The Height of Social Stratification: Socioeconomic Diversity Along Geographic Topographic Contour

Cliffxxx

Department of Sociology

University of Texas at San Antonio

San Antonio, TX 78249

Abstract

This study is interested in the impact of community development along social issues such as those within a city of San Antonio based upon where certain types of categories of peoples who reside and self-impose spatial boundaries from one community to another community within a city. This paper utilizes data gathered of demographic statistics along a cartographic medium source associated with of integral interval of elevation and a measurement of diverse stratification variable only of income as it impacts social placement as well as a physical placement in a community land area. Data from the 2000 census block groups taken for the city of San Antonio is used to analyze the stratification dissimilarities of families of spatial separations by use and boundary maintenance. Research in the past, especially those of an anthropological interest, has found that typically higher status individuals, e.g. wealthier, more educated, more affluent, have tended to occupy land areas which are higher on the ridgeline than those who are in contrast in poverty, subjugated, and have less, tend to live in the drainage.

Introduction

There exists in social communities a method of settlement which defines land use by socioeconomic boundaries. Although, geographic features are a more prevalent consideration for viability of land use by humans, people tend to arrange themselves by utilizing spatial distances. By means of sociological prominence it is derived the choice of how the landscape is utilized, and by who. It is not by any accident which neighborhoods are next to each other. Certainly in a world of inequality it would not seem surprising that the best real estate is retained for higher stratified and privileged peoples. The importance of topographic prominence is that it may offer clues about perceived social hierarchy of sites within an archaeological landscape (Christopherson, 2003). Better choice of land settlement is higher by elevation on a ridge as opposed to land lower in elevation which is down in the drainage. An aspect of elevation to establish structures would be also a matter of survival. Higher structures tend to have a strategic command of the surrounding landscape lending to a better defensive position. In a feudal society the lordly manor rest high above on a large hill while the serfs live below on the flats of the land. The liege of social dominance would use this advantage to protect himself from angry hands of his uprising people. Land values on a ridge tend to be higher in price than those in the drainage. There is an exception to this when the egalitarian of a social hierarchy chooses an area to pattern based on dominance to directly control resources of a lower topographic prominence. The hierarchical egalitarian models it spatial posture as a demonstration of size, fortification and control of water and communication resources in those lower regions.

This too can also be observed in modern communities in cities of today. For example the city of San Antonio is a fair representation of the characteristic of higher elevation land areas toward the north edge of the city which are occupied by those who have more wealth and have a greater socioeconomic advantage than those who live in the lower areas of the southern edge of the city who live in poverty or near-poverty. The land area of the city of San Antonio was settled along the San Antonio River and drainage flows from the higher elevations of the Hill Country of the north to a flatter plain area to the south. It is recognizable that lower income—lower status families--reside in the lower elevated and southern portions of the city. It is evident that allocation of land is a controlled resource of those who have power of the distribution of the land and closely guard this resource as a measure of retaining the social hierarchical arrangement.

This dissertation attempts to draw a correlation between the social phenomena attributed to socioeconomic hierarchy which includes high and low social status based upon critical patterns and processes of ecological systems of wealth, power, status, knowledge, and territory; the social stratification of spatial usage of land boundaries especially those based upon elevation of contour and topography of the landscape. This will be achieved by comparing statistics data pertaining to the 2006 census specifically of the city of San Antonio by income, education attainment, and poverty to GIS contour data of the land area of the city of San Antonio.

Literature Review

Definition and Measurement of Continuous Variation in Ecological Analysis

Residential selection patterns can be argued are not just organized along ecological considerations, but can also be measured by territorial factors. This article measures boundary systems not only what the land itself can contribute to urban growth and its outcome to cities but also analyzed local spatial variance according to derived status levels of settlement communities in general. Inhabitants make associations within contextual levels and make selections of residential areas which become a status characteristic. The authors utilize an isoline map and make conclusions of residential patterns of residential dwellings by measured boundaries. The isoline maps register elevation transition of the contour and this is compared to the measured location of territories within the settlement.

