The idea of social exclusion was born in Western Europe, particularly in France in the seventies to tackle the ever-increasing crises of industrial capitalism in the context of a welfare state. The concept was developed also as a...
moreThe idea of social exclusion was born in Western Europe, particularly in France in the seventies to tackle the ever-increasing crises of industrial capitalism in the context of a welfare state.
The concept was developed also as a reaction to the narrow money and income oriented economic approach to deal with the large group of unemployed people in the industrialized nations of Western Europe who could not participate in the normal activities of the society .
Since then, the concept gradually crossed the European borders and reached the developing nations of the world with efforts of the United Nations agencies by the nineties.
The proponents of the conceptual apparatus named ‘social exclusion’ gives emphasis to exclusion of marginalized groups in societies particularly in the Third World countries. They focus on exclusions of underprivileged groups arising out of society’s built-in normative order, e.g. caste based exclusions, gender based exclusions, and exclusions based on race, religion and other primordial elements from the viewpoint of Western liberal thought which champions equality of opportunity for every citizen.
Ironically, the theorists of social exclusion rarely venture into exclusions caused by the capitalist system and the globalizing forces.
The conceptual construct of social exclusion as it is being tossed out by the funding agencies cannot do justice to the gigantic number of people thrown out of their livelihood by state’s policy, warfare, fundamentalism or inhuman laws which stand in a positive feedback relations with the forces of globalization