Vehicles for justice: buses and advancement

This article draws on the findings from <i>The Bus Project</i> (2018–2021) in Bristol, which found that children living in some of the most deprived streets in England cannot afford to visit the centre of their city. The article explains that the problem of children ‘not being on the bus...

Full description

Bibliographic Details
Main Author: Layard, A
Format: Journal article
Language:English
Published: Wiley 2022
_version_ 1797111467936317440
author Layard, A
author_facet Layard, A
author_sort Layard, A
collection OXFORD
description This article draws on the findings from <i>The Bus Project</i> (2018–2021) in Bristol, which found that children living in some of the most deprived streets in England cannot afford to visit the centre of their city. The article explains that the problem of children ‘not being on the buses’ is the consequence of a series of policy choices in bus governance. Empirically, the article demonstrates that the causes of bus immobility – cost, fear of the unknown, unfamiliarity, and unreliability – have clear detrimental effects on children's ability to access leisure and civic opportunities, independent travel, and education of choice. Theoretically, it argues that discrimination and equality law – the dominant legal paradigms for addressing inequality – have limitations in this setting when they do not explicitly provide for socio-economic inequality. This article suggests that we could develop a concept of ‘advancement’, drawing on aspects of Section 1 of the Equality Act 2010 (still unimplemented in England, though in force in Scotland and Wales), moving beyond protected characteristics. As a policy, advancement could be implemented using administrative means, including existing data sets on free school meals or indices of deprivation. A concept of advancement could become a mechanism to enable us to address socio-economic inequality as a ‘vehicle for justice’, just as buses are vehicles capable of facilitating spatial justice in practical terms.
first_indexed 2024-03-07T08:10:49Z
format Journal article
id oxford-uuid:3b49356e-4374-4431-9b8a-b293d9536690
institution University of Oxford
language English
last_indexed 2024-03-07T08:10:49Z
publishDate 2022
publisher Wiley
record_format dspace
spelling oxford-uuid:3b49356e-4374-4431-9b8a-b293d95366902023-11-27T08:54:58ZVehicles for justice: buses and advancementJournal articlehttp://purl.org/coar/resource_type/c_dcae04bcuuid:3b49356e-4374-4431-9b8a-b293d9536690EnglishSymplectic ElementsWiley2022Layard, AThis article draws on the findings from <i>The Bus Project</i> (2018–2021) in Bristol, which found that children living in some of the most deprived streets in England cannot afford to visit the centre of their city. The article explains that the problem of children ‘not being on the buses’ is the consequence of a series of policy choices in bus governance. Empirically, the article demonstrates that the causes of bus immobility – cost, fear of the unknown, unfamiliarity, and unreliability – have clear detrimental effects on children's ability to access leisure and civic opportunities, independent travel, and education of choice. Theoretically, it argues that discrimination and equality law – the dominant legal paradigms for addressing inequality – have limitations in this setting when they do not explicitly provide for socio-economic inequality. This article suggests that we could develop a concept of ‘advancement’, drawing on aspects of Section 1 of the Equality Act 2010 (still unimplemented in England, though in force in Scotland and Wales), moving beyond protected characteristics. As a policy, advancement could be implemented using administrative means, including existing data sets on free school meals or indices of deprivation. A concept of advancement could become a mechanism to enable us to address socio-economic inequality as a ‘vehicle for justice’, just as buses are vehicles capable of facilitating spatial justice in practical terms.
spellingShingle Layard, A
Vehicles for justice: buses and advancement
title Vehicles for justice: buses and advancement
title_full Vehicles for justice: buses and advancement
title_fullStr Vehicles for justice: buses and advancement
title_full_unstemmed Vehicles for justice: buses and advancement
title_short Vehicles for justice: buses and advancement
title_sort vehicles for justice buses and advancement
work_keys_str_mv AT layarda vehiclesforjusticebusesandadvancement