Social Exclusion in Relation to Social Housing - Essay Example

?Social exclusion in relation to social housing Introduction Social exclusion signifies a new concept which isrelated to poverty, marginalization and deprivation. The context in which the term often used appears to be contradictory and ambiguous. This paper discusses the concept of social exclusion from its origin to its application. The paper shows the relationship between social exclusion and housing in the United Kingdom. The paper discusses the attempted interventions by the UK government to lessen the impact of social exclusion. Research on social exclusion is heterogeneous. It tends to proceed from diverse to divergent descriptive paradigms. The concept of social exclusion The producers of the social policy discourse have been known to propagate the usage of the term. Social housing estates and tenants viewed as the archetypes of the concept. The usage of the term has been rampant in France and United Kingdom. The tenure of social housing has been a causal factor in social exclusion. The deliberations on social exclusion have been propagated for a long period. According to Rodgers, the term was propagated by less- industrialized societies. The term became common in the 1990s. The concept is the core in the European Union. The new labor party in the United Kingdom made social exclusion its foundational policy under Tony Blair. The European Union needed to come up with a term for innovative social policy. The term was supposed to counter stigmatization of poverty and deprivation. The term, social exclusion, appeared to be new and appealing (Geddes & Urry 2000). The poverty programs in the European Union were extremely controversial. This is because they offended the decency of language in advertising or publicizing poverty (Bernstein 2005). The people were against the idea that policies were not the responsibilities of member states of the union. Factually, communal segregation is a contested theory. Social exclusion plus poverty are not conterminous. It is possible to be excluded without being poor. According to Haan, the concept of social exclusion is related to vulnerability and relative poverty. Social exclusion in Britain has been an elective issue (Geddes & Urry 2000). According to Levitas, the promise of social inclusion drove politicians to power. The precedence of the community segregation division is to bring substantial change to areas of concentrated disadvantage (Forrest & Kearns 1999). This is to happen through implementation of regeneration initiatives. This caused the United Kingdom’s economic and social research council to adopt a concept of social integration. According to Richardson & LeGrand, scholars and researchers were getting actively involved in the concept of communal segregation in the UK. Localities with concentrated disadvantage were seen to fuel social exclusion. For social exclusion to be dealt with, the government had to come up with initiatives that would impact all social classes. This was to eliminate the presence of regions of concentrates poverty (Forrest & Kearns 1999). Social exclusion could not be fully addressed without addressing the issue of housing (Bernstein 2005). This is because it was vital in facilitating the concentration of deprived people in similar localities (Goodin 1996). In 1997, the United Kingdom government, by the labor party came up with a task force that addresses social exclusion. Social exclusion was defined by the government as the shorthand effect caused by poor areas suffers from poor housing and low incomes (Freitas 1998). This attracts high crime rates in those places and unemployment. Housing and social exclusion The responsibility of accommodation in communal segregation has come under scrutiny. Many low income earners have no access to decent housing. Housing affordability happens to be a crucial issue. In poor families, accommodation is the most important thing in the family unit financial plan (Forrest & Kearns 1999). This attracts state assistance to avert extreme conditions (Blair 2005). It is now apparent that people who cannot afford decent housing end up in secluded neighborhoods that attract people in the same condition financially. According to Forrests & Kearns, spatial concentration is a vital aspect in social segregation. According to Marsh & Mullins, the role if housing is not discernible when it comes to the concept of social exclusion. The housing system in the United Kingdom is seen to be intertwined with social exclusion (Freitas 1998). According to Power, the notion of social segregation is perceived to be an urban challenge in entirety. Urban centers tend to concentrate social problems. Power argues that poverty clusters and places of extreme disadvantages are a vital constituent of collective segregation (Blair 2005). From this viewpoint, social exclusion is a complex system that enhances limitation of opportunities and locality stigma (Bernstein 2005). Besides, competition for the available jobs becomes inevitable. This fuels the level of dissatisfaction and conflict. Social exclusion is perceived to be spatially evident (Beinart & Delius 1986). According to Madanipour, social exclusion in the society calls for access to resources and decision making. This is accompanies that famous narratives to facilitate social inclusion. Clearly, living in a locality affects access to various factors and social privileges. Location affects access to services and resources (Bernstein 2005). Therefore, social exclusion and housing are mutually inclusive. Some locations mean cause access to some jobs limited while others do not. In the United Kingdom, accommodation estates built after World War II show these disparities (Blair 2005). The spatial concentration of social disadvantages is evident through the housing structures. The estates are a clear evidence of income inequality and social class differences. According