Abstract
British Sociology was at the forefront of developing social studies to define, map and itemise poverty. Two studies, surveys carried out by Charles Booth in London and by Seebohm Rowntree in York in the late nineteenth century, revolutionised poverty research and the conduct of the social survey. They introduced new ways of conducting social observation and evaluation of the economic conditions of the working classes that were to change the way that social surveys were carried out and the definition and measurement of poverty.
This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.
Access this chapter
Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout
Purchases are for personal use only
Preview
Unable to display preview. Download preview PDF.
Bibliography
Abel-Smith, B. and Townsend, P. (1965) The Poor and the Poorest, Occasional Papers on Social Administration 17. London: G. Bell & Sons.
Bailey, R.E. and Hatton, T.J. (2000) ‘Seebohm Rowntree and the Post-War Poverty Puzzle’, Economic History Review 53: 517–43.
Bales, K. (1999) ‘Popular Reactions To Sociological Research: The Case of Charles Booth’, Sociology 33(1): 153–68.
Beveridge, W. (1942) Social Insurance and Allied Services. London: HMSO.
Booth, C. (1903) The Life and Labour of the People in London, 17 vols, 1892–1902. London: Macmillan.
Booth (2012) ‘Charles Booth and the Survey into Life and Labour in London (1886–1903)’: Online Archive, http://booth.lse.ac.uk/, accessed 5 December 2012.
Bowley, A.L. and Burnett-Hurst, A.R. (1915) Livelihood and Poverty: A Study in the Economic Conditions of Working Class Households in Northampton, Warrington, Stanley and Reading. London: G. Bell & Sons.
Bowley, A.L. and Hogg, M.H. (1925) Has Poverty Diminished?. London: P.S. King and Son.
Bosanquet, H. (1903) ‘The “Poverty Line”’, Charity Organisation Review 8(78): 321–5.
Briggs, A. (1961) A Study of the Work of Seebohm Rowntree1871–1954. London: Longmans.
Burchardt, T. (2008) Time and Income Poverty. York: Joseph Rowntree Foundation.
Cadbury, E., Matheson, M.C. and Shann, G. (1908) Women’s Work and Wages, 2nd edition. London: Fisher Unwin.
Caradog Jones, D. (1934) The Social Survey of Merseyside. London: Hodder and Stoughton.
Chadwick, E. and Flinn, M.W. (1965) Report on the Sanitary Condition of the Labouring Population of Great Britain. Edinburgh: Edinburgh University Press.
Coates, K. and Silburn, R. (1970) Poverty: The Forgotten Englishmen. Harmondsworth: Penguin.
Dale, A.I. and Kotz, S. (2011) Arthur L. Bowley: A Pioneer in Modern Statistics and Economics. London: World Scientific.
Davies, M.F. (1909) Life in an English Village: An Economic and Historical Survey of the Parish of Corsley in Wiltshire. London: T. Fisher Unwin.
Engels, F. (1942) The Condition of the Working-Class in England in 1844. With a Preface Written in 1892, trans. Florence Kelley Wischnewetzky. London: George Allen & Unwin.
Ford, P. (1934) Work and Wealth in a Modern Port: An Economic Survey of Southampton. London: George Allen & Unwin.
George, R.F. (1937) ‘A New Calculation of the Poverty Line’, Journal of the Royal Statistical Society 100: 74–95.
Hatton, T.J. (1998) Rowntree’s ‘Life Cycle of Poverty’ in Interwar London, Institute for Labour Research Discussion Paper 98/21. Colchester: University of Essex.
Hatton, T.J., et al. (1999) New Survey of London Life and Labour, 1929–1931 [computer file], 2nd edition. Colchester: UK Data Archive [distributor], March 1999, SN: 3758, http://dx.doi.org/10.5255/UKDA-SN-3758–1.
Hennock, E.P. (1991) ‘Concepts of Poverty in the British Social Surveys from Charles Booth to Arthur Bowley’, in M. Bulmer, K. Bales and K. Kish Sklar (eds), The Social Survey in Historical Perspective. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
Llewellyn Smith, H. (1930–35) The New Survey of London Life and Labour. London: P.S. King & Son.
Lynes, T. (1963) ‘National Assistance and National Prosperity’, Occasional Papers on Social Administration. London: Bell.
Oakley, A. (1974) The Sociology of Housework. London: Robertson.
Pedersen, S. (2004) Eleanor Rathbone and the Politics of Conscience. New Haven: Yale University Press.
Pember Reeves, M. (1979) Round About a Pound a Week. London: Virago.
Piachaud, David. (1981) Peter Townsend and the Holy Grail’, New Society 57: 419–21.
Platt, L (2004) Discovering Child Poverty: The Creation of a Policy Agenda. Bristol: The Policy Press.
Platt, L. (2006) ‘Helen Bosanquet’, in J. Scott (ed.), 50 Key Sociologists: The Formative Theorists. London: Routledge.
Rathbone, E. (1927) The Ethics and Economics of Family Endowment. London: Epworth.
Rowntree, B.S. (1902) Poverty: A Study of Town Life, 2nd edition. London: Macmillan.
Rowntree, B.S. (1918) The Human Needs of Labour. London: Thomas Nelson and Sons.
Rowntree, B.S. (1937) The Human Needs of Labour, revised edition. London: Longmans, Green and Co.
Rowntree, B.S. (1942) Poverty and Progress: A Second Social Survey of York. London: Longmans, Green and Co.
Rowntree, B.S. and Lavers, G.R. (1951) Poverty and the Welfare State: A Third Social Survey of York Dealing Only with Economic Questions. London: Longmans, Green and Co.
Tout, H. (1938) The Standard of Living in Bristol. Bristol: Arrowsmith.
Townsend, P. (1954) ‘Measuring Poverty’, The British Journal of Sociology 5(2): 130–7.
Townsend, P. (1979) Poverty in the United Kingdom. London: Penguin.
Veit-Wilson, J.H. (1986) ‘Paradigms of Poverty: A Rehabilitation of B.S. Rowntree’, Journal of Social Policy 15: 69–99.
Veit-Wilson, J.H. (1992) ‘Muddle or Mendacity? The Beveridge Committee and the Poverty Line’, Journal of Social Policy 22: 269–301.
Vogler, C. and Pahl, J. (1994). ‘Money, Power and Inequality within Marriage’, Sociological Review 42: 263–88.
Wedderburn D.C. (1962) ‘Poverty in Britain Today: The Evidence’, Sociological Review 10(3): 257–82.
Editor information
Editors and Affiliations
Copyright information
© 2014 Lucinda Platt
About this chapter
Cite this chapter
Platt, L. (2014). Poverty Studies and Social Research. In: Holmwood, J., Scott, J. (eds) The Palgrave Handbook of Sociology in Britain. Palgrave Macmillan, London. https://doi.org/10.1057/9781137318862_3
Download citation
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1057/9781137318862_3
Publisher Name: Palgrave Macmillan, London
Print ISBN: 978-1-349-33548-0
Online ISBN: 978-1-137-31886-2
eBook Packages: Palgrave Social Sciences CollectionSocial Sciences (R0)