Understanding social exclusion from an intra-group cross-cultural perspective

ack of resources, rights, goods and services plus the limited ability of participation in mainstream society are the key underlying indicators of social exclusion that would result in the lowering of quality of life and a unequal and un-cohesive society (Levitas et al., 2007). The application of social exclusion in addressing poverty and other disadvantages is popular in the Western cultural context. A cross-cultural understanding of older adults from diverse culture is lacking. Using qualitative data in-depth personal interviews with 48 65 years and older Chinese in different cultural contexts in China and Canada, we delineated how the manifestation of social exclusion may vary according to the socio-cultural context relevant to the circumstance of the older adults. While finance is important in the conceptualization of social exclusion, particularly in China, exclusion related to family and social relationships for different reasons emerged explicitly as a common theme in China and Canada. Institutionalization of age-related discrimination or isolation was another emerging dimension of social exclusion in China where older adults also perceived occupation and rural-urban background as an important factor. While Western societies often attempt to address social exclusion through redistribution of tangible resources, a holistic emphasis on the human and relational factors for those who are closely linked to the root of their cultural heritage is important. It is important to adopt a culturally fluid and flexible perspective for understanding a social construct that is heavily embedded in the local socio-economic, cultural, and political contexts of the older adults.