Social exclusion and Africa south of the Sahara: A review of the literature

Review for sub-Saharan Africa, examines the English-language literature and focuses on four important dimensions of exclusion: (i) exclusion from agricultural land; (ii) exclusion from agricultural livelihood; (iii) exclusion from formal and informal employment; (iv) exclusion from organization and representation.

Paper is organized in six sections. The first section discusses concepts of exclusion. The main body of the review examines the four dimensions of exclusion listed above. In each of the sections, material is selected to exemplify different analytical positions, and the review is not intended to be exhaustive. In each section, attention is paid to processes of exclusion, and to ethnicity and gender as social identities which form the basis for exclusionary practices. The final section identifies considers the trajectory of exclusion in terms of changing interrelationships between the dimensions. The discussions on the four dimensions of exclusion include some comments on policies to combat social exclusion, but no attempt is made to provide an overview of policies. There are important, relevant and complex debates proceeding in relation to a number of key policy issues, including land reform (through the introduction of individual titles to land); democracy; gender; and dismantling apartheid. [author]