Social Inclusion: The Concept Of Social Exclusion

1643 Words4 Pages

The concept of social exclusion is complex. It is understood as a multidimensional and dynamic process. (Sliver, 1994; Levitas, 2005) Under the leadership of Prime Minister Tony Blair since 1997, social exclusion has become an agenda on the British social policy. (Levitas, 2005) The redistributive (RED), social integration(SID) and moral underclass(MUD) discourses are used as one of the models to examine the meanings of social exclusion shifts and changes in the political context. These discourses are not types of dimensions of exclusion, instead Weber suggested that they are indicators that show how the permutations of social exclusion reflected in different British policy implications. (Levitas, 1998) RED, SID and MUD are predominantly analytical …show more content…

The extensive notion of poverty social exclusion has a rapport with the concept of social exclusion. (Howarth et al. 1998) There are strong elements of RED in Brining Braitian Together (1998) published by the Social Exclusion Union. It makes it clear that the emergency of redirecting resources can relieve multiple deprivation. The redistributive discourse is presented in the earlier reports as well. These reports propose mainly the improvement and ‘better resourcing’ of certain services such as pupil referral unity. (Levitas, …show more content…

The word ‘underclass’ was originally used to refer to individuals that are being ‘cut off from the main class structures of society’ (Rex, 1979) ‘in terms of income, life chances and political aspirations’ (Field, 1989) or those who ‘typically have little or no control over goods and skills either within or outside a given economic order.’ (Moore, 1993a) Unlike Field, Moore and Wilson that wrote The Underclass (1993), who have defined ‘underclass’ in terms of conditions, Murray suggested that ‘underclass’ should be defined by behaviours on an individual’s level. (Murray, 1996) He believe there are the deserving and undeserving poor, who will intentionally stay inactive and dependent completely on the welfare benefits. Despite being criticised as being harsh and ‘blaming the victim’ (Murray, 1996), Murray highlighted the importance to keep people ‘morally responsible for their behaviour’. (Murray, 1996) The idea of communitarism comes into the moral underclass discourse. (Levitas, 2005) Hence, paid work in MUD, signifies similarly to what SID suggests, as a necessary mean of social discipline (Murray, 1996) because it can potentially lift people to a cultural and moral

Open Document