NATIONAL LAW
INSTITUTE UNIVERSITY
POLITICAL SCIENCE
SOCIAL EXCLUSION
SUBMITTED TO: SUBMITTED BY:
Prof . Raka Arya Sanyogita Khatri
2014 B.A.L.L.B 33
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Contents
OBJECTIVE...........................................................................................................3
RESEARCH METHODOLOGY...........................................................................3
INTRODUCTION..................................................................................................4
INDIVIDUAL EXCLUSION.................................................................................5
COMMUNITY EXCLUSION...............................................................................6
PROFESSIONAL EXCLUSION...........................................................................6
LINKS BETWEEN EXCLUSION AND OTHER ISSUES..................................7
CONSEQUENCES................................................................................................7
JURIDICAL CONCEPT........................................................................................9
QUOTATIONS......................................................................................................9
CONCLUSION....................................................................................................10
BIBLIOGRAPHY................................................................................................12
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OBJECTIVE
This project aims at
Studying the concept of social exclusion
Relationship between social and individual explanation
Evaluating juridical concept related to Social Exclusion
RESEARCH METHODOLOGY
This project relies on doctrinal research. Secondary sources of data such as articles
research papers essays and other internet resources have been used.
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INTRODUCTION
Social exclusion (or marginalization) is social disadvantage and relegation to the fringe of
society. It is a term used widely in Europe, and was first used in France. It is used across
disciplines including education, sociology, psychology, politics and economics.
Social exclusion is the process in which individuals or entire communities of people are
systematically blocked from (or denied full access to) various rights, opportunities and resources
that are normally available to members of a different group, and which are fundamental to social
integration within that particular group (e.g., housing, employment, healthcare, civic
engagement, democratic participation, and due process).
Alienation or disenfranchisement resulting from social exclusion is often connected to a person's
social class, educational status, childhood relationships, living standards, or personal choices in
fashion.
Such exclusionary forms of discrimination may also apply to people with a disability, minorities,
members of the LGBT community, drug users, Care Leavers, "seniors", or young people.
Anyone who appears to deviate in any way from the "perceived norm" of a population may
thereby become subject to coarse or subtle forms of social exclusion.
The outcome of social exclusion is that affected individuals or communities are prevented from
participating fully in the economic, social, and political life of the society in which they live.
Another way of articulating the definition of social exclusion is as follows:
Social exclusion is a multidimensional process of progressive social rupture, detaching groups
and individuals from social relations and institutions and preventing them from full participation
in the normal, normatively prescribed activities of the society in which they live.
One model to conceptualize social exclusion and inclusion is that they are on a continuum on a
vertical plane below and above the 'social horizon'. According to this model, there are ten social
structures that impact exclusion and can fluctuate over time: race, geographic location, class
structure, globalization, social issues, personal habits and appearance, education, religion,
economics and politics.
In an alternative conceptualization, social exclusion theoretically emerges at the individual or
group level on four correlated dimensions: insufficient access to social rights, material
deprivation, limited social participation and a lack of normative integration. It is then regarded as
the combined result of personal risk factors (age, gender, race); macro-societal changes
(demographic, economic and labor market developments, technological innovation, the evolution
of social norms); government legislation and social policy; and the actual behavior of businesses,
administrative organizations and fellow citizens.
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INDIVIDUAL EXCLUSION
"The marginal man...is one whom fate has condemned to live in two societies and in two, not
merely different but antagonistic cultures....his mind are the crucible in which two different and
refractory cultures may be said to melt and, either wholly or in part, fuses."
Social exclusion at the individual level results in an individual's exclusion from meaningful
participation in society. An example is the exclusion of single mothers from the welfare system
prior to welfare reforms of the 1900s. The modern welfare system is based on the concept of
entitlement to the basic means of being a productive member of society both as an organic
function of society and as compensation for the socially useful labor provided. A single mother's
contribution to society is not based on formal employment, but on the notion that provision of
welfare for children is a necessary social expense. In some career contexts, caring work is
devalued and motherhood is seen as a barrier to employment. Single mothers were previously
marginalized in spite of their significant role in the socializing of children due to views that an
individual can only contribute meaningfully to society through "gainful" employment as well as
a cultural bias against unwed mothers. Today the marginalization is primarily a function of class
condition more broadly, many women face social exclusion. Moosa-Mitha discusses the Western
feminist movement as a direct reaction to the marginalization of white women in society.Women
was excluded from the labor force and their work in the home was not valued. Feminists argued
that men and women should equally participate in the labor force, in the public and private
sector, and in the home. They also focused on labor laws to increase access to employment as
well as to recognize child-rearing as a valuable form of labor. Today, women are still
marginalized from executive positions and continue to earn less than men in upper management
positions.