The social variables such as socioeconomic status are used identify individuals as neighborhoods establish residential areas, as well as parks, business, churches, schools and streets. Individuals tended to make clusters along spatial lines. Maps were created which measured contour and others were created to indicate measurements of community clusters. The authors created a study of geometric areas of a small Midwestern U.S. town and used a survey to attribute variables of perceived socioeconomic status within this clusters of groups. Areas of high elevation tend to have higher real estate value and are more desirable and fashionable and tend to draw a high class resident. This relationship of height of physical elevation and status is described as being social symbol.

It’s a Small World After All: Comparative Analyses of Community Organization in Archaeology

The concepts of spatial patterns of territory of a community and land usage was used on a study for cross-cultural comparison of two prehistoric settlement areas of Waioluli in Hawai’i and Tsikwaiye in northern New Mexico. What was found that there is a correlation with social systems and land use within a community. This study also depicts itself to be relevant to modern studies of communities. It sets out to define a community. Systems of societies tend to create levels of binding residents at certain levels in degree of both integration within and between other communities.

An analysis of both site archaeological locations was studied for land utilization, social hierarchy, and residential patterns. Digs indicated location of permanent dwelling placement, structural utilization, markers for the demarcation of community boundaries and territorial boundaries between communities. Simply stated, laborers, in these examples either the fishers or farmers tend to be in the lower elevations near the coast or agricultural plots, while the chiefs tend to reside along the higher elevation. This article establishes a historic pattern and can be place contextually with those of modern human settlements.

Urban Ecological Systems: Linking Terrestrial Ecological, Physical, and Socioeconomic Components of Metropolitan Areas

This article is an analysis of urban social system utilization from an ecological approach. It goes to great length to identify what cities are, how cities utilize the biological and geographic items within its boundaries, and how aggregates develop communities within the urban landscape. The article presents a geographic and ecological stand point to a dynamic modern urban settlement. Its importance lies in how humans gather socially in an urban location and identifies in contrast that a study of human social behavior in the wild or urban setting as is irrelevant. Ecology of a city is based on human habitat or organisms within the city.

Allocations of critical resources for the inhabitants of a city tend to create cultural, socioeconomic, and natural differences. Social relationships are created along patterns of territory and with spatial dimensions. The authors identify three interacting nested hierarchies of spatial heterogeneity. Socio-political hierarchy includes political units, land use, neighborhoods, and households. Hydrological hierarchy pertains to watershed, sub-watershed, sub-catchment, hillslope, floodplain, and channel. Land cover-ecological hierarchy takes into consideration land cover type, patch configuration, soil, and permeability class. These are interconnected factors which indicated the dynamics of the human habit within community development.

Prehistoric, historic, and present settlement patterns related to ecological hierarchy in the Eastern Upper Peninsula of Michigan, U.S.A.

The focus of this article was to identify dynamics and spatial patterns using the geographic information system (GIS) of the Eastern Upper Peninsula of Michigan. It identifies landscape use of the inhabitants along a prehistoric, historic and present timeline. Settlement development is compared cross-culturally as well as geographically. An analysis is based upon terrain data and applied to historic and current framework model. Land use is typified by resource management and a distribution of these resource and those in higher elevation tended to be able to afford the resources to be transported to them.

Race, Ethnicity and Socioeconomic Status

With his approach to research in the city of Syracuse, New York, Charles Willie set out in 1950 to analyze condition of differences of socioeconomic class struggle which exist for different conditions between whites and blacks especially the difference in their neighborhoods. Willie identifies twelve theoretic principle indicators to help social scientists understand social conditions of humanities. He explains that living on a site that “has a view” is highly desirable in American culture.

Willie creates a hypothesis which addresses a probable association between land elevation, age of dwelling structure, and residential stratification within an urban community. His findings were that there is a direct significant association between elevation and socioeconomic status. Willie determined from his results that in fact high status neighborhoods were originally associated with sites of persistent higher elevation. “Thus, the association between land elevation and residential stratification must be interpreted as a cultural phenomenon. Also, there are economic factors associated with the tendency to erect expensive dwellings on sites of higher elevation.” (Willie, 2005). Not only is building on hillslope perceived to be more culturally desirable, it is also more expensive to build on that type of terrain.

