The Challenges of Defining and Measuring Social Inclusion

Social inclusion is a construct used to mean many things to different policy and service delivery audiences. As a construct, social inclusion has an inherent “feel good” element, suggestive of individuals and communities promoting and encouraging the inclusion of those situated on the margins. However, a critical examination of peer reviewed and policy literature suggests the construct is not consistently defined, nor applied and social inclusion has largely represented an aspirational goal. This has implications for the robust and consistent measurement of social inclusion outcomes and impacts. This chapter examines a range of definitions of social inclusion and traces how these inform the operationalization of the construct. Descriptions of the identified measures of social inclusion are provided. The COnsensus-based Standards for the selection of health Measurement INstruments (COSMIN) taxonomy, terminology, and definitions of outcome measurement properties is used in this chapter to report on the quality of studies and the psychometric properties of identified measures of social inclusion. Evaluation of the content validity of the measures is presented, by providing a synthesis of the ways in which social inclusion has been operationalized in outcome measurement, including a thematic analysis to establish the domains and sub-domains of the construct from a measurement perspective. All identified measures are then plotted against the domains and sub-domains of social inclusion. The quality of the remaining psychometric properties is also evaluated. The chapter concludes with recommendations for improving the future measurement of social inclusion to improve operationalization and outcome measurement of the construct.