SOCIAL STRATIFICATION
Key Study
Sociologist(s): Townsend Date: 1979
Title of study:
Perspective: Social democratic view
Summary:
Three ways of defining poverty:
1. State’s standard - on which official statistics are based, based on individual
entitlement to claim some benefits – determined by ideas of the government of the
day
2. Relative income – identifying households whose income falls below the average
for similar households – but misleading (no account for the level of welfare benefits
available) and inadequate (no account for lifestyles available to those materially
deprived)
3. Relative deprivation - lack the resources to obtain the types of diet, do activities
and have living conditions that are widely available in the society they live –
Townsend’s preferred measure
- Used relative deprivation measure to investigate the extent of poverty in the
UK
- Questionnaires to over 2000 households and over 6000 individuals around
the UK
- Devised a deprivation index covering variables including diet, fuel, clothing,
housing conditions, working conditions, health, education and social
activities
Found that over 22% of population lived in poverty in 1968-69, compared to just
6%
using state standard and 9% using relative income
Evaluation:
- some argue index was inadequate and produced misleading results – e.g.
absence of fresh meat and cooked meals might be down to individual
choice
Key Study
Sociologist(s): Townsend Date: 1979
Title of study:
Perspective: Social democratic view
Summary:
Three ways of defining poverty:
1. State’s standard - on which official statistics are based, based on individual
entitlement to claim some benefits – determined by ideas of the government of the
day
2. Relative income – identifying households whose income falls below the average
for similar households – but misleading (no account for the level of welfare benefits
available) and inadequate (no account for lifestyles available to those materially
deprived)
3. Relative deprivation - lack the resources to obtain the types of diet, do activities
and have living conditions that are widely available in the society they live –
Townsend’s preferred measure
- Used relative deprivation measure to investigate the extent of poverty in the
UK
- Questionnaires to over 2000 households and over 6000 individuals around
the UK
- Devised a deprivation index covering variables including diet, fuel, clothing,
housing conditions, working conditions, health, education and social
activities
Found that over 22% of population lived in poverty in 1968-69, compared to just
6%
using state standard and 9% using relative income
Evaluation:
- some argue index was inadequate and produced misleading results – e.g.
absence of fresh meat and cooked meals might be down to individual
choice
