ABSTRACT
This chapter focuses on social exclusion as a political concept and aims to typify some possible relationships between poverty and social exclusion. Relative to the two strands of French concern, with globalisation and consequent concern with segmentation of labour markets, and with the rupture of social ties, the emerging ‘Blairite’ British perspective perhaps underplays both structural barriers and bridges. The chapter suggests that the Anglo-Saxon ‘solution’ to social exclusion is emerging as the dominant perspective at the level of the European Union. It discusses the ‘centrality’ of ‘questions concerning the balance of regulatory powers’ and ‘in particular the possibility of derogating from legislation by collective agreements and the scope for individual contracts versus collective agreements’. The chapter concludes by suggesting that a neo-liberal perspective is increasingly dominant at the level of the European Union, and that this perspective both neglects the interaction between the three dimensions of integration and increases the risks of poverty for the least advantaged.
