Browsing by Author "Rönnberg, Oskar"

Segregation is usually treated as a place-based phenomenon based on residential locations, but during the last ten years more emphasis has been put on understanding segregation as a multi-contextual phenomenon, where mobility in urban space affects the individual’s exposure to segregation. Such research has not yet been done in Helsinki, where socio-economic and ethnic segregation has been on the rise since the 1990’s, but there is anecdotal evidence of for example young people from disadvantaged neighbourhoods not being as mobile in the urban space as others. The aim of this study is to find out how socioeconomic differences and experiences from the past are linked to how people move around and use urban space in Helsinki. A survey study was carried out (N=1 266) in spring 2020 for the purposes of this research. The study is based on a self-selected sample, so the results cannot be generalized for the whole population. Spatial mobility is analyzed with four measures: which parts of the city the respondent usually moves around in, how often they visit the city center, how many of their everyday activities are located near their home, in the city center and in other neighbourhoods and municipalities, and how many of the listed places in the survey they had visited during the last year. The main research methods are linear regression, correlation analyses and statistical tests. Spatial mobility varies based on education, age, family background and mobility practices in the youth. These factors explain at most a quarter of the variance in mobility. Cultural and economic capital also correlates with mobility, but their explanatory power diminishes when education and age are controlled for. The spatial mobility is low for them who had small activity spaces in their youth, and especially for them who still live in the same neighbourhood. Those who live in the outer suburbs are among the least mobile and many of the respondents in Northeastern and Eastern Helsinki do not regularly visit Southern Helsinki. Even though there are many different factors that influence the level of mobility that are not ad-dressed in this study, the results confirm that family background and past experiences affect the individuals’ mobility practices. The results indicate that people who live in disadvantaged neighbourhoods risk exposure to segregation in different contexts of everyday life as a result of low mobility. As people with low education are underrepresented in the study, it is possible that there are some kind of immobilities in the city that have not been covered in this study. The results underline the need for more research in multi-contextual segregation and the experiences and conceptions of the city, especially regarding children and young people.