Understanding Of Social Exclusion Research Articles

A study on Children perceptions of social exclusion and the structural drivers of discrimination in Norwegian elementary schools

This article explores children's understanding of social exclusion within their school contexts through a critical race theoretical lens and how social exclusion and repression occur in a country whose policy is typically linked with equality and diversity. Our research was conducted in two primary schools in a big city in middle Norway, where urban segregation creates significant differences in school composition. This qualitative study research was made up of fifteen focus group interviews with 46 children from the age of 9 to 12 in two cases of two public schools, one urban and one suburban school. In terms of school demography, the Urban school was in the central part of the city, where local Norwegian origin families have been part of the same neighbourhood for years. The suburban school is located in a high-poverty area and highly segregated along racial, ethnic, and cultural aspects. As previous studies stated, there are structural inequalities in Norwegian schools, still there is a gap on the description of its consequences. This study pay attention to the voice of children and describe school discrimination, isolation, and unsupported processes in both schools. This innovative study shows that children in both school contexts need additional recognition. In addition, we add that educational policies need to be revised by including aims for collaboration, coordination and capacitation of children and families in their school communities and outside the structural limits. Further, we add that local schools should be part of global communities.

Проблематика социального исключения в межличностных отношениях в контексте детской художественной литературы

Introduction. The modern society is characterized by increasing socio-psychological tensions which enhance the disintegration processes in interpersonal relations. Such processes include ignoring, alienation, rejection and exclusion of a person from significant relationships with other people. This makes social exclusion a relevant research topic. This paper contains a literature review of publications which analyze the works of fiction describing situations of social exclusion in interpersonal relationships among children and adolescents. The literature review is carried out in order to achieve a better understanding of social exclusion: the conditions which give rise to social exclusion, the space and forms of its manifestation, and the key features of the object and subject of exclusion. The paper also seeks to explore the factors of social exclusion prevention. Materials and methods. We carried out a literature review of publications devoted to the study of social exclusion, with emphasis on the analysis of publications that reflect the problems of social exclusion in interpersonal relationships in the context of children’s fiction. The results of the study. The literature review revealed that the topic of social exclusion is widely represented in fiction both explicitly and indirectly. Russian and foreign children’s literature contain examples of ignoring, rejection, and exclusion in interpersonal relationships both in the family and in the educational environment. We describe the possibilities of using these materials in teachers’ work with preschool and school-age children in order to help teachers identify social exclusion in real-life situations, develop their awareness of various manifestations of social exclusion, and prevent exclusionary behavior on the part of teachers or other children in educational institutions. Conclusion. The results of the study indicate that children’s literature can develop the emotional sphere of the child through causing the child’s emotional empathy for the characters in a situation of social exclusion, as well as through provoking the child’s reflecting on such a situation. Children’s literature also contains examples of accepting, or inclusive, behavior—the analysis of such examples can be considered to prevent social exclusion at preschool and school institutions and, in the future, in a broader social context.

Una revisión del concepto de exclusión social y su aplicación a la sociedad española tras la crisis económica mundial. Una visión de proceso.

En este texto se realiza una revisión general de las aportaciones de las ciencias sociales en relación al concepto de exclusión desde sus orígenes hasta su utilización contemporánea, prestando especial atención a sus principales paradigmas: el paradigma de la solidaridad, el de la especialización y el del monopolio. Para definir la exclusión social tal y como la conocemos en la actualidad, en primer lugar, se hace necesario apuntar cuáles son sus características principales y analizar el fenómeno como proceso. A partir de este análisis se realiza una propuesta teórica sobre cuáles serían las posibles trayectorias generalizadas de la exclusión social que parten de diferentes orígenes o momentos vitales. La curva de la exclusión-inclusión social va desde escenarios de plena integración hasta la exclusión más extrema. A continuación, se examinan los efectos de la crisis económica del año 2008 y los tipos de exclusión social en la sociedad española actual, apuntando brevemente cuál es el punto de partida ante lo que ya se ha vaticinado como una nueva crisis: la pandemia del Covid19. Se concluye evidenciando el cambio de paradigma en cuanto a la comprensión de la exclusión social en los últimos años de la época democrática en España.

COMPOSITE MEASURES FOR MULTIDIMENSIONAL SOCIAL EXCLUSION: AN APPLICATION TO THE IRISH LONGITUDINAL STUDY ON AGEING

The measurement of the complex, multidimensional and dynamic concept of old-age social exclusion has been constrained due to theoretical and methodological challenges as well as a reliance on secondary data sources not designed to collect social exclusion indicators. Limitations in measuring social exclusion in later life hinder the expansion of our empirical and conceptual understanding of social exclusion. In this paper, we seek to address these limitations by developing a composite measure of old-age social exclusion using three methods: 1) normalisation through re-scaling with linear aggregation, 2) a sum-of-scores approach with an applied threshold and, 3) classification and regression trees (CART), a machine learning approach. Using the conceptual framework of old-age exclusion presented by Walsh et al., (2017), these three approaches are applied empirically with data from Wave 1 of The Irish Longitudinal Study on Ageing (TILDA). The measures are assessed in terms of their ability to explain a validated measure of psychological well-being. Results suggest that despite the challenges associated with secondary data and measurement techniques that implicitly measure social exclusion, the newly proposed composite measure computed using CART performed better than the other two measures which are more prevalent in the literature.

