LATAM Revista Latinoamericana de Ciencias Sociales y Humanidades, Asunción, Paraguay.
ISSN en línea: 2789-3855, junio, 2025, Volumen VI, Número 3 p 1550.

DOI: https://doi.org/10.56712/latam.v6i3.4154

Essay on the influence of rejection and consequent social
exclusion in the Latin American economic and social

development
Ensayo sobre la influencia del rechazo y la consecuente exclusión social en

el desarrollo económico y social de América Latina

Edelcio Teixeira Roncon
acad.roncon@gmail.com

https://orcid.org/0009-0002-0934-4910
Catholic University Nuestra Señora de la Asunción, Faculty of Law

Hernandarias – Paraguay

Margarita Maria Brítez de Vergara
margaritabritez@hotmail.com

https://orcid.org/0009-0001-0478-7424
Catholic University Nuestra Señora de la Asunción, Faculty of Law

Hernandarias – Paraguay

Artículo recibido: 29 de mayo de 2025. Aceptado para publicación: 09 de julio de 2025.
Conflictos de Interés: Ninguno que declarar.

Abstract
This paper presents a reflection about the mutual influence of social rejection, that implicates the
social exclusion in macro phenomenon and the economic development level for Latin American
Societies. These societies have social characteristics as singular and heterogeneous while share
others persistent characteristics: the low level of economic development and the high social rotation
and stratification, with reference in economic, monetary, symbolic or other measurements in specific
zone in time. In this paper intend to show how these phenomenons are related, as well the
representative importance of these three variables on Latin American social and economical
characteristics.

Keywords: rejection, social exclusion, economic development, Latin America

Resumen
Este artículo presenta una reflexión sobre la influencia mutua del rechazo social, que implica la
exclusión social a nivel macroeconómico, y el nivel de desarrollo económico de las sociedades
latinoamericanas. Estas sociedades presentan características sociales singulares y heterogéneas, a
la vez que comparten otras características persistentes: el bajo nivel de desarrollo económico y la alta
rotación y estratificación social, con referencia a indicadores económicos, monetarios, simbólicos u
otros en una zona específica del tiempo. En este artículo se pretende mostrar la relación entre estos
fenómenos, así como la importancia representativa de estas tres variables en las características
socioeconómicas de América Latina.

Palabras clave: rechazo, exclusión social, desarrollo económico, América Latina

LATAM Revista Latinoamericana de Ciencias Sociales y Humanidades, Asunción, Paraguay.
ISSN en línea: 2789-3855, junio, 2025, Volumen VI, Número 3 p 1551.

Todo el contenido de LATAM Revista Latinoamericana de Ciencias Sociales y Humanidades,
publicado en este sitio está disponibles bajo Licencia Creative Commons.

Cómo citar: Teixeira Roncon, E., & Brítez de Vergara, M. M. (2025). Essay on the influence of rejection
and consequent social exclusion in the Latin American economic and social development. LATAM
Revista Latinoamericana de Ciencias Sociales y Humanidades 6 (3), 1550 – 1557.
https://doi.org/10.56712/latam.v6i3.4154

LATAM Revista Latinoamericana de Ciencias Sociales y Humanidades, Asunción, Paraguay.
ISSN en línea: 2789-3855, junio, 2025, Volumen VI, Número 3 p 1552.

INTRODUCTION

The present work intends to analyze and describe how rejection, social exclusion and economic
development phenomena are related in Latin American societies in a qualitative and descriptive point
of view. These analyses aim to increase the phenomenological knowledge of these analytical variables
in Latin American economic and social development and can be used to support public policies
decisions or social strategies that aim a sustainable economic and social development, increasing the
quality of life of members of said societies.

Then, each of the three analytical topics will be analyzed individually and, at the end, it will be described
how they are related, their implications, causes and consequences in the social network.

REJECTION

Rejection is a phenomenon where an individual person from a society excludes, punishes, ignores,
disparages or pressures a second individual person. The rejection process, when externalized, is
considered an act of violence, even if it is lawful in certain levels and circumstances. It is a phenomenon
of abandonment of an individual personal to a group (composed for multiple individual persons),
whether family or social, where both (family and social) – are reflections of each other (Mathieson et
al., 2008).

