Defining poverty

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Defining poverty

• Summary notes

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Operationalisation

• Poverty is a difficult concept to operationalise.
• It has a political implications - governments are
  supposed to deal with it.
• It has social implications - poverty can be a
  source of shame and low status for individuals.

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Absolute poverty

• This is based on a measurement of the absolute
  minimum a person requires for biological
  survival
• Food
• Water
• Warmth and shelter
• Clothing

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Deprivation

• People who lack the means of survival are defined
  as poor.
• Seebohm Rowntree used absolute definitions of
  poverty in his studies of the poor in York.
• This definition is typical of early studies of
  poverty.

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Discussion point

• Keith Joseph, 1976, Conservative politician said,
  There is very little poverty in Britain today,
  using an absolute measurement of poverty.
• How far can you agree with this statement?
• Who might you consider to be absolutely poor in
  Britain?

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Problems

• Absolute definitions still tend to be subjective
  about the minimum requirements needed for life.
• We need things for mental health for instance
  books, tv, pets
• Standards of acceptable health and food quality
  change over time.

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Relative poverty

• Relative poverty is when people are compared to
  those around them, or to what others might
  reasonably be expected to afford.
• It can include lack of
• Educational opportunity
• Material possessions
• Health care
• Good quality housing
• Civil Rights
• Social opportunity

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Subjective poverty

• This is a little used concept, but is based on
  the notion of felt poverty.
• People feel poor if those around them have more
  than they do.
• The people against whom one measures oneself are
  known as the reference group.
• In the past, people may have been deprived, but
  not felt poor because they were unaware of what
  others have.
• Could television have a role in creating
  subjective poverty?

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Uses of such definitions

• Poverty is a social construction and so this
  reflects general standards of living and
  expectation.
• It helps us to understand broader debates such as
  social exclusion.

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Problems with such definitions

• This is not easy for people to understand,
  because most people actually think in terms of
  absolute poverty.
• Relative definitions tend to measure inequality
  rather than poverty.
• It is difficult to arrive at a fair definition of
  poverty, either high enough or low enough.
• How often should such definitions be up-dated?

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Peter Townsend

• Be certain that you mention this mans name in
  your answers.
• He has been the leading British researcher in the
  field for many years.
• Find out more by visiting www.bris.ac.uk/poverty/
  

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Abel- Smith and Townsend (1965)

• Introduced concepts of relative poverty to the
  study of poverty in Britain.
• They based their measure on Social Security
  payments.

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Peter Townsend (1979)

• He drew up a list of indicators of deprivation
  and then chose the 12 most reliable he considered
  to indicate deprivation.
• These included access to holidays, ability to
  offer food to friends, lack of parties for
  children, lack of fresh meat, lack of cooked
  breakfast.
• People on lower incomes tend to experience
  significant deprivation.

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Piachaud (1981)

• He points out that Townsends deprivation index
  includes people who make lifestyle choices
  (vegetarians?)
• He claims that not having a fridge for instance
  is more significant than not having meat.
• This suggests that Townsends index is not as
  scientific as it claims.

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Mack and Lansley (1985)

• Used a method of deciding on a list of essentials
  for living and found 7.5 million people were
  living in poverty in UK. This list consisted of
  22 items including damp free home and outings for
  children.
• Rising living standards meant that 32 items were
  used in a repeat study in 1990.

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Falkingham and Hills (1995)

• Measure poverty in terms of the ability to live a
  life characterised by active participation in
  society and a sense of security.
• This is known as capability poverty.
• This is related to notions of social exclusion

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Social Indicators

• Indicators are social symptoms of poverty
• Long term benefit receipt
• Low birth weight
• Low educational attainment
• Unemployment
• Suicide
• Non-participation in politics

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Howarth et al.

• Using a social indicators approach, Howarth et al
  discovered that poverty and disadvantage is
  concentrated into distinct community areas.
• Deprivation is linked to social class with people
  in the two lowest indicators of class
  experiencing higher rates of
• Young male suicides
• Underweight births
• Concentration into specific schools
• Likelihood of premature motherhood
• Depression and mental illness
• Victimhood

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Inequality approaches

• We live in a culture where many people experience
  very high standards of living.
• Some people have high levels of income and of
  spending.
• This approach looks at public policy and uses
  data gathered by government agencies to analyse
  and comment on social change.
• Goodman, Johnson and Webb use this approach to
  point out that levels of inequality are rising in
  modern Britain.

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Government definition

• The Government bases its analysis on the Family
  Expenditure Survey to estimate the number of
  people with household incomes in a fraction of
  national averages.
• One of the most commonly used definitions of
  poverty is those who have less than 50 of the
  average national income. This measure is used
  cross-nationally.
• Benefits tend to offer an income very close to
  50 of national average incomes so if the poverty
  line was drawn lower, the percentage of those in
  poverty would be significantly higher
• In Britain, 20 of the population has an income
  below the government definition of poverty.

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Social Exclusion

• This is a recent concept, used by the government
  in place of poverty.
• Social exclusion is something that can happen
  to anyone. But some people are significantly more
  at risk than others. Research has found that
  people with certain backgrounds and experiences
  are disproportionately likely to suffer social
  exclusion. The key risk-factors include low
  income family conflict being in care school
  problems being an ex-prisoner being from an
  ethnic minority living in a deprived
  neighbourhood in urban and rural areas mental
  health problems, age and disability. 
• Source Preventing social exclusion report by
  the Social Exclusion Unit. Cabinet Office, 2001,
  p11.

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General conclusions

• Most definitions of poverty are arbitrary and
  relative, even if they are based on statistical
  analyses.
• Most definitions of poverty are drawn at a low
  level.
• Many people are clustered on or near poverty
  lines, so slight changes in definition can remove
  or add people to the lists of those who are poor.

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Moral views of poverty
Relative definition
Some people should be better off, they work harder

• We should all be equally well off.

Egalitarian view
Elitist view
We should be equal but no one needs to have more
than they need.
People who are poor are defective morally and
intellectually.
Absolute definition
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Questions

• Why is important to have an adequate definition
  of poverty?
• What is it that can make the definition of
  poverty a source of political debate?
• What moral questions are raised by the existence
  of poverty in our society?
• Why should we care about poverty in Britain?

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The End

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