Social exclusion emerged as a theme in the discourse of French sociologists and policy makers during the 1970s. Today, it is a major topic of academic and social policy discussions throughout Europe, and is emerging as such in Canada, Australia, and many countries throughout Latin America, Asia, and other parts of the developing world. In the United States, discussions about social exclusion are comparatively limited. The concept has failed to capture the attention of American policy makers, and few academics address the phenomenon of social exclusion in their work. Among the latter who do, social psychologists dominate. Their recent work on social exclusion centers on its effects on intrapsychic processes and human behaviors. The way in which American social psychologists conceptualize and analyze social exclusion is fundamentally different from the manner in which it is conceptualized and analyzed in other parts of the world, where the work of sociologists dominates. The former assume a micro-perspective where the principle unit of analysis is the individual. The latter take a more macro-perspective in which key units of analysis are communities of people and society. Rarely, if ever, are these two perspectives linked though doing so would yield useful public policy implications. In this paper, I will compare and contrast the sociological conceptualization of social exclusion, which has a macro-structural focus, with the American social psychologists' conceptualization, which has a micro-level individual focus. Most important, I will show how linking the two orientations illuminate unexplored and useful implications for society and public policy.