THE INCLUSIVE SOCIETY?

THE INCLUSIVE SOCIETY?

Also by Ruth Levitas THE IDEOLOGY OF THE NEW RIGHT (editor) THE CONCEPT OF UTOPIA INTERPRETING OFFICIAL STATISTICS (editor with Will Guy)

The Inclusive Society? Social Exclusion and New Labour Ruth Levitas Senior Lecturer in Sociology University of Bristol

Ruth Levitas 1998 Softcover reprint of the hardcover 1st edition 1998 978-0-333-73086-7 All rights reserved. No reproduction, copy or transmission of this publication may be made without written permission. No paragraph of this publication may be reproduced, copied or transmitted save with written permission or in accordance with the provisions of the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988, or under the terms of any licence permitting limited copying issued by the Copyright Licensing Agency, 90 Tottenham Court Road, London W1P 9HE. Any person who does any unauthorised act in relation to this publication may be liable to criminal prosecution and civil claims for damages. The author has asserted her right to be identified as the author of this work in accordance with the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988. First published 1998 by MACMILLAN PRESS LTD Houndmills, Basingstoke, Hampshire RG21 6XS and London Companies and representatives throughout the world ISBN 978-0-333-73087-4 ISBN 978-0-230-37252-8 (ebook) DOI 10.1057/9780230372528 A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library. This book is printed on paper suitable for recycling and made from fully managed and sustained forest sources. 10 9 8 7 6 5 4 07 06 05 04 03 02 01 3 2 1 00 99 98

For my father, Maurice Levitas. No pasanin!

Contents Acknowledgements List of Abbreviations ix Xl Introduction 1 1 Three Discourses of Social Exclusion 7 2 From Social Justice to Social Cohesion 29 3 The Optimism of Will 49 4 Staking Claims 70 5 Community Rules 89 6 New Labour, New Discourse 112 7 From Equality to Inclusion 128 8 Delivering Social Inclusion 159 9 The New Durkheimian Hegemony 178 Appendix 190 Notes 192 Select Bibliography 211 Index 216 vii

Acknowledgements This book is based on a project funded by the ESRC on Discourses of Social Exclusion and Integration in Emergent Labour Party Policy (R000222106). I am grateful for their support, which provided a year free from teaching and administrative commitments in 1996-7, and enabled me to give my undivided attention to the events of the preelection period. Special thanks are due to my research assistant, Gail Hebson, who worked with dedication and flair, and maintained her sanity and good humour despite watching more television interviews with politicians than the average human being can withstand. Neither completion of the research project nor this book would have been possible without her. The project arose from the Equity, Labour and Social Divisions Research Initiative in the Faculty of Social Sciences at the University of Bristol in 1994-5. I am grateful to members of the research group for those early discussions of social exclusion, especially Teresa Rees and Steve Fenton who made invaluable comments on the first draft of the research proposal, and Randall Smith who steered me through the arcane rules of the European Union structural funds. The interest and enthusiasm of staff and students in the Sociology Department has been a great encouragement. Mary Bruce of the Labour Party's Information Subscription Service was enormously helpful in supplying us with relevant material. Discussions with past and present members of the Labour Party, especially in Bristol, have been vital to my understanding of the changes over recent years. I am especially grateful to Mary Southcott for explaining the workings of the Policy Forum, enabling me to make sense of the constitutional debate at the 1997 Labour Party Conference; and to Sandra Parsons and Ruairi Tobin for their hospitality during the Conference itself. Thanks are due also to Will Hutton, for finding time to talk to me about some of the issues in Chapter 3. I have had many critical and helpful comments on papers which have fed into the chapters in this book, from participants in the British Sociological Association Conference in York; the Capital and Class Conference in London; the Third European Feminist Conference in Coimbra; the European Sociological Association in Colchester; and the Centre for the Analysis of Social Exclusion at the London School ix

X Acknowledgements of Economics. Others have read all or parts of the manuscript, sometimes in several drafts, or sent me useful material. Among these, I would like to thank the following in particular for help, advice and encouragement: Louise Ackers, John Holmwood, Julian Le Grand, Paul Watt, Dan Finn, Gail Hebson, Carol Johnson, Maggie Studholme, Harriet Bradley, Jackie West, Stella Maile and Rob Hunter. Maggie Studholme also copy-edited the manuscript - not, in this case, a thankless task. Particular thanks are due to Diana Levitas, for sisterhood, and for taking more than her share of the responsibilities which fall on the sandwich generation; to Gail Hebson, for commitment and friendship beyond the call of duty; to Harriet Bradley, for friendship, collegiality, intellectual rigour and gin; and to Rob Hunter, for forbearance, political commitment, food and fellowship, and fun.

List of Abbreviations AFDC ASI CASE CPAG CPRS CPS CSQ GDP GNP GUMG lea IPPR LSE MAl NEF ONS RMI SAU SERA SERPS SEU TANF Aid to Families with Dependent Children Adam Smith Institute Centre for the Analysis of Social Exclusion Child Poverty Action Group Central Policy Review Staffs Centre for Policy Studies Central Statistical Office Gross Domestic Product Gross National Product Glasgow University Media Group Institute of Economic Mfairs Institute for Public Policy Research London School of Economics Multilateral Agreement on Investment New Economics Foundation Office of National Statistics Revenu Minimum D'Insertion Social Mfairs Unit Socialist Environment and Resources Association State Earnings Related Pension Scheme Social Exclusion Unit Temporary Assistance to Needy Families xi