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The equalising mirage? Socioeconomic segregation and environmental justice in post-socialist Bucharest

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Abstract

Unlike the vast majority of European capitals, and despite growing income inequality, descriptive measures of socioeconomic segregation seem to show a desegregation trend in Bucharest over the last two decades. Socioeconomic segregation and environmental justice studies provide completing insights of the intricated uneven geographies of social, economic and environmental disparities of post-socialist cities. And Bucharest is paradoxically the most populated and yet less studied of the capitals of Central and Eastern Europe. This paper explores changes in the patterns of socioeconomic segregation in post-socialist Bucharest, sheds more light on the relationship between neighbourhood characteristics and the patterns of segregation, and includes 'attractor' and 'repellent' environmental factors, contributing to combine environmental justice and socioeconomic segregation approaches. Despite the apparently continuous desegregation trend, and even when controlling for the presence and proximity of other predictors, environmental factors play an increasing role in shaping local socioeconomic segregation patterns. This would suggest the need for consideration of the environmental factors in public policies aimed at mitigating the social cost of the transition and residential segregation. This should also lead to use descriptive measures of segregation more cautiously and to explore the relationship between neighbourhood characteristics, environmental conditions and the local patterns of segregation instead.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Université de Cergy-Pontoise, 33 bvd du Port, 95011, Cergy-Pontoise, Paris, France

    Samuel Rufat

  2. Institute of Urban Geography and Tourism Studies, University of Łódz, Łódz, Poland

    Szymon Marcińczak

  3. Department of Geography, Centre for Migration and Urban Studies, University of Tartu, Tartu, Estonia

    Szymon Marcińczak

  4. Department of Geography, Environmental, Management and Energy Studies, University of Johannesburg, Johannesburg, South Africa

    Szymon Marcińczak

  5. Institut Universitaire de France (IUF), 1 rue Descartes, Paris, France

    Samuel Rufat

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Correspondence to Samuel Rufat.

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Rufat, S., Marcińczak, S. The equalising mirage? Socioeconomic segregation and environmental justice in post-socialist Bucharest. J Hous and the Built Environ 35, 917–938 (2020). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10901-019-09722-7

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