European Urban Vulnerability and Poverty Observatories. Characteristics and transferability

Abstract

Urban poverty, exclusion and inequality are the most social serious problem that 21st century cities have to face. The territorial dimension of vulnerability and poverty are an important issue due to the structural concentration of both processes in the so-called vulnerable urban areas or neighbourhoods. This research focuses on the study of national European observatories that, from the infra-municipal scale, evaluate poverty and urban vulnerability in their territories with different criteria, as well as the analysis of their methodologies and the data provided. The research shows that, despite the specific differences because of the interests of each country, all of them, to a greater or lesser degree, pretend to be tools that have implications for decision-making at the different scales of urban policies.