ABSTRACT
Structural accounts – for example, those offered by Dahrendorf (1985), Field (1989), Jordan (1996) and from the USA, William Julius Wilson (1987, 1991) – are normally associated with the political ‘left’ and have their theoretical foundations firmly located in both the conflict, radical and critical variants of the victimised actor tradition and the sociological tradition within the predestined actor model. Primarily various forms of social exclusion, poverty, material deprivation and patterns of inequality are highlighted. Entry into and membership of this class is explained by the inadequacy of state provided welfare services, changes in the labour market and exclusion from full citizenship.
