SOCIAL EXCLUSION

Social Exclusion



Social Exclusion

Introduction

Social exclusion refers to the lack of participation by segments of the population in social, economic, political and cultural life of their societies due to the lack of rights, resources and core capabilities (access to law, the labor market, education, information technology, systems of health and social protection, public safety) that enable full social participation. Social exclusion is a key concept in the context of the European Union (EU) to address situations of poverty, vulnerability and marginalization of parts of its population. The concept has also spread, though more limited, outside Europe. The EU declared 2010 as the European Year for combating poverty and social exclusion.

Discussion

There is no consensus on the meaning of the concept of social exclusion. In the extensive literature exists today on the subject is given very different content depending on the approach used. The World Bank, in another synthesis of existing studies, says that despite all the available literature on social exclusion, there is no clear definition or defined indicators on social exclusion. According to another literature review, conducted this time for the World Health in 2008, the definitions of social exclusion are dozens and their commonalities not actually spend some statements about its dynamic characteristics, multidimensional and relational (Sheppard 2006, Pp. 269-281). Hilary Silver, one of the most outstanding Proponents of the concept of social exclusion, concludes his analysis of 2007 on the development of the concept by saying that the term is vague, ambiguous and contested as to its content, accommodating a variety of contexts at the cost of conceptual accuracy.

Difficulties in defining social exclusion make it difficult to measure. The evolution approach described above allows the definitions currently fashionable concept of social exclusion. In general terms, definitions move on an axis that runs from the original meaning of the term, which focuses on the breakdown of what is called social lien (social bond) and that in itself has little to do with poverty. Social exclusion is also defined as a sum of deprivation or poverty situations that are supposed, in themselves, components and causes of exclusion. Social exclusion is a process that relegates some people on the margins of society and to from full participation because of their poverty, lack of basic skills and lifelong learning opportunities, or for reasons of discrimination (Pierson 2009, Pp. 194-225). This distances them from job opportunities, income and education awareness, and network and community activities.

They have little access to power and decision making bodies and, therefore, feel helpless and unable to take control of decisions affecting them in their daily lives. However, beyond the emphasis to be given to different components of the concept of social exclusion all approaches emphasize certain characteristics, including the supposedly be a multidimensional phenomenon and cumulative, i.e., which coincide, reinforcing each other, a series of processes and situations of deprivation and exclusion that push individuals and groups “outside society”, thus, threatening the bond or attachment that connects to the rest of the community (Pantazis 2006, ...