The idea of social exclusion is part of the new political language. When Labour came into government in 1997, it launched the Social Exclusion Unit to pursue this central theme. But what exactly does social inclusion mean? This revised and updated edition of The Inclusive Society? identifies three competing meanings of the term in contemporary British Politics, emphasising poverty, employment and morality. Ruth Levitas argues that there has been a shift away from understanding social exclusion as primarily a problem of poverty, towards questions of social integration through paid work and moral regulation.

Ruth Levitas is Professor of Sociology at the University of Bristol, founding Chair of the Utopian Studies Society Europe, and Chair of the William Morris Society. Her publications include The Concept of Utopia . In 2012 she received the Lyman Tower Sargent Award for Distinguished Scholarship in Utopian Studies.

Acknowledgements Introduction Discourses of Social Exclusion From Social Justice to Social Cohesion The Optimism of Will Staking Claims Community Rules New Labour, New Discourse From Equality to Social Inclusion Delivering Social Inclusion The New Durkheimian Hegemony Postscript: From Margins to Mainstream Notes Select Bibliography Index