Transforming society?

Social work and sociology

Simpson, Graeme, Price, Vicky, Graeme Simpson, Vicky Price

• Publisher: Policy Press
• Year: 2007
• Print ISBN: 9781861347428
• eBook ISBN: 9781447324294
• Edition: 1
• Topic: Sozialwissenschaften
• Subtopic: Sozialarbeit

Society is undergoing change, and, as a result, social welfare services – including social work – are being transformed. This book explores the sociological basis of contemporary society and shows how social workers experience tensions and contradictions in practice.

The book uses case studies and self directed activities to enable students to relate sociology to daily lives. It explores key themes in turn, examining their relevance for social work and how they can be applied to practice, particularly in areas such as children and families, mental health, disability and older people.

Relevant and accessible, the authors explore aspects of class, ethnicity and gender and conclude with suggestions of how sociology can inform practice and enable social work to engage with processes of transformation.

The book provides essential material for students of social work and social care, at both undergraduate and postgraduate levels. It will also be relevant to social policy and sociology undergraduates.

Part One

Social exclusion,‘the poor’ and social work

ONE

Social exclusion and poverty

Defining social exclusion

Social exclusion as a concept has its origins in France (Murard, 2002). The excluded (les exclus) referred to those people who were excluded from the main forms of French society and as a result lived on the margins. In many cases, this was quite literally so, as new housing developments were established at the periphery of towns and cities. The rioting in the suburbs of Paris and other French cities in late December 2005/early January 2006 provides evidence of this, as well as some of its consequences. The terminology became adopted within the European Union, and it soon established itself as a broad term to refer to people who lived on the margins, and who either were, or perceived themselves to be, excluded (European Foundation for the Improvement of Living and Working Conditions, 1995).

For those who live on the margins of society, the continuing process of being excluded becomes a daily reality. Individual experiences underline the nature of the exclusion. There is a case, however, for moving beyond the individual to explore how social exclusion is defined.

Burchardt (2000a) argues that an individual is socially excluded if he or she does not participate to a reasonable degree over time in certain activities of his or her society, where this is for reasons beyond his or her control, and where he or she would like to participate. The definition becomes non-specific and inclusion or exclusion results from an individual preference. For example, if there were no desire to participate, using Burchardt’s definition there would be no ‘exclusion’. A difficulty arises when this is applied to a given situation. Take, for example, the hypothetical situation of Bill and Tom, who are both rough sleepers and for this reason are excluded from certain activities in society. One of these activities could be voting, since without a qualifying address it is difficult to register as a voter. They are both thereby ‘excluded’. This is beyond their control, meeting the first aspect of Burchardt’s definition. However, while Bill definitely wants to vote, Tom does not. Thus, Bill is socially excluded, Tom is not. It is not difficult to see that their circumstances are the same, but by adding a defining condition of ‘wanting to participate’, it differentiates between people who share a common experience.

The aspect of volition or desire is not present in the European Foundation’s (1995, p 4) definition of “the process through which individuals or groups are wholly or partially excluded from full participation in the society in which they live”. Using this definition, both Bill and Tom would be socially excluded. There is a focus here on the notion of process, which we will now examine through the experience of learning disability.

Social exclusion as a process: the case of learning disability

For some groups of people, social exclusion can best be seen as a continuing process. This case study, from a parent whose child has a severe learning disability, identifies some of the factors that made both parent and child marginalised and excluded.

Case study

At birth, rather than celebrating, the family of a learning disabled baby mourns the loss of their ‘normal’ baby. Friends and extended family keep away, not knowing what to say, and the parents feel revulsion for their newly born, incapable of shaking off negative images associated with the ‘subnormality’ hospitals of the feeble-minded and imbeciles. The mother in particular might feel shunned by other new mums and fear ridicule or pity. As other babies start to develop, the disabled one lags behind and is perceived as having ‘special needs’ by professionals, best catered for in specialist settings such as toddler groups. From the age of three the child is likely to be sent to a special school segregated from the rest of society and a significant distance from the child’s family and neighbourhood. Rather than encouraging the learning disabled child to walk with others to the local school, a special bus or taxi turns up to the house tooting its horn. This makes sure everybody knows about the ‘different’ child who lives in the road and it reinforces the message that such children cannot be educated alongside the mainstream kids.

