Second Peter Townsend
Memorial Conference
Measuring Poverty: The State of the Art
Room 1.11/1.11a
Merchant Venturers Building
University of Bristol
22nd – 23rd January 2011
Peter Townsend and the Paradigm Shift in Poverty Measurement
One of the many seminal contributions Peter Townsend made to science was
a paradigm shift in poverty measurement methodology in the 1968/69
Poverty in the United Kingdom Survey.
This free one and a half day memorial conference will examine the current
state of the art of poverty measurement around the world.
Programme: Saturday 22nd January
First Session: Measuring Poverty and Social Exclusion in the UK
9.30
Introduction: Poverty and Social Exclusion in the UK David Gordon
9.45
Measuring Social Exclusion
Ruth Levitas
10.15
Measuring Child Poverty
Jonathan Bradshaw
10.45
Developing Poverty and Social Exclusion Measures Eldin Fahmy
11.15
Tea/Coffee
Second Session: Poverty Measurement in Europe
11.45
Poverty Measurement in Ireland
Brian Nolan
12.15
Poverty Measurement in Sweden
Björn Halleröd
12.45
Poverty Measurement in Finland
Veli-Matti Ritakallio
1.15
Lunch
Third Session: Poverty Measurement in Africa
2.15
Poverty Measurement in Francophone Africa
Madior Fall
2.45
Poverty Measurement in South Africa: involving people
in a highly unequal society
David McLennan
3.15
Tea/Coffee
Fourth Session: Poverty Measurement in America
3.45
Poverty Measurement in Latin America
Pedro Sáinz
4.15
Multidimensional Poverty Measurement in Mexico
Julio Boltvinik
4.45
Closing Remarks
5.00
Finish
Programme: Sunday 22nd January
Fifth Session: Poverty Measurement in Oceania
10.20
Measurement and Change in Deprivation and Exclusion
in Australia
Melissa Wong
10.50
Measuring Living Standards in New Zealand
Bryan Perry
11.20
Tea/Coffee
Sixth Session: Poverty Measurement in Asia
11.50
Poverty Measurement in Japan
12.30
Poverty Measurement in Taiwan
chiun Liou
12.50
1.00
Closing Remarks
Finish
Aya Abe
Daniel He-
Open University Vox Pop Interviews
An Open University Film Crew will be prowling the conference venue looking
for willing participants to be filmed for ‘Vox Pop’ interviews for the web.
Possible questions include:
1. Tell us a little about yourself and where you work. Why are you attending
the conference?
2. What is poverty? How do you define it?
3. Why does the way in which we measure poverty matter? How do you think
poverty should be measured?
4. Which groups are affected most by poverty and in what ways? Can you
give concrete examples of what this means to these people’s lives?
5. How do you see the future for those at the ‘bottom’ in the coming years?
6. What are the key policy changes that will affect the poor – for better or
worse?
7. Is there anything you’ve heard at the conference that you’d like to mention?
The research grant
• Funded by the ESRC
• Major grant – £4.3 million
• The UK’s largest ever research project
on poverty and social exclusion
• Start April 2010
• End October 2013
The Research team
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University of Bristol
Heriot-Watt University
National Centre for Social Research
Northern Ireland Statistics & Research
Agency (NISRA
The Open University
Queen's University Belfast
University of Glasgow
University of York
The research aims
1. To improve the measurement of poverty,
deprivation, social exclusion and standard
of living.
2. To measure the change in the nature and
extent of poverty and social exclusion over
the past ten years.
3. To produce policy-relevant results about the
causes and outcomes of poverty and social
exclusion.
Background
Every decade since the late 1960s, UK social scientists have
attempted to carry out an independent poverty survey to test out
new ideas and incorporate current state of the art methods into
UK poverty research.
•1968-69 Poverty in the UK survey (Peter Townsend and
colleagues),
•1983 Poor Britain survey (Joanna Mack, Stewart Lansley)
•1990 Breadline Britain survey (Joanna Mack, Stewart Lansley)
•1999 Poverty and Social Exclusion Survey (Jonathan Bradshaw
and colleagues) and its 2002 counterpart in Northern Ireland
(Paddy Hillyard and colleagues)
•2011 Poverty and Social Exclusion in the UK
Child Poverty Act 2010
Places in legislation the commitment to eradicate child poverty by 2020,
this means that UK Secretary of State will have a duty to meet the
following child poverty targets:
•Relative poverty: Less than 10% of children living in relative low
income poverty by 2020.
•Material Deprivation: Less than 5% of children living in combined
material deprivation and low income.
•Absolute low income: Reduce the proportion of children who live in
absolute low income to less than 5%.
•Persistent Poverty: percentage of children living in relative poverty
for three out of four years (target level to be set by the end of 2014 as
data are currently unavailable)
Requires the UK Secretary of State to publish a UK child poverty strategy,
which must be revised every three years.