Although the rejection phenomena occurs in all social zones, it is in the family sphere where it first
occurs, constructing and developing behavioral and sentimental patterns that will reflect in all
subsequent relationships throughout the excluded individual person’s existence, once at this level of
social relationship, all individual persons part of the group are involved mentally, physically and
genetically (Figueira et al., 2001).

The concepts of freedom and privacy widely spread in the west philosophy in the 20th century without
due depth and accuracy, make "legitimated" the disruption of solidarity and by corollary the disrespect,
disqualification, exclusion, segregation and forgetfulness of individual persons who have behaviors,
ideas, origins, creed, race or any other criteria that someone believe to be correct and, for the same
reason, cannot be questioned or sanctioned without harming the concept of individual freedom,
generating an irrational behavioral system. Regardless criteria used to exclude someone are related to
some difference and, as we are experienced, to living with sosical differences is hard, difficult, laborious
and requires tolerance, generosity, humanity and rationality (Figueira et al., 2001).

Differences between individual persons generate feelings (such as fear, insecurity, unpredictable
behavior, etc.) that impel their behavior towards a violent outward expression against the different
person. This dynamic interaction between a group and a different individual person generates an
imbalance in the social order and in the power distribution, once the difference highlights social
characteristics that should be hidden or hides other characteristics that should be highlighted. In a
contrasted way, the similarity of individual people generates a reflection of the already expected,
creating among people considered mutually similar an extension of the own self to the other person.
Generate also a homogeneous interpretation of social power relationship and social values forms and
limits. As Foucault (1972) mentions, mental illness has been considered for centuries, in the human
history, as a subjective, but an easy operation tool, to isolate unwanted human beings from a society.

This phenomenological event, when externalized, as a human act, generates the relationship rupture
among the rejected individual and the original group. According to Aylmer (1995), “the rupture can occur
angrily and suddenly, with extreme bitterness, or gradually and innocuously over the years and
generations, with no apparent cause. The ruptures influence families to their essence and vitality loss

LATAM Revista Latinoamericana de Ciencias Sociales y Humanidades, Asunción, Paraguay.
ISSN en línea: 2789-3855, junio, 2025, Volumen VI, Número 3 p 1553.

and contribute to a feeling of emptiness and mental vulnerability in the members they throw but do not
support”.

Considering previous discussion on mental and social scenario, it is widely known that the people that
populate the Latin American continent have a diverse origin. For example, are composed by European
people (Latin, Germanic, etc.), African people, Extreme East people (Chinese, Japanese, Koreans), etc.,
in addition to the pre-Columbian native ethnicities. Simultaneously, all individual persons in this
geographic zone suffer the rejection process from external groups of people and against inner group
people. This great diversity of cultures, races and customs, generates great and constant social
conflicts implying in mutual rejections in all senses.

In this way, groups that can be self identified by their individual components will have a mutual
recognition and relationship magnitude degrees in a very limited and practically nonexistent level. In
other words, occurrent self extension over individual people – considered each other as mutually similar
– will be practically null, once this extension occurs through similarity and not through difference. This
fact have as unfolding the loss of empathy in social relationships in all senses (family, professional,
commercial, etc.) generating fear and distrust in these relationships. It is remarkable that human
externalizing reactions are catalyzed by inner feelings as fear, distrust, insecurity, etc.. These catalyst
feelings are obviously just feelings and not a rational reasoning, implying in a hard difficult to aware
people and construct an individual behavioral control.

SOCIAL EXCLUSION

Social exclusion is a generalized phenomenon (in macro scale) originated from the rejection process
(in micro scale). In other words, while rejection occurs by individual persons pairs and/or small and
well-defined groups, social exclusion, in other hand, occurs at macroscopic levels. This generalization
leads these differences micro-conflicts to systemic levels and as phenomenological consequence is a
participation’s lack for a part of the society’s population in economical, cultural and social lives. Such
social behaviors have direct and very traumatic effects for these people, such as the lack of access to
legality, to formal labor market, to education, to the health system, to social security and information
access.

