Abstract

SOCIAL EXCLUSION: A KIND OR PROCESS?

Luann Good Gingrich

It is increasingly accepted as common sense, in political and academic arenas alike, that the idea of social inclusion represents an indisputable social value and an inspired direction for social policy. Yet a review of the literature reveals that the term, along with its assumed opposite – social exclusion – is frequently inserted without definition or explanation. Preferred articulations of social inclusion are predicated on associated views about the causes of social exclusion and the most effective level of intervention. The implications of such unquestioned appropriation of words are significant, as it is precisely those beliefs that are taken for granted in their familiarity – that elude consciousness – which are most defining and unassailable (Blanco, 1994; Bourdieu, 1990; Sen, 2000). In this paper, I examine ‘common sense’ applications of the terms social inclusion/exclusion, with a view toward exposing concealed yet consequential beliefs about material need, terms of entitlement, social responsibility, and the human condition. For example, the idea of social exclusion, in its simplest and most popular version, calls to mind a kind or category of person, conflating the idea of social exclusion with its material outcomes. Because these material manifestations of social exclusion are necessarily attached to human beings, the concept is used to classify people – poor people, homeless people, unemployed people. Alternatively, the less common relational perspective, rooted in the French notion of les exclus, emphasizes structural or social processes that lead to the rupture of social bonds for certain individuals or groups. It is apparent, however, that the structural failings fall out of view when considering the inverse process of inclusion, as the focus repeatedly shifts to changing the excluded kind into the included kind. In conclusion, I propose an alternative conception of social exclusion as both kind-and-process, considering the interaction between the excluded and exclusion, and rendering assumptions available for scrutiny. Aiming toward an intentional vision of social inclusion, the kind-and-process perspective uncovers and interrogates the individual intersection with the social; the interface between personal agency and structures; the subjectivity of objective conditions; and the essence of relationships between and among included and excluded kinds.

Bio

Luann Good Gingrich is a PhD student in the Faculty of Social Work at the University of Toronto. She is currently working on her dissertation, which explores social inclusion among migratory workers in Ontario.

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