THE PROBLEM OF DEFINITION AND OPERATIONALISATION OF THE SOCIAL EXCLUSION CONCEPT

Text topic: METHODOLOGY OF MODERN SOCIAL RESEARCH – PROBLEMS AND PERSPECTIVES

Text author: Јована Зубац

Social exclusion appears as one of the main problems of modern societies. It is a process in which individuals or groups exclude themselves from opportunities, possibilities and rights a rising from political, economic and social spheres, as guaranteed by the organization of a particular society. One of the basic problems that sociologists and other researchers encounter is obviously different,often incomplete definition of social exclusion, which in many ways makes research difficult. For this reason, the problem of defining and operationalising of the notion of social exclusion is a very important step in investigating this phenomenon. There is a very small number of attempts to operationalise this term in literature, and there is often no difference between the concepts of social exclusion and poverty,since the concept of social exclusion is often used as a substitute for the notion of poverty. Within this paper, the problem of defining social exclusion, basic approaches, dimensions and its operationalisation will be discussed. The subject of this research is an analysis of the social exclusion concept. The aim of the paper is to use the method of definition of the term through creation of a precise and complete primarily sociological definition of the social exclusion concept and through analysis of its dimensions, to operationalise this notion and find indicators relevant to this research.