The above findings should not be used to simply rule out the use of the concept of social exclusion. The exaggeration in its use, under the initial impulse of that rhetoric so common in the 80s about what was called “the society of two thirds”, should not be detrimental to its usefulness to describe and study qualitatively important phenomena in contemporary societies. It is, fundamentally, the existence of pockets of deprivation and exclusion that, precisely because they are globally very limited and minority, cannot be detected, much less studied using the type of tools used by the aforementioned studies. In representative samples of a society as a whole, the individuals who are part of these pockets of exclusion are diluted and are reduced to individual exceptions. However, when these exceptions live in groups, processes occur that must not be lost sight of since they can have a social significance that is much greater than the merely quantitative importance of the people who make up those groups.
This point is crucial not only from the point of view of research methods but above all to understand what we can call “deep social exclusion”,[7] which is always collective and radically different from that experienced individually. It is one thing to be unemployed or poor, or to have limited access to a series of basic resources and live a life of great social isolation but to do so as an exception in social environments mostly composed of people who do not live in those situations; It is quite another thing to do it as part of a group that overwhelmingly shares those characteristics. In the first case we have an individual in a difficult situation, who will also live under the stigma of an environmental culture where inclusion and social participation are the norm. In the second case, a culture of exclusion and collective forms of life and social mobilization are formed that reflect the situation of exclusion. In the first case we are faced with a regrettable fact and undoubtedly worthy of attention but of limited social relevance; In the second we are faced with a fact that, although as a whole it does not affect too many people, it can give rise to social conflicts of great importance and become a real threat to social cohesion. Thus, a true rupture of the social bond that Durkheim spoke of could occur along with the formation of a kind of alternative culture or even a counterculture, a form of that “culture of poverty” that Oscar Lewis studied already in the 1950s.[8].
This is a perspective that, among others, allows us to understand events such as the dramatic urban riots that devastated so many French cities in October and November 2005.
Having said this, we must not forget one of the most outstanding characteristics that these areas often show, namely, their high level of population turnover. This fact is well known thanks to the now classic American studies on the surprising changes that the population and ethnic composition of urban ghettos has been experiencing.[9].
Recent studies carried out in Sweden show the same characteristic: the annual population turnover ranges between a fifth and a quarter of the inhabitants of the most destitute neighborhoods, especially when they have a high or very high proportion of immigrant population.[10] The “ghetto” is therefore, in reality, something very different from what the word ghetto itself suggests. It is not a closed and isolated area but rather the scene of many birds of passage, often recent arrivals, who find their first residence in the poorest areas of urban geography and then continue their journey. However, the research also shows that in areas of high vulnerability and deprivation there remains a permanent remnant that can be described as “the excluded” and that give their particular social and cultural atmosphere to those areas. In any case, the existence of pockets of exclusion that today take the form of urban ghettos with high concentrations of immigrants or ethnic minorities forms an object of study and public attention of the highest relevance. For this reason, it is pertinent to continue working and delving deeper into the issue of social exclusion, but leaving aside the exaggerations committed until now and providing a correct diagnosis of “deep social exclusion”, which requires adequate study and measurement tools to understand a phenomenon that escapes our usual statistics.
The use of sport as a mechanism to achieve development and social inclusion is widely spread throughout the world, even though rigorous evidence on the effectiveness of this type of intervention is scarce. In this context, CAF is carrying out a research agenda whose objective is to achieve a better understanding of the potential of regular football practice as a way to promote the development and accumulation of skills in children and young people. To do this, they carried out two studies, one in Colombia and the other in Peru, which both had a sample of more than 1,600 young people.
The results of both evaluations allow us to conclude that football for development programs could be beneficial, as long as attention is paid to how they are implemented and who they focus on. Otherwise, they can cause negative effects on the beneficiaries, especially behavioral problems and aggression. In this sense, these programs have the potential to generate positive changes on socio-emotional and cognitive dimensions when implemented under low-competition environments. Finally, the maximum potential of these programs, in the short term, is obtained when they focus on children from 8 to 13 years old.[11].
More than 59.5 million people have been forced to leave their homes globally, of which 19.5 million are classified as refugees. Refugee resettlement programs are offered to those with special needs or who must be relocated to countries other than those in which they initially sought protection. Currently, 28 countries offer these programs, which have as one of their objectives the economic integration of refugees, through training, education and mental health services. However, resettled refugees often experience high levels of unemployment and poverty.
A review of 23 studies examining the outcomes of refugees who have been part of a resettlement program found that none of the studies met the inclusion criteria for the review. Therefore, it is not known with certainty how to help refugees improve their economic integration. This does not imply that these programs have no effects, it is just that it is not known what they are. This lack of knowledge is surprising, given the political importance of such programs, the levels of investment and the number of people affected. This knowledge gap must be overcome with more rigorous research.[12].