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Statistical Mechanics of Residential Segregation

ORAL

Abstract

Few problems are more complex than those concerned with human systems. Humans make decisions based on historical trends and whims, may be entirely idiosyncratic, and cannot be trusted to provide honest justification for their decisions. Residential segregation is an excellent illustration of such a problem that is of historical importance and continual equity concern, yet one which can be addressed due to the myriad of publicly available data.  Here we demonstrate how traditional demographic approaches, which aim to measure the amount of segregation, are encompassed in statistical mechanics. Furthermore, inspired by density-functional theory, we quantify coarse-grained interactions among various racial/ethnic groups from neighborhood compositions taken at a particular instant in time. These interactions can be used to both generalize traditional demographic approaches, allowing the capture of segregation behavior, while also generating novel neighborhood-level forecasts of racial/ethnic compositions.

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Publication: Presently available on arXiv:<br><br>Chen, Y., Kinkhabwala, Y. A., Barron, B., Hall, M., Arias, T. A. Cohen, I. Forecasting the dynamics of segregated population distributions at the neighborhood scale using Density-Functional Fluctuation Theory.<br><br>Kinkhabwala, Y. A., Barron, B., Hall, M., Arias, T. A., Cohen, I. Forecasting racial dynamics at the neighborhood scale using Density-Functional Fluctuation Theory.<br><br>planned paper: Generalizing segregation indices to capture subgroup interactions.

Presenters

  • Boris Barron

    Physics, Cornell University

Authors

  • Boris Barron

    Physics, Cornell University

  • Yunus A Kinkhabwala

    Applied and Engineering Physics, Cornell University

  • Chris Hess

    Public Policy and Sociology, Cornell University

  • Matthew Hall

    Public Policy and Sociology, Cornell University

  • Itai Cohen

    Cornell University, Cornell University, Physics, Ithaca, NY, Physics, Cornell University

  • Tomas A Arias

    Cornell University, Physics, Cornell University