Insights into theorizing social exclusion and inequities: A perspective from the Arab World

Objective: To explore the influence of the global structural determinants and their pathways of action on health disparities and social exclusion, drawing on findings from research with four different population groups in an Arab context. We use a socioecological framework to categorise these determinants into levels to allow an in-depth look into their pathways of action on social exclusion and inequalities. Methods: We use findings from an ethnographic study on Palestinian and Iraqi refugees in Lebanon; a qualitative research study on women’s needs for labour support in three public hospitals in Egypt, Lebanon and Syria; and counselling experiences with university scholarship recipients in Lebanon. These findings were revisited using a social exclusion lens. Results: Global forces, such as modernism, inequitable foreign policies of resettlement countries, over-medicalization of health care, modern educational systems and armed conflicts fueled by global vested interests interact to cause and exacerbate social exclusion. Palestinian refugees relate their experiences of discrimination in what is perceived to be a hostile society to policies reducing their education and employment opportunities. Delays in processing resettlement applications of Iraqi refugees and the lack of power over the choice of resettlement countries are a source of reported stress and anxiety. Over-medicalization of maternity care disrupts the traditional ways of giving birth surrounded with family through policies and practices restricting labour companionship, resulting in the isolation and silencing of women during childbirth. Scholarship students reported inadvertent exclusion from their families, societies and colleagues. Scrutiny of the findings and re-examination of the data reveals the importance of global structural determinants in explaining the patterns of exclusion reported for the population groups observed. Conclusion: Expanding the ecological framework of determinants of social exclusion at the level of wider social/structural determinants is necessary to improve our understanding of social exclusion in impoverished and war affected places around the world.

Infant Understanding of Different Forms of Social Exclusion.

In a series of eye-tracking studies, we investigated preverbal infants’ understanding of social exclusion by analyzing their gaze behaviors as they were familiarized with animations depicting social acceptance and explicit or implicit social exclusion. In addition, we implemented preferential reaching and anticipatory looking paradigms to further assess understanding of outcomes. Across all experiments (n = 81), it was found that 7–9 month-old infants exhibited non-random visual scanning and gaze behaviors and responded systematically and above random chance in their choice of character and, to some extent, in their anticipation of the movement of a neutral character during a test trial. Together, the results suggest that not only do preverbal infants follow and understand third party social events, such as acceptance and exclusion, but that they also update their representations of particular characters as events unfold and evaluate characters on the basis of their actions, as well as the consequences of those actions.

Out of tune. How people understand social exclusion at concerts

Previous work has studied the exclusive nature of legitimate cultural contexts, such as art museums and classical concerts. I offer a more comprehensive view by considering social exclusion in cultural settings varying in terms of legitimacy and by studying how people differ in their understanding of social exclusion (that is, criteria used to draw social boundaries demarcating certain cultural settings as inappropriate for some people). I scrutinize the centrality of modes of consumption in these understandings of social exclusion. Using survey data representative for the Flemish population (n = 3144), I inductively analyse attitudes towards classical and pop/rock concerts. I uncover four understandings of social exclusion that are present with regard to both types of concerts. These understandings differ (a) in whether they stem from an insiders’ or outsiders’ perspective and (b) in how they use modes of consumption as criteria for social exclusion. Additionally, I find that people’s understanding of social exclusion—i.e., which criteria people consider relevant for social exclusion—drives what cultural contexts they perceive as socially exclusive.

Including the Views of the Public in a Survey of Poverty and Social Exclusion in Hong Kong: Findings from Focus Group Research

There has been growing research interest into poverty and social exclusion in Hong Kong over the past 30 years. However, the development of surveys in this field continues to be primarily ‘top-down’ or ‘expert-led’. ‘Bottom-up’ or ‘lay’ perspectives, utilising the views of ordinary members of the public, are rarely incorporated. This article discusses the use of consensual focus group methods to advance the theory and practice of poverty and social exclusion measurement in Hong Kong. By adapting the UK Poverty and Social Exclusion Study 2012 to the Hong Kong context, the article reports on public perceptions of the necessities of life and understanding of social exclusion. The study found a strong social consensus about what items and activities constitute an acceptable standard of living in Hong Kong. Furthermore, whilst social exclusion was an unfamiliar concept, participants were able identify and explain experiences such as discrimination (affecting new arrivals), geographical isolation, a culture of long-working hours and poor access to health services as key elements.

