During recent decades, social inequalities have increased in many urban spaces in the globalized world, and education has not been immune to these tendencies. Urban segregation, migration movements and education policies themselves have produced an increasing process of school segregation between the most disadvantaged social groups and the middle classes.

Exploring school segregation patterns in Argentina, Belgium, Brazil, Chile, England, France, Peru, Spain, Sweden and the USA, this volume provides an overview of the main characteristics and causes of school segregation, as well as its consequences for issues such as education inequalities, students' performance, social cohesion and intercultural contact.

The book is organized in three parts, with Part 1 exploring the systemic dimensions of education inequalities that shape different patterns of school segregation, and the extent to which public policies have addressed this challenge. Part 2 focuses on the consequences of school segregation on student performance and other educational aspects, and the Part 3 explores how school segregation dynamics are shaped by market forces and privatization of education. Whilst focusing on different dimensions of school segregation, each chapter explores the magnitude, trends and consequences of school segregation, providing readers with a comprehensive overview of the phenomenon and facilitating cross-country comparisons. Moreover, the volume provides important evidence about the dynamics and characteristics of school segregation, which is key for the planning and implementation of de-segregation policies.

Xavier Bonal is Professor of Sociology at the Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona (UAB), Spain, and Special Professor in Education and International Development at the University of Amsterdam, the Netherlands. He is Director of the Globalisation, Education and Social Policies (GEPS) research group of the Department of Sociology of the UAB and a founding member of the Interdisciplinary Group on Educational Policies. He is the coordinator of Erasmus Mundus Joint Master Degree on Education Policies for Global Development (GLOBED).

Cristián Bellei is Associate Researcher at the Center for Advanced Research in Education and Professor in the Sociology Department, both at the University of Chile, Chile. He previously worked at the Chilean Ministry of Education and UNICEF in Chile; he has also been a consultant for UNESCO, the World Bank and the Inter-American Development Bank. He is the author of The Great Experiment: Market and Privatization of Chilean Education (2015).