ABSTRACT

Social exclusion is a multi-dimensional conceptualization of poverty, one that acknowledges both monetary and non-monetary causes. Its first formulation in the mid 1970s was in essence a symbolic phrase that highlighted the fact that certain social groups had comprehensively failed to find their place in post-industrial capitalism and were cut off from the main institutions of society and state. As the concept was explored and refined it reshaped policy development particularly in Britain and the European Union (EU). From the mid 1990s on it has provided a ready construct that both defines social problems and suggests policy responses to those problems. From the beginning social exclusion has been a contested idea. Some critics have said it diverts

attention from the fundamental issue of gross inequality in wealth and income while others have argued that it casts too wide a net embracing more social problems than policy can possibly deal with. Yet the concept has also highlighted new kinds of deprivations and provided a platform for significant research and policy initiatives that address the many linked facets of disadvantage. This chapter explains the different aspects of social exclusion and familiarizes readers with the

debates that have surrounded the concept since its inception. It is in three sections: The first, ‘A concept in search of a definition’, discusses meanings of social exclusion and its emergence within a centrist discourse on social solidarity. The second section, ‘Social exclusion and social policy’, examines various policy initiatives in Europe that explicitly tackled the effects of social exclusion from the late 1990s onward and contrasts that approach withmajor initiatives to tackle disadvantage in the United States which did not explicitly draw on the discourse of social exclusion but shared the sense that poverty has many dimensions. The third section, ‘Social exclusion and poverty knowledge’ considers some of the areas that exploration of social exclusion has added to our knowledge about poverty. A brief conclusion then examines the place of social exclusion within the extended period of economic crisis, now widely termed the ‘great recession’, that began in 2008.