Still segregated? Temporal and intersectional analysis of the residential, occupational and political segregation of sexual minorities in Sweden

Description

Using a unique method for identifying same-sex households in the population register, this three-year project will examine whether non-straight persons in Sweden face spatial or occupational segregation and inequalities in terms of educational attainment, income or participation in democratic action. This is the first time population-wide data will be used for this kind of inquiry and a pioneering study of different kinds of segregation faced by sexual minorities. Owing to the richness of the data, we will be able to estimate long-term trends in the segregation of sexual minorities and thus investigate whether changes in public attitudes to this social group might facilitate the group’s gradual desegregation/social integration. What is more, we will be able to consider asymmetries in segregation between different subgroups of sexual minorities, thus breaking the veneer of LGBTQ+ homogeneity traditionally necessitated by limited data availability. Taken together, this project promises to deliver a timely, comprehensive analysis of contemporary processes of outgroup segregation and is likely to generate empirical and theoretical insights about the factors that might facilitate the desegregation of minorities, more broadly.