Indigenous Australians and Social Exclusion - Essay Example

? Indigenous Australians and Social Exclusion This paper articulates on social exclusion of the indigenous community in Australia. In essence, it analysis various significant disadvantages that are the root cause of the social exclusion, over and above, giving the reasons as to why the government has not been able to address the issue for over a decade. Introduction Social exclusion is the process whereby a rupture occurs in a social bond, in that the society fails to provide certain individuals, and groups with rights and benefits that are normally accessible to its preferred members such as employment, healthcare, housing and education among other necessities (Hunter, 2009). Social exclusion originated from France, over and above, having many affinities with the French Republic particularly on solidarity and social bond. Of importance to note is that social exclusion has numerous definitions. Never the less, social exclusion is most frequently explained in contrast to the poverty. The continuous policy attention that has been there in Australia for the last one decade is correlated to experiencing significant disadvantage for the indigenous people. In fact, the government of Australia have come up with a strategy where a report is give out in a span of two years indicating the process in which the Australian people will be able to overcome the indigenous disadvantage that is brought about by social exclusion that has been practised for a considerable amount of time (Hills & Agulnik, 2002). Sociology on indigenous Australians and social exclusion will be carried out through secondary research in book and journals that have been written in relation to their history. In essence, the research is aimed at seeking to understand the reasons as to why the indigenous Australians were excluded from the rest of the society through sociological scholars. Apparently, social exclusion is hugely related to social inclusion as it dictates the inclusion of the indigenous community into the rest of the society. Historical Background Over the last few decades, discussions have been put across concerning the cause and consequences of poverty. The focus of poverty has deviated from the usual norm of lack of income to particular groups of people into the norm of social exclusion or social inclusion. In essence, the term social exclusion has its origin in Europe as a response to the crisis witnessed in the welfare of states and the social disintegration that was brought about the social and economic crises. According to sociologists, social exclusion is a term that has numerous meaning. Simply, social exclusion describes a wide range of phenomena and processes that are connected to poverty and dispossession. Additionally, it entails social, cultural and political disadvantages that are mostly linked to groups of people who might be excluded in the society (Daly, 2005). It is worth noting that social exclusion and social inclusion are contested concepts that are generated from a framework of numerous ideas of social science, disciplinary and theoretical perspective, political ideologies, over and above, national discourse. However, it is questionable whether these contested concepts have had any impact on the economy. Apparently, they have been argued to have political and moral impacts where social exclusion is said to be ‘bad’ while social inclusion is ‘desirable’ with a continuous urge to have the excluded people being included (Byrne, 2005). Furthermore, socialists argue that there is a need to have numerous meanings which are of theory, method and politics to pave the way for better research that would lead to better social policies. Consequently, social exclusion and social inclusion are said to be theoretical concept that assist people in looking at reality rather than reality itself. The understanding of these concepts is dependent on theoretical and methodological, which bring out the consequences in relation to explanations of the two concepts. Besides, social exclusion gives a description of different types of groups in the society such as the mentally and physically disabled, single parents, the ages among other groups that are socially viable for exclusion. For instance, in the 1980s, this term referred to numerous types of social disadvantages that associate with social challenges that have emerged from low economic status. Furthermore, it is denoted as the split of social relationship between individuals, the society and a failed state. On the other hand, social policy is used to redirect integration of the excluded group in the society as it emphasizes on social cohesion and solidarity. In a sustainable period of time, the European Commission came up with a decree to fight social exclusion and in return promote integration. Essentially, social exclusion replaced the known concept to the extent of depriving the social, economic, and political condition. In respect to this, concept of social exclusion in Europe reflects intellectual, national discourse and political traditions. Thus, the concept of social exclusion is enclosed in three main ideas; solidarity, specialization and monopoly. Each idea has an alternative opinion on social integration, gives a unique cause of social exclusion, over and above, having a diverse political philosophy. Moreover, they have an explanation to numerous