Another example of individual marginalization is the exclusion of individuals with disabilities
from the labor force. Grandz discusses an employer's viewpoint about hiring individuals living
with disabilities as jeopardizing productivity, increasing the rate of absenteeism, and creating
more accidents in the workplace. Cantor also discusses employer concern about the excessively
high cost of accommodating people with disabilities. The marginalization of individuals with
disabilities is prevalent today, despite the legislation intended to prevent it in most western
countries, and the academic achievements, skills and training of many disabled people. There
are also exclusions of lesbian-gay-bisexual-transgender (LGBT) and other intersexual people
because of their sexual orientations and gender identities. The Yogyakarta Principles require that
the states and communities abolish any stereotypes about LGBT people as well as stereotyped
gender roles.
"Isolation is common to almost every vocational, religious or cultural group of a large city.
Each develops its own sentiments, attitudes, codes, even its own words, which are at best only
partially intelligible to others."
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COMMUNITY EXCLUSION
Many communities experience social exclusion, such as racial (e.g., black)
(e.g., Untouchables or Low Castes or Dalits in Indian Caste System ) and economic
(e.g., Romani) communities.
One example is the Aboriginal community in Australia. Marginalization of Aboriginal
communities is a product of colonization. As a result of colonialism, Aboriginal communities
lost their land, were forced into destitute areas, lost their sources of livelihood, and were
excluded from the labor market. Additionally, Aboriginal communities lost their culture and
values through forced assimilation and lost their rights in society. Today various Aboriginal
communities continue to be marginalized from society due to the development of practices,
policies and programs that “met the needs of white people and not the needs of the marginalized
groups themselves” Yee also connects marginalization to minority communities, when
describing the concept of whiteness as maintaining and enforcing dominant norms and discourse.
PROFESSIONAL EXCLUSION
Some intellectuals and thinkers are marginalized because of their dissenting, radical or
controversial views on a range of topics, including HIV/AIDS, climate change, evolution,
alternative medicine, green energy, or third world politics. Though fashionable for a time to
some, they are more widely regarded as intellectual freethinkers and dissidents whose ideas and
views run against those of the mainstream. At times they are marginalised and abused, often
systematically ostracized by colleagues, and in some cases their work ridiculed or banned from
publication.
Examples include Immanuel Velikovsky, Peter Duesberg, Susan George, Martin Fleischman,
Stanley Pons, Fred Hoyle, James Lovelock, E. F. Schumacher.
LINKS BETWEEN EXCLUSION AND OTHER ISSUES
The problem of social exclusion is usually tied to that of equal opportunity, as some people are
more subject to such exclusion than others. Marginalisation of certain groups is a problem even
in many economically more developed countries, including the United Kingdom and the United
States, 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 and Axel Wolz) have proposed
a basic income, which would impede exclusion from citizenship. The concept of a Universal
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Unconditional Income, or social salary, has been disseminated notably by the Green movement
in Germany.
In the last few years, there has been research focused on possible connections between exclusion
and brain function. Studies published by the University of Georgia and San Diego State
University found that exclusion can lead to diminished brain functioning and poor decision
making. Such studies corroborate with earlier beliefs of sociologists. The effect of exclusion may
likely correlate with such things as substance abuse and crime.
CONSEQUENCES
Crime
Sociologists see strong links between crime and social exclusion in industrialized societies such
as the United States. Growing crime rates may reflect the fact that a growing number of people
do not feel valued in the societies in which they live. The socially excluded population are in
favor of illegal means of fulfilling their goals and motives in life as they have no other way to fit
into a society that will not accept them. Crime is favored over the political system or community
organization. Young people increasingly grow up without guidance and support from the adult
population. Young people also face diminishing job opportunities to sustain a livelihood. This
can cause a sense of willingness to turn to illegitimate means of sustaining a desired lifestyle.
Health
In gay men, results of psycho emotional damage from marginalization from both heterosexual
society and from within mainstream homosexual society include bug chasing(purposeful acts to
acquire HIV), suicide, and drug addiction.
In philosophy
The marginal, the processes of marginalisation, etc. bring specific interest
in postmodern and postcolonial philosophy and social studies. Postmodernism question the
"center" about its authenticity and postmodern sociology and cultural studies research marginal
cultures, behaviors, societies, the situation of the marginalized individual, etc.
Linda Hutcheon describes postmodernism itself as "intertextual, parodic, contradictory,
provisional, heterogeneous, transgressive of generic divisions, ex-centric and marginal ".
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JURIDICAL CONCEPT
There are countries, Italy for example, that have a legal concept of social exclusion. In Italy,
"esclusione sociale" is defined as poverty combined with social alienation, by thestatute n. 328
(11-8-2000), that instituted a state investigation commission named "Commissione di indagine
sull'Esclusione Sociale" (CIES) to make an annual report to the government on legally expected
issues of social exclusion.
