Social Exclusion in Britain 1991—1995

TLDR

The study aims to define and operationalize social exclusion to enable an initial empirical analysis in Britain. The authors define social exclusion via participation in consumption, savings, production, political, and social activities, and use the British Household Panel Survey to construct indicators and analyze them cross‑sectionally and longitudinally from 1991 to 1995. Analysis shows strong associations between participation across the five dimensions, but no distinct group of socially excluded individuals, supporting the view that dimensions should be treated separately rather than as a single homogeneous group.

Abstract

The purpose of this paper is to offer a working definition of social exclusion and to operationalize it in such a way that an initial empirical analysis of social exclusion in Britain today can be undertaken. After a brief review of conceptions of social exclusion and some of the key controversies, we operationalize one definition based on the notion of participation in five types of activity—consumption, savings, production, political and social. Using the British Household Panel Survey, indicators for participation on these dimensions are developed and analysed both cross‐sectionally and longitudinally for the period 1991–5. We find strong associations between an individual’s participation (or lack of it) on the five different dimensions, and on each dimension over time. However, there is no distinct group of socially excluded individuals: few are excluded on all dimensions in any one year and even fewer experience multiple exclusion for the whole period. The results support the view that treating different dimensions of exclusion separately is preferable to thinking about social exclusion in terms of one homogeneous group.