The concept of social exclusion and the new Durkheimian hegemony

Abstract

This article argues that the concept of social exclusion, which was orig inally developed to describe the manifold consequences of poverty and inequality, has become embedded as a crucial element within a new hegemonic discourse. Within this discourse, terms such as social co hesion and solidarity abound, and social exclusion is contrasted not with inclusion but with integration, construed as integration into the labour market. The paper analyses the operation of this discourse in recent pol icy documents from the European Union and the Borrie Report, as well as in the work of Will Hutton. The discourse is described as fundamen tally Durkheimian because it treats social divisions which are endemic to capitalism as resulting from an abnormal breakdown in the social co hesion which should be maintained by the division of labour. The article argues that, within this discourse, the concept of social exclusion oper ates both to devalue unpaid work and to obscure the inequalities between paid workers, as well as to obscure the fundamental social division be tween the property-owning class and the rest of society.