Understanding the relationship between gentrification and school segregation through agent-based models

Gentrification is a socio-spatial process that has been changing the inner cities of many cities worldwide. Several studies have stressed the nexus of school choice and residential transformation of urban areas. Increasing housing prices and the influx of higher-income families can lead to the “gentrification” of local schools, but residential gentrification is also associated with highly selective school choice strategies of parents, including the evasion and “colonisation” of local schools. Gentrification has the potential to reduce local levels of segregation if schools become more mixed, but could also lead to higher levels of segregation in the long run as gentrification ignites higher-level residential segregation. This chapter investigates how gentrification affects levels of school segregation through agent-based models. By testing several assumptions about school choice, this chapter poses a series of potential relationships between gentrification and school segregation, building on insights from both qualitative and quantitative evidence from real situations.