Browsing by Author "Hurme, Saara"

Residential differentiation has, for a long time now, been one of the most researched phenomena in urban and human geography. Most of the Finnish research, however, has focused mainly on the more negatively perceived dimensions of sosio-economic and ethnic segregation, while the dimension of demographic differentiation has not received as much attention. The demographic transition has caused changes in housing in Western countries for decades. The number of households and people living alone has increased, household types have diversified, and the age structure of the population has got older. Due to residential mobility and the diversification of living arrangements, the neighbourhoods have been predicted to start catering people in different life stages more and more, thus increasing the demographic segregation. On the other hand, different researches have pointed out the slow change of neighbourhood social structures, which also raises the question of spatial and temporal stability of demographic structures. This perspective of stability has often been overshadowed in the discussion on housing and the research on residential differentiation by the overwhelming emphasis on change. The aim of this research is to investigate the demographic segregation of the Helsinki region, especially from the perspective of life stages, but in addition to changes to also bring to the front the perspective of stability. The research examines how demographic segregation and its development appear in the Helsinki region and if there are demographic structures that seem to be temporally stable. The main materials are statistics and geographic information regarding the Greater Helsinki region, and they are analysed with cartographic presentations and charts. The analysis is focused especially on the structures of migration, population and households and the analyses will be executed on different scales on the Greater Helsinki region, Helsinki capital region and Helsinki. The results of the research suggest that the Greater Helsinki region is spatially differentiated by the life stage and that there are areas that seem to mainly cater people in certain life stages. However, the spatial differentiation has not seemed to become stronger, but instead the demographic development even seems to have evened out the level of differentiation. The effects of the demographic transition are visible in all the Greater Helsinki region via the aging population and the decrease in the household sizes. There are also demographic structures that show spatial and temporal stability. These structures, though, seem to depend on the neighbourhood and the restrictions caused by the physical qualities of the housing. In future research dealing with life stage, it would be important to focus on the classification of the continuously diversifying life stages.