Research
You will find a complete range of our monographs, muti-authored and edited works including peer-reviewed, original scholarly research across the social sciences and aligned disciplines. We publish long and short form research and you can browse the complete Bristol University Press and Policy Press archive.
Policy Press also publishes policy reviews and polemic work which aim to challenge policy and practice in certain fields. These books have a practitioner in mind and are practical, accessible in style, as well as being academically sound and referenced.
Books: Research
This chapter presents an overview of the relationships of poverty and social exclusion to health. Inequalities in health are investigated across poverty definitions and different health measures, including general health, limiting long term illness, mental state and longstanding mental conditions. Relationships of dimensions of social exclusion to health are also exposed. Health is worse for the unemployed compared to those who are working, reflecting a complex pattern of associations where health is both a cause and consequence of labour market exclusion. The housing environment demonstrates further inequalities in general and mental health, as does exclusion in the form of low social activity and support, which significantly relate to worse mental health. Overall, this chapter reveals the persistent nature of health inequality. More than 30 years on from the first Breadline Britain survey, individuals in poverty are still suffering worse health compared to their more advantaged counterparts.
The largest UK research study on poverty and social exclusion ever conducted reveals startling levels of deprivation. 18m people are unable to afford adequate housing; 14m can’t afford essential household goods; and nearly half the population have some form of financial insecurity.
Defining poverty as those whose lack of resources forces them to live below a publicly agreed minimum standard, this text provides unique and detailed insights into the nature and extent of poverty and social exclusion in the UK today.
Written by a team of leading academics, the book reports on the extent and nature of poverty for different social groups: older and younger people; parents and children; ethnic groups; men and women; disabled people; and across regions through the recent period of austerity. It reflects on where government policies have made an impact and considers potential future developments.
A companion volume Poverty and Social Exclusion in the UK Volume 2 focuses on different aspects of poverty and social exclusion identified in the study.
How many people live in poverty in the UK, and how has this changed over recent decades? Are those in poverty more likely to suffer other forms of disadvantage or social exclusion? Is exclusion multi-dimensional, taking different forms for different groups or places?
Based on the largest UK study of its kind ever commissioned, this fascinating book provides the most detailed national picture of these problems. Chapters consider a range of dimensions of disadvantage as well as poverty - access to local services or employment, social relations or civic participation, health and well-being. The book also explores relationships between these in the first truly multi-dimensional analysis of exclusion.
Written by leading academics, this is an authoritative account of welfare outcomes achieved across the UK.
A companion volume Poverty and Social Exclusion in the UK: Volume 1 focuses on specific groups such as children or older people, and different geographical areas.
This chapter explores the injurious nature of poverty as a condition and a generative context which determines the experience of related injury. Drawing on the social harm approach we seek to contextualise these injuries and to provide a counterpoint to dominant narratives of risk, resilience and choice that serve to individualise the harms of poverty. Using both quantitative and qualitative data from the PSE-UK study, four key findings emerge. First, poverty increases the risk of injuries in the home and at work, as well as the likelihood of being the victim of violence. Second, powerlessness is a key injury of poverty; the loss of control over key aspects of individuals’ lives is anxiety provoking – the PSE poor were three times more likely to report suffering from a mental illness than the non-poor. Third, the injuries of stigma and disrespect are daily features of life on a low income – the PSE poor were nearly eight and six times more likely to report instances of misrecognition due to class and disability. Finally poverty injuriously impacts relationships and the ability to participate socially; under financial constraint, PSE survey participants are more likely to relinquish friendships
While public support for local services as ‘essential’ remains high, there have been divergent trends in usage, with increases in public transport, corner shops and childrens services, but declines in information,leisure and cultural services. Distribution of service usage has become slightly more ‘pro-poor’, yet poorer groups are still more likely to report constraints in service access or quality. Services are not systematically worse in poorer neighbourhoods, in most cases, and service exclusion does not overlap much with other dimensions of social exclusion. While the service domain thus appears to continue to bolster equality, post-austerity cuts to local government spending threaten significant retrenchment in poorer localities.
This chapter challenges the popular focus on well-being or happiness as the new over-arching policy goal of public and private sectors. It argues instead for a traditional social policy focus on income distribution and social justice as the means to achieve the greatest improvements in well-being. Using a variety of measures, data from the PSE-UK 2012 survey are analysed to demonstrate the material basis of well-being and low life satisfaction. The results show that average well-being scores for those living in poverty are well below the scores for the non-poor. Living with a limiting illness or disability was also found to have a substantial negative effect on well-being. Overall satisfaction with life falls more sharply as household incomes fall, indicating that there are particular gains to be had from focusing on the material needs of the most disadvantaged. Income redistribution is not therefore a zero-sum game. Rather, the results show that the lives of the poor and the long-term sick and disabled would be measurably improved by lifting them out of poverty and improving their material conditions. All in all, the results challenge the idea that well-being is ‘all in the mind’ and detached from material resources.
Although political equality is a basic democratic principle, citizen participation in political and civic life remains highly unequal. This chapter sheds new light on social inequalities in political participation by examining the relationship between poverty and participation in political and civic life in the UK today. Whether using subjective measures, low income, deprivation, or the combined PSE approach, this chapter shows that poverty is associated with lower levels of participation in politics and lower levels of associational activity amongst UK adults. Civic and political participation is known to be strongly associated with positive perceptions of political efficacy. This chapter confirms these findings. Moreover, it shows that people experiencing poverty are also somewhat less positive about their ability to influence local decisions and political issues than better-off respondents. Taken together these findings point to the continued exclusion of people experiencing poverty from full participation in political and civic life. Beyond voting, political participation is an uncommon experience for many in the UK. Reducing inequalities in participation (including socio-economic inequalities that underpin them) should be prioritised in ensuring that rights to an equal say in political decisions are realised in practice.
Based on the largest UK study of its kind ever commissioned in the UK, this book provides the most detailed national picture of poverty and social exclusion. Chapters consider a wide range of dimensions of disadvantage, covering aspects of household resources, participation and quality of life. On resources, the book charts changing views about the social minimum over the last fifty years as well as changes in living standards and poverty in particular. Analyses also look at the importance of non-financial resources including access to local services and the kinds of support provided by social networks. Participation in society is examined in relation to economic activities, specifically employment, and civic or political engagement as well as social activities. For quality of life, chapters explore quality of health, housing and the wider living environment and subjective perceptions of well-being, as well as exposure to a range of social harms. Finally, the book draws the various strands together through a multi-dimensional analysis of social exclusion.
Based on the largest UK study of its kind ever commissioned in the UK, this book provides the most detailed national picture of poverty and social exclusion. Chapters consider a wide range of dimensions of disadvantage, covering aspects of household resources, participation and quality of life. On resources, the book charts changing views about the social minimum over the last fifty years as well as changes in living standards and poverty in particular. Analyses also look at the importance of non-financial resources including access to local services and the kinds of support provided by social networks. Participation in society is examined in relation to economic activities, specifically employment, and civic or political engagement as well as social activities. For quality of life, chapters explore quality of health, housing and the wider living environment and subjective perceptions of well-being, as well as exposure to a range of social harms. Finally, the book draws the various strands together through a multi-dimensional analysis of social exclusion.
There have been growing concerns about various manifestations of extreme hardship in the UK, which are investigated using both PSE and a survey of emergency service users. A consensus-based definition of destitution is developed and applied to show its current extent and incidence in Britain. While no single cause dominates, the importance of arrears and debts, benefit levels, delays and sanction, health and relationship problems, evictions, job loss and migration are all underlined.
