Geographies of welfare and social exclusion: dimensions, consequences and methods

In the first of this series of reports I reviewed research into social polarization, segregation and exclusion. The focus was very much on material dimensions of exclusion, and this report is an attempt to examine work on some wider social dimensions of exclusion. Thus, in addition to highlighting important work which continues to appear on sociospatial polarization, I also consider work on access to basic necessities: housing, food and communications. I then outline work which has considered some ramifications of exclusion in relation to crime, health and social cohesion. I conclude with some reflections on the range of methods now being deployed to understand exclusion. There is an Anglo-American bias to this – indeed an Anglocentric bias – but the focus on a small range of societies helps to highlight the overlapping nature of some of the dimensions of social exclusion and the underlying processes.