SOCIAL EXCLUSION: CHARACTERISTICS, CAUSES, CONSEQUENCES - CULTURE VOCABULARY - 2025

The social exclusion is defined as the absence of participation and opportunity for groups of individuals within everyday and basic dynamics of social, economic, labor, cultural, legal and political life of a country or society.

It is represented by the rejection of individuals with characteristics other than those socially accepted, who are deprived of the fundamental rights of the human being and the optimal process of development within society.

One of the forms of social exclusion is one that segregates individuals by the color of their skin. Source: pixabay.com

Social exclusion has been evident throughout the history of humanity, sometimes justified and questioned over time, as a cycle that repeats itself in many ways, reducing people's quality of life and, therefore, social welfare.

Both in developed countries and in other less prosperous ones there are situations of inequality, marginalization, discrimination, poverty and vulnerability of some sectors of the population, either because of race, gender, religion, physical or cognitive disability, sexual identity, immigration status, color skin and economic status, among other areas.

characteristics

The phenomenon of social exclusion has characteristics that help to conceptualize and observe it more clearly within social dynamics and processes. Here are some of the most outstanding peculiarities of social exclusion:

Collective

It almost always applies to groups of individuals with similar characteristics that differentiate and separate them from the rest.

Multifaceted

Social exclusion has so many edges in social action that its measurement becomes complex, since it is difficult to determine the indicators to quantify its elements.

Multidimensional

It is a process that occurs in several dimensions: contextual, structural, social and subjective or personal.

Contextual dimension

It is determined by the geographical location, the economic and political conditions of each country, ethnicity, the control of its resources and its own social and cultural relations, which is why it presents a complex configuration when analyzing.

Structural dimension

It refers to the material capacities that determine the subsistence product of work.

Social dimension

Characterized by the social fabric and fabric, belonging to communities, family life and social ties.

Subjective or personal

It is linked to the internal and communicational mechanisms of each individual, their self-confidence, their identity, adaptability and their assertive and reciprocal response with the environment.

Use social tags

They are used as a way of differentiation and stigma to determine inequality in relationships between individuals or social groups.

Causes

The concept of social exclusion began to develop in the 1950s. It gained strength and importance in France between 1970 and 1980, when the issue of social insertion or inclusion was debated.

The French politician Jacques Delors was the key figure in promoting this process that was taking place in Europe before the European Union, in order to replace the concept of poverty with a broader vision.

Delors succeeded in getting the term made official by the European Community in 1989, and this concept quickly spread to other international organizations such as the United Nations and the World Bank, among others.

Latin America

In Latin America, the main causes of social exclusion were initially the annihilation and marginalization of indigenous communities.

Later it was reflected in the rural exodus to the cities, which produced low social and economic integration and, consequently, an increase in the levels of poverty and social segmentation.

Multifaceted origin

For a long time poverty and social exclusion were seen as predominantly economic problems. However, over time the deepening of the analysis of social, economic, political and cultural relations has broadened the aspects that originate the discriminatory practices of the population.

Both the public policies of the State and the distribution of vital resources (drinking water, health services, education, electricity) as well as the areas related to social security and labor protection are essential elements whose variations can cause differences between the social groups of a country.

These differences result in the marginalization of economically less favored sectors that have limited access to the aforementioned elements.

Other aspects such as the evolution of economic, labor and technological systems have generated new forms of exclusion, especially in populations that are not very adaptable, without the training or experience required to face and develop taking into account the new models and production processes.

The media, political systems, and technological advances pose new behaviors and values ​​that seek to impose themselves on a particular culture or society. This can generate modes of exclusion that arise as a result of prejudice or fear of physical or moral integrity.

Types

The types of exclusion are given by discrimination and segregation in the various aspects of social life. Below we will describe the most relevant types of social exclusion:

Racial

It is the one that occurs towards people due to their skin color (black, white), ethnicity (indigenous), origin (immigrants) and religious beliefs (Muslims, Catholics), among other aspects.

Of genre

It refers to inequality in terms of the rights, benefits and roles of each gender, especially in the case of women.

It is also observed towards people with gender change (transsexuals) or towards people with a diversity of tendency, taste or sexual affinity (homosexuals).

Social

It is a type of segregation that occurs according to the economic, geographic and social relationship characteristics that are most commonly found in cities.

In this sense, the differentiating aspects are usually housing, education, food and purchasing power, among others.

Labor and occupational

It refers to the difficulty of professional development (including gender, but not limited only to this element) in different areas and activities.

