The issues involved in poverty, inequality and social justice are many and varied, from basic access to education and healthcare, to the financial crisis and resulting austerity, and now COVID-19. Addressing Goal 1: No Poverty, Goal 5: Gender Equality, Goal 10: Reduced Inequalities and Goal 16: Peace, Justice and Strong Institutions, our list both presents research on these topics and tackles emerging problems. A key series in the area is the SSSP Agendas for Social Justice.
This focus has always been at the heart of our publishing with the view to making the research in this area as visible and accessible as possible in order to maximise its potential impact.
Bristol University Press and Policy Press are signed up to the UN SDG Publishers Compact. In Poverty, inequality and social justice, we aim to address the following goals:
Poverty, Inequality and Social Justice
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Basic income has garnered a great deal of attention in recent years. This surge in interest stems from growing income disparities, the failures of existing minimum income programmes, shifts in labour market dynamics and numerous global basic income pilot initiatives. Yet realising the successful implementation of a basic income requires a sustained and comprehensive effort. This research contributes to this imperative by presenting an unprecedented microsimulation analysis of the economic viability of introducing a basic income in the Basque Country. The study introduces two economically sustainable and coherent basic income models that not only effectively eliminate poverty but also generate redistributive effects. These outcomes would position the Basque Country as a region with lower income inequality than any European Union (EU) member state. This article underscores the transformative potential of basic income in the Basque Country and offers valuable insights for policy makers contemplating similar initiatives in other regions or nations.
The voluntary and charitable sector is responsible for much food support in the UK, in the absence of direct government action. A rise in food insecurity (FI) places additional importance on the work of unpaid volunteers, instrumental in food support schemes. Their perceptions, views and experiences are essential contributors to maintaining and enhancing such provision. Semi-structured interviews were held with 51 volunteers at two food support schemes in neighbouring London boroughs. Most volunteers were white and middle-aged and almost half were in paid work. Generally high levels of empathy towards clients were expressed, although some were concerned about possible abuse of the support. Contradictory views were expressed in relation to both personal responsibility for FI and the pay-as-you-feel model; training on both is needed. Major motivators for involvement in volunteering were the perceived value of the work and alignment of projects with personal interests, skills and beliefs. Benefits were viewed as wider than solely nutritional. Ethical difficulties described included the appropriateness of using surplus food to address FI, allowing supermarkets to effectively ‘greenwash’ and failing to address underlying drivers of both FI and food overproduction. Volunteers were also concerned that their involvement allowed the government to abdicate responsibility.
In 2018, British Columbia (BC), Canada’s third most populous province, announced the creation of an Expert Panel to explore the feasibility of introducing a basic income in BC. The Expert Panel on Basic Income prepared the policy report, Covering All the Basics: Reforms for a More Just Society, that responded to this task. Our research applies a critical policy studies approach to explore the ideologies, discursive strategies, and discourses embedded in and emanating from the report. In so doing, we find that the report reproduces problematic discourses about self-sufficiency, welfare dependency, and (poor) choice(s). Rather than discarding a basic income for the working-age population based on flawed assumptions and problematic beliefs, we invite policymakers to consider a more transformative vision that recognises the systemic roots of financial hardship, and embraces a basic income as a key building block of income security for BC and all of Canada.
In this short article, we call for policy makers, activists and academics to take account of food aesthetics of economically and racially marginalised people – especially women – when understanding and intervening in food distribution. Although it may seem that aesthetics and poverty are mutually exclusive, and somewhat provocative to suggest that food aesthetics, when understood more expansively, aesthetics is an important aspect of domestic food work, as our findings from our research with British Bangladeshi women from Tower Hamlets on low incomes and responsible for social reproductive labour in their families and communities attest. We draw inspiration from feminist philosophy of food and taste, and everyday domestic aesthetics. Reflecting on our data, we combine these philosophies with Krishnendu Ray’s critique of food sociologists who imagine that people on low incomes lack a sense of beauty because their lives are dominated by their life of suffering. To conclude, we propose that food aesthetics should become part of the politics of food distribution and rights.
This article explores one primary school’s response to addressing poverty experienced by children and families, within a post-Covid context. It draws on a small-scale qualitative case study exploring the role of the Health and Well-being Lead (HWBL) in a primary school in a relatively affluent market town in the south-east of England. A psychoanalytical approach was taken to understand the data drawing on the researchers different situated experiences and knowledges. Participants included children, parents and staff at the school. All parent participants shared their financial challenges, which they referred to as ‘struggles’, with many relating to the impact of the cost of living and adverse unexpected events. Staff raised concerns about how cuts to support services and funding for schools had contributed to and exacerbated challenges due to long waiting lists and a lack of early intervention. The role of the HWBL was recognised by both parents and staff as an important resource within the school. Integral to this role was a non-judgemental and empathic approach, which created an open and trusting relationship with parents. Despite the apparent success of the role, it was evident that the workload and the increase in ‘struggles’ experienced by families was having an impact on both the HWBL and other staff. While we acknowledge that such a role could benefit other schools, we argue that this will only be successful and sustainable if the government also addresses the need for early intervention, funding and the workload crisis in children’s services and schools.
Research on food insecurity and food aid has focused overwhelmingly on the experiences of women, particularly mothers, with little focus to date on exploring single men’s experiences. This article will explore the experiences of single men across two independent studies of food insecurity and food aid, based on an ethnographic study undertaken with predominantly male clients of food aid schemes in north-east England and a photo-elicitation study undertaken with single men experiencing food insecurity in Scotland. The article will explore how austerity measures heightened men’s levels of food insecurity and need for food aid, and how men’s perceptions of gender roles and stigma influenced where and when they asked for support. The article argues that adverse life events, such as homelessness, contribute to heightened levels of food insecurity. In addition, the social role of food aid will be explored, with participants using sites of food aid not just for physical nourishment but also as a space to connect. Finally, the article will explore the participants’ insights into high male attendance at sites of food aid, often blaming other men’s lack of basic budgeting and cookery skills so as to justify their own deservingness. The article seeks to contribute to addressing a gap in the literature in relation to men’s experiences of food insecurity, and concludes with recommendations on how to support men at risk of using food aid and experiencing food insecurity.
This article reflects on the recent ‘turn to lived experience’ within academia and the third sector in the UK and discusses some issues arising. It then focuses on ways in which these issues might be addressed – including through a methodology employed by ATD Fourth World, an international human rights-based anti-poverty organisation founded after the Second World War that works in partnership with people affected by poverty. ATD developed the ‘merging of knowledge and practice’ to bring together different kinds of expertise, including that acquired from lived experience, to create a richer form of knowledge and better-informed practice. The article discusses this method and suggests various ways in which the lived experience of poverty can be embedded in public debate, policy and practice. People with experience of poverty can be involved in examining and conveying the many dimensions of that experience; providing training for officials dealing with people in poverty; and designing and evaluating relevant policies.
In this article, we respond to a critical review of Covering all the Basics: Reforms for a More Just Society, published in this journal (Smith-Carrier, T., Forget, E., Power, E. and Halpenny, C. [2024] ‘Covering all the [welfare] basics’: a critical policy study of the Expert Panel on Basic Income report in British Columbia, Canada, Journal of Poverty and Social Justice, XX(XX): 1–27, DOI: 10.1332/17598273Y2024D000000016), by providing what we view as a more accurate description of the findings and arguments in that report. The result, we hope, is an alternative depiction of how a basic income would relate to the search for a more just society.
