URBAN GEOGRAPHY Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 2500 words

URBAN GEOGRAPHY - Essay Example concord to Massey and Denton (1998) Geographical separatism can be described as spatial concentration of particular groups of creation in separate areas. In simple terms, segregation means that certain groups of population get limited to different pockets of geographicalal areas. It can also be said that segregation is the level or expiration to which particular groups reside separately from one another within the confines of a particular geographic area such as a city or state (Low, 2004).Segregation, in itself, is a difficult phenomenon, where the groups are segregated in a number of ways. So, the spatial restriction of populations is based on a number of variables such as culture, income, ethnic origin, immigrant attitude or sexual orientation (Massey and Denton, 1998 Jackson, 1985). For example, people from a minority community are often overrepresented in some particular areas and underrepresented in some others (Yinger, 2001). In addition, a community may geographically restrict itself in way that its exposure to the other groups is minimise (Yinger, 2001). Johnston and Poulson add to Yingers theory by postulating that there are particular reasons because of which segregation takes place. These may range from juristic restrictions as in the case of South Africa where Apartheid was in practice to the social or economic status as in the case of rich people residing in the suburbs and the relatively poor residing in the downtown areas.However, the most prominent cause of segregation is found to be ethnicity or pagan background. This type of segregation can result from the emigrants need to find security in numbers which makes people from the same cultural or ethnic backgrounds to cluster together and segregate themselves from the rest of the society. Voluntary segregation is therefore where immigrants take to live in a