During the holidays, the child finds himself at home in a neighbourhood in which he has made no friends and is viewed as ‘different’ (the ‘kid who is picked up every day in a taxi’) and remains isolated and dependent on the family for entertainment and play.

This experience of being excluded lasts throughout the school years and by the time the child becomes an adult he has made very few friends, has gained few or no qualifications, has not learned to deal with the rejection and taunts of the able-bodied and loses out on the structure of the school day. Instead, the child is thrown onto the support of the family at a time when most young people want to hang out with their friends and are thinking about their future away from home. Support from social services in particular is very institutional, offering respite care in residential settings for 18- to 65-year-olds. Support in the form of further education is patchy and rarely matches the hours of parents who work full time.

The negative images this conjures up are a consequence of the processes of exclusion, and not of the disability. The positives should be accentuated, but the reality is one where negative differences are socially reinforced.

In the past, the process of social exclusion was even more extreme, with learning disabled people spending their entire lives in ‘subnormality’ hospitals. This was in keeping with the general tendency to ‘institutionalise’ people deemed a problem for one reason or another. For learning disabled people, this treatment was long term and often permanent and it continued to be commonplace for much longer. When it finally ceased, it tended to be replaced by other segregated measures. Today, legislation is such that disabled people have more rights and as a result of their own campaigning services are becoming less segregated. The social model of disability has started to influence the way we understand the discrimination and oppression that disabled people experience and the services people receive (Ryan with Thomas, 1987; Oliver, 1990).

The account above identifies two important areas of social inclusion in relation to social work. First, policies can be developed with the aim of combating exclusion, but these cannot in themselves overcome many of the deeply held views about learning disabled people that are held in society. It also demonstrates that policy development, in the UK and other countries for that matter, is notoriously ‘patchy’ (Christopher, 1999) and that policy alone cannot be held as a guide to what is actually happening. Second, it shows that in relation to social exclusion, social work can be part of the problem as well as the solution. This is a contradiction within social welfare provision and the dialectical nature of this is a theme that will constantly emerge throughout the book. Social exclusion then impacts on the personal lives of those it affects and it is something that is a continuing process.

Social exclusion and life chances

The Social Exclusion Unit (SEU, 2004a) offers a wide-ranging definition:

Social exclusion happens when people or places suffer from a series of problems such as unemployment, discrimination, poor skills, low incomes, poor housing, high crime, ill health and family breakdown. When such problems combine they can create a vicious cycle. Social exclusion can happen as a result of problems that face one person in their life. But it can also start from birth. Being born into poverty or to parents with low skills still has a major influence on future life chances. (http://www.socialexclusionunit.gov.uk/page.asp?id=213)

This indicates that there are a number of different and potentially overlapping factors that can lead to exclusion. A brief review of the list is that many, if not most, of the factors are either ‘structural’ or can be attributed in some part to structural factors. So, here is a definition that acknowledges the process, but adds to it a range of factors which are located in how society is organised.

Esping-Andersen (2002, p 29) suggests that one area of agreement is that social exclusion “occurs when citizens are trapped in inferior life chances”. Such a definition can be seen to include most (if not all) definitions of social exclusion. While this definition is brief, it has the advantage of succinctly encapsulating a key aspect. Social exclusion is a phenomenon that can be perpetuated throughout the life course if nothing is done by society to address the reduced life chances.