Using ARC/GRID to Calculate Topographic Prominence in an Archaeological Landscape

The use of mapping can be applied to determine clues to a community’s topographic prominence of a perceived social hierarchy and rank. Height differences between individuals and their surrounding help define the topographic prominence of a neighborhood. The author uses ARC/GRID mapping data with archaeological sites of the hinterland surveys of the Madaba Plains Projects at Tall al-Umayri, Jordon. Extensive GIS data was compiled and studies determined using variables of location and “view” or exposure path by location. A culture of the Umari region that at first was thought to be egalitarian was in fact practicing social behavior using status markers to differentiate spatial distances in dwelling cluster placement. The chi square was used to determine the statistical significance of exposure level (view) and elevation (drainage or ridge). Findings, though not completely explainable in all situations, indicated that in the Umari region of large settlement areas, communities tended to use height of the landscape to demonstrate sociological hierarchy.

Data

The data analyzed is from the 2000 census block groups map of the city of San Antonio. The map is from the Geographic Information Systems (GIS) and is found from the City of San Antonio website for Planning and Development Services Department. The map contains median household income and was created by Rachel Geyster. The median household income is ordinally measured in six incremental groups and by color: red $0 - $25,000; yellow $25,001 - $38,000; green $38,001 - $56,000; light blue $56,001 - $82,000; dark blue $82,001- $172,000; and grey no data available. Block groups within the city are schemed with the color of the income data.

Although socioeconomic hierarchal status could be measured by various subjective categories such as education or poverty, I am considering median household income as my variable to represent socioeconomic status within the city of San Antonio.

In 2000 there were 405,000 households in the city of San Antonio with the average household size was 2.78 people. The median income of households in San Antonio was $34,198. Eighty-one percent of the households received earnings and 17 percent received retirement income other than Social Security. Twenty-five percent of the households received Social Security. The average income from Social Security was $9,387. These income sources are not mutually exclusive; that is, some households received income from more than one source. (Census 2000 Supplemental Survey)

This data would be used on an overlay of geographic groupings of elevation showing incremental contour of the city of San Antonio from a latitudinal dimension across the city. Evaluation of landscape interval change would represent independent variables. This information can be derived from the United State Geographic Survey’s National Map Viewer. The landscape of the city of San Antonio increases in height from the southern part of the town towards the northern part of the urban area.

Operationalization

I plan to study the relationship between socioeconomic status and the residential social boundaries by elevation of urban settlement. People tend to attribute social symbols to location of dwellings and cluster their communities using self-imposed spatial boundaries, not only by proximal linear distance but by elevation of terrain and landscape. My hypothesis is that within an urban settlement as elevation of the landscape increases, hierarchal status rises as well. Although, concepts of status are subjective, I’ve selected median household income as an indicator.

The behavioral assumption is that the families that generate more income tend to choose neighborhoods that are more attractive to their status and lifestyle level. Better communities not only have better rainwater drainage but also have better civil amenities, coverage of police and fire protection is greater, litter and graffiti is controlled and regulated, simple civil responses such as waste management, street lighting, parks and recreation, and elements of green design, and road maintenance are indicative of better neighborhoods. Other indicators include not only educational attainment by the residents, but the quality and quantity of educational facilities within the community. With that also communities that have better access to the arts and communication technologies certainly demonstrates a better standard of living of those families within the community boundaries. Those that have better income in this society also tend to have better health benefits, which mean within those communities there is better access and greater choices of health care facilities.

This correlation of increased elevation of the landscape and increased socioeconomic status can be observed in the city of San Antonio and data of this example is taken for analysis. Median house hold income is my dependent variable which is distributed based upon five ranges. Numeric indicators have been assigned as 1: $0 - $25,000; 2: $25,001 - $38,000; 3: $38,001 - $56,000; 4: $56,001 - $82,000; and 5: $82,001 - $172,000.

