THE STRUGGLE AGAINST SOCIAL EXCLUSION - URBAN SOCIAL-DEVELOPMENT IN FRANCE

This article looks at the extensive French policies concerned with pre venting social exclusion, and it considers what this means on the grou nd using the example of a particular region in north western France. I t looks at the background to the programmes generally known as urban o r local social development, their goals and evaluations of their impac t. II argues that the strength of the programmes lies in their attempt to reconstruc the welfare stale in the context of changes in labour m arkets, by promoting local associative ties and a strong third sector, in getting progessionals working more strategically, and in insisting on principles of inclusion (insertion) rather than exclusion. Things are more problematic in the realisation of community participation, an d there are confusions in the conceptualisation of exclusion which mea n that goals are not always clear.