Cohesion, Exclusion and Social Quality

Abstract

The concept of social quality has been operationalized in terms of four component dimensions: social inclustion, social cohesion, socio-economic security and social empowerment. This article argues that inclusion and cohesion are aspects of the same underlying social construct. Societies are cohesive to the extent that they are bound by relationships of solidarity; people are included when they are part of solidaristic social networks. Where there is cohesion, there is solidarity, and where there is solidarity, there is inclusion. It follows that the attempt to define social quality in terms of a formal distiction between inclusion and cohesion is doomed to failure. They cannot be treated as distict elements, and the attempt to distinguish them has led to double-counting.