The independent variable that I’ve chosen for this study is the measures of elevation. Quite simply, indicators are low elevation and high elevation. For the city of San Antonio the lower drainage area is neighborhoods to the south. Towards the north, as the area becomes higher in elevation it is part of a region know as the Hill Country. Elevation is 266 meters laterally measured from the geographic center of the city across a latitudinal direction. The expectation is that neighborhoods which are below this measurement and further in distance from ridgeline are poorer while those neighborhoods of this city which lie above 266 meters and increasing the distance from this location have a greater economic status.

Methods

The study area is San Antonio, Texas, a city approximately 1,067.3 kilometers square with a population of 1,144,646 people as of 2000 estimate. US Census data indicate that the median value of owner-occupied housing units in 2000 is $68,800 and the median household income of 1999 is $36,214. The contour of the city is based upon the USGS data of elevation of the region through use of the city of San Antonio Planning and Development Services Interactive Mapping System available on sanantonio.gov. Census block were used as a basic unit of analysis. San Antonio was divided into two elevation layers at the geographic city center. There are ten census block areas of the city of San Antonio. Census block areas 6, 7, 8, 9, and 10 lie above in the higher elevated areas, while 2, 3, 4, and 5 or in the lower elevation areas of the city. Residential areas of varying socioeconomic status were delineated based upon median household income. Chi-square can be used to determine the presence or absence of statistically significant associations.

Conclusion

There is a tendency for human social behavior to create spatial boundaries and establish territorial markers within community clusters of urban ecological settlements not only of proximal distance but also along landscape contour. Height is a symbol of status and therefore those who have greater resources will be more likely to obtain dwelling locations that have not only view but protection from flood. My expected findings of my study will support that within cities generally as land area increases with height so does the types of persons who occupy that landscape at a socioeconomic level. Future work could be more extensive. There could be more variable indicator of socioeconomic status used to draw conclusions such as areas of poverty, education, crime, land value comparisons, and the number and types of shopping and health care opportunities per neighborhoods. For a more precise degree of observation land elevation could be closely measured by use of maps and areas of interest could then be divided into sectors of analysis within the city. Questionnaire surveys could be distributed to each neighborhood tracts asking subjective questions of perceived social status to gather attitudes of residents within the communities. This gathered data could be compared between cities nationwide. Conclusions made of this study could help humanity make better decisions for city development and a conscience effort for resource use and civil management.

A quick snapshot of the inequality of land use would be to search the internet for a comparison of real estate values on the north side of San Antonio and the real estate values on the south side of San Antonio. There are no million dollar homes on the Southside of San Antonio but there is poverty.

References

Cadenasso, M.L.; Costanz, R.; Grove, J.M.; Nilon, R.V.; Picket, S.T.A.; Pouyat, R.V.; Zipperer W.C. 2001 “Urban Ecology Systems: Linking Terrestrial Ecological, Physical, and Socioeconomic Components of Metropolitan Areas,” Annual Review of Ecology and Systematics, 32,: 127-157

Chen, Jiquan; Gale, Margaret R.; Martin, Susan R.; Silvernagel, Janet 1997 “Prehistoric, historic, and present settlement patterns related to ecological hierarchy in the Eastern Upper Peninsula of Michigan, U.S.A.” Landscape Ecology, 12, no. 4: 223-240.

Cloyd, Jerry S.; Hoiber, Eric O. 1971 “Definition and Measurement of Continuous Variation in Ecological Analysis,” American Sociological Review, 36, no. 1: 65-74

Korb, Micheal J; Snead, James E. 1997 “It’s a Small World After All: Comparative Analyses of Community Organization in Archaeology,” American Antiquity, 62, no. 4: 609-628.

Christopherson, Gary L. 2003 “Using ARC/GRID to Calculate Topographic Prominence in an Archaeological Landscape,” Arc/INFO User Conference.

Wiley, Charles V. 1983 Race, Ethnicity, and Socioeconomic Status: A Theoretic Analysis of Their Interrelationship, 19-27.

U.S. Census Bureau, Housing and Household Economic Statistics Division. 2000.