The Return of Cultural Deficit Theory: Field Review
'I no longer believe that the poverty endured by all too many
children can simply be measured by their parents' lack of income.
Something more fundamental than the scarcity of money is
adversely dominating the lives of these children.
Since 1969 I have witnessed a growing indifference from some
parents to meeting the most basic needs of children, and
particularly younger children, those who are least able to fend for
themselves. I have also observed how the home life of a minority
but, worryingly, a growing minority of children, fails to express an
unconditional commitment to the successful nurturing of children....
Even if the money were available to lift all children out of income
poverty in the short term, it is far from clear that this move would in
itself close the achievement gap.'
(Independent Review on Poverty and Life Chances, Introduction by Frank
Field MP, 2010)
The Return of Cultural Deficit Theory: Tackling child poverty
and improving life chances, consulting on a new approach
'We are particularly concerned about evidence demonstrating that poverty is
transmitted between generations‘
The evidence available indicates that simply increasing household income,
though reducing income poverty, will not make a big difference to children's
life chances. ‘ (Emphasis in original text)
This is an attempted revival of Cultural Deficit Theory - the 1960s idea that
underachievement among poor/working class students was a result of
deficiencies with the students, their families and communities.
The cultural deficit models argued that since working class/poor parents failed to
embrace the educational values of the dominant middle/upper classes, and
continued to transmit to their children values which inhibited educational
achievement/mobility, then the parents/working class culture are to blame if low
educational attainment continues into succeeding generations.
The new governments recommended measures largely ignore the structural
reasons for educational underachievement (i.e. inadequate school funding in poor
areas, social class segregation in the education system, low quality teaching,
exclusions, school's failure to prevent bullying, teacher prejudice/bias/lack of
respect, etc.).
Survey Data
Omnibus Survey: Necessities of Life – A systematic random achieved
sample of adults (16+) of about 1,860 interviews in Britain and 1,400 in
Northern Ireland.
Main Survey: Poverty & Social Exclusion – A follow-up survey to the
2010/11 Family Resources Survey (circa 47,000 households). The main
survey in Britain will aim for an achieved sample of 4,000 households
and 6,000 individuals – with approximately 1,000 households in the
‘ethnic’ strata and 1,000 households in Scotland. In Northern Ireland,
the achieved sample will be 800 households and 1,250 individuals.
The survey will be divided into a household questionnaire which will be
answered by the Household Reference Person (HRP) and an individual
questionnaire which will be answered by all adult household members
(aged 16 and over).
Qualitative Data
British Impoverishment Survey, a qualitative survey of 72 respondents to
explore the ‘life stories’ of participants experiencing poverty, in order to
understand poverty persistence and the significance of key ‘life events’ in
shaping current circumstances and prospects.
Northern Ireland Family Solidarity Survey, a qualitative survey of 100
respondents to explore the role of family in coping with poverty.
In Northern Ireland, the nature of the social divisions were such that there
was a high degree of reliance on family. Northern Ireland therefore
presents an opportunity to explore the continuing role of family in the
transmission of poverty and in coping with it.
The study will have a material focus – examining the extent to which
resources are transferred among family members (both nuclear and
extended) - and it will also explore family cultures and relationships as
factors affecting poverty and social exclusion. This will help to reveal the
extent and limits of family solidarity
Dissemination
A major new website – www.poverty.ac.uk
Full results of the 2011 Survey
Comparisons with the earlier surveys in 1983, 1990 and 1999
Development of new graphic visualisation tools enabling
access to more complex datasets and richer comparisons
between datasets across time
Video clips of what it means to live in poverty for key groups in
2011 (e.g. young, elderly, unemployed, disabled) and
comparisons from the two broadcast documentary series
accompanying the 1983 and 1990 surveys (Breadline Britain
and Breadline Britain in the 1990s) to illustrate changing
circumstances and attitudes
Narrowcast on OpenLearn, i-tunes U and You-tube
International Advisory Board
1) Dr Aya Abe (National Institute of Population and Social Security Research, Japan)
2) Professor Julio Boltvinik (El Colegio de México, Mexico)
3) Dr Petra Böhnke (WZB, Germany)
4) Madior Fall (Afristat, Mali & INSEE, France)
5) Professor Bjorn Hallerod (University of Gothenburg, Sweden)
6) Dr Daniel He-chiun Liou (Asia University, Taiwan)
7) Professor Brian Nolan (University College Dublin, Ireland)
8) Bryan Perry (Research Manager, Ministry of Social Development, New Zealand)
9) Professor Veli-Matti Ritakallio (University of Turku, Finland)
10) Pedro Sáinz - Secretary of the UN Expert Group on Poverty Statistics (Rio Group,
Brazil)
11) Professor Peter Saunders (University of New South Wales, Australia)
12) Dr Gemma Wright (University of Oxford) – work in South Africa