From social exclusion to esteem

The numerous efforts to combat exclusion have generally brought disappointing results. Many of the organisations dealing with the problem find that their management systems force them to process a maximum of cases within certain time limits, which does not allow for the particular care that each case demands. Abbé Pierre’s Emmaüs communities offer a solution to the problem by making sure that each companion feels that he is held in esteem in his own environment. While it’s difficult to apply this framework to other situations, it does open up the way to promising research in the future.