Masters in Public Administration - MPA / In recent years the concept of public participation has been embraced by governments around the world to promote citizen involvement in decision making processes both to deepen local democracy and to ensure greater effectiveness in the delivery of public services. Implementing effective participatory systems, however, has proven to be especially challenging in highly diverse societies. Despite the best intentions of policy makers, the issue of exclusion, in particular, remains problematic as participatory systems frequently fail to address the concerns of poor communities who may not even be aware of their existence. Taking as a case study the C3 notification system introduced by the City of Cape Town to facilitate citizen reporting on faulty public services, this study examined the extent to which the design and implementation of a participatory model is of benefit to poor communities in the township of Langa. Based on a qualitative methodology, which included a series of interviews with municipal officials and office bearers as well as residents of Langa, the research examined the extent to which the notification system is used by local communities and to what effect. Viewed through the lens of social exclusion theory, the findings point to the fact that the C3 system was not only based on a best-practice model imported from an advanced Western nation, but it was oriented to the needs of more affluent citizens and, as such, it failed to take into account the specific needs of poor households who frequently lack even basic services and hence have nothing to report on. As a consequence, what was intended as a mechanism for promoting greater citizen participation in service delivery processes has effectively excluded a significant proportion of the most poor and vulnerable.

Permanent exclusion is a serious disciplinary measure and the Department for Children, Schools and Families (DCSF, 2008) advises that in most cases it is to be the last resort after a range of measures have been tried to improve a pupil’s behaviour. Following permanent exclusion the local authority (LA) takes responsibility for a pupil’s education and for most cases seeks to reintegrate the pupil into a new school. However the process of reintegration of permanently excluded pupils into mainstream school is regarded as difficult and research has shown that second permanent exclusions frequently occur fairly soon after entering a new school. In the last four years a ‘Hard To Place Pupil Protocol’ (HTPPP) has been published in all LAs as a statutory document. This seeks to encourage all schools to admit a fair share of excluded pupils in a timely manner. There has been no published research on this protocol to date. This study adopts a qualitative case study methodology, influenced by a social constructionist epistemological stance. The participants and methods utilised include interviews with reintegrating pupils, their parents and school staff supporting them, LA reintegration officers and headteachers. Additional methods included a focus group with members of the educational psychology team, a survey to secondary school staff, documentary evidence from pupil files and LA documents, educational psychologist (EP) case work evaluation and a reflexive research diary. This study includes analysis of the findings and presents pertinent themes emerging from the data. The results section indicates that the HTPPP has been effective in increasing the number of pupils being reintegrated. However there are some areas identified as being problematic. These include: decision making, perceived fairness of the protocol, the role of parents and the relationship between the protocol and permanent exclusion. The findings indicate that there are a number of factors that can facilitate or hinder a reintegration. These include: school support, communication, individual pupil attributes, sense of belonging, familial and societal factors and the impact of previous events including the original exclusion. The research findings indicate that EPs recognise their role in supporting the reintegration process through the application of psychological theory and knowledge, supporting complex cases, helping to change perspectives of the ‘problem’, working school staff and obtaining and championing the voice of the child. School staff consider the role of the EP as providing consultation around advice and strategies, it is also about providing a current assessment of a pupil’s educational needs, offering individual therapeutic work with the pupil, supporting home-school relations and enabling a third party perspective. The discussion relates the themes to previous literature and identifies some variation in terms of the factors that facilitate or hinder reintegration, and concluded by questioning the feasibility of establishing such factors. The evidence collected to determine effectiveness of the HTPPP is helpful to establish the way in which it might be adapted to operate in the future. By considering the role of an EP in supporting the process, it is anticipated that the research will contribute to evidence based practice in this area.

Within the framework of urban communication, this thesis attempts to "read" the urban space of West Kabul in Afghanistan, as a social and cultural text in order to understand the social exclusion of the Hazara people, a socially and politically disenfranchised ethnic group who predominantly inhabit that area. Based on data gathered through documentary research and non-participant field observations, this thesis argues that the urban space of West Kabul is the spatial manifestation of a systematic exclusionary process, through which, the Hazara people have been deprived from access to political, economic and cultural resources, services and opportunities. It interprets the city planning, distribution of resources, urbicide, streetscape, architecture and the body as the main sites where the social exclusion of the Hazaras in West Kabul is exercised. This study also provides a discussion about the historical evolution of West Kabul as an ethnic ghetto, as well as the various forms of conflict which led to spatial and social division in Kabul city.

