Micro-Segregation: A Social History

Author/Contributor(s):	Ruef, Martin
Publisher:	Oxford University Press
Date:	06/15/2026
Binding:	Paperback
Condition:	NEW

In Micro-Segregation, Martin Ruef and Angelina Grigoryeva draw on archaeological, archival, ethnohistorical, and geospatial materials to document micro-segregation in a variety of societies and economic systems. Micro-segregation occurs in social situations where interactions between individuals from distinct groups are not inhibited by sheer physical distance, but by institutional constraints and spatial configurations. Despite the ostensibly fragile boundaries of micro-segregation, Ruef and Grigoryeva argue that it presents both a historically durable and pernicious constraint on human interaction, and illustrate what these constraints reveal about underlying social hierarchies and inequalities.