The Struggle against Social Exclusion at the Local Level: Diversity and Convergence in European Cities

Abstract

This article is based on the results of the European comparative research project ESOPO (Evaluation of Social Policies at the Local Urban Level: Income Support for the Able-Bodied) directed by Chiara Saraceno (Saraceno, 2002). The research explored the  configuration and impact of income support programmes in favour of able-bodied individuals in 13 cities of 6 European countries.2
In the face of rising unemployment and for a growing section of the population the difficulty of finding a steady job, most European countries have adopted anti-poverty strategies. Minimum income benefit in various forms constitutes a central element of
income support for disadvantaged populations. Although its stated objective is often the same – to combat exclusion – there is a fairly large degree of heterogeneity in the way this policy is organized at local level, even in strongly centralized countries.
Beyond simply revealing institutional differences, the comparative study of local experiences gives us a closer understanding of the rationale according to which each city – with its own mode of development, political and social history, culture, associative or community resources and, more broadly, the characteristics of its civil society – structures its anti-poverty strategies. Comparative analysis of local situations has the advantage of highlighting the different complexity of the processes at work, as well as of the local configurations which result from them. These may involve arrangements and relationships between public institutions, intermediate
organizations, the Church, family networks and local community. Moreover, such an approach allows us to discern both the diversified forms and levels of intervention of these various actors and the principles involved by looking at the interaction between
people and institutions.
In drawing on this research which is focused on a comparative study of the models of anti-poverty social policies, we will discuss some important issues. First, we will argue that poverty cannot be separated from the social conditions which generate it
and from the social structures in which it is embedded. Second, we will demonstrate that the comparative study of anti-poverty models enables us to define more precisely the systems that mobilize resources other than those implemented on the basis of well
known and formalized criteria. In fact they are sometimes very localized and based on particular arrangements between the public sphere and the civil society. Finally, we will show how these local systems that implement anti-poverty social policies are not
necessarily leading to strong institutionalization and public regulation through a linear process of modernization. Although the challenge of social integration is driving all countries towards greater intervention, it is also obliging them to introduce new and
more flexible forms of regulations.