Measuring Segregation of Educational and Occupational Groups in the Neighborhoods of Isfahan City by Using One- and Multiple-Group Indices

Segregation is one of the undeniable realities in urban communities. One of the contexts for occurrence of this phenomenon at metropolitan areas is socio-economic distinctions, which lead to unequality allocations of resources, opportunities, and services. For this reason, measuring the degree of segregation has been one of the most controversial topics discussed by urban reseachers over the last few years. Through these topics, they wish to be able to study and analyze this phenomenon and reduce its negative consequences. Isfahan metropolis is the third most populous city in Iran (National Statistical Center of Iran, 2016) and has 15 municipal districts, as well as residents with different religions (Isfahan City Statistics, 2017). The city consists of neighborhoods with different and sometimes conflicting qualities of life. Its different socio-economic conditions and characteristics has led to segregation and polarization phenomenon in this city. Since major occupational and educational groups can represent socio-economic differences in cities, this study aimed to measure the segregation between the major occupational and educational groups in the metropolitan neighborhoods of Isfahan.  

This study was categorized as an applied research in terms of purpose and as a descriptive-analytical researchin terms of method. In this study, the degree of segregation was measured according to the 5 dimensions proposed by Massey and Denton (1988). These dimensions included evenness, exposure, concentration, clustering, and centralization. The latest census data released by the National Statistical Center of Iran in 2011 were applied to measure the segregation indices by using the variables of education and occupation in 192 neighborhoods of Isfahan City. For this purpose, 13 one-group indices were first calculated using Geo Segregation Analyzer software. Then, 7 multi-group indices were measured with the help of the same software. The variables were categorized in GIS software. Also, Location Quotients (LQs) were utilized to identify the spatial accumulations of the occupational and educational groups.

The results indicated a high degree of segregation among all the occupational and educational groups in the neighborhoods of Isfahan according to the one-group and multi-group indices. However, the degrees of segregation varied based on the different dimensions. In Table 4, the value of each dimension is separately specified for the related indicators based on the occupational and educational groups. In addition, the LQ index for the occupational groups represented spatial accumulation of the low occupational group in the suburbs and far from the city center. Furthermore, this index showed spatial accumulation of the high educational group in the southern neighborhoods of the city and both sides of Zayandehrood River. Therefore, these groups were more segregated in comparison with two other occupational/ educational ‎groups.It is worth noting that by moving from the central districts to the suburbs, the high educational group had a very low distribution and the low educational group was very intense. This fact was true for the occupational groups as well. This meant that the distributions of the high and low occupational groups decreased and increased by moving to the suburbs, respectively. Despite the high rate of segregation of the occupational and educational groups in the neighborhoods of Isfahan, this separation had not yet reached the stage of city polarization. It seemd that the spatial structure and configuration of Isfahan City, including the vertical axis of Chaharbagh and the horizontal axis of Zayandehrood, had been effective in not polarizing the socio-spatial structure of the city.However, continuation of this trend could lead to complete segregations of the high educational and low occupational groups, especially in the southern areas of the city, including Districts 5 and 6, and some areas of Districts 2, 11, and 14, respectively.