Este estudio se centra en las últimas acciones dirigidas a promover la plena integración de las personas con discapacidad. La Globalización en muchos caso ha llevado a la exclusión social de los grupos que sufren una mayor marginación, haciendo preciso promover desde las instituciones un enfoque social y económico integrado que considere la economía, el comercio, el empleo y la cohesión social como elementos interdependientes para la reducción de las desigualdades, debiéndose dar preeminencia a las reformas (...) sociales que fomenten la igualdad y la plena integración siendo indudablemente necesarios controles de la ejecución de las políticas con el fin de integrar a los grupos más desfavorecidos social y económicamente. (shrink)

El objetivo de este artículo es someter a crítica el discurso de la exclusión social. Comenzaremos exponiendo algunos rasgos centrales de nuestro mundo en globalización para, a continuación, exponer las razones que hacen a este discurso profundamente inadecuado. Distrae la atención de características fundamentales de este mundo, de modo que puede ser instrumentalizado para ocultar relaciones que se encuentran a la base de la explotación, la dominación o la subordinación. Frente a este discurso se propondrá otro que podría (...) evitar estos peligros, el de la incorporación adversa. The aim of this article is to criticize the discourse of social exclusion. We will begin by exposing some central features of our globalizing world and then we will present some reasons that make this discourse profoundly inadequate. It distracts attention from fundamental characteristics of our contemporary world, so that it can be used to obscure relationships at the root of exploitation, domination or subordination. Against this discourse, I will propose the concept of adverse incorporation to avoid these dangers. (shrink)

En la actualidad es de suma importancia tener habilidades digitales y acceso a dispositivos tecnológicos para seguir aprendiendo. El presente estudio analiza la percepción de exclusión digital por estudiantes inscritos en un programa de posgrado en línea. Los resultados muestran que los estudiantes cuentan con acceso a dispositivos digitales e Internet, y que la percepción de exclusión es mayormente por la falta de competencias digitales. Los sujetos de estudio que no se sienten excluidos consideran la existencia de una (...) brecha escolar, debido a su mayor uso y conocimiento de herramientas digitales con respecto a la aplicación que hace la institución. (shrink)

El presente trabajo trata de la exclusión social como tema principal. Para su exposición tratamos de encajar su aparición en un contexto histórico económico y social determinado, claramente europeo, y sus diferencias frente a conceptos y teorías que en algunos casos se asemejan. Nos referimos a la pobreza, la marginalidad, la informalidad o la dependencia. Asimismo presentamos una tipología de excluidos, hablando a la vez de agentes, causas y estrategias empleadas en su tratamiento.

El problema de la exclusión social –situación de quienes encuentran cerrado el acceso a los bienes y servicios que permiten un básico desarrollo de la personalidad– constituye un desafío para la legitimidad del sistema social y las normas penales. Principalmente porque ello supone que en una misma sociedad hay individuos con estatus de persona –ciudadanos “normales”, incluidos– y otros que, por estar privados de los derechos asociados al estatus, están total o parcialmente excluidos del mismo. De cara (...) a evitar su instrumentalización penal se propone, en los delitos más conectados con la noción de ciudadanía que con la de dignidad, la atenuación o exclusión de la pena por disminución de la exigibilidad. Si el delito no se explica sólo por déficit de motivación del sujeto, sino también por un déficit de socialización imputable al propio sistema social, lo que tiene lugar es una especie de corresponsabilidad. (shrink)

Existe gran consenso dentro de la academia en relación a la necesidad de tener en cuenta un gran número de variables para poder conceptualizar y medir la inclusión o, por ende, la exclusión social que viven ciertos colectivos. A través de un estudio en profundidad de la bibliografía, casos piloto y proyectos similares, se ha creado un sistema de indicadores con la finalidad de medir el impacto socioeconómico de una actividad sociodeportiva vinculada a la inclusión de personas con (...) diversidad funcional. El sistema resultante, se aplicarán en el caso piloto VARIED, un proyecto europeo realizado en cinco países de la propia Unión Europea. (shrink)

