The evolution of spatial patterns of residential segregation in Central European Cities: The Łódź Functional Urban Region from mature socialism to mature post-socialism

Two themes dominated the study of socio-spatial change in Central Eastern Europe (CEE) after 1990. One was that the development of urban regions in CEE after the demise of socialism is characterized by suburbanization. The second topic raises the issue of growing residential segregation. Unfortunately, studies on patterns of residential segregation are still scarce in the CEE context, in particular those that employ traditional measures of segregation. Relying on solid empirical materials from the 1988 and 2002 National Censuses, the purpose of this paper is to map and analyze the patterns of residential segregation in the Łódź Functional Urban Region, an old industrial urban region in Poland undergoing a rapid deconcentration and shrinkage of the core area. This contribution concludes that the first decade of systemic transition resulted in decreasing residential segregation, as gauged by global measures of segregation.

► Changes in residential separation and concentration in the Łódź Region have been examined.
► A more traditional index based approach and a more recent raw data approach have been adopted.
► The separation of higher social strata was slowly lowering.
► Unevenness in the spatial distribution of lower social strata increased.
► The changing patterns of residential concentration reveal the opposite trend.