Conceptualizing racial inequalities and injustice in social-ecological systems: A foundation for ecology of segregation.

September 22, 2026| Source: Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America

Segregation, or social-economic inequity across space, is a widespread phenomenon. What can ecology, with its fundamental concern for spatial heterogeneity, contribute conceptually and practically to issues of segregation? And what can urban ecology learn? The relationships of four established perspectives about environmental inequity and injustice can help answer these questions. All the perspectives acknowledge the social construction of race and similar rankings. Patterns and drivers of segregation originate in extractive capitalism, colonialism, settler colonialism, and unfree labor, and have stimulated a long history of work in environmental justice. A comprehensive framework of environmental justice pattern and processes illustrate the complexity of inequity. The framework begins with a two-dimensional matrix identifying different dimensions of inequity. The conceptual dimensions can be applied to real cases to expose a temporal dynamic. Examples from Baltimore MD, show how the dynamic interactions contribute to larger social-ecological systems that explain the origin and change of segregation in specific places over time. This integration of ecology and broadly social processes is newly emerging. Mechanisms and social-ecological outcomes of segregation based on race are drawn from long-term research in a segregated US metropolitan area. These place-based examples are embedded in broader, globally relevant expressions of segregation that encompass city, suburban, and rural places.

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