Dans l’optique d’ajouter à la compréhension de la gentrification et en réponse aux développements récents au niveau de la théorisation, cette recherche analyse le rôle des gouvernements locaux dans la production du discours. Pour y arriver, nous utilisons une méthode tripartite qui situe la gentrification à Montréal, identifie et spatialise le discours de l’État local et analyse la perception sociale face à sa concrétisation. Nous expliquons que le lien de causalité entre la gentrification et l’exclusion doit être renversé lorsque le rôle de l’État local est considéré. Ainsi, le gouvernement local crée des catégories d’inclus et d’exclus en construisant un discours autour d’un idéal de développement urbain particulier et encourage par le fait même la gentrification. Ces résultats soulignent l’importance d’insérer la gentrification dans un processus de construction sociopolitique de l’espace urbain et non pas de la considérer simplement comme symptôme de la logique économique capitaliste contemporaine.

The WM sector in Nairobi is a failure. Collection rates are deplorable, regulations go unenforced and the municipal landfill is desecrating the environment and killing neighbouring slum dwellers. This paper focuses on the exclusion and marginalization of the slums adjacent to Nairobi’s landfill, Korogocho and Dandora, and uses a post-structuralist theoretical framework to conceptualize a just response to these exclusions and theorize an inclusive approach to waste policy in Nairobi. Building on the work of Jacques Derrida, I present a ‘deconstructive ethic’ for development that is dedicated to mitigating and overcoming the production of alterity, and reintegrating excluded communities and knowledges into the sites of knowledge and policy creation. This ethic is used to formulate a five-part response to the conditions of exclusion experienced in Korogocho and Dandora, and to engage these populations in finding participatory solutions to the city’s waste problem.

Diploma thesis directs on poverty and social exclusion in the Czech Republic between years 2005 and 2015. The thesis focuses mainly on at risk of poverty rate, at risk of poverty and social exclusion rate and overall comparison of development of selected factors in NUTS 2 regions. The aim is to assess the impact of changes in the structure of education, economic development, employment and unemployment on poverty in selected regions of the Czech Republic and comparison of these regions among themselves. Among the selected regions are Praha, Severovýchod, Jihovýchod and Moravskoslezsko. The main hypothesis is the assumption that regions with lower share of tertiary educated people will show a lower percentage of people at risk of poverty and social exclusion.

This thesis addresses the status of Roma in society, in the educational system and on the labour market. The central theme of the work is primarily the education of Roma children and their integration in the educational system. The thesis is focused on the integration of Roma children into education system and, by extension, into the majority society from an early age. At present some of them attend preparatory classes and nursery schools. This thesis is seeking ways to increase the participation of Roma children in preschool education and seeks alternative options for their inclusion.

