Grégory Hamez
Fonction
Professeur
Organisation
LOTERR, Université de Lorraine, France
Socio-spatial accessibility to social services of general interest: France and The Greater Region
Socio-spatial accessibility to social services of general interest: France and The Greater Region
Border Region
Greater Region
Language(s)
Anglais
Introduction
This chapter is included in a book which valorizes the work carried out by ESPON.
Summary
Included in an edited collection focusing on social services of general interest in Europe, this chapter considers the concept of "social service" as it is understood in France, and addresses concerns relating to spatial equality to diagnose issues of accessibility to maternity wards across the Greater Region. The representations provided differ from Anglo-Saxon approaches to measuring the territorial impact of social services of general interest, by taking a predominantly social approach. As the focus of the study, the Greater Region exemplifies the heterogeneity of issues of accessibility seen across neighboring regions.
Content
The book follows the 2013 publication of the report ESPON SeGI – Services of General Interest. It brings together contributions from authors of the ESPON report and those from other researchers offering insight into their understandings of the territorial impact of social services of general interest. The chapter authored by Grégory Hamez and Sophie de Ruffray, neither of whom are members of the ESPON SeGI consortium, offers a vision which complements that provided by the ESPON SeGI.
The authors’ work is based on the notion of "social service" and its very particular meaning in the French culture, as a concept which at once exemplifies the monopoly of the French state and the equal right of each citizen to access services. The authors deduce from this a definition of the territorial impact of services which is based on social equality, and which therefore differs from the definition put forward in the ESPON SeGI report, which prioritizes economic and infrastructural dimensions of services.
A methodology for determining the area of influence of these services is suggested. The methodology must be adapted depending on the type of service in question, and the area across which services are provided.
The methodology is tested in relation to maternity wards located in the Greater Region. The authors put forward a model which combines the provision (number of beds available in existing maternity wards), demand (number of births in the local administrative areas) and distance-time. These criteria are fixed such that above an upper limit of 30 minutes, an area can no longer be considered to be served by a given maternity ward. The methodology draws on fuzzy logic, which is particularly useful for characterizing areas which cannot be easily delimited. It also enables us to consider the possibility that a given area may be served by multiple different maternity services with overlapping areas of influence. In addition to this, the model allows for variation within different parameters, such as the possibility of attending a maternity ward on the opposite side of the border. This is an aspect of the model which makes it particularly suitable for study of the Greater Region. This facilitates the development of a typology of accessibility of areas to different maternity wards.
Conclusions
The chapter draws a number of conclusions:
- The territorial impact of a service cannot be determined solely on the basis of its economic and/or infrastructural dimensions; the social dimension and the question of equality must also be considered.
- As far as accessibility to services is a component of the political concept of territorial cohesion, and accessibility is generally difficult to measure because it assumes the existence and availability of harmonized local data across different countries, the proposed method has the advantage of being easily reproducible across territories on the basis of simple data.
- The use of a method based on fuzzy logic is shown to be particularly advantageous for analyzes relating to the accessibility of services. This is because the choice of operators allows for different understandings of accessibility, notably where populations are able to choose between multiple different services. This method can also be adapted for application to areas which are imperfectly delimited, as is the case here.
- In the future, this methodology might be extended for application to other types of service including education, administration or transport.
- A final advantage of such a study is that it places populations and their best interests at the center of debates. This is particularly critical at a time of growing euroscepticism.
Lead
Grégory Hamez and Sophie de Ruffray
Contributions
ESPON 3.2
ESPON SEGI
LOTERR
Contact Person(s)
Date of creation
2018
Date
Publié dans
Fassmann, H., Rauhut, D., Marques Da Costa, E., Humer, A. (eds.) : Services of General Interest and Territorial Cohesion – European Perspectives and National Insights
Publisher
V&R Vienna University Press
Identifier
ISBN: 978-3-8471-0471-1
E-ISBN: 978-3-7370-0471-8
DOI: 10.14220/9783737004718