Global processes such as migration, capital mobility, technology transfer, and the dissemination of information, policy orientations, and social welfare practices affect the quality of life and distribution of opportunities for people in local areas across the globe. The concept of social exclusion has been used to describe the conditions of economic, social, political, and/or cultural marginalization experienced by particular groups of people, and has served as a framework for shaping policy responses to inequality and marginalization. By focusing on social exclusion and responses to it, this edited volume examines the differential impacts global processes have on shaping and responding to social exclusion in varying contexts.

Social Exclusion in Cross-National Perspective: Actors, Actions, and Impacts from Above and Below considers social exclusion and inequality across four countries: China, India, South Korea, and the United States. This book is now available through the Oxford University Press.

In this thirteen-chapter volume, leading scholars from academic institutions in each of the four countries offer insights into how social exclusion is understood and responded to differently across these contexts, and to what ends. Insights presented in this book will be valuable to researchers and academics across the social science disciplines.   

Social Exclusion in Cross-National Perspective was co-edited by the University of Chicago School of Social Service Administration (SSA) McCormick Foundation Professor and Deputy Dean for Strategic Initiatives Robert J. Chaskin, SSA alumnus Bong Joo Lee, PhD ’92, professor at Seoul National University and Surinder Jaswal, professor at the Tata Institute of Social Sciences in Mumbai.

“The book provides a comparative analysis of social exclusion in the context of globalization and how it is being addressed by both government policy and civil society. Our goal was to leverage these comparisons to tease out some of the implications for research, policy, and on-the-ground practice in order to better understand and respond to social exclusion toward the development of more just, equitable, and inclusive societies,” explains Chaskin.

Three other SSA faculty members also contributed to chapters in the book, including Professor Colleen Grogan, Samuel Deutsch Professor Mark E. Courtney, and Associate Professor Jennifer Mosley.