1. Social exclusion is the separation of the members of a particular group from society marked by multiple aspects: work, economic position, level of education, social identity, state of health, etc., and structured in such a way as to hinder or prevent the integration of these individuals with the community and/or the State, as they take advantage of the same opportunities.
Etymology: Exclusion, by Latin modes exclusive, exclusions.+ Social, by Latin socialisabout partnersfrom ‘socio’, conjugated with the suffix -al, with reference in -ālisas an associative agent.
Grammatical category: noun fem.
in syllables: ex-clu-sion + social.
Social exclusion
lilen gomez
Professor in Philosophy
The notion of social exclusion orders one of the possible theoretical and conceptual frameworks, within the Social Sciences, to study and intervene on situations of poverty in various countries, especially after the installation of neoliberal economic regimes, after the 70s. It is a concept that is frequently articulated with that of poverty and inequality.
Poverty and social exclusion
The conceptualization of social exclusion responds to a characterization of the notion of poverty as insufficient to describe the results of the disarticulation of social ties, a consequence of the process of globalization and neoliberal reform in many countries, particularly in Latin American societies, after in the 1970s, and its deepening in the 1990s. Given the emergence of new sectors below the poverty line, there is heterogeneity between these sectors and those belonging to a situation of historical structural poverty.
Simultaneously, the concept of poverty presented other problems at that time, which were clearly revealed for the social actors located in regions with higher indices of precariousness: on the one hand, that studies focused on combating poverty had been promoted by multilateral organizations identified, in part, as responsible for the same situation that they intended to investigate externally.
On the other hand, the exclusive reference to poverty ran the risk of leaving out of the analysis specific issues, relevant to understanding the complexity of the situation, such as distributive inequality or labor precariousness.
By incorporating the notion of exclusion into the analysis of the social sciences, it was not intended to discard the concept of poverty and replace it with others, but rather to broaden the theoretical range in terms of complementarity between the different concepts, with the aim of drawing up public intervention policies. adjusted to the analyzed scenarios.
Scope and limitations
One of the main criticisms of the notion of social exclusion focused on the theoretical imprecision of the term; since, when applied to the analysis of a certain population based on established indicators, an overlap was obtained between the excluded groups and the poor. Then, there was no difference when applying both concepts. However, when specifying both notions, it is observed that there would not be such an overlap, to the extent that it is possible for a group to belong to the category of poverty and not to that of exclusion.
What is specific about the notion of exclusion —that which differentiates it from poverty— consists in the fact that it implies a rupture in the face of significant social relations, which can be deepened in such a way that it produces an ever greater deprivation. For example, the impossibility of access to jobs, in turn, can lead to a deprivation of access to housing, credit applications, etc. Such a situation results in a systematic deprivation of civil, social and political rights.
In this sense, the theoretical and conceptual framework of social exclusion is revealed as more complex and multidimensional than the one that only addresses patrimonial poverty, since the processes of social exclusion do not only involve the lack of material goods or insufficient income. , but rather a broader dimension, linked to an accumulation of adverse situations that progressively undermine the bond between the individual and their social group.
Thus, it can be pointed out that the concept of social exclusion presents two characteristic qualities: on the one hand, it is multi-causal, that is, the situation of exclusion of an individual refers to various factors; on the other hand, it has a processual nature, since exclusion is the result of a progressive journey from precariousness, the violation of rights, marginality, until finally arriving, and after different stages, at the situation of exclusion.
Following
References
Kessler, G. (2011) Social exclusion and inequality, useful notions to think about the Argentine social structure? Online laboratory. Buenos Aires’ University.
Hidalgo, C., and Palleres, G. (2011) From poverty to exclusion: dynamism in the formation of social concepts. public discussion. Reflection of social work, 2, pp 73-80.
Fabre, M. (2000). Considerations around the concept of social exclusion. Social Actions and Investigations, 11(1), 10-21.