SOCIAL EXCLUSION AND SOCIAL SOLIDARITY - 3 PARADIGMS

Since the mid-70s the economic restructuring of advanced capitalist de mocracies has revealed the outdated nature of universal social policie s and the declining representativeness of secure life and family patte rns. Terms such as ''social exclusion'', ''new poverty'', ''the underc lass'' have emerged to describe such phenomena. After clarifying the m ultiple connotations of these terms, the author adopts a pluridimensio nal, multidisciplinary approach to distinguish the theoretical bases o f three paradigms (solidarity, specialization and monopoly) to enable a better understanding of exclusion. She illustrates the paradigms wit h theories addressing the economic dimension of exclusion before, fina lly, considering its significance in politics and social policy.