Abstract

Urban research has amply demonstrated that residential location affects individuals’ opportunities and life trajectories, and that imbalances in the social structure can result in forms of residential segregation. However, the main interpretative frameworks – developed primarily in contexts where renting is more widespread or which focus on ethnicity – tend to treat age and socio-occupational status as analytically distinct dimensions.

DIAMETROIT proposes a different perspective: in housing systems characterised by a high prevalence of home ownership, generational and socio-occupational segregation can be regarded as interdependent processes, mediated by the intergenerational transmission of property and family resources, which shapes access to housing, urban space and opportunities.

The Italian case is particularly relevant: high rates of home ownership and a family-centred welfare system make access to housing heavily dependent on family resources, reinforcing the interdependence between the demographic and socio-economic dimensions of segregation. At the same time, systematic analyses of metropolitan segregation at a fine spatial scale and from a longitudinal perspective remain limited.

DIAMETROIT therefore focuses on generational and socio-occupational segregation. Younger cohorts face increasing job and housing insecurity, whilst wage stagnation and rising housing costs heighten the significance of socio-occupational inequalities.

Through spatial units that are harmonised and comparable over time, and the integration of demographic, socio-economic and housing data, DIAMETROIT reconstructs the evolution of segregation in Italian functional urban areas, analysing how social structure, the housing system and the intergenerational transmission of resources contribute to the production and reproduction of metropolitan inequalities.