Rural accessibility, social inclusion and social justice: towards conceptualisation

摘要

Accessibility has become established as a mainstream policy goal in the service of the UK Government's aims of achieving greater social inclusion and social justice. It is argued that a better understanding of the relationship between conceptualisations of accessibility and these policy aims would be of value in understanding the potential of accessibility to contribute to policy. The aim of this paper is to contribute to this understanding. The paper discusses a conceptual framework placing accessibility centrally in the social justice and social inclusion agenda. The location of the idea of accessibility in the rural context, and as a 'rural challenge', is traced. Its relationship with welfare geography, and its essentially normative nature, are discussed, and connections with need are made. It is suggested that there is not just one account, either of what, in terms of accessibility, people 'need', or what they experience. Neither can there be just one account of what accessibility people 'should have'. The ideas of 'absolute' and 'relative' accessibility are referred to. A 'nested' framework is set out which relates social inclusion and accessibility, in turn, to social justice. Alternative philosophies of social justice are explored, and accessibility is discussed in the contexts of philosophical positions on needs, rights, wants and deserts. The development of accessibility as a policy element is analysed. Setting greater accessibility as a goal is a potentially powerful driver of policy because it requires that policy sectors interact: otherwise the goal of achieving greater accessibility as a means of greater social inclusion and social justice cannot be fully attained. It is concluded that the new narrative of accessibility, if itself soundly conceptualised, is a sine qua non for the social justice project.