Assessing connectivity in networked services involves challenging methodological difficulties, particularly when considering the share of the overall outputs accessible by a given connection. Based on evidence for the metropolitan area of São Paulo, this article reveals that even in emerging economies like Brazil, the coverage of infrastructure networks tends to encompass most of the main urban concentrations -including poor neighborhoods. However, this does not mean that the exclusionary character of urban development has been restricted. Rather, the apparently homogeneous coverage disguises qualitative differences in access to services' outputs and the strategic dimension of social control over networks. The particular location of concentrated outputs of networked services in the urban space actually defines who and where are the included, in opposition to a growing excluded population.Social exclusion is here considered in a broad sense, involving not only the more evident lack of direct access to basic goods and services that characterizes poverty, but also the lack of access to utilities that in a changing labor market are indispensable to assure a minimally decent degree of survival in the urban economy. The labor market that results from the logic of a global economy is largely exclusionary in itself; survival on the fringes of contemporary economic activity depends, to a large extent, on access to public services in adequate quantity and quality. Basic access to water and sewerage -the foundations of the social infrastructure in cities -is a necessary condition to overcome urban poverty, as are connections to electricity and garbage collection, but they are not sufficient conditions to overcome poverty. Access to communication facilities is today a basic requirement to enter the labor market on the fringes of modern global businessesincluding small businesses and decentralized home production -and this makes the functionality of the house and of its neighborhood key conditions to economic activity. Networked services, more than being minimally available for biological survival, must be delivered in sufficient quantity, regularity and quality to support these activities. And this new insertion of services implies a conceptual revision of the conditions of access to networked utilities.Assessing connectivity in terms other than the physical encompassment of connections and average aggregate consumption requires complex methodological procedures, technological information that is difficult to access, and sound multidisciplinary skills of interpretation. Despite the difficulties this presents it is a
scite is a Brooklyn-based organization that helps researchers better discover and understand research articles through Smart Citations–citations that display the context of the citation and describe whether the article provides supporting or contrasting evidence. scite is used by students and researchers from around the world and is funded in part by the National Science Foundation and the National Institute on Drug Abuse of the National Institutes of Health.
hi@scite.ai
10624 S. Eastern Ave., Ste. A-614
Henderson, NV 89052, USA
Copyright © 2024 scite LLC. All rights reserved.
Made with 💙 for researchers
Part of the Research Solutions Family.