本研究欲檢視社會排除的論述，是否足以用於分析原住民族之弱勢處境。傳統的社會排除概念所指涉的是個人在經濟及非經濟面遭受剝奪的過程，強調多面向及動態之特質，常用來衡量公民在多元社會生活面向上的差距。此概念對於反映臺灣原住民族與主流社會長期存在福利落差的境況，應具有高度之政策價值。然本研究發現社會排除概念分析的是個人層面的生活面向，在此架構之下，每個人都被視為是同質性高的公民。用同一的社會排除標準予以檢視，看不到集體經驗亦可能是個人的生活品質的重要構成要件。本研究的焦點團體資料顯示，原住民族集體的語言、文化及生活方式是否被主流社會認同與接納，對原住民的生活品質有深遠的意義。另外在生活品質的具體面向上，居住在原鄉的原住民最優先關注的不是如所得、就業、人際互動、社會參與、教育、健康等個人或家戶層次的議題，他們更重視自然災害及交通對生活的影響。因此在衡量原住民族社會排除或生活品質時，應通盤考量原住民族之集體及特殊需求。

This study is to examine whether social exclusion discourses are sufficient for the analysis of Taiwanese indigenous peoples’ disadvantages. Social exclusion often refers to the process of an individual being economically and non-economically deprived, emphasizing its multiple and dynamic nature, and often being used to measure the gaps of people’s living standards. The concept of social exclusion could inform social policies in relation to indigenous peoples, as it could be used to measure the welfare gaps between the mainstream and the indigenous society. However, this study finds that the framework of social exclusion analysis assumes homogenous citizenship, applying the same criteria of social exclusion to each individual, disregarding the impacts of collective experience on people’s living standards. The focus group data of this study shows that the extent of indigenous peoples’ languages, cultures and ways of life being recognized by the mainstream society has a profound impact on indigenous people’s quality of life. With regard to specific aspects of quality of life, indigenous people do not prioritize individual and household-level well-being, such as income, employment, social network, social participation, education, and health, etc. Instead, they pay more attention to collective issues of natural disasters and transportation infrastructure. This study suggests that in analyzing indigenous people’s extent of social exclusion and quality of life, one must take their collective experience and special needs into account.