Segregation is a form of social separateness generated by open discrimination or by aggregate residential choices. An environment characterized by high social mobility and the market-driven regulation of housing fosters a type of segregation triggered by social mobility and by the spatial divisions that it generates. The example of Athens shows that even when these conditions are not present, social segregation takes different forms, some of which can neutralize the beneficial effects expected from social diversity. Social distance is not generated by spatial distance; rather, the latter is the conduct through which the former reproduces itself. The inequalities generated by this segregation are not on the Athenian political agenda, which has allowed the traditional socio-spatial structure of the city gradually to gradually unravel as a result of the residential choices of the upper middle class.