Children or young people with Social, Emotional and Behavioural Difficulties (SEBD) are at an increased risk of school exclusion (Hayden, 1997). The support provided through educational psychologists’ engagement in preventative and reactive approaches at the individual, group and systems level for children or young people with SEBDs at risk of school exclusion, is presented in existing research (Clarke & Jenner, 2006; Hardman, 2001; O’Brien & Miller, 2005; Thorne & Ivens, 1999). The studies are, however, limited in providing transferable knowledge into educational psychologists’ practice and accounting for individual level support for crisis management situations for children or young people, at immediate risk of school exclusion. The studies are limited in exploring effective strategies and methods employed by a Specialist Educational Psychologist (SEBD) and the distinctive contribution of Specialist Educational Psychologists’ (SEBD) support. In the present study, a Specialist Educational Psychologist (SEBD) from an Independent Educational Psychology Service was identified to take part in the study. The Participant Specialist Educational Psychologist1 identified two casework examples of positive practice, whereby her input led to positive outcomes for the children with SEBD, at risk of permanent school exclusion. An in-depth single case study design was utilised to explore the strategies and methods employed by the Participant Specialist Educational Psychologist and her unique contribution from the Participant Specialist Educational Psychologist’s perspective and from the perspectives of the school professionals and parents involved in the two caseworks. Semi-structured interviews were used as a data gathering method and were analysed using Braun and Clarke’s (2006) six phased model of thematic analysis. An Integrated Thematic Map was produced made up of Seven Organising Themes. A content analysis was completed on documentary evidence of the Participant Specialist Educational Psychologist’s action plans and was triangulated with aspects of the findings from the thematic analysis. The effective strategies and methods applied by the Participant Specialist Educational Psychologist and the distinctive contribution of her support are described. The study provides ‘new’ and ‘confirmed’ insights into effective practice that aims to contribute to the skill set and knowledge of practitioner educational psychologists and through which, strengthen the support provided to schools for children or young people with SEBD, at risk of permanent school exclusion. The findings also provide insight to the distinctive role of the educational psychologist in effective specialist support and the specialist role within the profession. The insight is considered important in light of the current changes occurring within the profession and the Special Educational Needs (SEN) Review (DfE, 2011a; DfE, 2012a).

L’étude de l’histoire de la faillite de ses origines romaines à sa disparition en 1985 témoigne de l'instrumentalisation de l'humiliation par le droit. Le commerçant incapable d’honorer ses engagements même sans avoir commis de fraude représente un danger pour l’ordre social et une nuisance pour ses créanciers. Un danger qu’il faut neutraliser par tous les moyens. L’humiliation parait alors la meilleure voie pour assurer la visibilité et l’exclusion du commerçant défaillant. Cette stigmatisation protéiforme s’adapte à l’évolution de la société pour imprimer à la faillite la honte qui s’y attache. D’abord imposée et organisée par le droit elle s’émancipe peu à peu du circuit légal. Lorsque le droit consacre explicitement l’innocence du failli la société continue de faire de lui un paria. Un coup de maître juridique puisque l'institutionnalisation d'une répression de la défaillance aux origines de notre civilisation n'est plus dépendante du droit mais de la société. / Studying the history of bankrupcy, from its origins in ancient Rome to its disappearance in 1985, reveals how the law instrumentalized humiliation. A trader who proves unable to honor his commitments, even if he did not engage in fraud, is a threat to the social order and a liability to his creditors. This danger must be neutralized by any means. Humiliation thus appears as the best way to flag and exclude the failing trader. This protean stigmatisation adapts to the evolution of society to establish the link between bankrupcy and shame. It was, at first, imposed and organised by justice, but it progressively emancipates from the legal apparatus. Even after the law explicitly acknowledged the innocence of bankrupt individuals, society kept casting them out. This judicial master stroke majes the institutionalisation of the repression of bankrupcy that exists since the origins of our civilization no longer relies on justice, but on society. Bankrupcy has disappeared from the Codes, but the concept still exists in citizens' minds, and the stigma it occasionates remains just as powerful. Reforms cannot single-handedly erase the secular stigmatisation of bankrupcy, which deeply impregnates mentalities. At this point, it seems as though we have to acknowledge failure: would it be that it is impossible to erase the stigmatisation of an innocent CEO but incapable of paying back his creditors. Asopting a historical perspective shows that the constant and progressive move towards more leniency from a judicial point of view is a worn-out solution. In order to obtain new results, the methods need to be reexamined.

This paper investigates the various aspects of the Syrian refugees’ exclusion in Lebanon which contradicts with the basic standards of human rights. Additionally, it investigates the stated motives of the Lebanese politicians that have legitimized the exclusion of Syrian refugees in Lebanon. This paper uses the social exclusion-inclusion theory in order to analyse the aspects of Syrian refugees’ exclusion in Lebanon. Further, this paper uses qualitative research methods of semi-structured interviews and content analysis. The findings of this paper show that the Syrian refugees are experiencing social, economic and political exclusion. More specifically, the exclusion consists of unemployment, the lack of social security system, healthcare system, education and housing. Furthermore, this paper concludes that Lebanese politicians have legitimized and justified the aspects of the Syrian refugees’ exclusion from various angles which led to deprive them of basic refugees’ rights.