Addi van Bergen

Chapter 1 10 4. Relational. Social exclusion is the product of social interactions characterised by differential power. 5. Agency. Social exclusion lies beyond the narrow responsibility of the individual concerned. It implies an act or acts by an agent or agents, e.g., societal institutions, businesses or citizens. The above elements are reflected in the definition of social exclusion by the World Health Organization (WHO). The WHO defines social exclusion as: ‘dynamic multidimensional processes driven by unequal power relationships interacting across four main dimensions - economic, political, social and cultural - and at different levels including individual, household, group, community, country and global levels’ [18]. This definition provides a wider lens to understand the causes and consequences of social exclusion and avoids the stigma of labelling particular groups as ‘excluded’. Instead, social exclusion is understood as a continuum rather than a dichotomous construct. The most commonly used definition of social exclusion in the Netherlands was developed by the Netherlands Institute for Social Research (SCP) on the basis of comprehensive research [33, 41]. The SCP concluded that in essence, all definitions come down to a distinction between two main domains: relational/immaterial versus distributional/material aspects. The relational approach finds its origins in the French tradition, which builds upon Durkheim’s theories of social cohesion and solidarity, the importance of collective values and norms, and the risk of social alienation (anomie) [41]. Social exclusion refers here to the socio-cultural aspects of people’s lives, the extent to which people are integrated into society and their connection with others. The distributional approach comes from the Anglo-Saxon line of thinking, which centres around the notion of ‘relative deprivation’: the idea that people typically regard themselves as badly off or well-to-do based on the comparison with others they deem important (their reference group). Social exclusion refers here to the structural- economic aspects of people’s lives, relative deprivation and unequal access to income, basic goods, public services and citizen rights. Social exclusion is then defined as the accumulation of deficiencies in four dimensions: • Socio-cultural dimension: 1. insufficient social participation; 2. insufficient normative integration (insufficient compliance with core norms and values associated with active social citizenship); • Economic/structural dimension: 3. material deprivation; 4. insufficient access to social rights (education, housing, health care, safety etc.). [33]