The objective of the present panel is to study the different contexts and/or populations that are implicated in the dynamics of inclusion/exclusion in the Americas, especially in urban contexts and in borderlands. To do so, it will rely on a range of theoretical perspectives that have addressed such dynamics of inclusion/exclusion. As such the panel brings together a large interdisciplinary group of researchers who will tackle these dynamics from different theoretical vantage points, thereby focusing on the legal and historical underpinnings, human rights dimensions, economic causes, political concerns, mediatic issues, as well as specific marginalized groups.
The panel focuses on the conceptual pair “inclusion/exclusion” in the Americas, thought as a possible conceptual tool to readdress, and possibly replace, the notion of “social integration” since all social institutions and phenomena are simultaneously inclusive and exclusive. Through this new conceptualization of social exclusion and inequalities, we seek to identify how the relations of “inclusion/exclusion” should be understood as constituting the very core of the political realm in different American contexts. It presents several contexts and populations traditionally considered vulnerable to address several legal, political, historical, and social phenomena by referring to complex and intertwined dynamics that include some while excluding others. Albeit stemming from quite diverse fields, the approaches mentioned above share the same argumentative drive whereby all social dynamics or phenomena imply the notion of “inclusion/exclusion” as a two-sided form. The general argument stems from logic and states that in order to understand any phenomenon, both sides need to be analyzed simultaneously. For each phenomenon addressed in this project through these conceptual lenses, we will examine aspects such as the populations that are included, those who are left out, and how and why these dynamics occur.