Chapter 7: Social Inclusion

Textbook: The Age of Sustainable Development 

Three dimensions of social inclusion:

1. The first dimension of social inclusion addresses income and wealth inequality.
2. The second addresses discrimination through legal channels: laws in many parts of the world continue to discriminate against some groups.
3. The third involves discrimination through cultural and social norms.

Six ethical approaches to social inclusion: i) Virtue ethics, ii) Monotheistic religions, iii) Deontological ethics/"duty ethics", iv) Utilitarianism, v) Libertarianism, and vi) Human rights. 

• The human rights philosophy holds that every human being on the planet has basic human rights that must be protected by the society. There are five basic categories of such rights: political, civil. economic, social and cultural rights. This approach says that societies must organize themselves, perhaps through taxation and provision of public services, to secure individuals' rights to health, education and means of livelihood. The human rights approach is the dominant framework of the current international system of nations. (cf. UDHR)
• The focus on meeting universal basic needs can be justified through the lens of human rights or through the lens of utilitarianism. We sometimes call basic need "merit good." Merit goods are those goods and services that should be accessible by all individuals in society irrespective of an individual's ability to pay. Health and education are both widely judged to be merit goods.

Divided Societies 

• Social inclusion aims for broad-based prosperity, for eliminating discrimination, for equal protection under the laws, for enabling everybody to meet basic needs, and for high social mobility (p.232).
• Ethnic diversity is sometimes measured along linguistic lines...what is called ethnolinguistic fractionalization, a measure of similarity or difference in the spoken languages in a population. When fractionalization is high, inequality is often high as well, with some groups dominating others politically and economically.
• So too are the political responses, the extent to which power is used to reduce inequalities (e.g., through tax-and-transfer policies) or the extent to which power is used to exacerbate inequalities (e.g., through displacing indigenous populations from traditional lands). Inequality is therefore a legacy of power, history, economy, and individual differences, amplified or diminished through the power of the state (p.238).

Forces of Widening Inequalities

1. One key factor is the rising gap in earnings between high-skilled and low-skilled workers. The returns to education have increased markedly, leaving those with less education behind. The rising earnings premium to education probably reflect the combined forces of globalization and technological changes, both of which have been to the disadvantage of less-educated workers.
2. use of robotics, advanced data management systems, and other information technologies.
3. the political system. In some political systems, government forces resist the widening inequality by providing extra help to lower-skilled workers, such as job training, tax cuts, or added family benefits. These countries may call on the higher-skilled workers to take on some extra societal responsibilities, such as increased tax payments to support the transfers to the lower-earning households. 

Gender Inequalities

• UNDP GII (Gender Inequality Index)

hdr.undp.orgi

• The gender pay gap in OECD countries

data.oecd.org

• The gender gap in education enrollment has been improved due to international campaigns. (continued to Chapter 8) 

Data Activities & Discussion

A. Age at first marriage (Group)

1. Go to https://www.gapminder.org/tools/ and plot the age at first marriage for women against income.
2. What was the average age at first marriage in Sweden, China, and Niger in 2005?
3. Which countries had low age at first marriage among the countries had above $20,000 income in 2005?
4. Did you know any reasons Jamaica's average age was the highest?
5. Approximately, in what year did almost all Western European countries rise above an age at first marriage of 26? What are the results of your analysis?

B. Human Rights (Group)

1. Go to http://indicators.ohchr.org/ to find the status of Brazil, China, Japan, and the USA. 
2. When did these countries sign the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women?
3. When did they ratify the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights?
4. What are the results of your analysis of the two questions? 

Japanese entry

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