Poverty and Social Exclusion in Britain

The Labour government has pledged to tackle poverty and social exclusion and to eradicate child poverty, forever, within 20 years. However, in order to have effective policies to deal with these pressing problems we need to have an accurate picture of the state of poverty and social exclusion. This book is the most authoritative study of poverty and social exclusion in Britain at the start of the 21st century. It reports on the most comprehensive survey of poverty and social exclusion, ever to be undertaken in Britain: the Poverty and Social Exclusion Survey. "Poverty and social exclusion in Britain" presents the first large-scale analysis of this data set; charts the extent and nature of material and social deprivation and exclusion in Britain at the end of the 20th century; makes the first ever measurement of the extent of social exclusion, based on a survey specifically designed for this purpose; provides a clear conceptual understanding of poverty and social exclusion from both a national and international perspective. This important book should be read by officials and policy makers in national and local government, charities and voluntary organisations dealing with poverty and social exclusion. It will also be required reading for academics and students of social policy, sociology, public health, economics and politics. Christina Pantazis is Head of the Centre for the Study of Poverty and Social Justice in the School for Policy Studies, David Gordon is Professor of Social Justice and Director of the Townsend Centre for International Poverty Research and Ruth Levitas is Professor of Sociology and (from 2006) Head of Department, all at the University of Bristol, UK.