This paper wishes to problematize the foundations of production governance and offer an analytical perspective on the interrelation between agents’ preferences, strategic choice, and the public sphere . The value is in the idea of preferences being social in nature and in the application both to the internal stakeholders of the organisation and its impacts on people outside. Using the concept of ‘strategic failure’ we suggest that social preferences reflected in deliberative social praxis can reduce false beliefs (...) and increase individual wellbeing. From this approach, the paper offers a taxonomy of production organisations, based on social preferences about two variables: the governance form other strategic decisions that characterize the management of a company at a more operational level, once its fundamental legal form has been chosen. Each dimension is then categorised alongside two basic preferences: towards inclusion or exclusion of ‘publics’ that have no substantial access to decision power about these variables. Our framework explains governance heterogeneity by contrasting exclusive and inclusive social preferences in cooperatives, social enterprises, as well as traditional corporations. A discussion of the evolution of social preferences and organizational forms is addressed through examples and regional experiences. (shrink)

"Ay, no quieres, te asusta la pobreza: no quieres ir con zapatos rotos al mercado y volver con el viejo vestido" dice Pablo Neruda en uno de los poemas de su libro "Los versos del capitán".

La autora destaca la ausencia de protagonismo de la mujer en la historia previa al siglo XX, a partir del predominio de los esquemas patriarcales, en un contexto de desigualdad, discriminación y violencia social organizadas a partir de relaciones de poder. Localiza luego este contexto cultural en la experiencia del ejercicio del poder en América Latina, y en sus vínculos con la feminidad, etnicidad y pobreza, con los procesos de constitución de la subjetividad, y en su relación con los (...) procesos de lenguaje. Propone finalmente que la cultura del terror en la que nos encontramos encerrados debe ser demolida, y nos invita a abrirnos a la heterogeneidad que caracteriza la realidad latinoamericana. (shrink)

Es obligatorio comenzar reconociendo que la «identidad» es una palabra inevitable. Pero es que, nos guste o no nos guste, se ha puesto de moda la «búsqueda de la identidad» y su reafirmación como una suerte de propiedad esencial, en la que anida el alma o el genio de los pueblos. Está bien que se critique ese esencialismo identitario (y yo lo haré también con herramientas filosóficas), que se recuerde la naturaleza contingente de toda identificación, la historia cambiante que hace (...) de toda identidad un proceso, una realidad en perpetuo movimiento. Es cierto que este asunto se suele abordar en el marco de la globalización contra cuya supuesta uniformización y homogeneidad han surgido las respuestas identitarias de tipo étnico y cultural o la reafirmación de nacionalismos identitarios. Pero aquí no intentamos plantearlo en el abstracto plano de la geopolítica, sino en el muy concreto de la convivencia social. (shrink)

Social exclusion can cause negative changes on human beings both in the physiological and psychological aspects. Although considerable efforts have been devoted to study its effects on consumption behavior, little attention has been paid to the consequence that social exclusion might have on consumer’s color preference and the underlying mechanisms. Such social events can change individual’s behavior. This work examines the influence of social exclusion on consumers’ color preference as well as the moderation and mediation effects (...) via three experiments: Experiment 1 studies the impacts of social exclusion on consumer color choice. To further validate the robustness of the results, experiment 2 is designed by replicating the findings of experiment 1 in another product category and instructed the participants to choose products with different colors. Meanwhile, the mediation effect of self-threat is examined. In Experiment 3, the moderation effect of self-construal is investigated via a 2 × 2 × between-subjects design. Our results indicate that social exclusion makes people prefer warm colors rather than cold colors. However, these effects would be mediated by self-threat, which could be further moderated by self-construal. The present study establishes the relationship between social exclusion and consumers’ color preference, which is expected to provide guidance for companies to improve product design and promotion strategies to adapt to various contexts. (shrink)

