segregation

Social processes which result in certain individuals or social groups being kept apart with little or no interaction between them. An almost universal type of segregation is achieved by separate public toilet facilities for men and women. The tendency for people with a common culture, nationality, race, language, occupation, religion, income level, or other common interests to group together in social or geographical space produces varying degrees of natural, voluntary, de facto segregation in patterns of private residence, business districts, educational institutions, clubs, leisure, and other activities.

Even when patterns of segregation appear to emerge naturally, state policy may seek to destroy them, in the interests of achieving greater social integration and related benefits. One example from the United States are the experiments with busing children to schools outside their home area in order to achieve more racially mixed school populations. Equal opportunities and anti-discrimination policies seek to reduce existing levels of job segregation by race or sex.

In other cases state policy actively imposes de jure segregation: that is, a form of segregation imposed by the state, enforcing the rigorous separation of persons or social groups, and backed by law. Certain Islamic states enforce the segregation of men and women in public places and even in private homes. From 1948 to 1991 the policy of apartheid in South Africa enforced the segregation of Whites and non-Whites in marriage, area of residence and employment, and in public and private services. See also Coleman Report.