Poverty Segregation in West German Cities - The "Americanization" Hypothesis and Its Empirical Evidence

It is generally assumed that the segregation of the poor in German cities is increasing as a result of cumulative polarization processes in a capitalist economy. This has led to the assumption that German cities are increasingly becoming similar to American cities. The idea of an "Americanization" specifically includes the development of the inner-city "poverty ghettos" and their adverse implications for urban social development in general, which is the focus of this paper. Empirical findings based on analyses in five major German cities do not support these assumptions. In particular there is evidence that local businesses can function as a stabilizing factor in high-poverty neighborhoods, which counteracts developments that are associated with American "poverty ghettos." These findings indicate that the significance of poverty segregation is overestimated in the debate on urban social development in Germany. Rather, a conceptualization of urban social development needs to integrate the structure and development of both population and local business at the neighborhood level. [Key words: poverty, segregation, ghetto, local business, Germany.]

Americanization · Conceptualization · Demographic economics · Development economics · Economic geography · Economic growth · Economics · Geography · German · Political science · Poverty · Sociology · Migration, Ethnicity, and Economy · Urban, Neighborhood, and Segregation Studies · Urbanization and City Planning

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