Everyday connectivity: equity, technologies, competencies and walking

The value of this paper is its contribution, through an in-depth exploration of everyday practices, to the discourse on everyday mobility and social connectivity. This paper explores physical and mobile communication connectivity by developing further our understanding of the complex interactions of transport provision and the social practice of walking and encountering, meeting others and keeping in touch, and particularly the competencies, resources and strategies involved in walking and mobile communication technology use. The work is informed by the premise that (in)equity is both a social construct and a lived experience and that travel is an embodied social practice situated in time–spaces that are complex and inform, enable and constrain us and that as one travels the structures of opportunity to meet others, access services changes. Furthermore these patterns of opportunity cannot be presumed to be the same for every community. The competencies, resource and strategies used to achieve connectivity are dynamic and situated and it can be argued that competencies for negotiating mobilities (Hannam et al., 2006) are developing and changing as mobility patterns, communication technologies and social organisation are changing. Yet it is not clear what policy directions are needed to meet the changing social practices and ensure processes of social inclusion. Using mixed methods 24 people were recruited within a neighbourhood and interviewed over a period of weeks during which time they participated in a mobile interview which involved walking around their neighbourhood and keeping a 3 day diary of communication with others. The study findings allow us to draw conclusions about the character of connectivity competencies, transport provision and social inequity. They show a disjunct in planners’ provision and policy, in the maps that are used and in the understanding of time–space organisation among different communities resulting in an exacerbation of existing patterns of inequality, imposing burdens on some communities and not others. Finally the work allows us to ask questions about the potential of user generated internet content, particularly whilst on the move and in interaction with Web2.0 technologies and applications, can impact on governance and social equity.