Race', housing and social exclusion

The paper begins with an overview of the ways in which the concept of 'social exclusion' has been employed in both academic and political and media discourse. In the context of 'race' and housing, the term is most often seen in debates about inequalities between majority and minority communities. These inequalities form the basis of the next two sections of the paper: the first dealing with the national evidence, the second with a case study of Bradford District. The paper then looks at how the academic literature has traditionally theorised these inequalities, and asks whether the exclusion paradigm adds anything of value to these debates. It is concluded that whilst the concept may well be of use in drawing attention in policy circles to questions of inequality, it is rather less worthwhile in the context of sociological debates. It has tended to be used in numerous disparate senses thus potentially obscuring (rather then clarifying) issues, is little more than a descriptive label, and has lent itself to a form of sloganeering which may stifle rather than encourage debate.