Social exclusion, social cohesion: Defining narratives for development in Latin America

Abstract

This paper analyzes The Social Panorama of Latin America, an overview of the social scene in Latin America provided by Economic Commission for Latin America and the Caribbean, as a development narrative. In it, there are two interwoven and competing stories, the economic and the social. The gradual appearance and disappearance of key ideas for development, such as social exclusion/inclusion and social cohesion, in the context of concurrent trends in common social indicators, suggest the subordination of the social story to the economic one. Social dimensions of development deserve renewed attention for complete overviews of the social panorama of Latin America. © 2012 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.