This timely book examines current policy responses to social exclusion. Each contribution addresses a different area of policy, describing the context for the intervention, examining key themes and issues and assessing the likely effectiveness of policies.

Global processes have an increasing influence on local contexts and the nature and distribution of opportunities among populations across the globe. While capital and population mobility, advances in information and communications technology, and economic liberalization have fostered economic development, industrialization, and wealth for some, they have also engendered growing inequalities in income, prosperity, well-being, and access. Those left behind by these global transformations often experience not only material deprivation, but broader dislocation from the contexts, institutions, and capabilities that provide access to social and economic opportunity. The concept of "social exclusion" has been widely adopted to describe the conditions of economic, social, political, and/or cultural marginalization experienced by particular groups of people due to extreme poverty, discrimination, dislocation, and disenfranchisement. This book explores the dynamics of social exclusion within the context of globalization across four countries--China, India, South Korea, and the United States. In particular, it examines how social exclusion is defined, manifested, and responded to with regard to diverse social arenas and processes, varying mechanisms and scales, and a range of impacted populations. Based on collaborative research activities and in-depth deliberation among leading scholars from major academic institutions in each of the four aforementioned countries, the volume provides a rich account of the interplay between globalization and social exclusion, while highlighting the ways in which responses may be more or less effective in different contexts. Its insights will be of particular interest to academics, researchers, and students across diverse social science disciplines.

Reviews of the First Edition: “thoughtful, critical, comprehensive, genuine… Byrne’s workshould prove compulsory reading for any critical and nuancedview of social exclusion.” Progress in Human Geography “The presentation of a single, coherent argument is one of the strengths of thisbook… [It] fills a gap in the debate on social exclusion.” Political Studies 'Social Exclusion' is a key phrase in social policy and social politics across most of contemporary Europe. It is a description of the condition of individuals, households, neighbourhoods, ethnic and other 'identity' groups, who can be identified as being excluded from society. The second edition of this widely read book explores developments in social theory, social experience and social policy in relation to Social Exclusion. The first part examines the origins of the term and implications of the difference between the ideas of 'exclusion', 'underclass', 'residuum' and related concepts. The discussion is informed by the application of Complexity Theory. In the updated second part, the theoretical account is developed through a detailed review of the dynamics of individual lives in a changing social order. Income equality, spatial division, and exclusion in relation to health, education and cultural provision and processes are examined in a range of societies in Europe and North America. The last part contains a new chapter outlining the content and impact of national and international policies which have been specifically developed to address issues of exclusion. This is important reading for students on social sciences courses including sociology, social theory and social policy.