From these definitions, it becomes clear that social exclusion extends beyond those who either are, or perceive themselves to be, marginalised. It extends to the very fabric of people’s long-term life chances and is inextricably linked with the economic workings of society. Returning to the earlier case study, these definitions suggest that learning disabled people are excluded: furthermore, they suggest that the origins of their exclusion have deeper roots than other people’s attitudes and welfare policies.

Living on the margins

One way in which the social work literature in particular has identified people who are socially excluded is to refer to them as ‘marginalised’ or ‘living on the margins’. This way of thinking about socially excluded people is useful in that it conjures up images of people on the edge of society, either because of circumstance or choice, or more importantly because others have occupied the mainstream. In other words, marginalisation is not just a state, but also a process that has a focus on those who are doing the ‘marginalising’.

This is hinted at in the way that Walker and Walker (1997, p 8) define social exclusion:

… the dynamic process of being shut out, fully or partially, from any of the social, economic, political or cultural systems which determine the social integration of a person in society.… [It could be defined as] the denial of … civil political and social rights of citizenship.

They acknowledge that social exclusion is a process and locate this within the idea of social integration. Thus, in the case study, a learning disabled child and his family are denied many of the opportunities for integration that other children and their families would take for granted. An important aspect of this definition, however, is that social exclusion becomes linked to social rights of citizenship. More critically, there is an indication that this is less to do with preference or circumstance than with being linked to the social actions of other people through the use of the term ‘denial’.

Within social work, social exclusion often refers to groups of people who experience some form of discrimination or oppression that impacts on their life chances and/or prevents them from becoming ‘full’ citizens. Before going any further, consider this question:

Activity

Which groups of people are likely to be ‘socially excluded’ and in what way are they ‘excluded’?

A list drawn up for this activity might have included any or all of the following: women, people from black and minority ethnic groups, gay and lesbian people, disabled people, migrants, lone parents and older people. This is not an exhaustive list, but all these groups have featured in sociological texts that explore the nature of social exclusion (Barry and Hallett, 1998; Byrne, 2002; Chamberlayne et al, 2002; Hills and Stewart, 2005).A question to consider here is what would determine the extent of someone’s ‘exclusion’. It could be where they live – for example, a black person living in a predominantly ‘white’ village in rural England may feel they experience higher levels of exclusion than people of a similar ethnic background who live in a city within a clearly discernible community. On the other hand, the same black person may have a higher level of income and be able to experience life in ways in which poorer black inner-city dwellers cannot.

Aspects of exclusion also impact on people’s life chances and are evident in different ways during a lifetime. As will be explored in other sections of the book, this could relate to access to healthcare (Sassi, 2005), pre-school education (Glass, 1999; Stewart, 2005), primary and secondary education (McKnight, 2002), higher education (Callender, 2003), work opportunities (McKnight, 2005 provides a comprehensive review) and housing (Dorling and Rees, 2003); to impact on family life (Power and Wilmott, 2005) and to older age (Evandrou and Falkingham, 2005). It is likely that during the activity you will have identified a range of impacts that exclusion could have. You will have realised that social exclusion is a process, which is manifested throughout a person’s life in a variety of ways.

Another important aspect of social work is its identification with locality and community. This is a theme that is dealt with comprehensively in Chapter Nine, but it needs to be identified as a feature of social exclusion. While Walker and Walker (1997) argue that it is a dynamic process, Madanipour and colleagues (1998, p 22) suggest that it is a multidimensional process in which various forms of exclusion are combined:

• participation in decision making and political processes;

• access to employment and material resources; and

• integration into common cultural processes.

They go on to argue that the combination of these factors creates acute forms of exclusion that tend to be concentrated in particular neighbourhoods. This analysis links personal and structural factors and opens the level of study into community and society. It suggests that aspects of social exclusion are likely to be located in specific areas and communities within towns and cities.

