Stuck? A look at the daily lives of people with a limited mobility in Jordan

Abstract

This research tries to assess the consequences of transport shortfalls for people with a low mobility in Jordan, mainly people with disabilities. These consequences are described in terms of the capacity for activity participation, a focus taken from social exclusion and capabilities literature. From Nussbaum’s (2006) list of essential capabilities, 4 activities are deduced as mobility related indicators of essential capabilities: visiting friends and family, religious places, medical facilities and grocery shops. Inspired by embodiment literature on disabilities, not only the mere capacities for activity participation are studied but also the myriad of enabling and disabling preconditions. The sample comprises people with many different kinds of health issues and several healthy people. The levels of mobility are very diverse. Transport inadequacies and non-participation are both easy to find. Buses for example are very hard to access with a disability and many people struggle to see their loved ones. But it remains hard to estimate the importance of transport as a cause for non-participation, as compared to the influence of mainly health and social stigma.