Jordi Estivill, Concepts and Strategies for Combating Social Exclusion: An Overview

Journal of Sociology and Social Welfare, March, 2006

Jordi Estivill, Concepts and Strategies for Combating Social Exclusion: An Overview. Geneva: International Labour Office, 2004. $11.95 papercover.

The concept of social exclusion is frequently used in social policy circles in Europe today, and although it has not been widely adopted in the United States, many more American social work and social welfare scholars now employ the term. However, as in Europe, the term is still poorly defined. While some use it as a synonym for poverty, others relate it more specifically to the notion of the underclass. In this latter sense, the excluded are a sector of poor people with particular needs arising out of an inability to engage with the wider society. These ambiguities have called the usefulness of the concept into question, and some have concluded that it should be abandoned.

However, as this publication reveals, the concept is now being used by international agencies such as the International Labour Organization and it is likely that scholars in many more countries will adopt the term. Is also likely that it will be more frequently used in international social policy and social development circles. For these reasons, there is a need to standardize the term and ensure that social welfare researchers around the world are clear about its meaning.

Estivill devotes the first chapter of the book to a discussion of the concept and the way it has been defined. He acknowledges the problems of seeking to standardize the term, and shows that it has been used loosely in much social policy writing. He pays specific attention to the relationship between the concept of social exclusion and poverty, making the point that social exclusion has a broader connotation since people who are not poor are sometimes excluded from mainstream society. He cites a study by Amnesty International which found that gay people are persecuted in at least 70 countries of the world. Even though a significant number may not be poor, their persecution clearly involves social exclusion.

However, the primary purpose of the book is not to debate terminology, but to focus on the strategies that governments can adopt to combat social exclusion. Estivill offers a useful typology of anti-exclusionary strategies that have been employed in different countries and he provides a set of recommendations for dealing with the problem. The author places great emphasis on the role of public awareness and education, and he believes that great effort should be made to involve civil society institutions in the process of combating social exclusion. Nonprofit organizations, trade unions, business corporations as well as governments have a vital role to play. By outlining these strategies, the book makes a useful contribution to the literature. It's discussion of the meaning of the concept, and of the way it is manifested in social life today, will also be helpful to practitioners and scholars concerned with the challenges of fragmentation and factionalism that increasingly characterize modern societies.