Poverty and Inequality

Much of the recent policy debate surrounding poverty in Britain focuses on income as a measure of living standards. In this report we consider one alternative to income for measuring poverty that has been largely overlooked in the mainstream poverty debate in the UK: namely household expenditure. Free PDF version available at www.jrf.org.uk

In the UK, as in other rich countries, the ‘playing-field’ is anything but level and the family plays a surprisingly crucial part in maintaining inequality. This book explores how seemingly mundane aspects of family life raise fundamental questions of social justice and calls for a rethink of what equality of opportunity means.

We know the statistics, but what does it feel like to be forced to turn to foodbanks for help? What does it take to get emergency food, and what's in the food parcel? This is a powerful insight into the harsh reality of foodbank use from the inside.

Exploring why food aid exists and the deeper causes of food poverty, this book addresses neglected dimensions of traditional debates. It challenges neoliberal governmentality and shows how food charity maintains inequalities of class, race, religion and gender.

Drawing on empirical research with the UK’s two largest Food Banks, this book explores the prolific rise of food charity over the last 15 years and its implications for overcoming food insecurity.

Making a committed argument for a participative, inclusive understanding of the term, Paul Spicker examines views about what poverty is and what should be done about it.

Re-examining C.Wright Mills’s legacy as a jumping off point, this original introduction to sociology illuminates global concepts, themes and practices that are fundamental to the discipline and rethinks and re-imagines what a critically committed, politically engaged and publicly relevant sociology should look like in the 21st century.

This book uses qualitative longitudinal data, from repeat interviews with people subject to compulsion and sanction in their everyday lives, to analyse the effectiveness and ethicality of welfare conditionality in promoting and sustaining behaviour change in the UK.

This book provides an in-depth study of how community development can contribute to tackling social exclusion. Examples from policy and practice in the UK, Spain, Belgium, Sweden and Norway are discussed, with additional information from Denmark, Ireland and Hungary.

In this ambitious, wide-ranging book, the author asks what it takes to create inclusive, cohesive societies, and formulates a vision for social justice as 'inclusive equality'.

This book presents all seventeen chapters of evidence commissioned by the Acheson Inquiry to inform its work. It complements both the Acheson Inquiry report published by The Stationary Office and The widening gap (The Policy Press, 1999), which provides a broad overview and systematic interpretation of the Inequalities in Health debate.

Inequality has at last taken centre stage in the political discourse, but there is very little to explain the inequality debates and to offer solutions for the UK. This introductory book provides a comprehensive survey of all the available evidence, looking at both sides of the inequality argument.