MEASURING TRANSPORT-RELATED SOCIAL EXCLUSION AT THE MESO-LEVEL USING THE CONCEPT OF ISOLATED ISLANDS IN THE BIG CITIES

Abstract

Using the notion of isolated urban islands, this paper discusses, from a theoretical point of view, three important but controversial issues related to the measurement of social exclusion in the big cities: (i) the extent to which social exclusion is likely to occur, (ii) accessibility indicators that are sensitive and relevant for the evaluation of social exclusion, and (iii) the geographical scale for evaluation. From an urban island point of view, two important issues have been raised: the distribution of jobs, basic facilities, and services within an urban island and the travels of people between urban islands. Therefore, social exclusion can be determined either by the affordability/acceptability of travel time/cost to access the minimum requirement of facilities/services or the number of facilities/services in reach of the individuals within acceptable/affordable travel time and cost. A person will be at risk of social exclusion if they belong to a minority group as opposed to the majority in the same society. Some levels of social exclusion risk have been proposed. The evaluation should be implemented at the meso-level (urban island). From the view of the urban islands, the issues of transport-related social exclusion are clearly understood, and measurements of social exclusion should be solved. We feel that a detailed survey/interview is needed for areas at high risk of social exclusion, followed by an evaluation at the micro-level to identify excluded people and the causes for their exclusion. It is expected that this paper will attract researchers to pay more attention to this issue.