El artículo expone dos visiones acerca de la legitimidad del castigo en contextos de exclusión social. En la primera parte, uno de los autores defiende la idea de que los Estados que incumplen con obligaciones legales previas no pueden inculpar a quienes cometan delitos vinculados con ese incumplimiento. No pueden hacerlo porque no tienen el estatus moral para hacerlo de acuerdo a dos objeciones: la de complicidad y la de hipocresía. En la segunda parte, la segunda autora critica (...) esta solución al sostener que la falta de reciprocidad que caracteriza a la relación política vuelve inaplicables las objeciones de hipocresía y complicidad al ámbito del castigo penal estatal. (shrink)

Este artículo reflexiona sobre las formas de dominación tácitas que todavía hoy continúan amenazando la integridad de las personas pertenecientes a diversos colectivos. Al mismo tiempo, el presente escrito pone de manifiesto las contradicciones que envuelven las defensas afirmativas de la identidad y la especificidad. En algunos casos tales defensas no han conseguido subvertir los prejuicios y estereotipos que actúan como instancias de la opresión de los grupos sociales desfavorecidos. Por lo mismo, se concluye que además de estos mecanismos de (...) toma de conciencia y afirmación de la identidad, debemos poner en marcha estrategias transformadoras orientadas a la reforma de las estructuras sociales y económicas que dificultan la lucha contra las formas de dominación aludidas. (shrink)

Social exclusion influences how expressions are perceived and the tendency of the perceiver to mimic them. However, less is known about social exclusion’s effect on one’s own facial expressions. The aim of the present study was to identify the effects of social exclusion on Duchenne smiling behaviour, defined as activity of both zygomaticus major and the orbicularis oculi muscles. Utilising a within-subject’s design, participants took part in the Cyberball Task in which they were both included and excluded (...) while facial electromyography was measured. We found that during the active experience of social exclusion, participants showed greater orbicularis oculi activation when compared to the social inclusion condition. Further, we found that across both conditions, participants showed greater zygomaticus major muscle activation the longer they engaged in the Cyberball Task. Order of condition also mattered, with those who experienced social exclusion before social inclusion showing the greatest overall muscle activation. These results are consistent with an affiliative function of smiling, particularly as social exclusion engaged activation of muscles associated with a Duchenne smile. (shrink)

The measures of obligatory vaccination against COVID-19 disease in Greece, have failed to cater to people, who for serious medical reasons, were prohibited by their private doctors to be vaccinated. This fact, however, leads to their unwilling social seclusion, since they cannot obtain the vaccination certificate that ensures access to all social activities. They are, therefore, faced with the dilemma of consenting to vaccination, disregarding possible health or even fatal consequences, or social exclusion and isolation. This research (...) study aims to discuss this ethical conflict, between what is considered ethical for society in contrast to restriction of personal will and health. It wishes to rediscover the very essence of the commitment to protecting human rights-health and social well-being. This dilemma will be viewed and examined under the scope of core ethical values and principles met in Hippocrates’ oath and the fundamental ethical theory of Utilitarianism. The study will try, drawing from these ethical theories and definitions, to test these questions and conclude on what the indicative ethical choice is. The study wishes to propose suggestions of measures that can be taken to ensure equal operations for all citizens, based on medical ethics and self-disposition principles. It will also propose actions that should be put in the equation, sensitive groups. We feel that a balanced ethical approach that does not accentuate disparities within and among different groups, could ensure health equality, better social resilience, and commitment to effective prospective preparedness. (shrink)

