    761 Words  | 2 Pages

    ...y) that pools all of these colors together. The colors could represent the varying aspects and cultures contained within the Human Race. The choices presented both in the title and in the story itself create a vast labyrinth, much in the way Borges conceives the workings of an elaborate universe.

    Read More

  • Color Realism And Why Nothing Has Color By James Landesman

    1186 Words  | 3 Pages

    Humans in general, take many things for granted: life, money, security, but what about color? Usually nobody ever stops to think, “what if there was no color?” Color is seen by almost everyone so no one necessarily has to wonder what it would be like if color wasn’t there. However, philosophy professor James Landesman has provided a theory in which people learn color may really not exist. Although this seems like a shocking and even ludicrous proposal, his essay Why Nothing Has Color: Color Skepticism brings up many points that can lead anyone to doubt the existence of something so trivial.

    Read More

  • Simmel's versus Du Bois's Theories in the Social Sciences

    1265 Words  | 3 Pages

    The influence that the behaviors of groups have is one of the most important factors that help shape and contribute to a functional society. With their works, William Edward Burghardt

    Read More

  • People Like Us

    938 Words  | 2 Pages

    Second, I will discuss Brook’s ideas about social groups working together and social groups coexisting in a specific area. According to Brooks, in the United States we cannot see neighborhoods with different races or cultures because people always try “to group themselves with people who are basically like themselves” even in their workplaces (306-307). He makes this asseveration giving just an example on how wealthy Democratic and Republican lawyers do not tend to buy expensive houses in the same neighborhoods (307). However, in our country we can see middle class neighborhoods where we have different social groups coexist together, such as Coral Gables in Miami, Fl or Pembroke Pines in Broward, Fl.

    Read More

  • Housing Segregation and Minority Groups in the United States

    846 Words  | 2 Pages

    Squires, G. D., Friedman, S., & Siadat, C. (2001). Housing Segregation in the United States: Does Race Matter? Cambridge, MA.

    Read More

  • What is wrong about Donald Black's theory of law?

    1247 Words  | 3 Pages

    According to Black?s definition, stratification is ?the vertical aspect of social life?, ?any uneven distribution of the material conditions of existence? (Black 11), in other words the discrimination of wealth. Stratification can be measured in quantity, delineated in style and viewed from two perspectives, as a ?magnitude of difference in wealth? (Black 11) and as the level to which the setting is stratified. Moreover, stratification explains not only law, its quantity and style, but also other aspects of social life. The relationship Black is mostly interested in is the positive correlation between stratification and law, meaning the more law, the more stratified the setting is. When utilizing this proposition by inserting other variables of social ...

    Read More

  • Applying the D.E.C.I.D.E Model of Decision Making

    1323 Words  | 3 Pages

    Togelius, J. (2011). A procedural critique of deontological reasoning. Paper presented at the Proceedings of DiGRA.

    Read More

  • Thoreau's Civil Disobedience

    1119 Words  | 3 Pages

    C. In a democracy, the most virtuous and thoughtful group are regarded their desires rather than the majority group.

    Read More

  • The Racial Contract

    329 Words  | 1 Pages

    b.     Much of the chapter is a long explanation of how whites have brutalized nonwhites (pp.98-101). Difference between cynical and realist.

    Read More

  • Understand The Lesbian Identity By Henry Tajfel

    1076 Words  | 3 Pages

    To some degree everyone is influenced by social identity, the theory composes the idea that the social world is divided into ...

    Read More

  • Shaw And Mckay's Social Disorganization Theory

    1145 Words  | 3 Pages

    Theorists believe that Shaw and McKay were biased when they wrote their conclusion on the lower-class neighborhood. This in turn resulted in other critics questioning if the demographics such as socio-economic, the setting of the communities and the population that composed the communities were indicators of social disorganization or if social theorists constitute their reasoning based on their own beliefs. According to Kurbin (2010), Criminologist Edwin Sutherland preferred to call Shaw and McKay’s social disorganization theory the differential social organization because of his belief that “the organization of the delinquent group, which is often very complex, is social disorganization only from an ethical or some other particularistic point of view.” This may be interpreted as him stating that a social group, such as a delinquent one, is only perceived as “disorganized” based on personal biases. According to Sutherland, some urban neighborhoods are not disorganized but organized based on the daily needs of the unique community. For example, if an outsider born and raised in a community with different set of values looks into a community with another perspective on how to function in a social environment, the outsider may think that they are wrong and ridiculous for living in such a matter. The outsider

    Read More

  • Race

    891 Words  | 2 Pages

    During the 18 century, people divided humans based on where they live and skin color like Europeans as “white”, Africans as “black”, Indians as “red”, and Asians as “yellow”. For example, in Haiti, color has been the dominant force in social and political life. Skin texture, facial feature, hair color, and socioeconomic class together play a role in placement. The anthropological perspective define race as members of a society have similar biological traits. These members are diverse from other members of society because of these traits. In the end, the race concept is not acceptable to humans but it is used as a cultural classification. ...

    Read More

  • Residential Segregation Case Study

    1133 Words  | 3 Pages

    The solutions to residential segregation could be classified according to the basis which include place, people and indirect approaches (Bouston, 2013). The main aim of policies based on place is to improve the amenities and housing stocks in black dominated neighborhoods as a means of encouraging the white to settle in these areas or alternatively creation of affordable options for housing in the whites’ neighborhood to encourage the white settling in such places. However the challenges to this approach is that research conducted showed that the white households still had a negative mentality towards the black neighborhoods and no matter the improvement to these neighborhoods, they still won’t move. Another challenge with the policy is that improvements to neighborhoods will consequently lead to rise in house prices making it unaffordable even to those currently living

    Read More

More about The Schelling Segregation Model

Open Document