According to the 2.003 European Commission's Report on Social Inclusion, social exclusion is defined
as a process that drives some people to the society’s margins and prevents them from fully
participation due to poverty, lack of basic skills and lack of permanent learning possibilities, or by pure
discrimination. This keeps people from work, salary and education opportunities, from social networks
and social activities. They have bad access to power decision-making bodies and institutions and,
therefore, they feel helpless and unable to take on decisions that affect their daily lives.

According to the above, far beyond poverty, the social exclusion occurs through relationships between
individual people and/or groups in a society and it is precisely in this relationship that the exclusion
process is nucleated. When an individual person classifies another, giving rights and access to
someone and excluding others, the individual rejection is nucleated to those who are surrounded by
rights. When right’s restriction and systemic access to the rights less occurs on a singular person, it
consists a specific and point rejection, only. However, by rights and opportunities restrictions of groups
composed by people with common characteristics, the process of social exclusion is taking shape.

When this phenomenon is considered directly or objectively in a legal order or society’s regulation we
can say that we have a systemic social exclusion environment. These phenomena can only be
measured by deep social exclusion tools, according to Mulor (2006).

LATAM Revista Latinoamericana de Ciencias Sociales y Humanidades, Asunción, Paraguay.
ISSN en línea: 2789-3855, junio, 2025, Volumen VI, Número 3 p 1554.

It should be noted that social groups classification have a lot of needed precedent factors, as
mentioned above, but the rejection process of these people by other people in the same society is a
common effect on all exclusion factors (poverty, education, skills, etc.). In other words, regardless of
primary reason for social exclusion, to have phenomenological consolidation, it necessarily goes
through a process of rejection between two or more individuals persons before being systematized or
macro-apparent. As previously analyzed, the rejection process occurs essentially because differences
existence or because of the conviction of the supposed difference existence. Consequently, can be said
that the social exclusion process originates from a micro social rejection process that is caused by bad
managing or conflicts generated differences between individual persons and/or social groups that lead
to a conflictive relationship (active rejection) or to ignorance (passive rejection). These deep and
systemic phenomena of social segregation can give rise to major social conflicts and even become a
real systemic threat to social cohesion.

ECONOMIC AND SOCIAL DEVELOPMENT

Economic development is the phenomenon by which a society improve its production capacity and
profitability added to an improvement in the population life’s quality. In other words, it is a process
where a nation's income increases over time (using some measurably reliable macroeconomic metric)
added to the better income distribution between individual persons in a society, giving to people a better
quality of life.

In an economic development occurrence, there is a necessary but not sufficient condition: the increase
in social well-being and wealth and this is closely related to social development. The last one consists
of the evolution or positive change in the relationships between individual persons in a society with
social welfare as the ultimate objective. Is considered that a society have a good quality of life and well-
being when its people live within a scenario of peace, freedom, justice, democracy, tolerance, equity,
equality and solidarity. (Editorial QueConceito 2020).

According to the above, to occur economic and social development it is necessary for individual
persons in society to improve their productive operational performance, also transport and service
performance in consonance with the social development subjective variables. These variables are
directly linked to the manner of social individual persons’ relationship, share the gains and losses, share
the power, etc. In other words, the improvement on social relations between singular persons in a
society, in addition to institutional and legal relationships, are necessary requirements for economic
development.

In the present paper analysis environment, the Latin American continent, the economic development is
very rough considering its technical characteristics. In other words, it’s public knowledge that Latin
America is a zone area composed for societies in precarious development. Considering the
production’s means and other technological or scientific means available at the present time (and also
in historical times), Latin American societies have never managed to organize themselves enough for
sustainable economic and social development. This phenomenon would be caused by social
organization lack (which generates low social development) and not for the scientific and technological
activity itself. So, although the existent modern technologies and methods of production that would
substantially improve the population quality of life and wealth, it is not executable or not collectively
implementable due to the deficient quality of the relationships between the Latin American individual
persons.

The case that interests us most is the case of Latin America, where this phenomenon is evident, once
all societies in this space zone, without any exception, are in a state of underdevelopment or at best in
development. Don’t exist a Latin American society considered developed.

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ISSN en línea: 2789-3855, junio, 2025, Volumen VI, Número 3 p 1555.

