Exclusion and Inequality

Within sustainability science, there are questions pertaining to how certain actions for guaranteeing a good life for one part of the population can even result in catastrophic consequences to another. The global holistic view that would address all inequalities and exclusions is one of the greatest challenges of today. In this chapter, we will elaborate on two central concepts of sustainability science that are particularly relevant to facing these challenges: inequality in access to power and exclusion from positions of power. These are both very visible acts of exclusion, often hidden in the very grain of society’s structure in a manner that makes them almost impossible to study and change. Inequality and exclusion are cultural constructions of power, and it is important to see how these influence practical actions and institutional (hidden) practices. The practices locate certain individuals or groups of people in a more disadvantaged position than others and naturalize these inequalities with a set of actions and explanations. This chapter will present the operation of these practices with two concrete, situated examples of migrants with irregular status in the European Union and the Roma minority in Finland.