Documenti di Didattica
Documenti di Professioni
Documenti di Cultura
Your use of the JSTOR archive indicates your acceptance of JSTOR's Terms and Conditions of Use, available at
http://www.jstor.org/page/info/about/policies/terms.jsp. JSTOR's Terms and Conditions of Use provides, in part, that unless
you have obtained prior permission, you may not download an entire issue of a journal or multiple copies of articles, and you
may use content in the JSTOR archive only for your personal, non-commercial use.
Please contact the publisher regarding any further use of this work. Publisher contact information may be obtained at
http://www.jstor.org/action/showPublisher?publisherCode=black.
Each copy of any part of a JSTOR transmission must contain the same copyright notice that appears on the screen or printed
page of such transmission.
JSTOR is a not-for-profit service that helps scholars, researchers, and students discover, use, and build upon a wide range of
content in a trusted digital archive. We use information technology and tools to increase productivity and facilitate new forms
of scholarship. For more information about JSTOR, please contact support@jstor.org.
Blackwell Publishing and The London School of Economics and Political Science are collaborating with
JSTOR to digitize, preserve and extend access to The British Journal of Sociology.
http://www.jstor.org
Measuring Poverty
PETER TOWNSEND
A NEWSTANDARD
The pattern of spendingamong poor people is largely determinedby
the accepted modes of behaviourin the communitiesin which they live,
and these, in turn, are determinedto some extent by the practicesadopted
by the societyas a wholethroughcentraland localgovernment. A yardstick
for measuringpoverty can only be devised in the light of knowledgeabout
family budgets. How can this be done with the least arbitrariness ?
Oneimprovementwas suggestedin a study of a Birminghamcommunity,
carriedout in I939 and publishedin I942. [I3] In this study poverty was
measuredin two ways: (i) by comparingnet incotne (i.e. total incomeless
rent, compulsoryinsurances,and fares to and from work)with an assumed
minimumstandardof expenditureon food, fuel, light, clothingand cleaning
materials; and (ii) by comparingwith a minimumstandardof expenditure
on food the balanceout of housekeepxng moneytheoretically availablefor food,
after paying the assumedminimumon non-fooditems in (i) plus voluntary
insurancesand regularhire-purchaseinstalments. The first, the usual type
of measurementadoptedin social surveys, was said to take " less account
of actualities" and the secondvvas" a morerealisticmeasureof the standard
of sufficiencyof the family". But it was acknowledgedthat both these
methodscouldbe criticized,thoughthe secondto a lesserextent, for " ignor-
ing certaintypes of necessaryexpenditure,such as that on householdutensils,
medicaltreatment,and holidays, as well as expenditureon tobaccoJbeer,
newspapers,and recreation,which are, to say the least of it, customary"
(P 47)
The secondmethod,althoughopen to many of the criticismsexpressed
above, gives prominenceto expenditureon food as a criterionof poverty.
In future, it would seem reasonableto accept such a criterion,with certain
qualifications,simply because nutritional needs are more susceptible of
measurementthan clothing,fuel and other needs.
The followingproceduremight be justifiablein futuresurveys: (i) The
collectionof data relatingto the food consumptionand expenditureas well
as the incomeof working-class households; (ii) The comparisonof this data,
assembledaccordingto constitutionof householdand income group, with
a scale of nutritiveneeds, such as that in the Reportof the Committeeon
Nutritionof the BritishMedicalAssociation,I950; (iii) The isolation,from
all those securingminimumnutrition,of, say, the 25 per cent in the vanous
householdgroups who achieve it on the smallest incomes, or rather, the
¢To (the advertiser) a bnde is not a young womaxl on the edge of a great adventure; she
1S a conditioned consumer who, by buying the right cosmetics and right brassiere has captured
her manJ axld who, when she returns from her honeymoon, will go into the grocer's and auto-
matically recite those branded names which have been the most loudly dinned into her ears
for the last twenty-one years.') The ShockingHistory of Advertising,E. S. Turner, I952, p. I2.
PETER TOWNSEND I35
smallest incomesless one or two fixed involuntaryoverheads,such as rent
and compulsoryinsurances. The averagetotal expenditureof these house-
holds, less the overheads,accordingto their differentsizes, can be taken
as the poverty line.