For example, men tend to be able to access higher and better paid positions in the workplace than women. This results in a part of the population suffering from unemployment.

On the other hand, sometimes young people have less access to certain jobs that merit high levels of responsibility; for this reason they are forced to work in areas outside their professional field.

Likewise, people who have a physical disability tend to have barriers to access the workplace that generate significant disadvantages.

Consequences

By not taking into account all individuals as equally valuable citizens, it may happen that, for example, the development of service systems for communities is not designed for all the people who live there.

This causes ruptures in the social fabric that retrace the paths for integration: in many cases a deliberate intention of exclusion can be evidenced, through which it is sought to maintain a relationship of dependence and power.

Social conflicts

Social conflicts arise as a consequence of the breakdown of the social bond, caused by a multidimensional phenomenon that threatens collective cohesion by negatively impacting the emotional and cognitive aspects of the individual.

For this reason, people who feel rejected experience negative emotions such as anger, sadness and fear. As a result of this, aggressive behaviors are generated that, in turn, produce other reactions in response to causing a state of social chaos that affects the balance between the individual and their environment.

In such a way that the effect of social exclusion is multidimensional in nature because it affects the environments and relationships of the individual to the point of neutralizing their capacity for human development, which in time translates into stagnation in the evolution of societies.

Within the different dimensions that this phenomenon encompasses, we find the following main consequences:

Economic deficiency

-Income is not directly proportional to the context of the economy.

-There is no job stability.

-There is no access to resources.

Social abstention

-The family and social ties that sustain social capital and structure community solidarity are broken.

-There is a modification of social behaviors.

-There is limitation of socialization due to lack of money.

-Health worsens because there is no access to medical systems.

Political deprivation

-A lack of power is evident.

-There is an inability to make decisions about aspects that directly affect excluded individuals.

-Exclusion is generated in the field of political issues (this decreases according to socioeconomic status).

Social capital

-There is an impossibility of generating resources and capacities derived from the socialization process, since it has been deficient or non-existent.

-Personal relationships are limited to the environments in which excluded individuals live regularly.

Examples

Nazis

In Nazi Germany the essential objective was racial reorganization for the dominance of Europe. This produced a stigmatization of the Jews as a chaotic, inferior, degenerate and decomposed race that caused xenophobic behavior, behavior that was the ideal breeding ground for the murder of at least 6 million men, women and children.

Ku Klux Klan

In the middle of the 20th century, in the former southern states of North America groups of Confederate soldiers formed into a clan known as the Ku Klux Klan.

It was a racist society that punished both people of black complexion and other racial minorities, disrespecting all human and civil rights.

Subsequently, in the 1960s and 1970s, other groups emerged that, doing justice by their own hand, lynched members of this segregationist group, condemning and prosecuting them for the crimes committed.

AIDS

At the end of the 1980s, the spread of the AIDS virus generated an alarm in all social spheres, creating strong animosity towards infected people and accentuating discrimination based on sexual orientation.

In 1987, lawyer Geoffrey Bower filed a lawsuit against the law firm where he worked when he was unjustifiably fired for having contracted the AIDS virus.

No lawyer wanted to take the case except Clarence Caine, who saw in the lawsuit a clear case of social discrimination. After winning the trial, three years later Bower passed away.

References

1. "Social exclusion" in Wikipedia the free encyclopedia. Retrieved on April 20, 2019 from Wikipedia the free encyclopedia: es.wikipedia.org
2. Pérez, Karlos and Eizaguirre, "Social exclusion" in Dictionary of Humanitarian Action. Retrieved on April 20, 2019 from Dictionary of Humanitarian Action: dicc.hegoa.ehu.es
3. "Social exclusion: causes and remedies" in IDB. Retrieved on April 21, 2019 from IDB: iadb.org
4. Álvarez Lucy "Social Exclusion and Social Representations: The Case of Street Children" in Network of Scientific Journals of Latin America and the Caribbean, Spain and Portugal. Retrieved on April 22, 2019 from the Network of Scientific Journals of Latin America and the Caribbean, Spain and Portugal: redalyc.org
5. "Outsiders? Social exclusion in Latin America ”in IDB. Retrieved on April 22, 2019 from IDB: iadb.org
6. "Historical and ideological origins of the Holocaust" in Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia. Retrieved on April 22, 2019 from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia: es.wikipedia.org
7. "5 most notorious cases of discrimination in the world" in Latest News. Retrieved on April 22, 2019 from Ultimas Noticias: ultimasnoticias.com