Social Exclusion and Older People: exploring the connections

The concept of social exclusion represents a key theme in current social policy debates in the United Kingdom. This reflects not only the deepening of social inequalities in Britain over recent decades, but also a growing marginalisation of particular social groups and areas. While poverty and income inequality continue to be important elements of the social exclusion debate, a central concern of this debate refers to loss of access to important life chances, especially those that connect individuals to the mainstream of society. However, policy initiatives on social exclusion have tended, for a combination of economic and political reasons, to focus on groups such as children, young families and the unemployed. Ways in which social exclusion may affect older people have largely been neglected. This article seeks to generate a better understanding of the dimensions of social exclusion relevant to older people. Following a discussion of existing approaches to exclusion, three key themes are developed in greater detail. These relate, first, to issues concerning participation and integration beyond the labour market; second, to aspects of spatial segregation; and third, to exclusion as a form of institutional disengagement. These ideas are explored further with reference to empirical evidence drawn from group discussions with older people living in socially deprived neighbourhoods in three English cities. This article arises from work in progress that explores, amongst other issues, the extent to which older people living in socially deprived inner- city areas of England may be prone to processes and conditions of social exclusion. The study forms part of the Economic and Social Research Council's Growing Older Programme (http://www.shef.ac.uk/ uni/projects/gop/), and reflects a major concern that current government initiatives relating to social exclusion, including the work of the Policy