Dear all,
Further to Paul Ashton's posting yesterday re David Smith's artice in the
Sunday Times:
I thought David Smith's piece was a nice little contribution to the debate
on poverty, but felt that he could've/should've gone into a bit more detail
and been more assertive about the definition and lack of poverty and the
(non)-existence of 'the underclass'.
I take it that Prof. Paul Spicker/Catalyst in disputing the existence of
'the undeclass' also no longer believe,implicitly and/or explicitly, in the
existence of the 'working class', 'the middle class' and 'the upper class'?
If so, then John Major's vision of a 'classless society' would seem to have
materialised. But, I bet I'm very much mistaken that Spicker/Catalyst hold
such a view.
If we accept that the working, middle and upper classes still exist then we
must also accept that there are different levels/layers within and between
these broad classes. Hence, those that fall outside (i.e. below) the
definition of the working class, for whatever reasons/measures are 'rightly'
defined as the "under-class". This is not in any way to demean their worth
or deny that they can move up from this position to working class and
beyond, but, the term underclass (like lumpenproletariet) is a useful (and
'accurate') term to describe those at/below the margins of the classical
class structure that we so believe in in the UK.
Finally, I am aware that Pete Saunders (ex-Prof of Sociology at Uni of
Sussex and now at CIS in Australia) is in the process of writing a new book
on poverty in Australia challenging 'traditional'/'leftist' conventions
about what does and does not constitute poverty and how it should be
measured. This should add further fuel to this fascinating debate.
Just some more food for thought.
Paul
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<DIV>Paul J. Maginn </DIV>
<P>Research Fellow </P>
<P>South Bank University</P>
<P>Faculty of Built Environment</P>
<P>Room 808 </P>
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<P>London </P>SW8 2JZ
<P>Tel. +44 (0)20 7815 7342 </P>
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