CEU Electronic Theses and Dissertations, 2024
| Author | Elsasser, Maike |
|---|---|
| Title | Homeless Persons Interpersonal Exclusion: A Bottom-Up Approach to Social Inclusion |
| Summary | Homeless persons have been identified as a group particularly vulnerable to social exclusion. At the most general level, social exclusion refers to a lack of participation in political, economic, cultural, or social life. In this thesis, I focus on the interpersonal dimensions of social exclusion, characterized by the breakdown of social ties, disempowerment, social rejection, and stigmatization that persist unsanctioned among members of the mainstream society towards socially excluded persons. Principally, safeguards such as human rights, particularly Article 30 of the European Social Charter (revised), aim at protecting against social exclusion. However, being a pioneering right, Article 30 has some shortcomings in effectively protecting against interpersonal exclusion due to the challenges inherent in the implementation of socio-economic rights, the framework within which Article 30 operates, and the scope and operationalization of Article 30. These limitations reflect the conceptual and practical shortcomings of top-down approaches more generally to combating interpersonal exclusion. Therefore, I argue for the potential of a bottom-up approach to social inclusion to fill this gap left open by top-down approaches. I do so by drawing on a case study that connects homeless persons living in Vienna with students and the general public in an effort to combat the former's sense of interpersonal exclusion. The analysis shows that a bottom-up approach has considerable potential and can be an impactful means to contribute to filling the gap in the top-down legalistic human rights framework. |
| Supervisor | Lukas, Karin |
| Department | Legal Studies MA |
| Full text | https://www.etd.ceu.edu/2024/elsasser_maike.pdf |
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