Social exclusion can be defined as how a person's social class and living standards affect their access to various opportunities.

To be "excluded from society" can take various relative senses, but social exclusion is usually defined as more than a simple economic phenomenon: it also has consequences on the social, symbolic field.

Philosopher Axel Honneth thus speaks of a "struggle for recognition", which he attempts to theorize through Hegel's philosophy. In this sense, to be socially excluded is to be deprived from social recognition. In the sphere of politics, social recognition is obtained by full citizenship; in the economic sphere (in capitalism) it means being paid for what one does.

The problem of social exclusion is usually tied to the problem of equal opportunity, as some people are more subject to such exclusion than others. It is a serious problem in many economically more developed countries, including the United Kingdom (UK) and the United States (US).

Since social exclusion may lead to one being deprived of one's citizenship, some authors (Philippe Van Parijs, Jean-Marc Ferry, Alain Caillé, André Gorz) have theorized a guaranteed minimum income which would impede exclusion from citizenship. P. Hassenteufel, "Exclusion sociale et citoyenneté", "Citoyenneté et société", Cahiers Francais, n° 281, mai-juin 1997, quoted by Bertrand Villalba of the Catholic University of Lille:

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