Social exclusion is an emotionally painful experience that leads to various alterations in socio-emotional processing. The perceptual and emotional consequences that may arise from experiencing social exclusion can vary depending on the paradigm used to manipulate it. Exclusion paradigms can vary in terms of the severity and duration of the leading exclusion experience, thereby classifying it as either a short-term or long-term experience. The present study aimed to study the impact of exclusion on socio-emotional processing using different paradigms (...) that caused experiencing short-term and imagining long-term exclusion. Ambiguous facial emotions were used as socio-emotional cues. In study 1, the Ostracism Online paradigm was used to manipulate short-term exclusion. In study 2, a new sample of participants imagined long-term exclusion through the future life alone paradigm. Participants of both studies then completed a facial emotion recognition task consisting of morphed ambiguous facial emotions. By means of Point of Subjective Equivalence analyses, our results indicate that the experience of short-term exclusion hinders recognising happy facial expressions. In contrast, imagining long-term exclusion causes difficulties in recognising sad facial expressions. These findings extend the current literature, suggesting that not all social exclusion paradigms affect socio-emotional processing similarly. (shrink)

This commentary offers a coherent reading of the papers presented in the special issue ‘Exclusion, Engagement, and Empathy: Reflections on Public Participation in Medicine and Technology’. Focusing on intellectual self-trust it adds a further perspective on the harmful epistemic consequences of social exclusion for individual agents in healthcare contexts. In addition to some clarifications regarding the concepts of ‘intellectual self-trust’ and ‘social exclusion’ the commentary also examines in what ways empathy, engagement and participatory sense-making could help to avoid (...) threats to intellectual self-trust that arise form being excluded from participation in communicative practices in the context of healthcare. (shrink)

In this article, I develop a novel relational egalitarian theory of social exclusion that explains how society fails to treat socially excluded individuals – such as people experiencing homelessness, individuals with substance use disorders and mental illness and sex workers – as equals. I argue that society places and keeps excluded individuals at the very bottom of the social status hierarchy by treating them as socially invisible, or by rendering them physically invisible, or both. The upshot, then, is (...) that part of what is wrong with social exclusion is that it creates the invisible social class. (shrink)

Since the late 1990s, the dynamics of welfare reform in Taiwan have gradually shifted to tackling new social risks emerging from economic globalization and labor market changes. This article analyzes these structural changes and the relevant institutional features of the labor market. The rise of atypical work has generated wide concern regarding its low wage income and insufficient social protection, triggering debates about which policy measures can effectively tackle the problem of the working poor. Drawing on the quantitative (...) data from a social quality survey conducted by the Social Policy Research Center in National Taiwan University (NTUSPRC) in 2009, our analysis explores the social exclusion differences between regular and atypical workers for their objective and subjective experiences. The objective experiences include current financial situations, negative events, living conditions and political activities of the workers, whereas the subjective experiences refer to their feelings in family position, welfare assessment, discrimination, and autonomy. Our analysis helps explain the effects of work status on the degrees of social exclusion, both in the private and public spheres. The social exclusion experiences of working conditions shed light on social quality in Asia. (shrink)

Si algo hemos ido aprendiendo a lo largo de los años del crecimiento y de crisis es que la riqueza no se esconde en la cantidad, en la acumulación de cantidades, en el aumento de un quantum voraz cuyos límites son ilimitados, al menos, insaciables. Y sin embargo esa enorme cantidad acumulada de cosas no se ha convertido en riqueza social, pues ni ha llegado a la sociedad, ni ha maximizado sus potencialidades, ni ha potenciado las grandes capacidades de (...) los seres humanos, ni ha hecho más soste.. (shrink)

Research on social exclusion suggests an increased attention of excluded persons to subtle social cues. In one study (N= 32), published inPsychological Science,Bernstein et al. (2008)provided evidence for this idea by showing that participants in the social exclusion condition were better in correctly categorizing a target person’s smile as real or fake. Although highly cited, this finding has never been directly replicated. The present study aimed to fill that gap. 201 participants (79.1% female) were randomly assigned to (...) a social exclusion, social inclusion or control condition. Next, participants watched 20 videos of smiling persons and rated whether they show a real or a fake smile. In line with the original study, results showed that participants in the exclusion condition performed better than in the control condition. However, the performance did not differ between the exclusion and inclusion condition—although the pattern was in the predicted direction. In sum, the findings of our study increase rather than decrease confidence in the validity of the investigated idea, but results point to a substantially smaller effect. (shrink)

