Discourses of Social Exclusion: An Analysis of Bringing Britain Together: a National Strategy for Neighbourhood Renewal

Author: Watt Paul   Jacobs Keith  

Publisher: Routledge Ltd

ISSN: 1403-6096

Source: Housing, Theory and Society, Vol.17, Iss.1, 2000-07, pp. : 14-26

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Abstract

This paper provides a discursive analysis of the UK Government's Social Exclusion Unit report Bringing Britain together: a national strategy for neighbourhood renewal (SEU, 1998a). The methodology makes use of the three-fold categorization of discourses of social exclusion developed by Levitas (1998) with reference to contemporary British politics and social policy. This framework is used to interpret the ideological and political significance of the Social Exclusion Unit's report. Our aim is to show how certain terms and key arguments within the document legitimize activity and structure the parameters of policy intervention. Particular emphasis is given to how “poor neighbourhoods” and “housing problems” are represented within the report in relation to the three discourses of social exclusion. We suggest that despite the report's claims to novelty with regard to policies on urban regeneration, there are considerable areas of overlap with previous area-based approaches to tackling “social exclusion”.