Silver (1994) identifies three forms of social exclusion, which can be more readily located within a sociological context. First, exclusion can occur when there is a breakdown of the ties between the individual and society. This is termed a solidarity model of social exclusion and can be readily applied to a situation where, for example, an individual may experience some form of illness that renders them isolated and excluded. Second, there is the specialisation model, which results from ‘market failure’, discrimination or unenforced social rights. For example, in the UK there is legislation to prevent employers discriminating against disabled people. Thus, disabled people have social rights, enshrined in legislation. If, however, these rights are not enforced, employment opportunities will be diminished and, on a personal level, the individual will have no job. The model then rests on an individualised conception of social inclusion or exclusion. Finally, Silver identifies the monopoly model, which results from class, status and political power. This focuses on those who are ‘excluding’ and reflects the interests of the included, who maintain their monopoly on power and resources.

In a wide-ranging review of social exclusion, Bradshaw (2003) identifies four areas of contemporary society that can give rise to forms of social exclusion. These are the themes of the book, which will systematically explore the sociology around this. Production focuses on the world of work and employment: Bradshaw argues that exclusion in this area, either through unemployment or low pay, is significant, although he also extends this to include exclusion from socially valued activities.

There is also social exclusion from the activities that reproduce capitalism, which Bradshaw terms ‘forms of social interaction’. This can be a lack of emotional support or integration with family, friends or community. He also identifies political disengagement as a factor that generates exclusion, and defines this in broad terms as being the lack of involvement in local or national decision making.

As the nature of capitalism has changed from production to consumption, Bradshaw notes how the process of consumption generates forms of social exclusion, reducing the capacity to purchase goods and services, as constrained by low income relative to need.

Social exclusion and poverty

Room (1995a, p 5) is one of the key theorists subscribing to the view that social exclusion is not only different from poverty but is also more of an all-embracing concept that moves away from income inequality. He argues that poverty is primarily focused on distributional issues: the lack of resources at the disposal of an individual or household. Significantly, it is the distribution of resources that is emphasised here and this locates poverty very clearly within an economic analysis of society. Room, however, expands this to argue that social exclusion focuses primarily on relational issues, which he identifies as inadequate social participation, lack of social integration and lack of power. Whether this is a case of ‘chicken or egg’ has to be a matter of debate. For example, people who are poor, that is, who lack adequate material and financial resources, are also the people who are more likely not to participate socially, are less socially integrated and have less ‘power’. In other words, the results of poverty are quite likely to be forms of social exclusion, as described and conceptualised earlier.

There is a risk that by focusing on social exclusion, the poverty and the life experiences of ‘the poor’ are overlooked. Much here depends on the understanding of ‘exclusion’and whether or not it is a synonym for ‘poverty’. It has been suggested that, as a concept, social exclusion ‘depoliticises’ poverty, thereby seeing the ‘solution’ to poverty in developing schemes to promote social inclusion (Byrne, 2002; Searing, 2006). Given that poverty and income inequality are a feature of the society in which we live, and also features in discussions about ‘exclusion’, it is important to attempt to provide some definitions.

Poverty in itself is a contested term. In basic terms, there is the distinction between ‘absolute’ and ‘relative’ poverty. Absolute poverty refers to the basic necessities for subsistence living. The more widely used definition within welfare economies is one of relative poverty. Here, there is a basic acceptance that people should be provided with sufficient means to have the basic necessities met, but that the measure of poverty needs to be one that compares richer with poorer people. An accepted measure of the relative poverty line is 50% of the median of household equivalent income, across the population of any given country (Bradbury and Jäntti, 2001). Thus, by assessing what a typical household may consume and making adjustments for the members of any household, a relative measure of poverty can be calculated for any given country...

Table of contents

• Coverpage
• Titlepage
• Copyright
• Contents
• Acknowledgements
• Introduction
• Part One: Social exclusion,‘the poor’ and social work
• Part Two: Production
• Part Three: Reproduction
• Part Four: Consumption
• Part Five: Community
• Part Six: Transforming society: social work and sociology
• References