This study analyses the affectivity of social disgust behind the oppressive exclusion of social minorities, such as the forced institutionalisation of vagrants in modern Korean society. This social exclusion of vagrants is divided into two forms: the forced institutionalisation of ‘infected vagrants’ during the Japanese occupation and the forced institutionalisation of ‘vagrants themselves’ during the developmental state. In both cases, the visible power apparatus of exclusion of minorities was socially legitimised by the effective use of disgust politics (...) of purification and isolation. Through this analysis, this study joins the discourse on affective communities as a critical alternative to deinstitutionalisation by revealing the dynamics of the social disgust that threatens the community’s existence. (shrink)

The text provides an introduction to analyses of the social exclusion of mothers of children with autism spectrum disorders. The aim is to highlight and discuss several stories from the increasing number of printed accounts by mothers describing their daily struggles with disability and social judgment. The discourses of exclusion concerning this social group are a hihgly interesting research topic due to its multidimensionality and stereotypes ingrained in society.

Social integration is a basic ingredient of any description of a good society. We feel that all people should get the opportunity to realise their full human potential, i.e. to realise their own goals and aspirations. In this paper we claim that this is also part of the responsibility of private sector firms and, therefore, an integral aspect of business ethics. We first argue against the (popular) conviction that the situation of the unemployed is their own responsibility, either because (...) they choose to be unemployed (section 2), or because they choose to be low skilled (section 3). As a consequence, we do not believe that the dismantling of the social security system or the restructuring of the educational system can fully solve the problem of the least skilled in our societies. Nor do we think that the integration of the least skilled is a matter for government policy alone. In section 4 we argue that job creation remains indispensable for a real attack on the problem of social exclusion. In section 5, we highlight the important role of the private sector in this regard. Such job creation will require a lot of effort and imagination at the micro-level of the firm and a lot of creative thinking about how to structure the macrosocial market environment within which private firms operate. (shrink)

Social inclusion/exclusion involves just/unjust social relations and social structures enabling or constraining opportunities for participation and health. In this paper, social inclusion/exclusion is explored as a dialectic. Three discourses – discourses on recognition, capabilities, and equality and citizenship – are identified within Canadian literature. Each discourse highlights a different view of the injustices leading to social exclusion and the conditions supporting inclusion and social justice. An Integrated Framework for Social Justice that incorporates the (...) three discourses is developed and used to critique the dominant focus on distributive justice within foundational Canadian nursing documents. We propose a broader conceptualization of social (in)justice that includes both relational and structural dimensions. Opportunities for multilevel interventions to promote social justice are identified. This framework is congruent with nursing's moral imperative to promote health equity and with the multiple roles played by nurses to promote social justice in everyday practice. (shrink)

The debate on equality and non-discrimination is certainly not a new one, but the way it is incorporated in that on social exclusion leads to several shifts within the discourse on social justice. The term social exclusion is multidimensional although its western use in a selective way about markets promoting equality separates it from the Indian emphasis on social justice as linked to ending discrimination of dalit groups. The concept of social exclusion is inherently problematic (...) as it faces three major challenges in India: the first relates to the historical discrimination of certain groups and their exclusion; the second is about the political economy of the excluded; and the third questions the way in which equality responses are restricted within the framework of social exclusion. (shrink)

Judgments of explanatory exclusion are a necessary part of the explanatory practice of any historian or social scientist. In this article, the author argues that all explanatory exclusion results from mutual explanatory incompatibility of some sort. Different types of exclusion arise primarily as a result of the different elements composing "an explanation." Of most philosophical interest are judgments of explanatory exclusion resulting from the incompatibility of explanatory relevance claims. The author demonstrates that an ontic theory of explanation is necessary (...) to make sense of this type of exclusion and in so doing develops an analysis similar to Jaegwon Kim’s well-known analysis of explanatory exclusion. To conclude, the author demonstrates the differences and connections between Kim’s analysis and his own. Key Words: explanation • social science • history • exclusion • compatibility. (shrink)

