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PSS LECTURES 1-5 - Coggle Diagram
PSS LECTURES 1-5
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L2- Peter Townsend and the re-discovery of poverty, & poverty as capability deprivation
Peter Townsend
R's REVISED poverty standard included: food, clothing, fuel and light, household and personal sundries. Estim cost of above for rural fams.
Critique of R?
- T stated that its poss to live without above, so not true measure, but R's earlier standard was- what changed?
- Not obj survey- judgements of what conven/customary to have influenced criteria for being poor e.g. new clothing
- No 'basic' needs bc needs differ e.g. amnt of nutrition more for physical labourer, norms around bed sharing
From Townse?
- Avg calorie est too broad
- Non-food needs cost underestimated
Townse concepts of need- KEY ideas :star:
- Nesc of needs relative to soci, not that indiv chooses own needs but that needs imposed upon changes w soci e.g. R didn't include tea bc calorie count too small but what abt social expec that when someone is in your home, you give them tea?
- Poverty refer to full range of material and soc needs
'soci get more prosperous & complex, impose new needs on members'
Main Work- The Poor and the Poorest: A new analysis of the Ministry of Labour’s Family Expenditure Surveys of 1953-54 and 1960’ - By Brian Abel-Smith and Peter Townsend
DEF poverty? when ppl lack resources to get diet, ppt in acts and can't get conditions or amenities that widely approved in soci, seriously enough that exclude from ord living.T's approach
- based poverty on style of living (acts & customs that expec to share in) and resources (all),
- pioneered criteria of mat depri,
- looked at relat btwn resources and indic to MD.
Deprivation index--> kids and adults diff needs, idens that meals are social eventConclusions?
- Poverty more exten than officially believed
- Suggest ev of threshold at 140% of Supp Benefit scale, but varys.
Debates and devels.
Piachaud--> some items to do w taste over poverty e.g. veggies not want cooked bfast, not all low income lacked depriv items and vv, threshold very linear event so hard to see.
Mack&Lansley--> why any of items indic depriv chosen, def poverty as 'enforced lack of socially percieved nescs', PSE surveyOVERALL
- T remains relevant
- Abso concepts not poss, led to narrow concepts of relative depriv,
- Highlighted nesc to consid full range needs btwn resources and needs
- Over-turned idea of all in post-war affluence.
Backg for T's main study '68-9 - T wanted to fix this & attack absolutist concepts of poverty
- Post war affluence made ppl think poverty was solved, but no maj poverty study since R.
- Nat Assist survey had been used to meas poverty '54-60 but not good enough. Threshold set at 140% but misleading (just bc has gone up doesn't n.o. ppl in poverty has)
L2- Peter Townsend and the re-discovery of poverty, & poverty as capability deprivation
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ASSESSMENT 2
Evaluate the arguments for and against Sen's claim that poverty should be understood as 'capability deprivation'?
FOR
Townsend and Sen. T (idea that poverty to do with resources and style of living, as opposed to just how much money/income ppl have) Sen (idea that to do with capability deprivation, the optionsd that people have and what they can viably achieve with the resources they have, and whether they choose to do that or not)
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EVAL ARGUMENTS AGAINST, NOT CD ITSELF- SO IMAGINE IM SAT ON THE SIDE OF CD AND AM EVALUATING THE IDEAS PPL PRESENT TO ME, TRYING TO CONVINCE ME OT PAY ATTENTION OR NOT TO CD