Sustaining Social Inclusion

Beth Crisp, Ann Taket, Beth R. Crisp, Ann Taket

• Publisher: Routledge
• Year: 2020
• ISBN:
  9781000057133
• Edition: 1
• Topic: Medicina
• Subtopic: Salud pública, administración y atención

Sustaining Social Inclusion is the third book in a series on social exclusion and social inclusion. It explores what different understandings of sustainability mean in respect of social inclusion in the variety of fields that deal with human health and well-being. The book is global in its scope, with chapters relating to socially inclusive health and social welfare practice internationally.

This book is divided into seven parts:

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• Introduction;

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• Sustainable policies for promoting social inclusion;

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• Sustaining programmes which support social inclusion;

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• Sustaining organisations which promote social inclusion;

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• Sustainable social inclusion outcomes;

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• Sustainable social development; and

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• Conclusions.

It examines how social inclusion can be sustained in the long-term when funding tends to be time-limited.

This research-based book is relevant to a wide range of different readerships globally. It addresses issues of concern for those engaged in debates about the provision of health, social welfare, and other public services. Sustaining Social Inclusion will be of interest to academics, policy makers, and practitioners in a wide range of fields, including public health, health promotion, health sciences, history, medicine, philosophy, disability studies, social work, social policy, sociology, and urban planning.

Part 1

Introduction

1 Approaches to sustaining social inclusion

Beth R. Crisp and Ann Taket

Introduction

This volume is the third in our series of books about social inclusion and exclusion written over the last decade. While we have documented many initiatives which have addressed social exclusion and the impacts of being excluded (see Taket et al. 2009a, 2014), new manifestations of social exclusion continue to emerge. For example, it has been claimed that ‘the use of social media and the emergence of fake news has intensified … divisiveness and hostility to the so-called Other’ (de Souza and Halahoff 2018: 1). In this context, the challenge to create socially inclusive communities in which all members feel they belong and are respected is as necessary as ever.

However, rather than social inclusion, the twenty-first century is increasingly witnessing what has been labelled as ‘social seclusion’ (Klaufus et al. 2017: 12). Gated communities which provide exclusive enclaves for the wealthy are increasingly prominent in many countries, including in low- and middle-income countries in Africa and Latin America. In South Africa some of these communities are particularly targeting potential residents from a specific religious or cultural group. One gated community in Argentina already has 25,000 residents with the expectation that this will eventually rise to 40,000. Such communities tend to have a high degree of self-containment, providing not only housing but opportunities for employment and socialising, such that residents may have few reasons to leave their enclave (Klaufus et al. 2017).

In our first book, Theorising Social Exclusion (Taket et al. 2009a), we explored a wide range of social and cultural factors which have been found to contribute to experiences of inclusion and exclusion by individuals, groups, and communities. Originating in the latter decades of the twentieth century, social exclusion initially referred to entrenched poverty and economic marginalisation and an inability to access the social and cultural resources such as education and employment to move out of poverty. Over time, understandings of social exclusion have developed, such that in our first book we proposed that

The concept of social exclusion attempts to help us make sense out of the lived experience arising from multiple deprivations and inequities experienced by people and localities, across the social fabric, and the mutually reinforcing effects of reduced participation, consumption, mobility, access, integration, influence and recognition. The language of social exclusion recognises marginalising, silencing, rejecting, isolating, segregating and disenfranchising as the machinery of exclusion, its processes of operation.

(Taket et al. 2009a: 3)

Understanding social exclusion in this way refers to a diverse range of factors and mechanisms, including but not limited to poverty, which limit acceptance, opportunities equity, justice, and citizenship for individuals, groups, and communities in the broader society. Furthermore, there were others who were also acknowledging the multiplicity of factors and processes which can lead to exclusion. For example, in Tanzania, the Persons with Disabilities Act (2010) is concerned with persons ‘with a physical, intellectual, sensory or mental impairment and whose functional capacity is limited by encountering attitudinal, environmental and institutional barriers’ (Parliament of the United Republic of Tanzania 2010: 9).

Identifying how and why social exclusion occurs has been critical in developing approaches which address exclusion. Thus our second book, Practising Social Inclusion (Taket et al. 2014), sought to explore what works and why. In contrast to approaches which have confined understandings of promoting social inclusion to ensuring access to services (e.g. Farrington and Farrington 2005), we were concerned with the fulfilment of civil, political, economic, social, and cultural rights to participation in society as set out in the Universal Declaration of Human Rights (United Nations 1948). This involves addressing a range of mechanisms which can promote or deny social inclusion, including policy, service design, service delivery, community life and research (Taket et al. 2014).

At the conclusion of our previous volume, we wrote,

Achieving social inclusion is a continuing challenge which will involve ongoing political will and support from all levels of the community. Undoubtedly, some initiatives to promote social inclusion will be more effective in achieving this goal than others, and there will be ongoing need to reflect and identify factors influencing both success and failure.

(Taket et al. 2014: 256)

Whereas our previous work has been concerned with efforts to promote social inclusion within the fields of health, social care, and education, efforts to address social exclusion are often affected by access to ‘the provision of clean water, nutrition, employment, education, shelter, essential medicines, and an unpolluted environment to access to social networks’ as well as ‘the promotion of freedom from discrimination on the grounds of gender, religion, or race’ (Murphy 2012: 20). These are goals which struggle to be met by short-term policy and programme initiatives for which funding is terminated before ongoing change is achieved.

