’The inner citadels of the color line’: Mapping the micro-ecology of segregation in everyday life spaces

The Open University's repository of research publications and other research outputs 'The inner citadels of the color line': Mapping the micro-ecology of segregation in everyday life spaces Journal Article (2008). 'The inner citadels of the color line': Mapping the micro-ecology of segregation in everyday life spaces. Copyright and Moral Rights for the articles on this site are retained by the individual authors and/or other copyright owners. For more information on Open Research Online's data policy on reuse of materials please consult the policies page. Abstract The role of racial segregation in perpetuating racial prejudice and inequality has been widely investigated by social scientists. Most research has concentrated on the macro-sociological organization of institutions of residence, education and employment. In this paper we suggest that such work may be usefully complemented by research that investigates the so-called 'micro-ecology of segregation' in everyday life spaces-the dynamic, largely informal network of social practices through which individuals maintain racial isolation within settings where members of other race groups are physically co-present. Developing this argument, we discuss some historical examples of research on the micro-ecological dimension of race segregation in the USA. We also draw examples from an ongoing program of work on everyday practices of contact and segregation in post-apartheid South Africa. The paper concludes by exploring some conceptual and methodological implications of treating racial segregation as a micro-ecological practice. The micro-ecology of segregation 3 Segregation was made real for me as a white Northerner when I took a train trip around the US in the summer of 1947 (I was 24). My return from the West Coast was by way of the South West and New Orleans. It was on that leg of the trip that I for the first time saw drinking fountains labeled " colored " and " white ". This was not outright cruelty such as lynching or denial of voting rights, all of which I had learned about. It was not silly, as it first seemed to me. I realized that for segregation to stick it had to intrude into the simplest everyday activity such as taking a drink of water. It was that very banality that brought home what it must be like to be colored (Remembering Jim Crow, 2007). The rationale for studying ethnic and racial segregation is twofold. On the one hand, segregation has long been regarded as a lynchpin of material inequality, an idea reinvigorated …