Poverty studies and social research

Abstract

British Sociology was at the forefront of developing social studies to define, map and itemise poverty. Two studies, surveys carried out by Charles Booth in London and by Seebohm Rowntree in York in the late nineteenth century, revolutionised poverty research and the conduct of the social survey. They introduced new ways of conducting social observation and evaluation of the economic conditions of the working classes that were to change the way that social surveys were carried out and the definition and measurement of poverty.