Urban Mobility, Social Inclusion and Participation: A Qualitative Study in Palermo, Italy

The purpose of this chapter is to discuss the connection between social inclusion and urban mobility, focusing on the role of sharing mobility and to what extent it might be a favourable tool for social inclusion, particularly for disadvantaged groups such as migrants. To our knowledge, whilst the literature has already examined the associations between migrants’ social inclusion and mobility, the role of sharing mobility in this process has not yet been widely analysed, especially in the Italian context. Hence, the present chapter addresses this knowledge gap. The rest of the chapter is organised as follows. First, we describe the relationships between mobility and social exclusion, then we consider the case of migrants as a category at risk of social exclusion. We illustrate the connection between sharing mobility and social inclusion using the key findings of a focus group study involving residents and migrants in the city of Palermo. Finally, we discuss the implications for the development of more inclusive sharing mobility services.