Poverty and the Underclass

Poverty is one of the most important and contested topics in the sociology of stratification. Despite being one of the world's richest countries, the UK has persistent and significant levels of poverty, affecting millions of adults and children. The AQA specification requires you to understand how poverty is defined and measured, evaluate competing explanations of poverty, and assess the controversial concept of the underclass.

Key Definition: Poverty is a condition in which individuals or groups lack the resources necessary to participate in the activities, customs, and diet commonly approved by society (adapting Townsend's definition). The debate over whether poverty should be defined in absolute or relative terms is central to this topic.

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Defining and Measuring Poverty

Absolute Poverty

Absolute poverty refers to a condition where individuals lack the basic necessities for physical survival — food, water, shelter, and warmth. It is measured against a fixed standard (e.g., the World Bank's threshold of $2.15 per day) that does not change over time or between societies.

Arguments for this definition:

• It provides a clear, objective, and comparable measure.
• It focuses attention on the most severe deprivation.
• It allows progress to be tracked over time — absolute poverty in the UK has been largely eliminated.

Arguments against:

• It sets the bar too low — a person who can barely survive but cannot participate in society is still poor in a meaningful sense.
• It ignores the social dimension of poverty — being poor is not just about physical survival but about exclusion from the norms and activities of one's society.

Relative Poverty

Relative poverty is defined in relation to the living standards of the rest of society. A person is relatively poor if their income falls significantly below the average. The most commonly used measure is the 60% of median income threshold — anyone whose household income (after housing costs) is below 60% of the national median is considered to be in relative poverty.

Townsend (1979) was the most influential advocate of the relative definition. In his landmark study Poverty in the United Kingdom, he surveyed 2,000 households and developed a deprivation index of 60 items representing normal living standards — such as having a cooked meal every day, going on holiday once a year, and being able to entertain friends at home. He found that below a certain income level, deprivation increased sharply — there was a poverty threshold below which people were effectively excluded from ordinary social life.

Mack and Lansley (1985) — Consensual Poverty

Joanna Mack and Stewart Lansley developed the consensual method of measuring poverty. Instead of experts deciding what constitutes a necessity, they asked a representative sample of the public. Items that more than 50% of respondents defined as necessities were included in the index. Anyone who lacked three or more of these necessities because they could not afford them was defined as poor.

Their approach was updated in the Poverty and Social Exclusion (PSE) Survey (2012), which found that:

• 33% of the UK population lacked three or more necessities.
• Items considered necessities included: heating, a damp-free home, two meals a day, fresh fruit and vegetables, a warm waterproof coat, and money for a birthday present for a child.
• Items not considered necessities included: a car, a mobile phone, and a holiday abroad.

The Poverty Line in the UK

In 2022/23, approximately 14.4 million people in the UK (22% of the population) were living in relative poverty after housing costs (Joseph Rowntree Foundation). This included:

• 4.2 million children (29% of all children).
• 2.1 million pensioners.
• Working households now make up the majority of those in poverty — in-work poverty has risen dramatically since the 2010s.

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Individualistic Explanations of Poverty

Individualistic (or cultural) explanations locate the causes of poverty in the behaviour, attitudes, and values of the poor themselves.

The Culture of Poverty: Oscar Lewis (1966)

Oscar Lewis studied poor communities in Mexico and Puerto Rico and argued that they had developed a distinct culture of poverty — a set of values, norms, and behaviours that was transmitted from generation to generation. This culture included:

• Fatalism and a sense of helplessness.
• Present-time orientation — a focus on immediate gratification rather than long-term planning.
• Low participation in institutions such as education, trade unions, and political parties.
• Family instability and early sexual activity.

Lewis argued that once established, the culture of poverty was self-perpetuating — children socialised into it found it extremely difficult to escape.

Evaluation:

• The concept has been widely criticised as victim-blaming — attributing poverty to the deficiencies of the poor rather than to structural inequality.
• Valentine (1968) argued that the behaviours Lewis described were rational adaptations to material deprivation, not autonomous cultural values. People living in poverty focus on the present because they lack the resources to plan for the future.
• Empirical research has consistently found that poor people share the same values as the rest of society — they aspire to employment, education, and stable families but face material barriers.

The Cycle of Deprivation: Keith Joseph (1972)

Sir Keith Joseph, a Conservative minister, argued that poverty was transmitted across generations through inadequate parenting. Poor families failed to provide their children with the discipline, ambition, and social skills needed to succeed, creating a cycle of deprivation.