Martin Ruef examines racial and residential segregation in two new papers

Martin Ruef, Professor of Sociology and DUPRI scholar, has published two new papers that examine racial and residential segregation in the Jim Crow South and 20th century Europe.

In "Racial Segregation under Slavery", published in Social Forces, Ruef argues slavery produced racial segregation during the antebellum period through the residential isolation of slaves and free people of color. Using data from the 1850 Census and architectural surveys, Ruef finds that the residential segregation of free people of color increased with their local prevalence and the segregation of slaves increased with the prevalence of the slave population.

In “Micro-Segregation and the Jewish Ghetto: A Comparison of Ethnic Communities in Germany”, forthcoming in the European Journal of Sociology, Ruef and his colleague Angelina Grigoryeva introduce the concept of micro-segregation. Micro-segregation is associated with the separation of a minority group as a result of legal status, develops in contexts where property rights are complex, and posits that the boundaries of minority districts may be porous, offering sites of economic value and entrepreneurship. The authors use four studies of German states to examine micro-segregation.