The purpose of this paper is to provide an overview of the origins of the concepts of social inclusion and exclusion and of key themes and emerging debates about social inclusion in Australia and selected overseas countries. The concepts of social inclusion and exclusion are closely related, and it is difficult to discuss social inclusion...

The papers in this publication have been developed from presentations made at a workshop held at the Australian Institute of Family Studies in 2001. The purpose of that meeting was to explore the possibility of establishing a national multidisciplinary research partnership focused on the needs of Australian children. The first paper, 'New ways of causal...