Social exclusion: an international perspective on the role of the State,communities and public libraries in tackling social exclusion

This is the second of two linked papers reviewing social exclusion at an international level and follows from the critique of globalism in the first paper^*. The paper applies Miller’s ‘models of communities’ and ‘roles of the State’ (exclusive diversity, voluntary inclusion, required inclusion and inclusive diversity) to economic and political systems in different countries. It then applies different sets of performance indicators to different countries, specifically considering indicators in the areas of literacy, education and libraries. It is argued that social exclusion is best tackled using an approach based on required inclusion or inclusive diversity, rather than on the basis of exclusive diversity or voluntary inclusion. The joint conclusion of both this and the linked paper is that social exclusion cannot be separated from a country’s political system. Social exclusion can therefore only be alleviated, by libraries and other agencies, in emerging economies, capitalist and majority world countries. Recommendations are made.