a multicultural city without segregation?...venla bernelius [email protected] growing...

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A multicultural city without

segregation?

The changing neighbourhoods

and schools in Helsinki

30.8.2013

Venla BerneliusAssistant [email protected] In -seminarThink Corner, 8.11.2019

Venla Bernelius [email protected]

What is the distance between

Kontula and Kaisaniemi?

Helsinki/Espoo metro line: the share of adults with a postgraduate

(Master’s) degree living within 500 m radius of each station

Kartta: Tommi Hautala


Growing socio-spatial segregation in Finnish cities:

And the city of children is more divided than the

city of adults

Index of dissimilarity in school catchment areas of Helsinki 1995-2015, Bernelius & Vilkama 2019


Growing differences affect school catchment

ares: differentiating student base

• The income differences between the

extreme ends of the neighbourhoods

are eightfold (Vilkama et al. 2014)

• The share of adults with academic

degree ranges from around two percent

to over 55 percent (Vilkama et al. 2014)

• This means that in the neighbourhood with

the highest share of adacemically

educated adults, their share is over 25

times higher compared to the

neighbourhood with the lowest level of

education.

• As home background is connected to

educational outcomes, the learning

differences in schools are large and

growing – the most recent PISA results

showed a 3-year gap in skills between

the lowest and highest 10 % of schools

Figures by Hertta Lehvävirta & Venla Bernelius

Average annual income


Separate lives through different life domains

(Bernelius, Bergström, Sydänlammi 2018: Kvartti 4/18) see also van Ham & Tammaru 2016 on domains of segregation


Yearly income in school catchment areas and daycare

unit neighbourhoods in Helsinki

(Bernelius, Bergström, Sydänlammi 2018)


Residential decisions of families with

children: native families are attracted to the

wealthiest catchment areas

University/City of Helsinki

• Families evidently seek

to stabilize their

children’s school path in

the well-off school

catchment areas: these

areas are favoured in

residential decisions, and

after school age (7),

families seldom move

out

Netmobility (%) by age among the wealthiest

and most educated school catchment areas


Growing catchment area and school

segregation through residential decisions:

avoidance of and flight from the disadvantaged

areas

University/City of Helsinki

• There is clear migrationloss or avoidance byfamilies with children out of those school cathcmentareas that are located in socially challengingneighbouhoods

• Segregation is constantlyreproduced and evenexacerbated throughavoidance and flightbehaviour

Netmobility (%) by age among the most

disadvantaged school catchment areas


Social and spatial processes in the local level and schools reflect European findings on mechanisms of urban and educational change: self-perpetuating circles of segregation

Venla Bernelius [email protected] Department of Geography and Geosciences

University/City of

Helsinki

Lauttasaari 86 %

Jakomäki 39 %

Nuorten hyvinvointikertomus 2018, Helsingin kaupunki

Share of 16-18-year-olds in the academic track of secondary education (lukio)


”There are two key issues that will do us in if we don’t do

something about it. They are climate change and inequality.

Neither are problems of the city – they are problems in the city.”

David Hulchanski 2017 (interview with Steve Paikin 15.5.2017)


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In Tove Janssons novel Sommarbok, a scared little

girl asks in the middle of the night:

"Are you sure that the door is locked?"

"It's open," answered her grandmother. "The door is

always open, and that's why you can sleep perfectly

safely."


Thank

you!

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