Sucha standardmay be justifiedon the groundthat it is, in fact, attained
by a fair proportionof working-classpeople, and is thereforerealistic. It
urouldobviate the need for subjective decisionsabout the sums of money
requiredfor clothing, fuel and light and so on. Inevitably, a subjective
elementremains,and this is involvedin the choiceof the proportionof work-
ing-classhouseholdswhosemembershave an adequatediet and whosespend-
ing is to be consideredin fixing the standard. But this element need not
be obtrusive,particularlyif the choice is made with full knowledgeof the
budgetary patterns of differentfamilies, and with full knomrledge of the
dispersion,and the reasonsfor the around
dispersion, the budgetary mean
of each income and household group.
Part of the informationessential to the applicationof this method is
already obtained in the course of the NationalsFood Survey. The latest
Report on this, fOr I95I [I8], analysesthe adequacyof diet by social class,
but the classes are ratherbroadlydefined,land the diet and expenditureof
those in the lowest incomegroupis not set out in any detail. A great deal
of informationabout familybudgetswill issue fromthe new surveyof house-
hold expenditurebeing made at present by the Ministryof Labour. It is
to be hoped that this will be tabulatedby householdsize and constitution,
for each income group.
It is true that the methodsuggestedis basicallya methodof measuring
the extent of malnutntionnot attributableto wasteflllspending,but I think
it would give the fairestondexof poverty, particularlyif the results gained
by its use were correlatedwith other findingsbased on standardsof over-
crowding,householdamenities,educationand so on.
REFERENCES
I. London: Life and Labosurof the People in London, Charles Booth.
2. York: Poverty: A Study of Town Life, B. S. Rowntree.
3. A Survey of Five Towns: Livelihoodand Poverty,A. L. Bowley and A. R. Burnett-
Hurst, I9I5, and Has Poverty Diminissied? A. L. Bowley and MargaretH.
Hogg, I 925.
4. London: New Survey of London Life and Labour, I930-5.
5. Merseyside: Social Survey of Merseyside,ed. D. Caradog-Jones,I934.
6. Southampton: Workand Wealthin a Modern Port, P. Ford, I934.
7. Shefiield: A Survey of the Standardof Living in ShefSeld,A. D. K. Owen, I934.
P E T E R T OW N S E N D I37
8. Miles Platting (Manchester): Povetty and Housing Conditions in a Manchester
Ward, John Inman, I934.
9. Plymouth: A Social Survey of Plymouth, I935.
I0. York: Poverty and Progress, B. S. Rowntree, I94I.
II. Bristol: The Standard of Living in Bristol, H. Tout, I938.
I2. Six Towns: Men Without Work, A report made to the Pilgrim Trust, I938.
I 3. Kingstanding (Birmingham): Nutrition and Size of Family, M. S. Soutar, E. H.
Willdns and P. Sargant Florence, I942.
I4. " A New Calculation of the Poverty Line ", R. F. George, Jo?4rnalof the Royal
Statistical Society, I937.
I5. " Poverty: Ten Years After Beveridge", Planning, No. 344, August 4, I952.
I6. WeeklyE*penditswre of WorkingClass Householdsin the United Kingdomin I937-38,
Detailed Tables, July, I949.
I7. " Social Security and Unemployment in Lancashire", Planning, No. 349,
December I, I952.
I8. " Domestic Food Consumption and Expenditure, I95I ", Report of the National
Food Survey Comtnittee,I953.
de Schweinitz, I943.
I9. England's Road to Social Security, YDarl
20. " After the Beveridge Report ", Planning, No. 205, April 20, I943.
CurrentNotes
Arrangementshave been made wherebythe TechnicalInformationand
DocumentsUnit (T.I.D.U.) of the Departmentof Scientificand Industrial
Researchwill, on the Editor'srecommendation,accept custody of research
papers,particularlythose touchingindustry,for which, on account of their
length, there is insufficientspace in this journal. This mainly concerns
ancillarymaterialwhich, being inessentialto the general reader,need not
occupy journal space; or possibly, a complete paper of highly-specialized
interest. It is intendedthat specialistworkersinterestedshouldhave access
to depositedmaterialeither in the Reading Room of T.I.D.U. or by loan
from the Unit at CunardHouse, I5, Lower Regent Street, London,S.W.I.