An analysis of socioeconomic diversity in Texas metropolitan residential areas

Abstract

Almost without exception, students of urban stratification have held that the residential area is highly segregated along class lines. The modal characteristics of an area have been the major focus-as represented by median family income, median owner value, or some other measure of central tendency-with little emphasis placed on the diversity existent within such groupings. The primary purpose of this dissertation is to develop an understanding of the extent of socioeconomic mixing or variation within urban residential areas. The major foci of the dissertation are: (1) the determination of appropriate statistical measures of diversity; (2) an examination of residential trends in regard to socioeconomic mixing; (3) the determination of overlap among measures of social status variation in residential areas; and (4) an evaluation of the attributes which aid in explaining residential heterogeneity. As no previous attempts to measure diversity within residential areas were found, twelve alternative techniques were assessed, the Index of Qualitative Variation was round to be the most appropriate measure of diversity for discrete data, such as occupational mixing. A measure that was applied to continuous or interval-level rate.