The Vienna Declaration and Programme of Action, a document on international human rights
instruments affirms that "extreme poverty and social exclusion constitute a violation of human
dignity and that urgent steps are necessary to achieve better knowledge of extreme poverty and
its causes, including those related to the program of development, in order to promote the human
rights of the poorest, and to put an end to extreme poverty and social exclusion and promote the
enjoyment of the fruits of social progress. It is essential for States to foster participation by the
poorest people in the decision making process by the community in which they live, the
promotion of human rights and efforts to combat extreme poverty."
QUOTATIONS
“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 realize their full potential."
"Whatever the content and criteria of social membership, socially excluded groups and
individuals lack capacity or access to social opportunity.
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 penalized 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."
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
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weakening of support networks, frequent inter-cultural conflicts", 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".
CONCLUSION
What this paper proposes is not a methodology, and the methodological approach for the
description of deprivation in this paper is very eclectic in its methodological approach. hat the
paper proposes, however, is a problem-oriented approach, that spells out the , tc. serves very well
for what has been termed a ‘residual’ approach to poverty reduction, W issues that need to be
incorporated to understand, in a particular context, the nature of poverty. It is also driven by the
belief that a description of measurable indicators of deprivation, by itself, is not sufficient, and
that the in development studies dominant approaches to poverty analysis need to be broadened to
look much more often, and as integral part of the poverty analysis, at the causes of poverty. This
could be captured under the banner of complementarity of approaches, but for me this expresses
insufficiently what are, say, minimum requirements of a good poverty analysis. The concept of
social exclusion may help to make this point. This is complicated because of the different
associations with the concept (i.e. associating social exclusion with a quantitative notion of
relative deprivation, while legitimate, ignores fundamental methodological differences). More
important than the concept itself, is the tradition and disciplinary background that comes with it.
The notion is a useful way of capturing a useful and important way of looking at deprivation, i.e.
the active nature and processes responsible for deprivation. In that sense, such a notion is as
relevant for analysis in contexts of widespread absolute poverty, as it is in the OECD context
where the concept originated. An emphasis on complementarity of methods therefore is (too)
limited for the key point made here. A discussion of differing concepts of social exclusion – the
Anglo-Saxon tradition with a specialization paradigm versus a continental tradition with a
solidaristic paradigm – may help to illuminate why. There is a strong link between the dominant
poverty analysis that was introduced during the 1980s (often by the World Bank), and the type of
approaches to poverty reduction that were dominant during that period. The emphasis on
identifying how many poor there are, where they are, their characteristics e and an emphasis on
safety nets. A residual or safety nets approach to poverty reduction focuses on measures for the
people who fall outside the system, for example as the result of economic crises. This identifies
the existence of poverty as a phenomenon external to the social-economic system, something that
can be addressed by mitigating measures.32 14 The discussion of discrimination is meant to
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illustrate that deprivation exists very much within the socio-economic system, and that to address
these certain ‘rules of the game’ need changing. Approaches to poverty analysis can be
considered ‘complementary’ only if they are considered of equal value; not when descriptions of
visible outcomes are considered more important than the analysis that is essential to understand
the underlying asons for those disparities.33 These differences are deep-rooted in poverty
analysis, , or at least less visible, than the qualitative-quantitative divide, and much f the
difficulties in the debates on conceptualization of social exclusion seems situated g causes f
deprivation. A key methodological point is about restoring the role of the analyst, by re perhaps
more so o in fundamentally different ways of conceptualizing society, and in the case of poverty
analysis the strong emphasis on defining, measuring, and identification of the poor,34 and as
such strongly embedded in an individualistic approach.35 Participatory methods, I believe, have
not filled this gap. Its focus on the perspectives of poor people has highlighted another side of the
insight obtained from the quantitative, ‘objective’ analysis, with better insight of the perspectives
of poor people on their poverty. As mentioned earlier, a priori it may be incorrect to assume that
poor people’s interests are necessarily better served with one kind of data or the other (much
depends on the results of the analysis), or that they would necessarily identify underlyin o
emphasizing her/his role in uncovering underlying social structures, through a method (or
methods) that appears most appropriate for particular, context-specific issues.
BIBLIOGRAPHY
Power, A., Wilson, W.J., 2000, Social Exclusion and the Future of Cities, Centre for
Analysis of Social Exclusion, London School of Economics, London
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 978-0-19-926040-9
Philippe Van Parijs, Real Freedom for All: What (if anything) can justify capitalism?,
1995. ISBN 978-0-19-829357-6
Gilles Deleuze, A Thousand Plateaus, 1980.
John Rawls, A Theory of Justice, 1971. ISBN 978-0-674-01772-6
Karl Marx, Economic and Philosophical Manuscripts of 1844
University of Georgia (2006, November 9). Social Exclusion Changes Brain Function
And Can Lead To Poor Decision-making. ScienceDaily. Retrieved February 29, 2008,
from http://www.sciencedaily.com /releases/2006/11/061108154256.htm
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Giddens, Anthony, Introduction to Sociology. New York: W.W. Norton &, 2009. Print.
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