THE RELATIONSHIP AMONG ECONOMIC DEVELOPMENT, REJECTION AND SOCIAL EXCLUSION

At this moment, it is necessary to merge the variables analyzed and described briefly, as defined in the
vestibular part. According to the reported about economic and social development (which is the
objective of all human civilized societies) the optimized relationship in all its subjectivity and objectivity
senses is a necessary component, in addition to the other technical and scientific components. That is,
without a minimally synchronized relationship system between individual persons in a society,
economic development is not possible. This is evident in Latin America.

A lot of works, projects and large amounts of economic and human resources have been used in order
to try rise a development manner in last years. However, unfortunately no one succeed a representative
success, which implies that the cause of this sad reality is related to social and economic relations and
not related with available technological, scientific and economic resources.

Since we consider the cause lies in social relations, the above descriptions lead us to believe that social
relationships among Latin American singular persons, in addition to not be optimal, are exclusive and
heterogeneous, generating many social smaller subgroups and without any peaceful relational aspect.
As previously described, these conflicts are caused by differences and not by similarities and, for this
reason, these systematic and unwanted social exclusion phenomena commit to failure the
relationships between social sub-groups and, consequently, economic development.

In proving that the social exclusion successive processes are determining factors for low social and
economic efficiency. It is proposed that the social exclusion macro processes origin consists in the
rejection phenomenon (micro process). Then, in the analyzed space zone (Latin America) these
phenomena are systematic and widespread, generating fear, distrust, and other harmful feelings to
good social interaction in both individual and collective senses.

The rejection is seen as the origin of low economic and social development. This time, it is observed
that the family relationships that nucleus this process are not systematically efficient and in many
cases mentally harmful to all family members in the region. Such realities generate in almost all
individuals, from early childhood, non-rational behavioral conditioning that tends to bad social
relationship and precarious civility and collectivity.

CONCLUSIONS

According to this paper proposition, which is the description and correlation between the intrinsic and
social behaviors of individual persons who live in Latin America zone area, with regard to rejection and
consequent social exclusion and its implications for economic and social development, it was found
that rejection behaviors originated in families and nuclear social cells, although frequent and
paradoxically undesirable, are related proportionately. In other words, the singular person who rejects
another creates an environment that provides the social exclusion, both individual and systemic, and in
this way, a qualitative relationship in directly proportional sense between these two variables is proven,
when an increases on the first volume, the second one also increases.

On economic and social development emphasis, it was observed that, in order to catalyze economic
development there must be a minimum of social development, where individual persons in society can
divide the work and live with the minimum of conflicts (rejections and exclusions) as possible. In the
analyzed environment, Latin America does not have provider characteristics to economic and social
development because it has a high rate of conflicts, implying in rejection and social exclusion. This
social behavior makes very costly all labor and production relationships, since individual persons
influenced by the intrinsic social characteristics described, are unable to live and produce wealth, goods
and/or services without generate destructive conflicts, rejections and competitions. As a consequence,

LATAM Revista Latinoamericana de Ciencias Sociales y Humanidades, Asunción, Paraguay.
ISSN en línea: 2789-3855, junio, 2025, Volumen VI, Número 3 p 1556.

it is noted that economic production systems have a high operational cost once much of time, energy
and relational interfaces are destined to conflictive behavior or activities like rejection and social
exclusions and not generate a minimally collaborative systemic development.

Finally, it is concluded that these intrinsic phenomena (rejection and consequent social exclusion) have
much importance and must be treated as a strategic priority because they have a destructive and/or
impediment influence on the society as a whole, both in the development of public policies and in the
desirable behavioral ordering, and perhaps, in the legal systems. In this way, when have no effective
methodologies and solutions to minimize these phenomena, the economic and social development of
the Latin American region will be fated to failure and will not reach the minimum objectives for
economic and social well-being and wealth.

These conclusions suggest to future works the debate for elaboration of effective public policies in
relation to the problem of rejection and exclusion not only as a socially undesired phenomenon, but
above all as a fundamental combative phenomenon to be reduced social conflicts and to catalyze the
economic and social development of a collective, civilized and minimally cohesive systemic society.

LATAM Revista Latinoamericana de Ciencias Sociales y Humanidades, Asunción, Paraguay.
ISSN en línea: 2789-3855, junio, 2025, Volumen VI, Número 3 p 1557.

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