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1998 - When Desegregation Reduces Interracial Contact: A Class Size Paradox for Weak Ties

Attribution: Feld, Scott, & Carter, William
Researchers: Scott FeldWilliam Carter
University Affiliation: Louisiana State University
Email: sofeld@lsuvm.sncc.lsu.edu
Research Question:
Desegregation is sometimes different from and inconsistent with maximizing interracial contact.
Published: 1
Journal Name or Institutional Affiliation: American Journal of Sociology
Journal Entry: Vol. 103, No. 5, pp. 1165-1186
Year: 1998
Findings:
  • Policies directed toward increasing interracial contact have the ironic secondary advantage of reducing the isolation of minorities.
  • Potential for interracial contact is greatest when the minority is somewhat concentrated without becoming a majority in any school.
  • All things being equal, there is evidence that increasing the potential for interracial contact does tend to increase the amount of interracial interaction to some extent.
  • Potential interracial contact may be reduced by breaking up concentrations of minority students in larger schools.
  • Desegregation can sometimes reduce the number of interracial weak ties that develop.
Keywords: Class SizeContact TheoryContextCross Race FriendshipsDesegregationFriendshipsRacial CompositionRegions: NationalMethodologies: QuantitativeResearch Designs: Mathematical modelsAnalysis Methods: Mathematical Models Sampling Frame:National
Sampling Types: NonrandomAnalysis Units: StudentData Types: Quantitative-Longitudinal
Data Description:
  • Based on the class size paradox that says when a population is divided into subgroups of uneven size the average of the subgroups is mathematically different from the average experienced subgroup size.
Theoretical Framework:
Relevance:
Archives: K-12 Integration, Desegregation, and Segregation Abstracts
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