Transcript GLOBALIZATION, SOCIAL EXCLUSION, AND URBAN SUSTAINABLITY: Creating the Socially Inclusive City

GLOBALIZATION, SOCIAL EXCLUSION, AND
URBAN SUSTAINABLITY:
Creating the Socially Inclusive City
Prepared for the
Great Lakes Urban Exchange
March 14, 2009
Lynn C. Todman, Ph.D.
Director, Adler Institute on Social Exclusion
Adler School of Professional Psychology, Chicago
ADLER INSTITUTE ON SOCIAL EXCLUSION (ISE)
ISE
 Social exclusion refers to the ways groups are denied access to the rights,
opportunities, and resources commonly available to ordinary people.
 The ISE acts like a prism to reveal social barriers that block participation in
mainstream life.
 Through research, education, and outreach programs, the ISE shows a broad
audience how laws, public policies, institutional behaviors, and private beliefs cause
social exclusion.
 The ISE encourages the general public to engage in civic action projects designed
to reduce or eliminate social exclusion.
Social
Exclus
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La ic Poli
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Institute on Social Exclusion (ISE)
 Research
Analyze the ways in which structural features of society condition human welfare, e.g.,
developing a list of indicators of social exclusion
 Education
Stimulate public discussion on the causes of social exclusion and propose potential solutions,
e.g., using educational gatherings and publications to illuminate the causes of exclusion
 Outreach
Engage in practical work that addresses social disadvantage, e.g., responding to communityidentified needs and problems through collaborative projects
Summary: Thesis and Assumptions
 Thesis …
 Social exclusion - Tool for (re)framing the way we think about urban development
and for thinking about how to create economically, socially and politically
sustainable cities.
 Assumptions…
 Globalization leads to economic (income) inequalities.
 Increased income inequalities lead to increased political inequalities; two are
mutually-reinforcing; unequal economic, political, and social arrangements
become entrenched.
 Those on the advantaged side of inequality are able to systematically marginalize
those who are not; these marginalized people are the “socially excluded.”
 Social exclusion creates conditions that are amenable to social, political and
economic instability which has, in turn, the potential to undermine the long-term
development and sustainability of cities.
Summary: Thesis and Assumptions (cont’d.)
As the economic and political fortunes of those who benefit from
globalization rise, they use their powers to erect structures (e.g.,
laws, policies, institutions, attitudes) that systematically marginalize
those whose interests would contravene their own. Those
processes of social exclusion create conditions that are amenable
to social, political, and economic instability that threaten to
undermine the development and sustainability of cities.
Summary: Recommendations
 Recommendation …
 Globalization-driven urban development efforts should be evaluated
and monitored for their exclusionary effects and revised to …
 eliminate exclusionary processes;
 protect those for whom development efforts nevertheless place
at risk of exclusion…
To ensure the economic, political, and social
sustainability of our cities.
What is Social Exclusion?
 Social Exclusion is …a conceptual framework that characterizes
contemporary forms of social disadvantage, social exclusion is defined
as processes (and conditions) in which people are systematically
blocked from the rights, resources and opportunities that are normally
available to members of the society in which they reside and which are
essential for social integration.
Key Attributes Social Exclusion (SE)
 Relational: SE is primarily concerned with major social ruptures,
disconnects and separations among groups within a society.
 Multidimensional: SE has many dimensions: e.g., economic, political,
spatial, civic, cultural, and judicial.
 Dynamic: SE is an evolutionary and cumulative process: exclusion in
one domain in one point in time can leads to exclusion in other domains
in other points in time.
 Relative: SE is measured and defined in terms of prevailing social
norms in a particular society at a particular time.
 Active: SE is typically a consequence of the actions and decisions
of “agents” over which the excluded have little or no influence.
