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The key question addressed in this article is social inclusion, as an opposite concept of social exclusion. The author provides a historical of social inclusion/exclusion terminology. Further, some of the principles of social inclusion are presented. A brief review of the literature provides key views and theories of social inclusion. In particular, the author brings to attention that the included/excluded dualism apparent in the writings of social inclusion and exclusion cannot be taken at face value. In line with global debate on social inclusion and exclusion, the author brings the way this debate has now pervaded both the official and development policy discourse in Albania.Social inclusion is considered as one of the priorities of the current government, with poverty reduction as its main focus, which will be ensured not only through economic development. In the end, the article focuses on the role of education as a very important and useful tool for ensuring social inclusion.Social inclusion through education, in particular through vocational education, considered by the author as the only way towards sustainable development of Albanian society.

The background study for the national strategy on social inclusion and poverty reduction 2015-2020 was produced under a RAS agreement with the Ministry of Labor, Family, Social Protection, and Elderly of Romania. The report is a companion volume of the strategy, adopted by the Romanian Government in May 2015, and summarizes the diagnostics and analyses carried out by the World Bank team to provide a sound empirical base for the strategy. Given the multi-dimensional nature of poverty, the report includes diagnostics and policy recommendations on employment, social protection, education, health, housing, social participation, as well as regional and rural development policies. The document is based on a combination of desk research, qualitative data analysis, new data collected by the World Bank team and analyses of administrative, census, and survey data. This included qualitative research (for example, case-studies in two counties, interviews with representatives of central governmental bodies, interviews with recipients and eligible potential beneficiaries of means-tested benefits and with social workers), and quantitative data collection and analysis (a census on social housing stock; census of frontline social workers; a consolidated database of physicians, representatives of the pharmacies, community nurses, and health mediators; administrative dataset with social services for elderly, social services for people with disabilities and specialized child protection services; analysis of poverty. The book is organized in four parts. The first part starts with an analysis of the trends in poverty and social exclusion over the past few years and with a poverty forecast for the next five years (2015 to 2020). The second part analyzes the sectoral policies that must be implemented to tackle the problems identified in the first part of the volume. The third part turns its focus to area-based policies and discusses regional disparities, urban-rural differences, and specific problems in small towns and villages, rural, and urban marginalized areas, and Roma and non-Roma communities. The fourth part discusses the actions needed to strengthen the capacity of the public system to reduce poverty and increase social inclusion.

The article presents the recent evolution of the so-called "Active Inclusion Strategy" launched by the European Commission in 2006. The strategy is aimed at increasing the efficacy of the national policies for the promotion of social inclusion. It should provide a policy framework able to take into account the variety of forms which social exclusion can assume and to combine promotion of employability and job quality with proper income support and better access to services for people at the margins of society. In the first part of this article we will present the historical background of this strategy, reviewing the development of EU social inclusion policies, from the seminal Recommendations in 1992, to the Lisbon Strategy and its revision. Secondly, we will introduce the recent interventions promoted by the European Commission, both on the definition of a new active approach to social inclusion policies and on the revision of the OMC for Social Protection and Social Inclusion. Finally, we will try to account for the potential of the strategy and its possible future evolutions.

With the passage of time valuable lessons have been learnt about both effective practices for program and system integration and the sizable barriers, including the challenges in sustaining constructive integration. This paper is a reflection on sustainable integrative practices and is grounded in the direct experience of one of the authors, who held the post of the South Australian Social Inclusion Commissioner. We reflect upon the structure and mechanism of the South Australian Social Inclusion Initiative (2002-2011) as well as using a case study of a successful integrative program of the Social Inclusion Initiative, a program in South Australia's School Retention Action Plan 2004 Making the Connections (South Australian Social Inclusion Board, 2004) that was implemented to improve school retention. The case study draws out salient factors of clear rationale, coordination, collaboration, communication, team work and trust as skills and ingredients to bring about integration in policy and programs. While the integration literature affirms that these ingredients are primary skills for the development of an integrative framework, we also assert that they are not enough for successful and sustained integration. Absent from much of the literature is a discussion about the use of power and the manner in which horizontal integrative work occurs. We take up this theme to draw out some implications for analysis of sustainable integrative practices.

There is a growing body of neurological, cognitive, and social psychological research to suggest the possibility of positive transfer effects from structured musical engagement. In particular, there is evidence to suggest that engagement in musical activities may impact on social inclusion (sense of self and of being socially integrated). Tackling social exclusion and promoting social inclusion are common concerns internationally, such as in the UK and the EC, and there are many diverse Government ministries and agencies globally that see the arts in general and music in particular as a key means by which social needs can be addressed. As part of a wider evaluation of a national, Government-sponsored music education initiative for Primary-aged children in England ("Sing Up"), opportunity was taken by the authors, at the request of the funders, to assess any possible relationship between (a) children's developing singing behavior and development and (b) their social inclusion (sense of self and of being socially integrated). Subsequently, it was possible to match data from n = 6087 participants, drawn from the final 3 years of data collection (2008–2011), in terms of each child's individually assessed singing ability (based on their singing behavior of two well-known songs to create a "normalized singing score") and their written responses to a specially-designed questionnaire that included a set of statements related to children's sense of being socially included to which the children indicated their level of agreement on a seven-point Likert scale. Data analyses suggested that the higher the normalized singing development rating, the more positive the child's self-concept and sense of being socially included, irrespective of singer age, sex and ethnicity.

'Transport-related social inclusion' is a specific naming of the complex set of interrelationships within which accessibility plays an important role in whether a citizen achieves the level of participation in socioeconomic life that he or she seeks. It has its origins in the United Kingdom of the early 2000s, but the diversity of theoretical perspectives, research methods and practical focus shown by the contributions to the present issue on this theme bears witness to the evolution and translation this concept and term has undergone over more than a decade. Nine papers are presented, concerning applications of the concept in three continents, and including some of the poorest and richest per capita income countries on the globe. As well as developing and applying the multi-faceted theories of the processes of exclusion and techniques for the quantitative identification of inclusion, they consider important topics such as the treatment of the less abled and more frail members of society when on the move and the potential for new technological design methods and practical solutions either to enhance inclusion or deepen inequality in our societies. Collectively their conclusions reinforce the message that social exclusion remains multi-dimensional, relational and dynamic, located both in the circumstances of the excluded individual as well as in the processes, institutions and structures that permeate wider society. (author's abstract)

Women in the UK frequently do not consider business ownership as an alternative to other forms of employment or as a means to gain economic benefits. The number of women currently entering in to businesses in the North of England is decreasing and is less than half of that in the South. This paper examines the preliminary findings from a longitudinal study exploring the socially created barriers to business start‐up that inhibit the growth of women entrepreneurs and how they may be removed. The study employed an action research approach to investigate the experiences of UK women entering into micro and small business ownership, emphasising the social construction of many of the barriers faced by women in the pursuit of business ownership. In doing so it examined personal and motivational factors surrounding the start‐up process, the economic and physical barriers encountered, as well as the perceived and actual support and advice available to women.