Poverty and Social Exclusion in Europe

1
Poverty and Social Exclusion in Europe

• Concepts and Issues

2
Defining social exclusion

• Burchardt et al.(1999)
• An individual is socially excluded if (a) he
  or she is geographically resident in a society
  but (b) for reasons beyond his or her control, he
  or she cannot participate in the normal
  activities of citizens in that society, and (c)
  he or she would like to participate (1999229)

3
Defining social exclusion

• Bill Jordan (1996)
• Economic analysis
• Active exclusion by exclusive groups
• how groups form, organise and act collectively
  in pursuit of their interests, and how vulnerable
  people come to be excluded and marginalized in
  such interactions (19964)

4
Defining social exclusion

• Walker and Walker (1997)
• Social exclusion the dynamic process of being
  shut out, fully or partially, from any of the
  social economic,political or cultural systems
  that may determine the social integration of a
  person in societythe denial (or non-realisation)
  of civil, political and social rights of
  citizenship (19978)

5
Defining marginalisation

• A process by which a group or individual is
  denied access to to important positions or
  symbols of economic, religious or political power
  within any group
• A process by which the interests of particular
  groups are subordinated or negated
• Social exclusion?

6
Defining discrimination

• Negative - unfair treatment on the basis of
  stereotype or prejudice
• Direct individual attitudes and behaviour
• Differential treatment (race, sex, religion)
• Indirect organisations, systems, policy and
  practices
• Positive affirmative action
• Social exclusion?

7
Defining diversity and difference

• Recognising and embracing difference
• Increased sensitivity remove discrimination
• Social exclusion and subordination
• Managing/valuing diversity
• Bypass group level categories
• Hides structural causes
• Social exclusion?

8
Defining social isolation

• Barry (2002)
• The absence of social cohesion
• Voluntary or involuntary
• Compasses social exclusion but not confined to it
• Variable more or less socially isolated
• Regardless of whether desire to participate

9
Summary

• Social Exclusion different levels and domains
• Social construction of policy problems
• Depends on definition employed
• Who defines the problem/solution?
• Do certain groups see themselves as socially
  excluded?

10
Social Exclusion and the relevance of a broad
definition of Welfare

• Exclusion is the greatest risk accompanying the
  opportunities of the new economic era.
  Significant numbers of people lose their hold
  first on the labour market, then on the social
  and political participation in their community.
• Dahrendorf (1995) Report on Wealth Creation and
  Social Cohesion in Dahrendorf et al. The
  Commission on Wealth Creation and Social
  Cohesion. London.

11
Welfare - Alternative Futures?

• Commentators such as Esping-Andersen, Korpi, and
  Stephens argue that the only way to develop
  adequate welfare services in advanced capitalist
  societies is to develop tripartite frameworks of
  government, employers and labour representatives
  within which societal bargaining over welfare can
  proceed allowing representatives of the workforce
  to articulate a vision of a genuinely
  collectivist welfare system

12
Globalization and Welfare Crises

• Many social, political and economic factors
  contribute to poverty. However evidence reveals
  that unregulated capital and trade flows
  contribute to rising inequality and mitigates
  against the use of social policy or welfare
  development as a way of mitigating poverty

13
Beyond the Welfare State

• Ours is an epoch in which it is almost
  universally agreed that a profound realignment,
  if not revolution, is underway in our economy and
  society. The proliferation of labels, such as
  post modernist post-materialist and
  post-industrialist, often substitutes for
  analysis. But it mirrors the recognition that we
  are leaving behind us a social order that was
  pretty much understood and entering another the
  contours of which can be only dimly recognized
  (Esping Anderson 1990)

14
The Globalisation of Social PolicyRetrenchments
in welfare statism in the USA, UK, France and
Germany

• Tax Cuts
• Regressive shifts in the tax load
• Reduced benefits for recipients of state Welfare
• Reduced eligibility for state transfers
• Reduction of Public in favour of private provision

• Residualization of Benefits and Services to the
  Poor.(not France)
• Reduced social services (UK only)
• Reduced coverage of occupational benefits (USA)

15
European Welfare State

• the use of regulatory policy increasingly allows
  the European Commission to take on the role of
  calling the tune without paying the piper in
  the field of social policy. .By making use of
  regulatory policies in the area of social policy,
  rather than those involving direct Community
  expenditure, EC social policy, in a number of
  specific areas, increasingly sets the standards
  to be adhered to in the member states while
  incurring minimum Community costs (Cram 1993)