Confronting social exclusion, HIV and gender inequalities in South Africa

abstract The HIV epidemic in South Africa disproportionatery affects women, with young women aged 15–24 years three times more likely to be infected compared to young men. Gender inequalities increase women's vulnerability to HIV infection, white the HIV epidemic further entrenches gender inequalities. In this Focus, we use a ‘social exclusion’ framework to examine HIV and gender inequalities in South Africa. We argue that a relational understanding of social exclusion that focuses on processes driving health inequalities, rather than a static approach focusing on groups of ‘excluded’ people, offers the greatest analytical advantage. A lens foregrounding exclusionary processes can provide a new understanding of HIV and gender inequalities and thereby suggest new directions for policies and actions. Such a lens reveals the multidimensional and inter-related processes embedded in unequal power relationships that create social, political, cultural and economic inequalities whilst also highlighting the agency of oppressed individuals and groups. We conclude by arguing that policy action to address the profound inter-relationship between the epidemic of HIV and deeply embedded gender inequalities must begin with the primacy of universal human rights and women's rightful and equal inclusion to social systems; universal access to decent living standards, knowledge and access to quality education and health services.

How can deprivation indicators help us to understand poverty?

This article challenges the growing orthodoxy among analysts and makers of social policy that an index of material deprivation should be preferred to low income as a measure of poverty. Such scales are nevertheless invaluable as indicators of living standards, and can be used to improve our understanding of social exclusion, and the role of low income in that process. Income and deprivation data from seven waves of the British Household Panel Survey are used to show that poverty may be less common, but also more severe, more stable and more intransigent, than standard annual income tables indicate. These lessons are applied to a discussion of the government’s plan to introduce a deprivation index into its suite of child poverty measures.

Rethinking Youth Transitions: Policy Transfer and New Exclusions in New Labour's New Deal

The central argument of this paper is that the policies developed by New Labour to tackle social exclusion amongst young people in particular are aligned with US workfare policies. In being so aligned they disclose the neo-liberal 'drivers' of reform which mark New Labour's understanding of social exclusion as a distinct rupture with the European social exclusion tradition. Considerable benefits of workfare that accrue to labour supply and to wage regulation are outlined to exemplify these 'drivers'. Through reviews of the effects of welfare-to-work programmes, and of independent evaluations of the New Deal for Young People (NDYP), the paper suggests that its impact upon exclusion, even in its narrower senses, is limited. It goes on to query some fundamental assumptions about how young people are understood to make 'transitions' into financial independence as employees, looking both at persistent inequalities, notably of race, class and disability, and at new forms of inequality that depend, in much more complex ways, on how young people are able (or unable) to use their powers as students, part-time workers and members of social groups, to adapt to changing and highly locally variable market conditions. These trends, it is argued, may explain take-up and outcome patterns in NDYP. The paper concludes that there is a serious question as to whether it can ever 'lift' the most marginalized groups out of exclusion, and that such schemes may be positively inimical to doing so, particularly if they become 'joined up' with policies that criminalize young people who are regarded as being at risk. In this sense, the (characteristically US) economic case for welfare-to-work schemes does not accord with the (characteristically European) social case for inclusion through relief of poverty and honouring rights of citizenship.

The attitude toward mamzerim in Jewish society in late antiquity

The purpose of this paper is to analyze the attitude of the Jewish people to a marginal group in that society: mamzerim, from Biblical times to Late Antiquity. The social exclusion of mamzerim is already stated in Deutoronomy 23:3, though a reading of several later rabbinic and non-rabbinic sources suggests how this exclusion really took place. It is assumed that mamzerim were not accepted into the Qumram sect, just like handicapped persons, and they were not allowed to enter the Temple. According to rabbinic law a mamzer was excluded from society (as his parents' punishment), by the prohibition of marrying anyone of distinguished genealogy. However, there are sources that testify that prior to the crystallization of rabbinic law (in the second century c.e.) there were other ways of denying mamzerim access to society: they were prohibited from entering the Temple, they were not taught Torah, a mamzer's house and grave were painted white to point him out. According to a source in Toldot Yeshu, mamzerim were shaved bald so they were set apart from the community in many aspects of daily life. Analyzing the sources leads to an historical understanding of social exclusion as practiced in Jewish society in the past. It is argued that the `normative' rabbinic law testifies to a process of limiting the expulsion of mamzerim from society. It seems that this process reflects the new modes of life (especially after the destruction of the Temple), that the society had to face: a change in the family structure on the one hand, and relatively numerous mamzerim on the other hand.

Labour Market Transitions and Social Exclusion

This article considers the dynamic effects that the labour market has on poverty and social exclusion.1 It shows how the analysis of labour markets can help our understanding of social exclusion and reviews some of the evi dence from Europe and the United States. The evidence is that there is consaderable move ment into and out of poverty. However, there is a significant group who stay in poverty for a number of years and a group that experience repeated poverty spells. The data also show that labour market transitions are an import ant cause of movements into and out of pov erty, although demographic factors are about equally important. There are tnterestang similarities between the pattern of movements into and out of un employment and those for poverty: many people leave unemployment quickly, but there are also important groups who are unem ployed for several years or who become unem ployed repeatedly. It is not only easily observable personal characteristics that are relevant to determining an individual's em ployment patterns: repeated periods of unem ployment appear to result from 'unobserved heterogeneity', rather than any damaging ef fect from earlier unemployment spells. This finding raises the interesting possibility that the observed repeated spells of poverty are also due to unmeasured personal character istics.