Mobility and inequality in a transitional inner-city neighbourhood

Jeffery, R

Abstract

This study attempts to identify the causal mechanisms linking social inequality and
physical (im)mobilities, by way of a case study analysis. Adopting a methodological
approach of critical realism, the focus of this study lies not with aggregate analyses of
transport behaviour, but with qualitative judgements based on mixed-methods
regarding the links between mobility, place, and identity, as they are played out in a
deprived (though partially gentrified) neighbourhood. Following an examination of
the Labour government's Social Exclusion Unit's work on transport inequalities
(Making the Connections, 2003), I will attempt to link current trends in class analysis
to the problematic of mobility and inequality, giving particular attention to the
Bourdieusian inspired concepts of 'network capital' (Urry, 2007) and 'elective
belonging' (Savage et al, 2005).
In attempting to relate sociological theory to the level of individual experience, this
work tends towards the ideographic, as against the macro analyses of authors such as
Bauman, Beck, Castells, and Giddens. To locate this case study site within the
broader array of social processes, a careful description of its contextual attributes will
be undertaken, focusing especially on the impact of the mobility of capital (and of
regional 'uneven development', Massey, 1995), and the restructuring of urban space
around modernist planning ideals (Jacobs, 1961).
The substantive empirical data presented in two chapters deals with everyday and
residential mobilities, respectively. In the first of these chapters I engage with Urry's
concept of network capital and, by relating its constituent components to the forms of
capital conceived of by Bourdieu, question the independence of this form from other
axes of stratification and especially from social class. In the second analysis chapter I
thematically explore identity, belonging and residential mobility by reference to
perceptions of the locality, discourses around regeneration, residential mobility
narratives and residential mobility more specifically in relation to the transition to
adulthood. This chapters ends with the assertion of the necessity of a conceptual
antonym to Savage et al's 'elective belonging' that recognises the difficulty in
achieving such a state for actors occupying more marginal class positions.
To conclude the thesis, I will revisit the aims of the thesis and demonstrate how a
search for causal mechanisms draws attention to the overwhelmingly structural
reasons for the experience of unequal mobilities in a disadvantaged UK inner-city
neighbourhood.

Citation

Jeffery, R. Mobility and inequality in a transitional inner-city neighbourhood. (Thesis). Salford : University of Salford

• Thesis Type: Thesis
• Deposit Date: Oct 3, 2012
• Additional Information: Access Information : At the author’s request this item is only available on request
• Award Date: Jan 1, 2011