Detroit and Philadelphia: A comparison of black suburbanization in two metropolitan areas.

This dissertation seeks to examine three questions: Has black access to the suburbs increased in the 1970s and the 1980s and in how equitable a manner? Are the causes of black suburbanization in the Detroit and Philadelphia metropolitan areas consistent with either the human ecology or the collective action explanations, as put forth in the sociological literature? and Has black suburbanization brought about a better quality of life for blacks in these two metropolitan areas? These questions are addressed through descriptive statistics and multivariate analyses of the 1970, 1980, and 1990 U.S. Census for individual suburban communities located in each metropolitan area. In both metropolitan areas many suburbs that had no black residents in 1970 began to attract at least a few blacks, and in some communities black suburbanization increased considerably by 1990. For the Detroit suburbs the human ecology and collective action models seem to be equally valid as explanations, but for the Philadelphia suburbs the human ecology model is more salient. For both areas, the human ecology model was most important in explaining 1970s rather than 1980s suburbanization. The quality of suburban life for blacks, as measured by housing characteristics such as rental or crowded housing, is not high by white standards. However, there are notable exceptions within both metropolitan areas, where significant numbers of blacks are located in middle class suburban communities.Ph.D.Black studiesDemographyEthnic studiesSocial SciencesUrban planningUniversity of Michigan, Horace H. Rackham School of Graduate Studieshttp://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/129183/2/9409667.pd