Rising exclusion rates indicate the continuing marginalisation of many young people in education in the UK. Working-class boys, children living in poverty, and children with additional/special educational needs are among those experiencing a disproportionate rate of exclusion. This book traces the processes of exclusion and alienation from school and relates this to a changing social and economic context. Jean Kane argues that policy on schooling, including curricular reform, needs to be re-connected to the broad political pursuit of social (...) justice, and presents compelling case studies of excluded pupils, showing the multi-faceted identities of pupils, with a particular focus on masculine and feminine identities. This invaluable contribution to the literature offers an alternative analysis where the social identities of pupils are shown to be tied up with their exclusion from school. Themes investigated include: the meanings of school exclusions social class, gender and schooling social identities of excluded pupils negotiating identities in school: moving towards exclusion exclusions and young people’s lives improving participation in schooling. Providing fascinating reading for teachers, social workers, researchers and policy-makers this book considers how educational disadvantage might be addressed through recognition of the gender and class identities of pupils. (shrink)

One of the criteria used by many transplant centers in assessing psychosocial eligibility for solid organ transplantation is social support. Yet, social support is a highly controversial requirement that has generated ongoing debate between ethicists and clinicians who favor its consideration (i.e., utility maximizers) and those who object to its use on equity grounds (i.e., equity maximizers). The assumption underlying both of these approaches is that social support is not a commodity that can be purchased in the (...) marketplace. This essay argues for the reconceptualization of social support as a product that can—and should—be purchased for transplant candidates to render them eligible for transplant. (shrink)

En este artículo abordo dos obstáculos para la articulación política democrática en un régimen neoliberal: la exclusión y la división social del trabajo. Para ello, partiré de una primera delimitación de rasgos comunes a las movilizaciones sociales en el neoliberalismo desde el punto de vista de su relación con la política institucional. Después, reformularé esa misma caracterización a través del concepto relacional del Estado procedente de Nicos Poulantzas y reelaborado por Étienne Balibar, para centrarme en el análisis de (...) los dos problemas centrales del artículo: la exclusión y la reproducción de la división social del trabajo en la política. Para el tratamiento de estas cuestiones me serviré del marco de análisis desarrollado por Balibar a partir de los conceptos de igualibertad y Estado nacional-social. Por último, en las conclusiones, propondré respuestas democráticas para los dos problemas señalados. (shrink)

English education policy has increasingly focused on the need to intervene in an intergenerational cycle of poverty and low attainment. The accompanying policy discourse has tended to emphasise the impact of family background on educational outcomes. However, as the capacity of parents to secure positive educational outcomes for their children is closely linked to the quality of their own education, low attainment is rather more closely connected to what happens in schools than this focus suggests. Pupils from groups known to (...) be at increased risk of low attainment are also known to be at increased risk of involvement in the disciplinary processes of schools. This paper draws on the findings of a small-scale qualitative study to highlight some of the limitations in the educational provision accessed by Secondary age pupils involved in school exclusion processes. The assumptions and tensions at practice level that underpinned this provision are also discussed. In the conclusion it is argued that a much stronger focus on the learning of these pupils could improve their attainment and contribute to a reduction in social and educational inequalities in the future. (shrink)

High quality pedagogical practise is one of the most important mechanisms to support families and children at risk of social exclusion (RSE) in the early childhood and pre-school education system (ECEC). This paper describes and presents the results of the evaluation of the model for the prevention of adverse developmental outcomes of children with RSE achieved through quality pedagogical practise. The contribution of using the model to children's social inclusion was determined using a quasi-experimental quantitative method. 60 educators (...) from 15 kindergartens in seven districts of the Republic of Croatia participated in the study. Before and after six months of implementing the model, they completed the scale for assessing the child's social inclusion and the protocol for documenting pedagogical practise in relation to the child. The qualitative thematic analysis describes the ways in which the application of the model contributes to children's well-being. 30 educators who implemented the model were interviewed. The use of the model was found to contribute to better developmental outcomes for children at RSE and to educators' professional development and practise. The results suggest that the pedagogical practise of ECEC needs to be improved to prevent unfavourable developmental outcomes for children at RSE. (shrink)

