Question

what is social exclusion in poverty??

Answer 1

many of the approaches to poverty explored in other sections within ‘Definitions of poverty’ incorporate within them aspects of social exclusion. The definition of ‘overall poverty’ adopted by the United Nations talks of ‘social discrimination and exclusion’ and of ‘lack of participation in decision-making civil, social and cultural life’. Elements of social exclusion are an integral part of Townsend’s conception of poverty (see Deprivation and poverty), and the original Breadline Britain and subsequent PSE surveys (see Consensual method) incorporated aspects of social exclusion within the concept of necessities (such as ‘celebrations on special occasions’ or ‘a hobby or leisure activity’). However, poverty emphasises material as well as social deprivation, while social exclusion forefronts a person or a group’s ability to participate in social, economic, political and cultural life and their relationships with others. And while poverty has a profound effect on some, though not all, of these aspects of social exclusion, there are other important causal factors of social exclusion such as age, disability, ethnicity, gender and employment status.

Based on a comprehensive review of the literature in 2007, Levitas et al. (in their report The Multi-dimensional Analysis of Social Exclusion for the last government’s social exclusion task force) take as their working definition of social exclusion:

Social exclusion is a complex and multi-dimensional process. It involves the lack or denial of resources, rights, goods and services, and the inability to participate in the normal relationships and activities, available to the majority of people in a society, whether in economic, social, cultural or political arenas. It affects both the quality of life of individuals and the equity and cohesion of society as a whole.

To further this concept, a matrix of domains and topic areas was constructed looking across four stages of the life course: childhood, youth, working-age adulthood and later life. This matrix, the Bristol Social Exclusion Matrix, or B-SEM, contains three domains of potential importance in social exclusion under which there are ten sub-domains:

Answer 2

Social exclusion is distinct from poverty. Poverty is a distributional outcome, whereas exclusion can be defined as the process of declining participation, solidarity, and access to opportunities. Unemployment or lack of transportation can be causes of social exclusion.