Journal 6- Peter Townsend PDF

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Summary of Peter Townsend's arguments and concepts...

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Peter Townsend was a British sociologist and rights campaigner whose work focussed on the economics of poverty, co- founding the Child Poverty Action Group. Some of his key works include ‘Child Poverty in the Developing World’ and ‘Poverty and Social Exclusion in Britain’. Townsend’s research led to reforms, disability benefits, and measures to cut child poverty and health inequalities. A main concept developed by Townsend is structured dependency. This is the idea that elderly people are dependent on the state in order to prosper, and hence are separated from the rest of society. It is arguable that this approach is based on assumptions of inevitability, and that the elderly require a lot of care as a result of losing social interaction and all the things that enabled them to look after themselves, such as their job and being left with a small pension. Since pension poverty in the twenty first century has fallen, it can be viewed that Townsend’s work is now dated, however it seems that this concept of structured dependency still holds some relevance in today’s society as the elderly do often rely on the state to aid them. Relative deprivation is another major concept of Townsend’s which describes the people who cannot enjoy opportunities as society expects them to due to the welfare state reducing material hardship in 1940, however it is different from ‘absolute poverty’. For example, someone may have a house and other necessities for survival, but have no form of transport, and therefore would be classed as ‘relatively deprived’. This concept was developed further by Townsend’s vast survey in the 1970s. Nonetheless, the idea of relative deprivation is heavily criticised, for instance, his indicators are arguably now dated and invalid to today’s society. Additionally, relative deprivation is a comparative term that depends on perspective of what actually is necessary, therefore it is difficult to define....