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disadvantage through the lens of social capital.
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Version: Accepted Version
Article:
Schwanen, T, Lucas, K, Akyelken, N et al. (3 more authors) (2015) Rethinking the links
between social exclusion and transport disadvantage through the lens of social capital.
Transportation Research Part A: Policy and Practice, 74. 123 - 135. ISSN 0965-8564
https://doi.org/10.1016/j.tra.2015.02.012
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Rethinking the links between social exclusion and transport disadvantage
through the lens of social capital
Tim Schwanen, Karen Lucas, Nihan Akyelken, Diego Cisternas Solsona. Juan-Antonio
Carrasco and Tijs Neutens
Please cite as: Schwanen, T., Lucas, K., Akyelken, N., Solsona, D.C., Carrasco, J.A. and
Neutens, T. (2015) ‘Rethinking the links between social exclusion and transport disadvantage
through the lens of social capital’ Transportation Research Part A; Policy and Planning
DOI
10.1016/j.tra.2015.02.012
Abstract
This paper provides a critical review of the progress in understanding the linkages between
transport disadvantage and social exclusion. It follows earlier work in proposing social
capital as a concept that mediates those linkages but argues that transport researchers must
not confine themselves to conceptualisations of social capital as predominantly benign and
capable of reducing transport disadvantage and social exclusion. A range of hypothetical
pathways is discussed, highlighting the Janus-faced character of social capital as a medium
for both the effectuation of progressive social change and the perpetuation and creation of
social inequalities. An analysis is provided of the extent to which the recent transport-related
literature supports or rejects the hypothesised pathways, and key avenues for future research
are identified.
Key words: social exclusion, transport disadvantage, social capital, literature review, social
network
1
1| Introduction
There is a long tradition in transport studies, urban studies and human geography of research
that examines the connections of mobility with social inequality and deprivation (Kain, 1968;
Wachs and Kumagai, 1973; Hanson and Hanson, 1980; Kwan, 1999; Neutens et al., 2010),
and a range of papers on those connections have recently been published in Transportation
Research Part A (Stanley et al., 2011; Martens et al., 2012; Mullen et al., 2014). Within that
tradition researchers have suggested direct causal links between transport and social
exclusion (Church et al., 2000; Hine and Mitchell, 2001; Lucas et al., 2001; Kenyon et al.,
2002; Lucas, 2004,
2012; Cass et al., 2005; Gray et al., 2006; Preston and Rajé, 2007;
Stanley et al., 2011). Scholarship on these links flourished in the early 21
st
century, in part
because of the interest the Labour government under Tony Blair took in reducing social
exclusion in the UK. Yet, this flourishing also reflects more general concerns over the effects
of neoliberal urban and transport policies on the less privileged segments of urban and rural
populations in the UK and elsewhere.
The intimate connections of academic work on mobility and exclusion with the realms of
policy-making and – less frequently – grassroots activism imply that research on transport
and social exclusion ticks many of the ‘impact’ and ‘knowledge valorisation’ boxes that are
increasingly important in research evaluations. However, the flipside of this orientation on
policy and practice is that theoretical development has not always been the highest priority
among researchers. Past studies have significantly expanded our understanding of concepts,
such as mobility-related exclusion (Kenyon et al., 2002), access (Cass et al., 2005) or
network capital (Urry, 2007, 2012), but research has to a considerable degree progressed
through cumulative broadening of empirical research.
2
Therefore, the current paper draws upon various theoretical perspectives on social capital and
explores how they can strengthen the theoretical basis of research about transport and social
exclusion. Social capital has been one of the most widely used concepts in the social sciences
since the 1990s (Woolcock, 2010), and it has been discussed in past research on the links
between transport and social exclusion (Gray et al., 2006; Currie and Stanley, 2008; Stanley
et al., 2011, 2012). However, the concept’s full potential has not yet been realised in relation
to thinking on transport and social exclusion. This is in part because previous research has
gravitated too strongly towards understandings of social capital that are informed by the
writings of James Coleman (1988, 1993) and particularly Robert Putnam (1993, 2000) who
tend to privilege the benign impacts of social capital on individual and communal wellbeing
over the more questionable effects. Research into the linkages between social exclusion and
transport disadvantage would benefit from more fully appreciating the Janus-faced character
of social capital: it helps us understand the dynamics in the interactions between mobility and
social exclusion because it is both a medium for social change and can reinforce existing
inequalities.
There are two additional reasons for focusing on social capital. Given its heterogeneous
theoretical origins, it can bring multiple constituencies across the social sciences together and
thereby enrich travel behaviour analysis. It also helps in transcending the realms of the social,
the economic and the political – all of which mediate the relations between transport and
social exclusion – and has much currency outside academia. Hence, social scientists’ thinking
on social capital can both aid in the ongoing theorisation of the social dimensions of travel
behaviour in mainstream transport research and the current journal (Dugundji et al., 2011;
Cairns et al., 2014; Di Ciommo et al., 2014), and add perspectives that are not normally
3
considered in transport academics’ research about the role of transportation in social
exclusion. This will help transport researchers and planners to better understand how
transport disadvantage can be tackled through policies and other interventions.
The remainder of the paper comes in three parts. We proceed with a discussion of the key
concepts of social exclusion, transport disadvantage and social capital in the following
section, after which we explore their interrelations at a theoretical level. The paper concludes
with a synthesising discussion.
2| Key concepts: social exclusion, transport and social capital
2.1| Social exclusion
The concept of social exclusion has diverse philosophical origins, which makes it polysemic
and contested: it has different meanings for different people and in different situations (Daly
and Silver, 2008). Yet, the emphasis of Anglo-Saxon liberalism on choice in social and
economic interactions and distributional impacts has come to dominate academic and policy
discourse. As a consequence, social exclusion tends to be understood as (ibid; Bhalla and
Lapeyre, 1997; Hodgson and Turner, 2003; Cameron, 2005; Lucas, 2012):
Lack of participation in social, economic and political life and broader than poverty;
Multidimensional and cumulative: limited financial resources and security are often
reciprocally tied to low education and skills, ill-health, little political power, etc.;
Relative to other individuals or groups;
Dynamic: it changes over time; and as