to Marsh & Mullins, the notion of communal exclusion and social housing in the United Kingdom show strong connections. In the estates where low income residents are dominant, towering misdemeanor rates, family unit fallouts, unemployment are frequent (Bernstein 2005). The majority of the population refers to these as antisocial behaviors. Barry argues that social exclusion has limited applications and description. Implication of social exclusion definitions According to Barry, such definitions of social exclusion merely state that localities are associated to quality of life but does at address the underlying inequalities. According to Ratcliff, this tends to fuel the culture of stereotyping since it depicts disadvantage through the perspective of social housing. Without proper caution, such definitions end up stigmatizing disadvantaged groups as fraction of the disqualified underclass. According to Byrne, describing communal exclusion tend to center on outcomes rather than the processes that cause it. Consequently, policies are drafted to deal with the results as opposed to the genuine causes of disparity. According to Arthurson, an initiative to lessen the concentration of the people who are socially excluded through regeneration merely shifts the same challenges to other localities. Social exclusion tends to be used as an evocative catchphrase as opposed to an investigative contrivance. This causes the usage to blur and obscure rather than address the real issues. UK government interventions Research shows that structured interventions yield better results than area-based interventions when addressing social exclusion. According to Rodriguez, a systematic approach that addresses a wide variety of issues would be a better way to address social exclusion rather than insufficient policy intervention. Some of the issues that are suggested to reduce social exclusion are job creation (Beinart & Delius 1986). Estate based state intervention approaches are inadequate. Social exclusion is a concept that entails complex and intertwined issues that require a holistic approach. According to Andersen, a review of area based interventions show that they fail to tackle that problem, but they deal with symptoms. Research shows that low income is one of the principal factors that contribute to social exclusion. Income disparities in the United Kingdom are one of the causal agents of social exclusion (Vobruba 2000). It affects affordability of basic social amenities and the standard of life. Income shows the authority of populace in accomplishing their financial role and the level of social participation (Freitas 1998). According to studies, addressing the issue of income distribution, incentives and tax breaks can be an effective way of dealing with social exclusion (Freitas 1998). The social housing plays a significant role when it comes to the issue of fixing the social exclusion challenge (Veit-Wilson 1998). The social housing is expected to maintain affordable rental charges for low income earners (Bernstein 2005). According to Harrison, the welfare state as presently constituted is incapable to address the problem of social exclusion. United Kingdom government policies are inadequate to address the challenge of inequality. However, the housing policy is uniquely placed in a position to improve to quality if life of the people who are socially excluded (Goodin 1996). The current policies in the United Kingdom suggest that housing shall remain a form of tenure for low income earners. This is the cause of the sanctions of the tenants who are perceived to be antisocial. Groups that are already disadvantaged economically have a small change of living up to the standard to the housing authorities (Bernstein 2005). Lee & Murie argue that the housing system in the United Kingdom has the potential to accentuate social exclusion and material disadvantages. They argue that the housing authorities should play a real and structural role in dealing with social integration and citizenship. During the post war period, housing authorities played an active role in ensuring social cohesion. The housing policies were seen as a tool to fight social divisions (Veit-Wilson 1998). This was affected through facilitating affordability of the cost of energy, rent and security of tenure. Since 1996, the United Kingdom adopted social welfare policies that undermined the reduction of social divisions and affordability (Watt & Jacobs 2000). This was as a result of pressure from the labor market. There was no substantial initiative taken to address the gap that was left the policy lapse (Veit-Wilson 1998). The government has been forced to act to stem a crisis caused by extreme social housing inequality. The situation has been aggravated by limitations in the new buildings and sales (Watt & Jacobs 2000). This affects the ability if housing authorities to upgrade existing housing. The situation is known to fuel social exclusion in the United Kingdom. Role of housing authorities in social exclusion According to Pawson & Kitrea, housing allocation policies in the United Kingdom contribute to social exclusion. They encourage concentration of impoverished groups while denying access to vital amenities to some groups. According to Ruggeri-Laderchi, social exclusion draws the attention of policy makers to causality. It redefines poverty by transcending the myopic approach like the physical attributes (Vobruba 2000). Social exclusion reveals poverty is a deep sense of deprivation which can lead to self devaluation (Harrison 1998). This makes the affected groups more vulnerable than the rest. Social exclusion reveals multidimensionality of social life and shows the need to address poverty from a structure approach (Beinart & Delius 1986). The propensity towards multiple dimensions of chronic poverty shows the relationship between political economy and culture. According to Kabeer, the reality of social