The Story of a Street – (mis)tackling social exclusion in public policy

Abstract

Spatial exclusion as a result of social exclusion is a complex problem that hinders the development of territories and undermines social cohesion in society. These are issues that need to be addressed at a local level through cooperation between the various influential bodies (public administration, politicians, citizens, social workers, the media among others). This article examines social exclusion based on an internationally recognised case that occurred in the Czech Republic 10 years after the 1989 democratic revolution. The starting point for this article is 1999, when a chain of decisions made by public administration resulted in the emerging spatial segregation in Matiční Street in the region′s capital Ústí nad Labem. The article is based on semi-structured oral history interviews with social participants. It identifies barriers for the successful resolution of issues at that time on the basis of the Pierson theory of social exclusion (2010) as the insufficient use of local participation and networks and their abuse for political and media purposes. Using the lens of social actors, it is looking for important milestones and lessons learned for the future development in public policies.