16
Inequality and Poverty

• Institute of Fiscal Studies (Gregg 2000)
  Inequality and poverty in the UK have risen
  sharply in the UK since the late 1970s)
• Key findings
• the richest 10 of households now have as much
  income as the whole of the poorer half of
  households

17
Poverty and Inequality in the UK

• Families with children have come to comprise a
  much greater proportion of the poor.
• Over 5 million children were in poverty in
  12004/2005 (Shelter 2005), three times the number
  20 years earlier

18
The Politics of Equality

• Egalitarian Redistribution
• Trickle down redistribution
• Giddens the new politics - defines equality as
  inclusion and inequality as exclusion

• Equality is about the opportunity to get on and
  to have a voice in public space, and also to make
  this advantage available to others by fulfilling
  work obligations.

19
Social Exclusion in the UK

• The Impact of Economic Crises on Vulnerable
  People Within the UK over the Past Two Decades

20
Children and Poverty

• More than a third of children now live in poverty
  (Shelter 2005), compared with just one in ten in
  1979.
• The effect of poverty and other forms of social
  deprivation on children has been a long-standing
  area of concern. Childhood is a particularly
  vulnerable period in the human life cycle and one
  in which people are likely to suffer most from
  poverty and its associated factors.

21
Poverty and Low Income in 1996/97 (The last year
before the Labour government came to power)

• The income gap between households living on
  Income Support and those with earnings has
  widened significantly.
• Over ten million people live on incomes below
  half the national average.
• Over 8 million people are in households where
  disposable income after housing costs is less
  than 40 of average income

• The number of long-term working-age recipients of
  Income Support is now one and a half million
• Over 10 million people experience low income at
  least two years in three.
• More than one-quarter of the poorest working-age
  households report difficulties in managing
  financially.
• Source Howarth et. al Monitoring Poverty and
  Social Exclusion, Joseph Rowntree Medical
  Foundation

22
Inequality and ill Health

• Between 1993/94 and1996/97 low birth rate
  increased from 6.7 of all babies to 7.1
• During this period the incidence of babies with a
  low birth weight in social classes IV and V
  increased from 7.4 to 8.3 a substantially
  greater rate of increase

• The incidence of babies with a low birth weight
  is 25 greater for social classes IV and V than
  for social classes I to III
• Cerebal Palsy, sight and hearing impairments are
  all more common in low birth weight babies.
• Source Howarth et. al, Monitoring Poverty and
  Social Exclusion, Joseph Rowntree Foundation

23
Welfare Crises and Economic Policy in the UK and
Europe

• Macro-economic policy
• macro-economic policy and social exclusion
• Corporatism and macro-economic policy
• strategies for social inclusion

24
Intervening in the Macro-economy

• Macro-Policy tools include
• Fiscal measures
• Monetary measures
• public spending
• the tax burden
• the money supply
• interest rates
• exchange rates

25
Globalization and Welfare Crises

• Many social, political and economic factors
  contribute to poverty. However evidence reveals
  that unregulated capital and trade flows
  contribute to rising inequality and mitigates
  against the use of social policy or welfare
  development as a way of mitigating poverty

26
The Globalisation of Social PolicyReducing the
role of the State in the USA, UK, France and
Germany

• Tax Cuts
• Regressive shifts in the tax load
• Reduced benefits for recipients of state Welfare
• Reduced eligibility for state transfers
• Reduction of Public in favour of private provision

• Residualization of Benefits and Services to the
  Poor.(not France)
• Reduced social services (UK only)
• Reduced coverage of occupational benefits (USA)

27
References

• Barry, B. (2002) Social Exclusion, Social
  Isolation ad the Distribution of Income, in
  J.hills,J. Le Grand and D. Piachaud (Eds.)
  Understanding Social Exclusion, Oxford Oxford
  University Press
• Burchardt, T., Le Grand, J. and Piachaud, D.
  (1999) Social Exclusion in Britain 1991-1995,
  Social Policy and Administration, Vol.33(3),
  227-244.
• Levitas, R. The concept of social exclusion and
  the new Durkheimian hegemony, Critical Social
  Policy, Vol.16, 5-20.
• Morris, J. (2001) Social Exclusion and young
  disabled people with high levels of support
  needs, Critical Social Policy, Vol.21(2),
  161-183.