Everyday Life, Daily Mobility and the Coping Strategies of People Living in Peripheral Localities

Abstract

The availability of labour, education, services and transportation signifi cantly infl uences the quality of life in urban and rural areas. The supply of job opportunities and services is not suffi cient in rural and peripheral villages and particularly young and well-educated people often respond by migrating. The people who remain cope with the problems of accessibility by various commuting methods. However, the poor supply of jobs and social infrastructure may be a source of considerable problems for less mobile people trying to satisfy basic needs. This article employs in-depth case study research to evaluate the daily mobility of people in peripheral municipalities in Western Bohemia. It aims to identify the problems and barriers in the everyday life of the local population and to identify forms of daily mobility related to work and service provision. It evaluates how the lack of job opportunities and basic civic amenities infl uences the everyday strategies that people adopt to cope with the spatial mismatch between the place of residence and the place where jobs and services are located. The daily mobility and strategies of people living in municipalities are set in the context of post-communist changes in commuting behaviour. Theoretically and methodologically the article draws on the strong tradition of time geography.

Public transport accessibility and spatial exclusion in Roma settlements: A case study of three regions in Eastern Slovakia

“…), despite the growing importance of individual automobility (due to passenger car availability improvement) in welfare societies, the role of public transportation for everyday mobility purposes is still crucial for lower-class communities. This is specifically true in postsocialist countries such as Slovakia or the Czech Republic (Seidenglanz, 2007;Temelová et al, 2011;Horňák et al, 2016;Květoň et al, 2017), where some communities are largely dependent on public transportation due to their insufficient household incomes or other obstacles causing an unaffordability of family car ownership. Public railway transport was not taken into account here, as the railway network density in the research areas is quite low compared to public bus-transport network, and railway stations are typically too far from any Roma community identified in these areas.…”

“…Nevertheless, in some environments public transport still plays a crucial role in everyday mobility (such as in large cities or in communities with limited affordability of the passenger car, (see e. g. Temelová et al, 2011;Horňák & Rochovská, 2014). We agree with Preston and Rajé (2007) who indicate that in communities with high mobility demands but with poor individual mobility equipment (e. g. due to poor economic conditions of households or due to urban design hampering the use of passenger cars), public transport may play a crucial role as a means of everyday mobility.…”

Disadvantaged and Disadvantaging Regions: Opportunity Structures and Social Disadvantage in Rural Peripheries

“…Similarly, descriptions of Czech rural peripheries also mention the lack of skilled and well‐paid jobs, poor access to services and dependence on commuting (Temelová et al . 2011; Bernard et al . 2016).…”

“…Besides having labour market insufficiencies, German peripheralised regions have been characterised by a decline in public infrastructure and private services (mainly with regard to medical services, educational institutions, community centres, and local supply services) and a general decoupling from positive impulses for development (Barlösius and Neu 2008;Beetz et al 2008). Similarly, descriptions of Czech rural peripheries also mention the lack of skilled and well-paid jobs, poor access to services and dependence on commuting (Temelová et al 2011;Bernard et al 2016).…”