ABSTRACT
Social marginality and the process of marginalization are two concepts of renewed interest in West Europe. Two of the participants at the Florence conference addressed elements of the bibliographic history of the concept of marginalization and the literature of fringe groups and extremist political parties and movements, respectively. Both the process of marginalization and the state of marginality are important concepts, historically, social scientifically, and polemically, for an understanding of who gets what, where, when, how, and why. The European Community has directly linked long-term unemployment to “the new poverty” and marginalization and has undertaken a variety of research and social policy initiatives in order to combat the effects within individual states and in the Community at large. The period after 1974 has been one where political and economic conditions have led to a dramatic increase in the numbers of persons being pushed out to the margin, especially through structural unemployment and exhaustion of social benefits.
