Exclusionary inclusion and inclusive exclusion: studies on harassment at a members club

Abstract

This article was motivated by situations of social exclusion of certain groups at a members club in southern Brazil. Through an ethnographic study, we sought to analyze how marginalized populations are socially excluded from certain situations and included in others, and why. Social situations are often symbolic, such as the wearing of uniforms, the existence of a “senzala” for employees, the non-relationship between members and employees, among others, allowed us to explore the dialectical movement between exclusion and inclusion. It is in this context that inclusive exclusion and exclusionary inclusion are discussed. This process results in the maintenance of social inequality through seemingly normal, justifiable, institutionally accepted, and encouraged practices. For marginalized populations included and / or excluded through these practices, the consequences are the reproduction and legitimation of this precarious condition.