disadvantages that pertains economic, social, political and cultural, which comprises of citizenship theory, inequalities in the racial and ethnic categories, poverty and long period of unemployment (Andersen, 2006). Hence, these ideas represent different traditional aspects. Through the solidarity idea that is mostly used in France, Durkheim and Rousseau argue that social exclusion is the split of the existing bond between an individual or group and the society in a cultural and moral way with less interest on an economic basis. Durkheim further shares the concept of social solidarity and order in relation to both cultural and moral aspect. The Durkheim’s theory emphasises on the importance of the exclusion group being readmitted into the society through assimilation into the dominant culture while the presence of national solidarity suggest that there is the presence of political rights and duties (Daly, 2005). Through the specialisation idea, social exclusion depict social discrimination that is brought about by group difference that does not give individuals the freedom and right to use and or participate in exclusion or interaction in the society. This idea is brought about by the Anglo-American liberalism tradition, which denotes that individuals ought to move across boundaries surrounding social differentiation, and division of labour. Moreover, the liberal models of citizenship put emphasis on the exchange of rights and obligations in a contractual basis. Besides, according to this model, social exclusion is a result of unenforced rights and failure in the market, where more focus is raid on individuals as compared top groups (Briskman, 2007). The idea of monopoly is derived from the works of scholars such as Weber, Marx and Marshall who argue that social order is coercive, and is easily forced through administrative powers that are hierarchical. To them, social exclusion results from the formation of group monopolies. Those groups that are powerful prohibit outsiders from using valued resources by use of social closure. Contrary to specialisation idea of exclusion, group difference and inequality have common characteristics in the monopoly paradigm. Hence, inequality is diminished by the presence of social democratic citizenship which involves allowing citizens to participate in various social functions. Conclusion It is to be noted that indigenous disadvantage is well interrelated with circular causes which takes place through the reign of numerous generations forcing the indigenous disadvantages over a period of time. The notions of indigenous disadvantages are complex where they charge and support each other during their mandates in social exclusion. For instance, improvement of indigenous facilities of education does not overcome indigenous disadvantage as the effects of the peers, families, and the community does not embrace the initiatives. Needless to mention that, the complexity of the indigenous has made it very difficult to describe the nature of the interrelationship making the empirical evidence of the cause very uncertain. Thus, the response that pertains to social exclusion from the mainstream and unemployment means that indigenous unemployment is partially inflexible. Moreover, social policy deals directly with social exclusion, where low levels of social capital emphasize on the fact that indigenous people should be incorporated in the social and economic processes in the Australia society. Consequently, welfare dependency and the issue of indigenous employment that is no addressable through the economist tool unit especially making jobs available for those who are not employment especially in ensuring that indigenous people go are allowed to access education. Of importance to note is that, innovative policies should be in place to ensure that causes of social exclusion are resolved, over and above, accommodating the diversity between indigenous people and the rest of the Australians. However, the reason why some of these goals are not achievable is that there is a theoretical challenge that entails a wide cultural gap between indigenous and non indigenous perspectives on the issues that are incorporated. Notwithstanding is the fact that there is a notable difference between the social inclusion and social exclusion in relation to organising principals incorporated in the indigenous policy. In respect to this argument is the effort to merge the perspectives that are used by the indigenous community to resolve their challenges in a productive manner. Currently, report released indicates that there has been notable progress in some of the areas such as economic growth and participation although other areas have not shown any kind of improvement. References: Andersen, M. (2006). Sociology: understanding a diverse society. Belmont, CA: Thomson/Wadsworth. Briskman, L. (2007). Social work with indigenous communities. Annandale, N.S.W.: Federation Press. Byrne, D. (2005). Social exclusion. Maidenhead: Open University Press. Daly, A. (2005). Indicators of risk to the wellbeing of the Australian Indigenous children. Australian review of public affairs, 6, 1: 39-57. Hills, J. and Agulnik, P. (2002). Understanding social exclusion. Oxford [u.a.]: Oxford Univ. Press. Hunter, B. (2009). Indigenous Social Exclusion, insight and challenges for the concept of social inclusion. Australian Institute of Family Sudies, 8, 52-61. Read More