Abstract
This thesis aims to indicate local communities as variables that are fundamental to figuring out phenomena of poverty and social exclusion and shaping the countermeasures through an examination of the process of reproductive destabilization and its causes, based on the study that we conducted in “A” area, of a discriminated community of people called Buraku in Osaka.
The situation in “A” area—one of extreme poverty and social exclusion—was greatly improved by a social inclusion project conducted on a long-term basis. However, once the project ended, affirmative action, in the form of assistance provided to the Burakumin (a Japanese minority group) in gaining employment as public employees, was abolished. At the time, the employment situation in Japanese society was unstable. These circumstances reduced the employment opportunities for young Burakumin. The middle class moved outside the community and the lower class moved in. This tendency reinforced the accumulation of poverty.
The accumulation of poverty groups itself restricts life chances. Among the Buraku, the after-effects of the accumulation of a number of poor people in the community, and the unintended consequences of the project conducted by the “the Buraku Liberation Movement” led to a lifestyle which prevented the development of individual strategies for improving lives and restricted successful models. The function of strong ties in the community became weak because of the project end and the outflow of young people in the area. The accumulation in the area of poverty and social exclusion makes the poverty levels deeper and more concentrated and works as a specific mechanism, which cannot be explained in macro social changes and policies, or class culture.
