TY - JOUR
T1 - Alternatives to census-based indicators of social disadvantage in rural communities
AU - Higgs, Gary
AU - White, Sean
N1 - Funding Information:
Two major data sets have been employed during the research, namely a database of public services collated for all rural communities in Wales held at the area level in the GIS and a disaggregate (point-level) database of selected services for the unitary authorities in Wales ( Fig. 1 ). These were previously assembled during the course of a two year research project, sponsored by the Higher Education Funding Council for Wales (HEFCW), which was concerned with creating the first comprehensive database of public facilities in Wales (Higgs and White, 1996) . Using these data sources, we have developed four main sets of indicators and compared the patterns of disadvantage as revealed by these indicators vis-à-vis those of traditional census-based measures. The four sets of indicators relate to service level indices from the survey of Welsh rural communities, Isolation Indices based on access to services, potential physical accessibility indicators, and public transport based indicators. An examination of each set of indicators now follows in relation to their formulation and a preliminary analysis of the spatial patterns revealed by applying such measures in rural Wales is presented. This is preceded by a brief description of the main findings of the survey of Welsh rural communities. 4.2.1
PY - 2000/1
Y1 - 2000/1
N2 - Previous research has suggested that standard indicators of deprivation used by central and local government in the UK are inadequately measuring perceived levels of disadvantage in rural areas. In particular, by not incorporating accessibility to, and provision of, services they neglect an important facet of deprivation. The dispersed nature of rural deprivation leads us to the conclusion that area-based indices may have less relevance in such contexts. The aims of this paper are two-fold; firstly, we review the types of indicators which have been suggested as being more relevant to rural areas, given access to appropriate information sources, and secondly, using a survey of public service provision in rural communities of Wales (1995-1996), we explore the development of such indicators. Finally, by comparing the status of communities as evidenced by these measures vis-a-vis those used currently for spatial targetting of resources, we make some preliminary conclusions as to the policy relevance of such indicators in the light of recent reviews, for example, in EU Structural Funding.
AB - Previous research has suggested that standard indicators of deprivation used by central and local government in the UK are inadequately measuring perceived levels of disadvantage in rural areas. In particular, by not incorporating accessibility to, and provision of, services they neglect an important facet of deprivation. The dispersed nature of rural deprivation leads us to the conclusion that area-based indices may have less relevance in such contexts. The aims of this paper are two-fold; firstly, we review the types of indicators which have been suggested as being more relevant to rural areas, given access to appropriate information sources, and secondly, using a survey of public service provision in rural communities of Wales (1995-1996), we explore the development of such indicators. Finally, by comparing the status of communities as evidenced by these measures vis-a-vis those used currently for spatial targetting of resources, we make some preliminary conclusions as to the policy relevance of such indicators in the light of recent reviews, for example, in EU Structural Funding.
KW - Accessibility and provision of services
KW - Geographical information systems
KW - Rural deprivation
U2 - 10.1016/S0305-9006(99)00021-5
DO - 10.1016/S0305-9006(99)00021-5
M3 - Article
AN - SCOPUS:0033975210
SN - 0305-9006
VL - 53
SP - 1
EP - 81
JO - Progress in Planning
JF - Progress in Planning
IS - 1
ER -