Information about Social Exclusion

Social exclusion relates to the alienation or disenfranchisement of certain people within a society. It is often connected to a person's social class, educational status and living standards and how these might affect their access to various opportunities. It also applies to some degree to the disabled, to minority men, women of all races, and to the elderly. Anyone who deviates in any perceived way from the norm of a population can become subject to coarse or subtle forms of social exclusion.

“Social exclusion is about the inability of our society to keep all groups and individuals within reach of what we expect as a society...[or] to realise their full potential."^[1]

To be "excluded from society" can take various relative senses, but social exclusion is usually defined as more than a simple economic phenomenon: it also has consequences on the social, symbolic field.

"Women of Pakistani, Bangladeshi and Caribbean descent [in Britain] are doing well in schools but are still being penalised in the workplace...80-89% of 16-year-olds from those ethnic groups wanted to work full-time...but they were up to four times more likely to be jobless."^[2]

Philosopher Axel Honneth thus speaks of a "struggle for recognition", which he attempts to theorize through Hegel's philosophy. In this sense, to be socially excluded is to be deprived from social recognition and social value. In the sphere of politics, social recognition is obtained by full citizenship; in the economic sphere (in capitalism) it means being paid enough to be able to participate fully in the life of the community.

This concept can be gleaned from considering examples of the "social integration crisis: poverty, professional exclusion or marginalization, social and civic disenfranchisement, absence or weakening of support networks, frequent inter-cultural conflicts,"^[3] These relate not only to gender, race and disability, but also to crime:

"Social exclusion is a major cause of crime and re-offending. Removing the right to vote increases social exclusion by signalling to serving prisoners that, at least for the duration of their sentence, they are dead to society.The additional punishment of disenfranchisement is not a deterrent. There is no evidence to suggest that criminals are deterred from offending behaviour by the threat of losing the right to vote.....(and) the notion of civic death for sentenced prisoners isolates still further those who are already on the margins of society and encourages them to be seen as alien to the communities to which they will return on release"^[4]

The problem of social exclusion is usually tied to the problem of equal opportunity, as some people are more subject to such exclusion than others. Marginalization of certain groups is a problem even in many economically more developed countries, including the United Kingdom (UK) and the United States (US), where the majority of the population enjoys considerable economic and social opportunities..

Since social exclusion may lead to one being deprived of one's citizenship, some authors (Philippe Van Parijs, Jean-Marc Ferry, Alain Caillé, André Gorz) have theorized a guaranteed minimum income which would impede exclusion from citizenship. ^[5]

Social inclusion

Social inclusion, its converse, is affirmative action to change the circumstances and habits that lead to (or have led to) social exclusion.

Social Inclusion is a strategy to combat social exclusion, but it is not making reparations or amends for past wrongs as in Affirmative Action. It is the coordinated response to the very complex system of problems that are known as social exclusion. The notion of social inclusion can vary according to the type of strategies organisations adopted.

References

Bibliography

• Li Yi. The Structure and Evolution of Chinese Social Stratification. University Press of America, 2005, ISBN 0-7618-3331-5
• Frank Moulaert, Erik Swyngedouw and Arantxa Rodriguez. The Globalized City: Economic Restructing and Social Polarization in European Cities. Oxford University Press, 2003, ISBN 978-0199260409
• Axel Honneth, The Struggle for Recognition: Moral Grammar of Social Conflicts, 1996. ISBN 978-0745618388
• Philippe Van Parijs, Real Freedom for All: What (if anything) can justify capitalism?, 1995. ISBN 978-0198293576
• Gilles Deleuze, A Thousand Plateaus, 1980.
• John Rawls, A Theory of Justice, 1971. ISBN 978-0674017726
• Karl Marx, Economic and Philosophical Manuscripts of 1844

External links

• Is the U.S. a Good Model for Reducing Social Exclusion in Europe? Center for Economic and Policy Research, August 2006
• Career worries for minority women
• Black teachers face daily racism The Guardian

See also

• Child Poverty Action Group
• Community development
• Gross Domestic Product
• Guaranteed Minimum Income
• Inclusive Democracy
• KATARSIS: An EU Research Project to address social exclusion issues
• URSPIC: An EU Research Project to measure impacts of urban development projects on social exclusion
• Marginalization
• Marx's theory of alienation
• Ostracism
• Poverty
• Racism
• Second-class citizen
• Social alienation
• Social innovation
• Social firm
• Social psychiatry
• The Globalized City
• Caste