exclusion is seen in the stratification of access to basic social resources and amenities which leads to evolution of an antisocial culture (Bernstein 2005). According to Nancy Fraser, there is a relationship between resource availability and cultural rejection. The synergy between investigation of chronic poverty and social exclusion is seen through a political perspective (Harrison 1998). Denial of social and political rights leads to automatic exclusions (Watt & Jacobs 2000). This denial may be fueled by chronic poverty or inability to access social services or opportunities. Therefore, there is a correlation between exclusion and citizenship status and poverty. Social exclusion occurs when certain social classes are deprived of admittance to their citizenship civil liberties and control over their rights (Vobruba 2000). This is possible through constraints in housing and housing processes (Spicker 1997). The function of accommodation in the process of societal prohibiting is multifaceted. A case study: Bangladeshi community. A case study in two estates in the United Kingdom shed some light on the social exclusion through housing. One of the housing estate was predominantly occupied by the Bangladeshi community while the other by whites (Beinart & Delius 1986). The study revealed that the Bangladeshi population suffered segregation just for the reason that their estate was on soaring demand. The community had strong integration into local labor markets (Spicker 1997). The community was a strong integration. However, the white community was in better housing quality and choice (Bernstein 2005). The society was living in desirable houses but was excluded from the society and labor market (Forrest & Kearns 1999). This clearly indicated it is possible to be poorly housed but well integrated into the society (Townsend 1979). Conversely, it is possible to be well housed by excluded from the mainstream society. This makes the relationship between housing and social exclusion complex. It varies across social classes and localities (Taylor 1998). According to Sim, social exclusion is not the most effective way of describing with inequality and social disadvantage in the UK housing system. The same can be extended to other dimensions of social welfare (Taylor 1998). However, the consequences of social exclusion would give a precise standing when it comes to assessing the complexity if these social disparities. Lack of substance possessions such as stable returns can be the contributory issue and not accommodation as it is known. Unemployment affects directly access to quality housing. This leads to living in unsatisfactory housing (Taylor 1998). A collection of many families for a society which is not satisfied by is concentrated in the same locality. The concentration leads to a process of exclusion from other salient social amenities (Beinart & Delius 1986). It must be observed that the housing and social inequality dynamics is not an outright link. Housing is not necessarily and indicator of inequality (Kabeer 2000). However, housing is an active factor in social inequality but not necessarily a direct receptacle. Social exclusion beyond housing There is a notion that owners are excluded from their tenants in that they live in superior housing facilities. According to Byrne, owner-occupiers are known to live in similar cities with their tenants. According to Lee and Murie, private owners have shown high levels of deprivation just like those straining economically. Therefore, social exclusion should not be fully focused on the issue of housing estates (Forrest & Kearns 1999). Social exclusion should be viewed as a social phenomenon that affects people who are faced with a substantial level of deprivation (Beinart & Delius 1986). The deprivation cannot be confined to housing and social amenities. It should be considered to include them but not exclusive to the two. Therefore, social exclusion is a mental act that starts when from a deficiency of the social nature. In housing policy in the United Kingdom has not alleviated social exclusion to the needy tenants (Forrest & Kearns 1999). According to Hulse & Burke, it is essential to consider the concept of communal exclusion beyond the confines of social housing. Research shows that social implications for social exclusions are better for tenant in personal residents that those in communal accommodation. Low income earners who are in private rentals suffer more alienation than social housing tenants (Taylor 1998). Social exclusion is both complex and multidimensional. The idea of social exclusion is not fully accepted in developmental studies. This is as a result of the notion that it contains many assumptions. The approach of social exclusion assumes the goodness of inclusion (Townsend 1979). It presents a notion that social life should be fully organized. However, inclusion can be problematic and ineffective in some respects. Conclusion Social exclusion in the United Kingdom has elicited emotive debates. The government has been called upon to address the issue of inclusivity without having to use area based policy. This is because it is apparent that social exclusion is a sign of an underlying social challenge. The people affected most by social exclusion are the low income earners. It is clear that social exclusion and housing cannot be separated. Socially excluded people tend to dwell in similar neighborhoods. They are said to have denied access to essential social amenities and in an extreme case their citizenship rights. The housing authority in the United Kingdom has been on the forefront in trying to propagate equality through housing. Hitherto, the initiative has been insufficient. The concept of social exclusion should not be confined to housing estates. Social exclusion is complex and requires a multiplicity of approaches in order to be addressed adequately. 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