Find out more
Background
The concept of social exclusion developed in France in the 1980s to draw attention to groups who were left out of society, such as people with disabilities, sole parents and unemployed people. Since then discussion about poverty has shifted towards a social inclusion framework in Europe, the United Kingdom and, more recently, Australia.
The traditional poverty approach focused on basic needs such as education, health services, clean water, sanitation, food and shelter. Leading thinkers, such as Peter Townsend in the United Kingdom, developed the concept of relative deprivation, which considered not only poverty but also an individual’s capacity to achieve an accepted standard of living. More recently, poverty has been defined even more broadly to include non-material aspects such as denial of rights, lack of voice, stigma and lack of respect.
Social theorists have increasingly focused on these wider aspects of disadvantage to explain the stubborn levels of poverty and inequality in developed countries.
Drawing on pivotal work by the development economist Amartya Sen in the 1990s, researchers and policy analysts have brought together the multidimensional idea of disadvantage and Sen’s individual capabilities theories into the current concept of social exclusion.
Useful links
Melbourne Institute (MIAESR): www.melbourneinstitute.com
Australian Government’s Social Inclusion program: www.socialinclusion.gov.au
Social Policy Research Centre, University of New South Wales: www.sprc.unsw.edu.au
South Australia’s Social Inclusion Initiative: www.socialinclusion.sa.gov.au
References
To read more technical information about how the Brotherhood of St Laurence and the Melbourne Institute of Applied Economic and Social Research (MIAESR) measure exclusion see:
Scutella, R, Wilkins, R & Horn, M 2009, Measuring poverty and social exclusion in Australia: a proposed multi-dimensional framework for identifying socio-economic disadvantage (PDF file, 494 KB) , Melbourne Institute of Applied Economic and Social Research and Brotherhood of St Laurence, Melbourne.
Scutella, R, Wilkins, R & Kostenko, W 2009, Estimates of poverty and social exclusion in Australia: a multi-dimensional approach (PDF file, 1.2 MB), Melbourne Institute of Applied Economic and Social Research and Brotherhood of St Laurence, Melbourne.
Horn, M, Scutella, R & Wilkins, R 2011, Social exclusion monitor bulletin, September (PDF file, 153 KB), Melbourne Institute of Applied Economic and Social Research and Brotherhood of St Laurence, Melbourne.
Francisco Azpitarte 2012, Social exclusion monitor bulletin April 2012 (PDF file, 177 KB), Melbourne Institute of Applied Economic and Social Research and Brotherhood of St Laurence, Melbourne.
To read more about poverty, deprivation and social exclusion see:
Australian Social Inclusion Board 2010, Social inclusion in Australia: how Australia is faring (PDF file, 4.1 MB), Australian Social Inclusion Board, Commonwealth Government of Australia, Canberra.
Headey, B 2006, A framework for assessing poverty, disadvantage and low capabilities in Australia (PDF file, 182 KB), Melbourne Institute report no. 6, Melbourne Institute of Applied Economic and Social Research, Melbourne.
Levitas, R, Pantazis, C, Fahmy, E, Gordon, D, Lloyd, E & Patsios, D 2007, The multi-dimensional analysis of social exclusion (PDF file, 1.7 MB), for Department for Communities and Local Government (DCLG), Cabinet Office, Social Exclusion Task Force, London.
Saunders, P, Naidoo, Y & Griffiths, M 2007, Towards new indicators of disadvantage: deprivation and social exclusion in Australia (PDF file, 826 KB), Social Policy Research Centre, University of New South Wales, Sydney.
Sen, A 1999, Development and freedom, Oxford University Press.
Townsend, P 1979, Poverty in the United Kingdom, Allen Lane, Penguin and University of California Press, London and Berkeley, CA.
Vinson, T, Brown, N, Graham, K & Stanley, F 2009, A compendium of social inclusion indicators: how’s Australia faring? (PDF file, 2.6 MB), Social Inclusion Unit, Department of the Prime Minister and Cabinet, Canberra.
Further information and feedback
For more information about the Brotherhood’s research on social exclusion and other topics, see our publications.
If you have any specific questions about the social exclusion monitor or about social exclusion more generally, please click on the button below. We will be happy to answer your query. We also welcome and value your suggestions for improving the Brotherhood's social exclusion monitor.
The social exclusion monitor is the work of the Brotherhood of St Laurence and the Melbourne Institute of Applied Economic and Social Research (MIAESR).