Virtual mobility : its implications for personal travel and social exclusion

Abstract

At the outset of this research, two fields of transport research were in the ascendant. The first reflected technological change, considering the growth of new information and communications technologies and their impacts for transport systems and travel behaviour.  The second reflected social change, considering the growth in inequality and disadvantage and the contribution of transport systems and travel behaviour to the same.  Traditionally, these fields have been considered separately.  However, there is a potential link between the two.  The substitution of the need to travel through the provision of an alternative mode of access to activity participation, hypothesised in the first field of research, could alleviate the disadvantage caused by too little physical mobility, identified in the second.

This thesis investigates this potential link, exploring the hypothesis that virtual mobility, via the Internet, could provide a viable alternative to physical mobility in reducing mobility-related social exclusion. The thesis presents conceptual, empirical and methodological investigation and analysis, to this end. Part 1 presents a literature review, considering the concepts of social exclusion, mobility-related exclusion and virtual mobility. New definitions and conceptualisations of each are offered, before the influences of each upon the other are discussed.  Part 2 presents a qualitative study, a series of six focus groups with participants traditionally considered to be vulnerable to social exclusion. The study confirms and clarifies the experience of mobility-related exclusion, its causes and consequences and the nature and effects of Internet use, including its effects for social exclusion.  Part 3, presents the second empirical study, a quantitative, longitudinal, panel-based diary study.

The research supports the hypothesis that virtual mobility can provide a viable alternative to physical mobility in reducing aspects of mobility-related exclusion. Furthermore, there is no evidence in this research to support a link between physical mobility and virtual mobility; and no evidence to suggest a negative effect of virtual mobility for sociability.

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