From Globalization to Social Exclusion:
The Case of Chicago
Globalization
(Development
Strategy)
Economic
Inequality
Political
Inequality
Spatial
Marginalization
Social
Exclusion
(Multiple
Dimensions)
Change in Poverty Levels in Chicago Communities:
1970-2000
Source: Nathalie P. Voorhees Center, University of Illinois at Chicago, 2004
The Multiple Dimensions of Social Exclusion
Spatial marginalization predisposes the marginalized to many other
dimensions of social exclusion.
 Employment (high unemployment & underemployment rates)
 fewer job opportunities in new locations
 difficult to access central city job market due longer, more costly, more
complicated commutes
 Education and Training (reflected in poorer educational outcomes)
 displacement is associated with loss of classroom time
 lower tax base translates into lower per capita K-12 educational expenditures
 more difficult to access specialized training opportunities
The Multiple Dimensions of Social Exclusion
Spatial marginalization predisposes the marginalized to many other
dimensions of social exclusion.
 Health Care (reflected in health disparities)
 health care is linked to employment status, may loose access if employment
is compromised
 fewer services and facilities (notably specialist) in new locations
 travel may become longer, more costly and more complicated
 relocation may be closer to environmental toxins
 Public Services
 fewer social services per capita in new location
 fewer/less reliable public services (e.g., trash collection, street cleaning & repairs,
snow removal)
 fewer public transit nodes/routes
The Multiple Dimensions of Social Exclusion
Spatial marginalization predisposes the marginalized to many other
dimensions of social exclusion.
 Amenities
 recreation and culture (theaters, cinemas, public art programming, park
equipment)
 shopping (food, clothing)
The Multiple Dimensions of Social Exclusion
Possible mitigating factors....
 Protective and Social Support Systems
 dismantled/fractured social support systems (neighbors, family,
friends)
 Political Participation – Agenda setting and decision making
 physically outside of the city
 diluted within the city
Result: The political agenda-setting and decision-making that might
increase social inclusion is controlled by those who have a vested
interest in maintaining the exclusivity of rights, resources and
opportunities.
Dilution of Registered Voters in Public Housing
Source: Board of Election Commissioners for the City of Chicago, Cook County Clerk;
analyzed by The Chicago Reporter, January 2008.
Some Behavioral Implications of Social Exclusion
Social Exclusion catalyzes a series of inner processes
 Emotional numbness
 Loss of empathy
 Loss of controlled processing functions, such as self-regulation which
leads to increases in impulsive behaviors, such as aggression, violence,
short-sightedness, and other forms of anti-social behavior.
Upshot: Socially excluded people may lose their willingness to selfregulate; that is, they may be reluctant to restrain anti-social
impulses under conditions in which there is no perceived benefit (i.e.,
chance of inclusion).
Social Psychologists Conclude
“Sociologists have observed that excluded classes of persons in
many societies exhibit various undesirable patterns of behavior,
including aggression…lack of pro-social behavior, self-destructive
indulgences, and poor self-control. Our research suggests that
these are not necessarily inner traits of society’s downtrodden, so
much as normal reactions that all sorts of people exhibit when they
find themselves to be excluded by others.”
Source: Baumeister et al,. 2007.
Thwarting the Need to Belong:
Understanding the Interpersonal and Inner Effects of Social Exclusion
From Globalization to Social Exclusion, Instability,
and Unsustainable Cities
Globalization
Social
Exclusion
Anti-Social
Behaviors
Social,
Political,
Economic
Instability
Unsustainable
Cities
Recommendation
Social Exclusion Impact Assessment - Assess and monitor globalization-driven urban
development efforts for their exclusionary effects –
specifically, for their distributional and non-economic
effects on the lives of people and their communities.
“We have to (ensure) that globalization produces
fairer results and promotes social justice. And we
have to make sure that it is environmentally,
economically, socially and politically sustainable.”
UN Secretary-General, Ban Ki-moon
Remarks to the Governing Body
International Labour Organization
Geneva, 19 November 2008
Thank you!
For more information on the
Adler Institute on Social Exclusion:
www.adler.edu