Stoyanka Cherkezova
Papers of BAS. Humanities and Social Sciences
Vol. 7, 2020, No. 2
How should we study social exclusion?
Enhancing analysis by operationalising the concept
Stoyanka Cherkezova
Abstract. Social exclusion is an interdisciplinary concept. It first emerged in the framework of political discourse. There is thus still some vagueness about its definition. Furthermore, its operationalisation for the purposes of quantitative studies holds a number of challenges related to access to information and the nature of the data, the selection of domains of exclusion, and sifting out the category of the truly excluded. The paper discusses important aspects of the concept of social exclusion that might complement and enrich analyses. It contributes to the operationalisation of social exclusion by exploiting the potential of one of the theoretical directions of the conception of quality of life and exploring the connections between the two concepts. The paper proposes an analytical framework for research based on the link between social exclusion’s subjective and objective aspects, and including the notions: needs, values and satisfaction.
Keywords: social exclusion, quality of life, needs, values, methodology