Social security and poverty
At present, my primary focus in relation to poverty and social security is on extent of poverty amongst working households, and what combination of policy instruments is most appropriate to tackle in-work poverty. To this end, I am interested in:
- How the roll-out of Universal Credit in the UK will affect in-work poverty in the UK;
- The extent to which rising housing costs, and changes in housing tenure patterns, are exacerbating poverty, and what might be done about this.
While most of my work in this area relates to the UK and Europe, I am also interested in these the expansion of social security in the Global South. In particular, I am interested in:
- The expansion of social security in developing countries and the extent to which this can reduce poverty and vulnerability.
The Great Recession, redistributive responses and poverty in Europe
I am currently conducting research on trends in poverty and living standards in Europe during and since the Great Recession. My interests include:
- Differences in redistributive responses pursued by European nations following the Great Recession;
- The distinctive experience of nations requiring bailouts from the EC/ECB/IMF Troika, in particular;
- The implications of European monetary union for the welfare state;
- The risks posed by high levels of private and public debt to people’s living standards, and
- The extent to which crisis losses have borne by young people.
Conceptualisation and measurement of poverty and multiple deprivation
Much of my early research focused on the conceptualisation and measurement of poverty. In particular, my PhD thesis explored the contribution that the capability approach might make to the conceptualisation and measurement of poverty in rich nations, and was comprised of a combination of conceptual analysis and empirical analysis of the British Household Panel Survey.
As part of the conceptual work, I argued that a multidimensional, capability-inspired framework could provide a more persuasive account of the experience of poverty and deprivation than the dominant ‘relative-deprivation’ tradition of Peter Townsend. The empirical work examined the relationship between resources and functionings for different individuals and groups, across different dimensions, and over time.
I remain interested in:
- The possibilities, challenges and issues involved in using indicators of material deprivation to measure poverty, and
- The considerations and principles that influence poverty measurement, and the extent to which practice-based considerations have been neglected in recent debates in order to prioritise a focus on principles (axioms).
The capability approach
My fourth main area of work is in relation to the capability approach – specifically, I seek to contribute towards broadening understanding of the approach, and to explore and interrogate its potential for understanding poverty and inequality.
In a 2016 paper in Journal of Human Development and Capabilities, I contribute to the spare literature which seeks to empirically verify the existence of ‘conversion factors’, which are fundamental to motivating the approach. The paper argues that the types of variation between resources and functionings are greater in number than the capability literature suggests; that academics working with the approach need to better understand the nature of these sources of variation, and that there are sometimes good reasons for resource / income-centric approaches to be taken more seriously by academics working with the capability approach.
In a more recent paper with Tania Burchardt (LSE), we explore what the capability approach might be able to contribute to the study of inequality, and of advantage in particular, as opposed to in its more typical application in relation to the study of poverty.