Third Peter Townsend Memorial Conference: Poverty and Social Exclusion in the UK

Thursday 19 June (10am-5pm) and Friday 20 June (9.30am-5pm) 2014

Conway Hall, Red Lion Square, London, WC1R 4RL

Conference details, including link to online registration for free tickets, is available on the PSE UK website. [http://www.poverty.ac.uk/take-part/events/final-conference]

Peter Townsend’s 1968/69 study of Poverty in the United Kingdom Survey represented a paradigm shift in poverty research which changed the way that poverty is understood and measured around the world. The third Peter Townsend Memorial Conference will report the findings of the Poverty and Social Exclusion in the UK (PSE^UK) project, which was the final research grant award to Peter Townsend before he died and is the largest research project of its kind ever carried out in the UK.  These results provide the most detailed and comprehensive picture of poverty and exclusion in Britain and Northern Ireland in the 21^st Century.

The research methodology used in the PSE^UK survey, known as the consensual approach, was developed by Joanna Mack and Steward Lansley, building on the work of Peter Townsend.  It has been widely adopted in both developed and developing countries.  Uniquely, it identifies people falling below a publicly-determined minimum standard of living. This method of measuring poverty was pioneered in 1983 and repeated in studies in 1990, 1999, 2002/03 and 2012, allowing trends over 30 years to be tracked, and reported on at this conference.

For free tickets please register online: [http://www.poverty.ac.uk/take-part/conference-registration]

The subjects presented will cover both quantitative and qualitative findings and include:

- The experience of poverty and exclusion

- The changing necessities of life: 1983 to 2012

- How many people are poor and deprived and how do we know?

- Explaining poverty to the public, and community engagement in challenging times

- A UK living standards index

- Poverty and exclusion in Northern Ireland and in Scotland

- Poverty, exclusion and health, disability and mental health

- Family life on a low income, poverty, debt and fuel poverty

- Poverty and services, neighbourhoods and housing, employment and working conditions

- Poverty and parenting, children, gender, ethnicity, youth and older people