Understanding social exclusion: the views of the UK public

Despite considerable policy interest, how the public understand and respond to the concept of social exclusion is not well understood within academic social research. Involving the public in such debates is important in establishing the political acceptability of social scientific concepts and in ensuring that operational definitions and measures faithfully reflect lived experiences. This paper draws on qualitative development work preparatory to the 2012 UK Poverty and Social Exclusion Survey in examining public understandings of what it means to experience social exclusion in the UK today. Our findings demonstrate the feasibility and desirability of including the public in policy debates in this area.