CHAPTER 1 Social Exclusion and Social Policy Research: Defining Exclusion Jane Millar University of Bath, United Kingdom ABSTRACT This chapter examines recent social policy research on social exclusion, exploring the way in which the term has been conceptualized and defined. It discusses research on the mul- tidimensional measurement of social exclusion, on the process of social exclusion, and on the use of social indicators to monitor trends in social exclusion across countries over time. The empirical research that has captured and measured multidimensional disadvan- tage has identified various dimensions, including material and situational circumstances, with the aim of exploring the extent of social exclusion. The research indicates that there is a degree of consensus in the social policy literature and that material poverty is not the same as social exclusion. Overall, the results from these studies tend to suggest that, although some people and groups experience relatively high rates of social exclusion as measured by these indicators, there is not a large degree of overlap across the various dimensions. INTRODUCTION Social exclusion is a concept that has increasingly entered the policy discourse in recent years. For example, the UK Government is committed to reducing social exclusion and has established a new department, the Social Exclusion Unit, to develop innovative policy proposals (also see Hale & FitzGerald, Chapter 8 and Gordon, Chapter 11). The European Union has agreed to tackle the issue of social exclusion through the development of national plans of action, and has identified a set of statistical indicators for measuring social inclusion. Also, there has been a substantial investment in research, examining social exclusion and the relationship between social exclusion, poverty and citizenship. This chapter focuses on recent research in social exclusion within the field of social policy. It has four main sections. The first considers how the concept of social exclusion has been Multidisciplinary Handbook of Social Exclusion Research. Edited by D. Abrams, J. Christian and D. Gordon. © 2007 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd. COPYRIGHTED MATERIAL