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Second Peter Townsend Memorial Conference Measuring Poverty: The State of the Art Room 1.11/1.11a

Second Peter Townsend Memorial Conference Measuring Poverty: The State of the Art Room 1.11/1.11a Merchant Venturers Building University of Bristol 22 nd – 23 rd January 2011. Peter Townsend and the Paradigm Shift in Poverty Measurement.

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Second Peter Townsend Memorial Conference Measuring Poverty: The State of the Art Room 1.11/1.11a

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  1. 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

  2. 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.

  3. 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 2.15Poverty 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

  4. 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 Aya Abe • 12.30 Poverty Measurement in Taiwan Daniel He-chiun Liou • 12.50 Closing Remarks • 1.00 Finish

  5. 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: • Tell us a little about yourself and where you work. Why are you attending the conference? • What is poverty? How do you define it? • Why does the way in which we measure poverty matter? How do you think poverty should be measured? • 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? • How do you see the future for those at the ‘bottom’ in the coming years? • What are the key policy changes that will affect the poor – for better or worse? • Is there anything you’ve heard at the conference that you’d like to mention?

  6. 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 grant

  7. The Research team • 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

  8. The research aims • To improve the measurement of poverty, deprivation, social exclusion and standard of living. • To measure the change in the nature and extent of poverty and social exclusion over the past ten years. • To produce policy-relevant results about the causes and outcomes of poverty and social exclusion.

  9. 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 ExclusionSurvey (Jonathan Bradshaw and colleagues) and its 2002 counterpart in Northern Ireland (Paddy Hillyard and colleagues) • 2011 Poverty and Social Exclusion in the UK

  10. 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.

  11. 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)

  12. 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.).

  13. 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).

  14. 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

  15. 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

  16. 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

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