From Poverty to Social Justice: Does the terminology make a difference to the practice?

Citation

Kelly L, Juleff L, McQuaid R & Adams J (2004) From Poverty to Social Justice: Does the terminology make a difference to the practice?. Scottish Economic Society Annual Conference 2004, Perth, Scotland, 30.03.2004-01.04.2004. www.researchrepository.napier.ac.uk/2766/1/Poverty_SESjuleffpaper04.doc.

Abstract
Over the last ten years, the UK has seen a significant shift in terms of the way the poorer sections of society are classified. The Anglo-Saxon tradition of using the word “poverty” to describe those who are economically disadvantaged has given way to the European tradition of looking beyond merely monetary criteria. The term “poverty” has been replaced by “social exclusion” which in turn has been replaced by “social inclusion”, and more recently by “social justice”. The purpose of this paper is to compare the meaning of these terms both within the context of the theory, and in the minds of those who are practitioners in this area of expertise. The paper presents the results from a survey of key players operating within the Scottish social inclusion framework, with respect to their understanding of the meaning of these concepts and discusses some of the implications that they have for the operation of such projects in practice. The research identifies a lack of understanding of the differences between the terms and discusses how this may impact on ‘social inclusion’ projects.

Keywords
Poverty; social inclusion; social exclusion; Scotland