Urban resilience and social services of general interest: Who loses accessibility to health systems during crisis?

Abstract

Services of General Interest (SGI) relate to specific societal models, mediating market laws and mechanisms that mitigate their failures. Social Services of General Interest planning plays a relevant role in ensuring quality of life for all citizens, giving them a sense of belonging and citizenship using principles of accessibility and territorial cohesion. The first part of this article focuses on the discussion of the concept of SGI, considering the specificities of the social models they respond to and the logics of accessibility to health services they advocate. In the second part, we present fieldwork results demonstrating types of constraints on accessibility to these services, considering the post-2008 crisis in an urban system in Portugal. The third section fulfills the purpose of discussing the results and pointing out conclusive lines of answer to the initial question. Despite the ambition inherent in the objectives of the SGI, the results prove that these goals were set aside during the crisis. The accessibility to health services decreased, excluding the most vulnerable communities and families.