There are different definitions or areas of inclusion. With reference to the Latin word origin, inclusion comes from includo „to enclose, to confine“ (cf. Pons). Inclusion is considered the opposite of exclusion or an extension of the term integration (cf. Rohrmann 2014, 163).
Integration and exclusion
According to Duden, exclusion refers to an exclusion or exclusion. Integration is defined as the inclusion or connection of different persons or groups in a social and cultural unit. Also, integration is used as a synonym for inclusion, as the latter was not as present in the past. Nevertheless, there are important differences. Although integration means inclusion, there remains a certain distance that distinguishes individuals with certain characteristics from others. There is a differentiation between the type ’normal‘ and the type ‚different‘ (cf. Grimm/ Meyer/ Volkmann 2015, 146). For example, an inclusive school accepts children with impairments, but does not adapt to their special needs (cf. Grimm/ Meyer/ Volkmann 2015, 145 f.).
Inclusion, on the other hand, means including all individuals – no matter what gender or ethnicity they belong to or whether they are physically or mentally impaired. All are equal in a heterogeneous society. There is no type of ’normal‘ or ‚different‘ established by society. Taking school as an example, this would mean that old, traditional structures are broken down and the needs of all are addressed individually (cf. Grimm/ Meyer/ Volkmann 2015, 145).
Inclusion and pedagogy
Inclusion pedagogy is about children with and without disabilities learning together in mainstream kindergartens and schools. This is also to be extended to working together in adulthood. But can children with disabilities, mental or physical, learn in the same way as non-disabled children?
Feuser defines pedagogy as inclusive pedagogy that teaches, educates, and forms – doing justice to each individual and without excluding or marginalizing students (cf. Feuser 2005, 134). Merely attending a mainstream school does not constitute inclusion for a disabled child, since he or she is only integrated externally but continues to be excluded internally (psychologically/mentally). Feuser cites the Guarino’s cage around the child’s head as a figurative example of this (cf. Feuser 2005, 168 ff.).
Consequently, students are heterogeneous people in an integrative unit who learn together in cooperation with each other (cf. Feuser 2005, 173). In summary, then, an integrative or inclusive general pedagogy is that „all children and students play, learn, and work in cooperation with one another at their respective levels of development according to their momentary competencies of perception, thinking, and action in orientation toward the ’next zone of their development‘ on and with a common object“ (Feuser 2005, 174).
Inclusion in sociology
The concept of nation gained importance especially in the 19th and 20th centuries, when, specifically in relation to Germany, aspirations and longings for a unified and united state increased and were eventually enforced. There was to be a change from a patchwork of principalities to a Germany as a nation.
In this sense, therefore, a nation has an inclusive function, based on language and common culture, through its inclusion or fusion into a large whole.
At the same time, a nation has an exclusive character, it serves to exclude other states/nations, on which the success of the term is based (cf. Stichweh 2005, 42 f.). However, the concept of nation has not always had an exclusive character vis-à-vis immigration; rather, in earlier times as well as today, it served to distinguish from other states and at the same time had an obligation character for the subjects vis-à-vis the state.
In the early modern period, immigration was desired; it was seen as the acquisition of new subjects and thus of new resources. Emigration, on the other hand, was strongly discouraged (cf. Stichweh 2005, 41). Starting in the 19th and 20th centuries, this turned around. The right to emigrate gained importance, but immigration became more difficult due to the rise of National Socialist ideas and the awareness of increasing scarcity of space and resources (cf. Stichweh 2005, 152).
This resulted in the formation of a global society consisting of nation states, which strives for a welfare state internally, but deliberately creates an imbalance externally in order to delimit itself and compete with each other. Accordingly, migrants are a threat to each individual from this welfare state in terms of his or her share of this welfare. This welfare closure is reinforced by culture and the ethnicization of its membership, emphasizing its closing tendency (cf. Stichweh 2005, 152 f.).
On the other hand, the state is the resonance of a national union, a possibility of full inclusion, not necessarily on a social but on a legal basis, such as the extension of divorce law in the 1960s, equal voting rights for all, or compulsory education and military service. This was followed initially by a phase of inclusion, which enabled participation. In the further course, as at the present time, in which participation is also perceived as coercion because the individual is pushed into the background, a tendency toward the freedom of non-participation can be seen. As a result, the concept of the nation loses additional meaning (cf. Stichweh 2005, 43).
Equal Pay for Equal Work – Economic Exclusion
The effects of economic exclusion on private and social life will be shown by the example of gender-dependent wages on the labor market.
First of all, it should be said that economic exclusion is not based on a lack of efficiency, but on the social results of the distribution of power and resources (cf. Schönpflug 2009, 88).
Gender relations have emerged from social hierarchies that are consolidated in the separation between public and private actions, that is, gainful employment and domestic work. And even if women can free themselves from the tasks of domestic work, in many cases this is only the case on a part-time basis, they are often identified with the role of mother or caregiver, which influences their professional field. Furthermore, women are excluded from high-income positions in science, politics and the economy, which are free from the constraints of power (cf. Hanappi- Egger/ Hofmann 2005). Thus, women continue to be restricted in their lifestyles and autonomy for lack of the recognition socially associated with higher economic positions.
In summary, exclusion is the reason for the need for inclusion.
Literature
Duden. Duden Online Dictionary. https://www.duden.de/suchen/dudenonline/integration [16 Dec. 2018].
Duden (2006): German spelling. 24th ed. Mannheim: Bibliographisches Institut.
Feuser, Georg (2005): Disabled children and adolescents. Between integration and segregation. 2nd ed. Darmstadt: Wissenschaftliche Buchgesellschaft.
Grimm, Nancy/ Meyer, Michael/ Volkmann, Laurenz (2015): Teaching English. Tübingen: Narr Francke Attempto.
Isop, Utta/ Ratkovic, Viktorija (Eds.) (2011): Living differences. Cultural studies and gender critical perspectives on inclusion and exclusion. Bielefeld: transcript.
Pons. Online Dictionary. https://de.pons.com/%C3%BCbersetzung? q=includo&l=dela&in=la&lf=la [16.12.2018].
Rohrmann, Eckard (2014): Inclusion? Inclusion. Critical remarks on the current inclusion debate and the concept of moderate inclusion. In: Soz Passagen 6, 161-166.
Stichweh, Rudolf (2005): Inclusion and exclusion. Studies in social theory. Bielefeld: transcript.