Understanding Social Exclusion from a Longitudinal Perspective: A Capability-Based Approach

Abstract

This paper proposes a coherent operational framework, grounded in the capability approach, for interpreting mid-life social exclusion in a more comprehensive manner. For this purpose, a longitudinal perspective based on life-stages is adopted to improve understanding of the ways in which social inequality and the transmission of disadvantages throughout an individual's lifespan affect mid-life social exclusion. The paper is relevant to three aspects of current debate on social exclusion. Firstly, it clarifies the added value of longitudinal assessment of the processes entailed in social exclusion and provides an analytical framework for re-conceptualizing such processes using the capability approach as a reference theory. Secondly, it suggests a strategy for identifying pertinent dimensions for assessing mid-life social exclusion. Thirdly, it applies a quantitative technique based on latent variables that has been only partially used for analysing social exclusion previously. To this end, the 1970 British Cohort Study is used to derive empirical indicators and a structural equation model to operationalize the theoretical framework proposed.

Keywords:

• Social exclusion
• Capability approach
• Structural equation model

Acknowledgements

This paper has benefited from the valuable comments of Sara Bonfanti, Enrica Chiappero Martinetti, Maria Laura Di Tommaso, Björn Halleröd and numerous participants in seminars at the 2012 Annual Conference of the Human Development and Capability Association in Jakarta. The author also wishes to thank the Editor and two anonymous referees for their valuable comments and suggestions for improving the quality of the paper. The author is grateful to the Centre for Longitudinal Studies, Institute of Education, for the use of these data and to the UK Data Archive and Economic and Social Data Service for making them available. However, they bear no responsibility for any errors in the analysis or interpretation of these data. Funding for this project has been provided by the European Commission within the framework of the FP7 Marie Curie ITN “Education as Welfare—Enhancing Opportunities for Socially Vulnerable Youth in Europe” programme (http://www.eduwel-eu.org).

About the Author

Agnese Peruzzi has recently completed her Phd in Economics, Law and Institutions at the Institute for Advanced Studies (Pavia), with a thesis on “Latent Variable Approaches to the Study of the ‘Long Arm’ of Childhood Disadvantages”. From August 2010 to July 2013, Agnese was employed as Early Stage Researcher at the Human Development Capability and Poverty International Research Centre (HDCP-IRC), within the Marie Curie project “Education as Welfare—Enhancing opportunities for socially vulnerable youth in Europe” (EduWel). Research interests cover economics of education and a wide range of aspects of well-being, including social exclusion and multidimensional approaches to poverty and inequality with special reference to the capability approach.

Notes

1. The Treaty of Amsterdam (1997), the Nice Treaty (2001) and the Lisbon Treaty (2007) present the fight against social exclusion as a priority of the European Union.

2. A strategy for identifying the relevant dimensions of social exclusion is provided in the next paragraph.

3. Note that the precise meaning of social exclusion and its appropriate indicators vary between age groups.

4. Indeed, as the capability approach stresses, the ability to transform a given set of resources into valuable opportunities is not exogenous but depends on several conversion factors. The proposed framework can be extended to take into account individual heterogeneity. However, this issue is not addressed in the present study, where we restrict our search to examining the transmission of disadvantages over time in the general population.

5. For brevity's sake, hereafter we use the abbreviations “C”, “Y” and “A” for “childhood”, “adolescence” and “adulthood”, respectively.

6. The British Ability Scales test is one of the most common intelligence tests in the UK.

7. In the UK during the 1970s there were two types of examinations a student could pass at sixteen: the Certificate of Secondary Education (CSE) and the Ordinary (O-level) examinations for the General Certificate of Education (GCE). Both examinations were subject based and grades were awarded on the basis of performance, ranging from one to five (or from A to E). Generally GCE grades of D and E were classed as failures. There is a recognized equivalence between the two systems, with a grade 1 CSE being considered equal to at least a grade C GCE pass.

8. For technical reasons connected with the linear dependency between employment status and the other indicators, we have decided to collapse the information provided by employment status into the other indicators, which are now treated as ordinal variables in three categories.

9. Hu and Bentler (1999) suggest the Comparative Fit Index (CFI) >0.95, the Tucker-Lewis Index (TLI) >0.95 and the Root Mean Square Error of Approximation (RMSEA) >0.06 as cut-off criteria for categorical outcomes. These criteria are met by the model.

10. In standardized solutions, the metrics of both the indicators and the latent factors are standardized and factor loadings can be interpreted as the correlation of each indicator with its latent factor. We only report the standardized coefficients because their magnitudes can be compared with one another.

11. is calculated by squaring the completely standardized factor loading.

12. The tables report standard errors for the unstandardized results only.