thenormativetheoryofsocialexclusion.docVIP

The Normative Theory of Social Exclusion: Perspectives from Political Philosophy Abstract: Reducing social exclusion as an aim of policy is a laudable political goal, but the definition of, and normative justification of policies reducing, social exclusion are unclear. This paper first defines social exclusion as used by academics and policy makers. The paper then uses the capability approach to define social exclusion. It then takes various elements of the definition of social exclusion, particularly concerns with respecting choice, human welfare, and concerns with fairness in society, and relates them to contemporary concerns in political philosophy. In so doing, the paper both helps to refine the idea of social exclusion, and also points to theoretical tensions in that idea. It concludes by linking concern with social exclusion to more recent theories of social or relational equality. I. Introduction: Social Exclusion is Less than All that is Bad in Society I will address three questions in this essay. First, what is social exclusion? Secondly, what is it about social exclusion that is bad? Thirdly, given how we answer the previous two questions, what normative theory best explains what is bad about social exclusion? A problem with the idea of social exclusion is that there seem to be as many definitions of social exclusion as there are people working on social exclusion. As a term which initially emerged more from social policy makers than from academics, it is difficult to find a single unifying attribute to all of the possible categories of social exclusion. This is not to say that more academic debates are anymore clear cut; anyone trying to define say, justice, or rationality, knows that the debates have gone on for centuries, so social exclusion should be no different. This is all not to say that social exclusion does not have a systematic intuition behind it. Although there is undoubtedly a temptation to find everything that could be bad in