ancient cities

importance of services, the decline in stable employment
in big manufacturing firms, and the increasing
heterogeneity and instability of households.
The roots of social exclusion can only be analyzed
adequately by looking at developments occurring
on different spatial scales. Globalization and social
exclusion are related or, in David Harvey’s terms,
the excluded are the losers in the game of globalization
and flexible accumulation. As Jamie Gough
and Aram Eisenschitz argue, social exclusion, by
definition, is associated with and concentrated in
certain places and located at all scales. This does
not mean that all of the excluded live in excluded
places or that excluded places are only inhabited
by the excluded. Such a dichotomy does not work
well in real life. Rather, on all scales, exclusion will
be more common in some places than in others.
The role of the neighborhood in exclusion processes,
for example, plays a different part in different
countries and cities, in addition to being
contingent on the physical and social structure of
the neighborhood itself. If one takes an individualized
definition of exclusion—that is, an older
definition of poverty—location is insignificant, as
it is merely a place where poor people live.
Neighborhoods are then passive: They are places
where poor people live, but they have no influence
on poverty itself. Yet, there is another possibility,
which is that neighborhoods cause, affect, or intervene
in exclusion processes in such a way that
exclusion becomes exacerbated or limited, depending
on what happens at the neighborhood level.
The fear of crime, for example, is directly associated
with perceptions of the physical deterioration
of an area, and this fear may intensify already
existing patterns of exclusion. In addition, the concentration
of excluded people in a neighborhood
may have an influence by itself on exclusion processes,
and Paul Spicker therefore rightly claims
that the problems of poor areas cannot be reduced
to problems of poor people within those areas.
Manuel B. Aalbers
See also Banlieue; Divided Cities; Racialization
Further Readings
Berghman, J. 1995. “Social Exclusion in Europe: Policy
Context and Analytical Framework.” Pp. 10–28 in
Beyond the Threshold: The Measurement and Analysis
of Social Exclusion, edited by G. Room. Bristol, UK:
Policy Press.
Social Housing
735
de Haan, A. 1998. “‘Social Exclusion’: An Alternative
Concept for the Study of Deprivation?” IDS Bulletin
29(1):10–19.
Gough, J., A. Eisenschitz, with A. McCulloch. 2006.
Spaces of Social Exclusion. Abingdon, UK: Routledge.
Harvey, D. 1989. The Condition of Postmodernity: An
Enquiry into the Origins of Cultural Change. Oxford,
UK: Blackwell.
Lenoir, R. 1974. Les exclus: Un français sur dix. Paris:
Seuil.
Room, G. 1995. “Poverty and Social Exclusion: The New
European Agenda for Policy and Research.” Pp. 1–9
in Beyond the Threshold: The Measurement and
Analysis of Social Exclusion, edited by G. Room.
Bristol, UK: Policy Press.
———. 1999. “Social Exclusion, Solidarity and the
Challenge of Globalisation.” International Journal of
Social Welfare 8:166–74.
Schuyt, C. J. M. 2000. “Essay: Sociale uitsluiting.”
Pp. 13–23 in Sociale uitsluiting, edited by
C. J. M. Schuyt and C. A. Voorham. Amsterdam: SWP.
Sen, A. K. 1992. Inequality Reexamined. Oxford, UK:
Clarendon.
Sibley, D. 1995. Geographies of Exclusion. London:
Routledge.
Spicker, P. 2001. “Poor Areas and the ‘Ecological
Fallacy.’” Radical Statistics 76. Retrieved April 20,
2009 (http://www.radstats.org.uk/no076/spicker.htm).
Townsend, P. 1993. The International Analysis of
Poverty. Hemel Hempstead, UK: Harvester
Wheatsheaf.
So c i a l ho u S i n g
Social housing is a collective term for the public
service provision of decent and safe, subsidized shelter
for eligible low-income families or other vulnerable
groups, such as the elderly and persons with
disabilities, in a society. Subsidies may be direct or
indirect, in the form of direct housing subsidies,
nonprofit housing, public housing, cooperative
housing, or rent supplements for people living in
private sector housing. There are many variations
or forms of social housing. It may be undertaken by
a wide range of housing actors, including government,
housing associations, and nonprofit organizations.
Given the responsibility of governments in
social housing, it is sometimes referred to as subsidized
housing or public housing. Social housing also
includes emergency housing and short-term shelters
for specific social purposes.