Barcelona has become one of the most touristic cities in the world, with more than 18 million visitors per year, coming to a city with only 1.7 million inhabitants. The model of tourism is depredatory, destroying old neighborhoods and pushing Catalans out of the city. At the same time, people from the Global South come to the city, but in more precarious conditions. They find a city that does not welcome them and that puts them in the worst conditions. I (...) want to focus on two movies that present Barcelona as an ill city. On the one hand, we have Woody Allen’s Vicky, Cristina, Barcelona, a movie that shows the upper-class American tourism in a European city. On the other hand, Alejandro González Iñárritu’s Biutiful, also starred by Javier Bardem, shows us another story about Barcelona. This is a movie that pays attention to the bottom of the well, Spanish lower-class workers struggling shoulder to shoulder with lower class migrants, people who will never enjoy the life that Allen`s characters have. In this paper I want to show how film can represent illness in different ways. To do so, I first explain, very briefly, the Barcelona model, a model of inclusive, modern city that Vicky and Cristina enjoy. But, this model insofar as it includes people, it excludes them. I will show the construction of the City from 1888 to 1992/2004 and how it has created spaces of inclusion and exclusion. In the second part, I will analyze the right to housing and the housing crisis that is currently affecting the city. In this part, I want to focus both in the crisis and in the social mobilization that it has brought about. After constructing this context, I will analyze the two movies, as instruments to show/hide the diseases of the city. (shrink)

Thus far, the recognition approach as described in the works of Axel Honneth has not systematically engaged with the problem of poverty. To fill this gap, the present contribution will focus on poverty conceived as social exclusion in the context of the European Union and probe its moral significance. It will show that this form of social exclusion is morally harmful and wrong from the perspective of the recognition approach. To justify this finding, social exclusion has to (...) fulfil three conditions: (i) it has to be experienced as harmful by the socially excluded, (ii) it has to meet certain objective criteria, and (iii) it has to violate normative claims embedded within society. (shrink)

PurposeThe purpose of this paper is to show how both the presentation and limitation of visual choices in massively multiplayer online role‐playing games (MMORPG) avatar creation interfaces tends to exclude or favor different real life social groups.Design/methodology/approachA novel method combining both quantitative and critical analysis of the syntagmatic‐paradigmatic structure of MMORPG avatar creation interfaces is used to inform the findings of this study.FindingsThis study concludes that as cultural interfaces, current fantasy themed MMORPGs remediate socially exclusive values both from fantasy (...) literature and from their own game lore. The socially exclusive values deal largely with extreme and immutable racial and sexual dimorphism.Research limitations/implicationsInterfaces which present users with color palettes and/or smooth slider‐based body modifiers do not lend themselves well to this method of analysis. In addition to this, only a handful of the popular MMORPGs are analyzed within the body of this work.Practical implicationsThis paper demonstrates that MMORPG players and designers need to be more aware about how they are constructing and embedding social values in their worlds. Avatars are critical conduits for online social dynamics and embedding socially exclusive values may transfer negative ideologies from old media to new.Originality/valueThis paper offers one of the earliest critiques of embedded values in avatar creation interfaces of MMORPGs. The paper aims to begin discussion on an overlooked area of now popular media that has not received any critical attention regarding its embedded messages of social inclusiveness or exclusiveness. (shrink)

