Social Exclusion

In recent years the term social exclusion has gained much popularity in political dialogues on social policy issues in developed countries outside the United States. In the late 20th century, the European Union adopted “social cohesion and social inclusion” as its theme; and “social exclusion” became part of the UN standard vocabulary to address the broad range of issues related to global inequality and injustice.

In Britain, Tony Blair's Labour government created a special interdepartmental branch of government, the Social Exclusion Unit (SEU), in 1997. The SEU identified various social and economic problems associated with specific underprivileged population groups and proposed a series of policies to tackle these problems. As a result, this term became the main currency of public debate in addressing social policy issues ranging from unemployment to homelessness, from child poverty to health care.

Concerns about inclusion and exclusion have deep psychological and sociological roots. Psychologists view inclusion as a natural need, because the sense of belonging and membership is critical to one's physical and mental well-being. Since exclusion always exists in tandem with inclusion, the psychological impact of inclusion lies as much in the fact of being included as the fact of not being excluded.

[Page 872]Sociological scholars also recognize this innate, natural need of human beings. For instance, Max Weber identified exclusion as a form of “social closure” preserving the privilege of one group against competition from other groups. Also, Georg Simmel provided a vivid depiction of the outlook of the “excluded” in his portrayal of strangers in a society, those who are physically close yet socially distant.

Modern usage of this term traces back to Rene Lenoir's 1974 book One in Ten French People, where he invoked the term social exclusion to describe the social and economic divide in then-contemporary French society. Specifically, the “excluded” were administratively excluded by the state, the victims who fall through the social welfare safety net. He thought such exclusion was a threat to French national unity, since social cohesion is considered the essence of the society.

One view of social exclusion focuses on the lack of monetary resources and the material deprivation of individuals. Causes of poverty, joblessness, and economic hardship, as well as their resulting pathologies, receive primary attention. Some critics allege that often social exclusion is actually a euphemism to avoid the sensitivity of the “P” word for political convenience. For example, the initial adoption of the term in the United Kingdom was to highlight the failure of the Conservative Party to recognize the existence of poverty.