Insecurity as a Determinant of Social Exclusion: Case Study of the City of Barcelona

This study introduces the concept of insecurity as a theoretical resource for identifying structural factors that affect social exclusion in Barcelona. Using principal component analysis, a composite index referred to as the Social Insecurity Ranking (SIR) is constructed with the aim of studying the structure and volume of available resources in the 73 neighbourhoods of Spain's second largest city. The results suggest the need for an alternative measure of deprivation in contemporary cities that can address the relationship between social exclusion and insecurity. In particular, an analysis of the spatial distribution of the SIR in Barcelona indicates that both socially disfavoured and affluent neighbourhoods are geographically concentrated, respectively at the margins and in the north-west of the city.