The popular version of social exclusion has given rise to various forms of welfare-to-work initiatives in most developed capitalist nations. Social inclusion, therefore, is commonly assumed to be achieved through paid work. The delivery of social welfare through employment activation programmes is consequential, as it necessitates an unusual cooperation between the welfare state and the labour market. With a focus on Ontario Works, a relatively mature example of Canada's residualized social welfare services, this article is an empirical analysis of the social space in which the state and the market merge -by design -and the resulting processes and outcomes of social exclusion that operate for women who parent alone. I begin with a brief review of the most popular concept of social exclusion, and the pre-eminent place of paid work in related social policy responses, followed by a consideration of the ideological context producing and reinforced by workfirst programmes. Our attention is turned to a reconfigured notion of social exclusion as process and outcome, spontaneously set in motion and self-perpetuating in the fused market-state social field. Through a case study of lone mother experiences of Ontario Works, the specific ideological practices through which welfare-to-work strategies operate to keep women in their place are described. I argue that the analysis of the market-state as a unified social field -ordered according to the paired ideologies of market neo-liberalism and conservative 'family values' -is necessary for conceiving policy responses that are effective in interrupting the dynamic process-outcome iterations of social exclusion.
Through the use of a social exclusion framework and analysis of recent data from the Survey of Labour and Income Dynamics (2009), a national longitudinal database, this empirical research investigates the mechanisms through which social groups are made and socio-economic outcomes are determined in Canada today. Our objective is to explore and describe the social characteristics and personal attributes that intersect to direct divergent economic realities. To this end, we initially present a brief review of the social exclusion literature, as well as descriptive data on several aspects of age and immigration. This is followed by logistic regressions for five dimensions of economic exclusion, to examine who is made socially excluded in economic terms in Canada. Subsequently, to progress the analysis from a focus on the individual effects of specific social attributes, we calculate the combined odds of two dimensions of economic exclusion (low individual earnings and insecure employment) for eight prototypes of individuals, to highlight the intersecting effects of social dynamics related to age, gender, visible minority status and immigrant status, and to ultimately explore who gets ahead and who falls behind in the Canadian labour market. We conclude with a discussion of policy and research implications. À partir d’un cadre d’exclusion sociale et de l’analyse de données récentes de l’Enquête sur la dynamique du travail et du revenu de 2009, une base de données longitudinale et nationale, cette recherche empirique étudie les mécanismes de formation des groupes sociaux et d’identification des enjeux socio-économiques d’aujourd’hui au Canada. Notre objectif est d’explorer et de décrire les caractéristiques sociales et les attributs personnels qui s’entrecoupent pour adresser des réalités pécuniaires divergentes. À cette fin, nous présentons d’abord une brève revue de la documentation sur l’ostracisme social, ainsi que des données descriptives sur plusieurs aspects de l’âge et de l’immigration. Puis, nous en venons aux régressions logistiques pour cinq dimensions de l’exclusion économique, afin d’examiner qui est socialement l’objet d’un rejet en termes financiers au Canada. Ensuite, pour faire avancer l’analyse à partir d’une focalisation sur les effets individuels d’attributs sociaux spécifiques, nous calculons les probabilités de deux composantes de cette exclusion économique (de bas revenus individuels et un travail précaire) pour huit prototypes d’individus, afin de mettre en lumière les effets croisés de dynamiques sociales reliées à l’âge, au genre, au statut de minorité visible et à celui d’immigré, et pour finalement explorer qui passe devant et qui reste en arrière dans le marché du travail. Nous concluons avec un examen des implications à étudier dans les domaines des politiques et de la recherche.
This paper provides an in-depth description and case application of a conceptual model of social exclusion: aiming to advance existing knowledge on how to conceive of and identify this complex idea, evaluate the methodologies used to measure it, and reconsider what is understood about its social realities toward a meaningful and measurable conception of social inclusion. Drawing on Pierre Bourdieu’s conceptual tools of social fields and systems of capital, our research posits and applies a theoretical framework that permits the measurement of social exclusion as dynamic, social, relational, and material. We begin with a brief review of existing social exclusion research literature, and specifically examine the difficulties and benefits inherent in quantitatively operationalizing a necessarily multifarious theoretical concept. We then introduce our conceptual model of social exclusion and inclusion, which is built on measurable constructs. Using our ongoing program of research as a case study, we briefly present our approach to the quantitative operationalization of social exclusion using secondary data analysis in the Canadian context. Through the development of an Economic Exclusion Index, we demonstrate how our statistical and theoretical analyses evidence intersecting processes of social exclusion which produce consequential gaps and uneven trajectories for migrant individuals and groups compared with Canadian-born, and racial minority groups versus white individuals. To conclude, we consider some methodological implications to advance the empirical measurement of social inclusion.
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