By inclusion and exclusion here we mean the phenomena of inclusion of a certain category of persons into a certain community as “insiders” and, accordingly, exclusion as transformation of “insiders” into “outsiders” and even into “enemies”. The institutional nature of these processes means that they are not one-time and situational phenomena, but deep shifts with long-term consequences, entailing changes in the rules of interaction and attitudes of their participants. In the course of their development, different societies have experienced inclusion and (...) exclusion according to the criteria of gender, age, religion, ethnicity, class social origin, level and nature of education, professional affiliation, etc. The article formulates causal conditions and factors contributing to inclusion and exclusion on the basis of general theoretical principles and historical generalizations. (shrink)

Social exclusion has a significant impact on cognition, emotion, and behavior. Some behavioral studies investigated how social exclusion affects pain empathy. Conclusions were inconsistent, and there is a lack of clarity in identifying which component of pain empathy is more likely to be affected. To investigate these issues, we used a Cyberball task to manipulate feelings of social exclusion. Two groups participated in the same pain empathy task while we recorded event-related potentials when participants viewed static images (...) of body parts in painful and neutral situations. The results showed early N2 differentiation between painful and neutral pictures in the central regions in both groups. The pattern at the late controlled processing stage was different. Parietal P3 amplitudes for painful pictures were significantly smaller than those for neutral pictures in the social exclusion group; they did not differ in the social inclusion group. We observed a parietal late positive potential differentiation between painful and neutral pictures in both groups. LPP amplitudes were significantly smaller in the social exclusion group than those in the social inclusion group for painful stimuli. Our results indicate that social exclusion does not affect empathic responses during the early emotional sharing stage. However, it down-regulates empathic responses at the late cognitive controlled stage, and this modulation is attenuated gradually. The current study provides neuroscientific evidence of how social exclusion dynamically influences pain empathy. (shrink)

As Axel Honneth has recently noted, the critical concerns of social philosophers during the past three decades have been focused primarily on questions of justice, with ethical issues about the human good being largely excluded. In the first section I briefly explore this exclusion in both ‘Anglo-American’ political philosophy and ‘German’ critical theory. I then argue, in the main sections, that despite this commitment to their exclusion, distinctively ethical concepts and ideals can be identified both in Rawls’s Theory of (...) Justice and in Habermas’s Theory of Communicative Action, taking these as exemplary, representative texts for each theoretical school. These ethical elements, and their implications for the critical evaluation of economic institutions, have gone largely unnoticed. In the final section I indicate the kinds of debates that might be generated, were these to be given the attention they arguably deserve. I focus especially on the significance of empirical issues, and hence on the role of social science in social criticism. (shrink)

Does rational bargaining yield a social contract that is efficient and so inclusive? A core allocation, that is, an allocation that gives each coalition at least as much as it can get on its own, is efficient. However, some coalitional games lack a core allocation, so rationality does not require one in those games. Does rationality therefore permit exclusion from the social contract? I replace realization of a core allocation with another type of equilibrium achievable in every coalitional (...) game. Fully rational agents coordinate the pursuit of incentives so that equilibria of this type are efficient. They adopt a social contract that is efficient and inclusive. (shrink)

This article explores some aspects of what has been termed ‘new contractualism’ in social policy, using the Norwegian policy on poverty and social exclusion as an empirical example. An important purpose is to identify how the move to new contractualism implies new modes of controlling behaviour and to explore the ethical legitimacy of this approach. Firstly, contractualism is seen in relation to some dominating discourses in Norwegian and European social policy over the last 20–30 years, emphasizing the (...) importance of economic considerations concerning the financial sustainability of the welfare state. Secondly, the article explores some implications of contractual modes of thought for balancing rights and duties in the welfare state, concluding that the principle of a welfare contract is a euphemism for a polity that basically imposes more obligations on the recipients of welfare services. Thirdly, it elaborates on the tension field between the possible democratic benefits of contractualism and more paternalistic consequences. Although relational contracts may enhance client-influenced service provision, paternal outcomes are likely, owing to the fact that such contracts are often used as instruments for behaviour-changing efforts (e.g. to create an economically active citizen). (shrink)