Frameworks for sustaining social inclusion

In previous books (Taket et al. 2009a, 2014), the value of a human rights framework for promoting and protecting social inclusion has been noted. As Sachs (2012) notes, the Millennium Development Goals represented a historic method of global mobilisation to achieve important social priorities worldwide. Progress was, however, mixed, both between and within countries. This new book moves the debate further to explore what sustainability means in respect of social inclusion. In recent times there has been much interest and support for the United Nations (2015) Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) which seeks to end extreme poverty, tackle inequality, and take action on climate change by 2030.

United Nations (UN) Secretary-General Ban Ki-Moon’s high-level global sustainability panel, appointed in the lead-up to the Rio+20 summit in June 2012, issued a report recommending that the world adopt a set of Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). On 1 January 2016, the 17 Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) of the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development—adopted by world leaders in September 2015 at an historic UN Summit—officially came into force. The goals are shown in Table 1.1

Table 1.1 The Sustainable Development Goals and actions required to achieve these

Number	Goal	Action
1	No poverty	End poverty in all its forms everywhere
2	Zero hunger	End hunger, achieve food security and improved nutrition, and promote sustainable agriculture
3	Good health and well-being	Ensure healthy lives and promote well-being for all at all ages
4	Quality education	Ensure inclusive and equitable quality education and promote lifelong learning opportunities for all
5	Gender equality	Achieve gender equality and empower all women and girls
6	Clean water and sanitation	Ensure availability and sustainable management of water and sanitation for all
7	Affordable and clean energy	Ensure access to affordable, reliable, sustainable, and modern energy for all
8	Decent work and economic growth	Promote sustained, inclusive, and sustainable economic growth and full and productive employment and decent work for all
9	Industry, innovation, and infrastructure	Build resilient infrastructure, promote inclusive and sustainable industrialization and foster innovation
10	Reduced inequalities	Reduce inequality within and among countries
11	Sustainable cities and communities	Make cities and human settlements inclusive, safe, resilient, and sustainable
12	Responsible consumption and production	Ensure sustainable consumption and production patterns
13	Climate action	Take urgent action to combat climate change and its impacts
14	Life below water	Conserve and sustainably use the oceans, seas, and marine resources for sustainable development
15	Life on land	Protect, restore, and promote sustainable use of terrestrial ecosystems, sustainably manage forests, combat desertification, and halt and reverse land degradation and halt biodiversity loss
16	Peace, justice, and strong institutions	Promote peaceful and inclusive societies for sustainable development, provide access to justice for all, and build effective, accountable, and inclusive institutions at all levels
17	Partnerships for the goals	Strengthen the means of implementation and revitalize the global partnership for sustainable development

Source: United Nations (2015)

As the UN expressed it, the SDGs

seek to build on the Millennium Development Goals and complete what they did not achieve. They seek to realize the human rights of all and to achieve gender equality and the empowerment of all women and girls. They are integrated and indivisible and balance the three dimensions of sustainable development: the economic, social and environmental.

(United Nations 2015: Preamble)

The SDGs and the set of human rights enshrined in the Universal Declaration of Human Rights are closely interlinked; they can be regarded as two different lenses through which the same set of issues can be viewed. Of particular interest here are those that explicitly mention inclusion, quality education, decent work and economic growth, inclusive industrialisation, inclusive settlements and cities, and inclusive societies and institutions (goals 4, 8, 9 11 and 16), but the other goals all have implicit links to social inclusion, as is recognised in the overarching principle of ‘Leaving no one behind’, a key commitment of the SDGs.

As we embark on this great collective journey, we pledge that no one will be left behind. Recognizing that the dignity of the human person is fundamental, we wish to see the Goals and targets met for all nations and peoples and for all segments of society. And we will endeavour to reach the furthest behind first.

(United Nations 2015: Clause 4)

The ambitious aims of the SDGs are reflected in the High 5 Priority Goals of the African Development Bank which provide a broad understanding of what is required for social inclusion. These goals are to ‘Power Africa; Feed Africa; Industrialize Africa; Integrate Africa; and Improve the Quality of Life for the People of Africa’ (African Development Bank Group 2019). Importantly while all five goals are priorities, there is no priority order within this group, as each makes a necessary and complementary contribution to improving the lives of the people of Africa.

The challenges of operationalising ‘leaving no one behind’ in the context of the SDGs has received some attention. For maximum effectiveness, governments and other funding agencies need to ensure investment into all of these goals and not just into those which they consider to be most attractive or most easily achieved (Clark 2018). Some groups in society may also be more likely to be left behind. For example, Elias and Holliday (2019) have considered the difficulties inherent in achieving rights for sex workers, drawing on research conducted in the Southeast Asian region and Cambodia in particular.

Whereas the SDGs and the High 5 Priority Goals are underpinned by a vision of social inclusion for all, austerity measures in countries like the United Kingdom have seen a move away from a social inclusion agenda to an agenda of protection for the most vulnerable and m...

Table of contents

• Cover
• Half Title
• Title
• Copyright
• Dedication
• Contents
• List of illustrations
• List of contributors
• List of acronyms
• Part 1 Introduction
• Part 2 Sustainable policies for promoting social inclusion
• Part 3 Sustaining programmes which support social inclusion
• Part 4 Sustaining organisations which promote social inclusion
• Part 5 Sustainable social inclusion outcomes
• Part 6 Sustainable social development
• Part 7 Conclusions
• Index