Beyond Invasion and Succession: School Segregation,Real Estate Blockbusting,and the Political Economy of Neighborhood Racial Transition

Abstract

Recent urban scholarship has questioned the validity, methodology, and assumptions of the invasion‐succession model of neighborhood racial transition but has yet to elaborate a framework that extends beyond a critique of ecological theory. In this article, I use the theoretical insights of the sociospatial approach and draw on census data, government documents and reports, in‐depth interviews, and oral histories to examine the racial transition of southeast Kansas City, Missouri after 1950. I advance understanding of neighborhood transition by identifying the key actors, organized interests, and institutional forces that the invasion‐succession model has neglected to incorporate into its explanatory framework. I investigate the critical links between discriminatory school boundary decisions and real estate blockbusting in determining the timing, pace, and magnitude of racial succession. My objective is to fashion an alternative theory of neighborhood racial transition that takes into account the power of events to shape and transform ecological patterns, illuminates the interconnectedness of structural factors and human agency, and highlights the role of powerful actors and organized interests in marketing racial exclusion and reinforcing racially segregated settlement spaces.