Socioeconomic Segregation of Activity Spaces in Urban Neighborhoods: Does Shared Residence Mean Shared Routines?

Christopher Browning, Ohio State University
Catherine Calder, Ohio State University
Lauren J. Krivo, Rutgers University
Anna Mohr, Ohio State University
Bethany Boettner, Ohio State University

How integrated are the daily routines of people who live in the same neighborhood? The assumption that residents of the same neighborhood share the same spaces away from home regardless of their socioeconomic status has gone untested. Using data from the Los Angeles Family and Neighborhood Survey on the spatial locations of routine activities for households from 65 census tracts, we examine whether household dyads (based on a randomly sampled adult) from the same tract conduct routine activities in the same census block groups. We find that dyads in which both people have less than a high school degree are more likely to encounter one another than other dyad combinations, but only for those living in neighborhoods with few residents with at least a college degree. These findings offer evidence of activity space sorting within census tract, highlighting the need for more spatially refined understanding of segregation processes.