The ANNALS of the American Academy of Political and Social Science

Special Issue: Residential Inequality in American Neighborhoods and Communities

Residential Inequality in American Neighborhoods and Communities. Volume 660, The Annals of the American Academy of Political and Social Science, July 2015. This volume, edited by Barrett Lee, Glenn Firebaugh, John Iceland, and Stephen Matthews, consists of 17 papers first presented at the Penn State Stratification Conference last fall. Motivating the volume is the dogged persistence of residential inequality in the United States. Although many people pursue the American Dream, seeking desirable homes and neighborhoods, their progress has been slowed by rising income disparities, natural disasters, the Great Recession, mortgage foreclosures, and dramatic swings in housing prices. Whether immigrants and their children are able to achieve their residential goals is another current concern. At the same time, spatial divides along race and class lines have been sustained through discriminatory practices and individuals’ preference to live near those similar to themselves.

The contributors to the volume, who include leading scholars from multiple disciplines, explore how stratification intersects with the residential landscape. Their research highlights linkages between socioeconomic and ethnoracial statuses and four spatial sorting processes: segregation, housing and locational attainment, residential mobility, and neighborhood change. State-of-the-art substantive work is featured, with many of the papers employing innovative methods or data to speak to issues of both theoretical and policy importance. More information about the volume can be found at http://ann.sagepub.com/.