Social exclusion has been defined by the UK’s Department for International Development (DFID) as ‘a process by which certain groups are systematically disadvantaged because they are discriminated against on the basis of their ethnicity, race, religion, sexual orientation, caste, descent, gender, age, disability, HIV status, migrant status or where they live. Discrimination occurs in public institutions, such as the legal system or education and health services, as well as social institutions like the household.’1The concept of social exclusion arose in response to dissatisfaction with approaches t o poverty that focused on income alone. However, the term remains contested and there is no agreed definition. Most commonly, social exclusion is seen to apply to groups, involving the exclusion of individuals due to their membership of particular groups that suffer discrimination. Different understandings of social exclusion emphasise different aspects: the groups at risk of being excluded; what people are excluded from (e.g. employment, education, citizenship, respect); the negative impact of social exclusion (e.g. low income, poor housing); the processes driving exclusion; and the agents involved. There is agreement, however, that social exclusion is multidimensional: it encompasses social, political, cultural and economic dimensions, and operates at various social levels. It is dynamic, in that it impacts people in various ways and to differing degrees over time. It is also relational: it is the product of unequal power relations in social interactions. It can produce ruptures in relationships between people and society, which result in a lack of social participation, social protection, social integration and power. However, there is rarely a complete lack of access, so there is some arbitrariness in where the social exclusion lines are drawn, and who is perceived to be excluded.