Using Systems Thinking as a Heuristic in the Design of Interventions for Social Inclusion

Abstract

To promote and protect social inclusion meaningfully, interventions must be holistic in their scope, seeking to encourage inclusion between different social groups just as much as addressing examples of exclusion. Understanding the growing demand for policy approaches to promote social inclusion, this chapter seeks to develop practicable insights of the relevance and contribution of systems thinking to policy-making and programming for social inclusion. This chapter beings by briefly outlining the history of social inclusion/exclusion, the evolution of the concept, and its predominance within the current international development agenda. It argues that social inclusion/exclusion is best described as a “wicked” social problem and bears many characteristics of a complex adaptive system (CAS). The chapter discusses some applications of systems thinking to social inclusion/exclusion and argues that systems thinking is a useful heuristic to understand social exclusion and to analyze and design effective interventions to promote social inclusion. Finally, the chapter illustrates how systems thinking can provide innovative entry points for policy interventions aimed at promoting social inclusion for vulnerable groups with complex needs.