Ethnicity, religion, and residential segregation in London: evidence from a computational typology of minority communities

Within the context of the growing polarisation and fragmentation of the urban landscape, this paper presents a computational typology applicable to the study of minority communities, both ethnic and religious, which is useful in understanding their spatial distribution and juxtaposition at neighbourhood levels. The typology has been applied to multicultural London with the use of the 2001 Census, in which there were questions on ethnicity and religion. The landscape of religion is found to be more highly segregated in contrast to the landscape of ethnicity. Furthermore, on the basis of a preliminary analysis of indicator variables, minorities seem on aggregate to be in an improved situation given a level of residential segregation, with the exception of residents of segregated Asian-Bangladeshi areas for ethnicity and residents of segregated Muslim areas for religion. This questions the generally held view that segregation in a multicultural society is undesirable per se and suggests that a 'one size fits all' government policy towards residential segregation is insufficiently perceptive. The typology introduced here should facilitate a more critically informed approach to multiculturalism and the contemporary city.