At the Margins of Equality: A Theory of Vulnerability to Social Exclusion

The COVID-19 pandemic has exposed our shared vulnerability to isolation, serving as a reminder that relations of marginalization and exclusion constitute significant obstacles to the achievement of a society in which everyone can fully participate and stand in relations of equality with each other. Moreover, empirical research has shown that marginalised individuals are being disproportionately disadvantaged by the Coronavirus emergency in several ways: they are the target of stigmatization and discrimination. And, although they are more likely to experience mental health issues and are typically exposed to serious health risks, they are not provided access to the same degree of medical care as other members of society. The current socio-political state of affairs, then, vividly illustrates how persons' vulnerability to social exclusion is one of the most pressing social justice challenges that liberal democracies must face. Building on my previous research on the justification and the value of equality, in this project I will contribute to the Horizon Europe strategic plan towards "creating a more resilient, inclusive and democratic European society" by developing the first-ever comprehensive liberal egalitarian theory of vulnerability to social exclusion in analytical political philosophy. This theory will define the rights that marginalized individuals have to be fully included as equals in society and identify the social arrangements that the state ought to put in place in order to ameliorate their social condition. In our current pluralist and diverse societies the call for social equality is ubiquitous but its precise meaning is contested. By providing an account of what shape equality takes when applied to socially marginalized groups, this research will thus fill an important theoretical and normative gap when thinking about what a just society owes to its most vulnerable members if they are to be considered and treated as equals.