Page 372 - 360.revista de Alta Velocidad - Nº 5

Pagliara, Francesca. Menicocci, Fabrizio.Vassallo, José Manuel. Gómez Sánchez, Juan.

1. Introduction

Scial exclusion and poverty are two concepts that are often used interchangeably. In the
literature, the term “social exclusion” has been explained by several authors. According to
Silver (1994) social exclusion is “a multidimensional process of progressive social rupture,
detaching groups and individuals from social relations and institutions and preventing them
from full participation in the normal, normatively prescribed activities of the society in which
they live.”
Indeed it is generally agreed that exclusion refers to a dynamic process and not necessarily to
an end-result (Lucas, 2011; 2012; Jones and Lucas, 2012; Lucas and Musso, 2014), i.e. “who”
and “when” someone is excluded can change over time. The concept of social exclusion is based
on inclusion into civil society. On the other hand, absolute poverty was defined by the United
Nations as “a condition characterised by severe deprivation of basic human needs, including
food, safe drinking water, sanitation facilities, health, shelter, education and information “
(UN, 1996). Therefore, low income categories are not necessarily experiencing social exclusion,
since being excluded can be a form of deprivation with innate importance in addition to its
causal relations with other issues. Exclusions of the social nature can in turn lead to other
deprivations that may significantly decrease the quality of life (Sen, 2000).
Social exclusion is a state in which an individual is not able to take part in activities of civil
society, considered normal and expected within society. By social inclusion it is meant, on the
other hand, the ability to participate adequately in society. According to Levitas (2007), social
exclusion is “the lack or denial of resources, rights, goods and services, and the inability to
participate in the normal relationships and activities, available to the majority of people in a
society, whether in economic, social, cultural or political arenas. It affects both the quality of
life of individuals and the equity and cohesion of society as a whole.”

Poor transport options and alternatives can be a result of social exclusion and can also reinforce
it. Transport could represent a factor of social exclusion since a lack of accessibility prevents
people from participating in work, educational activities, community events, etc. (Kenyon, et
al., 2003).

Some previous interest can be identified for analyzing the potential relationship between
transport systems and social exclusion. This is, for example, the case of UK, since a renewed
interest in ameliorating the effects of social exclusion was observed after the election of
the Labour government in 1997. A Social Exclusion Unit (SEU) was established to monitor and
influence policy across all Whitehall Departments. In 2002 the Unit turned its attention to
travel, transport and access, seeing these as processes implicated in the reproduction of social
exclusion. In this respect, they pointed out that “recent years have seen a growing recognition
that transport problems can be a significant barrier to social inclusion” (SEU, 2003). Likewise,
in 2004 the FIA Foundation promoted a study to compare the position of the G7 countries in
relation to transport and social exclusion at the urban level (FIA Foundation, 2004). In this
report, it is worth noticing that no citation to HSR systems was made.
In the academic literature different approaches have been proposed to address the topic of
social exclusion related to transport systems. Among other issues, it has been recommended to
integrate transport systems planning with urban and social policies. One first step towards the
reduction of social exclusion might be that of promoting activities to increase accessibility. At
this point, the notable accessibility increases from new High-Speed Rail (HSR) services, which
can play a significant role.

In the last decades, an important expansion of the HSR network has been observed in Europe.
Indeed several European cities and regions are served today by HSR, and national agendas
have planned significant extensions of this type of networks in the next decade. In 2016, the

370 360.revista de alta velocidad