Social polarization

Social polarization is the segregation within a society that emerges when factors such as income inequality, real-estate fluctuations and economic displacement result in the differentiation of social groups from high-income to low-income. It is a state and/or a tendency denoting the growth of groups at the extremities of the social hierarchy and the parallel shrinking of groups around its middle. An early body of research on social polarization was conducted by R.E. Pahl on the Isle of Sheppey, in which he provided a comparison between a pre-capitalist society and capitalist society. More recently, a number of research projects have been increasingly addressing the issues of social polarization within the developed economies. When social polarization occurs in addition to economic restructuring, particularly in cities, economic inequality along social class and racial lines is exacerbated. Such separation can be best observed in the urban environment, "where [communities] of extreme wealth and social power are interspersed with places of deprivation, exclusion, and decline." In addition to how spatial compositions are managed in cities, the technologies used in regards to social relations can also contribute to social polarization (see ). Increased spatial segregation of socioeconomic groups correlates strongly with social polarization as well as social exclusion and societal fragmentation. Aspects of this concept can also be associated with the phenomena of the creative class and how these members have created their own dominant status within society. Globalization and its associated ”creative destruction" has contributed to great prosperity and growth for elites in many cities. Conversely, the process of creative destruction is intrinsically spatially uneven, so some urban neighborhoods “at the receiving end” of globalization are harmed by it. Several theoretical models can be strung together to explain the basics that create social polarization, and the subsequent deprivation that occurs when there is extreme societal deprivation between those of high-wealth and low-wealth.

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Social polarization

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