Abstract
This paper provides an in-depth description and case application of a conceptual model of social exclusion: aiming to advance existing knowledge on how to conceive of and identify this complex idea, evaluate the methodologies used to measure it, and reconsider what is understood about its social realities toward a meaningful and measurable conception of social inclusion. Drawing on Pierre Bourdieu’s conceptual tools of social fields and systems of capital, our research posits and applies a theoretical framework that permits the measurement of social exclusion as dynamic, social, relational, and material. We begin with a brief review of existing social exclusion research literature, and specifically examine the difficulties and benefits inherent in quantitatively operationalizing a necessarily multifarious theoretical concept. We then introduce our conceptual model of social exclusion and inclusion, which is built on measurable constructs. Using our ongoing program of research as a case study, we briefly present our approach to the quantitative operationalization of social exclusion using secondary data analysis in the Canadian context. Through the development of an Economic Exclusion Index, we demonstrate how our statistical and theoretical analyses evidence intersecting processes of social exclusion which produce consequential gaps and uneven trajectories for migrant individuals and groups compared with Canadian-born, and racial minority groups versus white individuals. To conclude, we consider some methodological implications to advance the empirical measurement of social inclusion.
Highlights
The concepts of social exclusion and inclusion (SE/I), according to noted economist Amartya Sen (2000), have potential to “substantially help in the causal as well as constitutive analyses of poverty and deprivation” (p. 47)
We report on our empirical application of this conceptual model in three recent studies in which we used secondary data analysis of the Survey of Labour and Income Dynamics (SLID), a national Canadian dataset
For the three studies reported on below, we use secondary analysis of the micro data files of the Survey of Labour and Income Dynamics (SLID), a representative survey collected by the Canadian government that focuses on labour market activity and income for individuals and families
Summary
The concepts of social exclusion and inclusion (SE/I), according to noted economist Amartya Sen (2000), have potential to “substantially help in the causal as well as constitutive analyses of poverty and deprivation” (p. 47). The ideas of SE/I often lose their distinctive complexity It Social Inclusion, 2015, Volume 3, Issue 4, Pages 98-111 is common in research and policy literatures for social exclusion to be operationalized as a tally of people who lack secure attachments to the labour market, or whose incomes fall below a certain threshold (e.g., Esping-Andersen, Gallie, Hemerijck, & Myles, 2001; Roche, 2000). This “categorical point-of-view” (Good Gingrich, 2003), reflected in the highly criticized policies of the Social Exclusion Unit in the United Kingdom, falls short due to its conservative and conserving emphasis on individual interventions to address largescale social inequalities (Byrne, 2005; MacLeavy, 2008). Efforts relied heavily on familiar and well-used constructs, such as personal or household income and consumption below a poverty line (e.g., Giorgi & Pohoryles, 1999; Tibaijuka & Kaijage, 1995); intra- and international comparisons of uneven income distribution (see, for example, Glennerster, 2000; Stierle, Kaddar, Tchicaya, & Schmidt-Ehry, 1999); insecure labour market attachment (Esping-Andersen et al, 2001; European Commission, 1994); and substandard housing and homelessness (Ginsburg, 1997; Hobcraft, 2000)
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