Urban Sprawl and Spatial Segregation. A review (In French)

This article explores the theoretical linkages between urban sprawl and social segregation. We first present the way segregation can increase urban sprawl : according to the « flight from blight hypothesis », mechanisms of segregation may form socially homogenous areas which tend to move away from each other. Second, we show that the influence of sprawl on segregation is ambivalent. On one’s hand, it diminishes the pressure on rent ; thus the exclusion process is softened. On the other hand, it gives more achievability to bring together people who want to. This last process is reinforced by exclusionary zoning practices. A review of some empirical studies on the link between residential density and social segregation show that the direction of such a relation is unspecified. We finally argue for an analysis of the urban sprawl-social segregation linkages as from the study of residential relocations.