Mike (S.M.) Miller, November 21, 1922 – October 26, 2021
As many of you will know, Mike Miller made an enormous contribution to social science, policy and much more. He was a major figure in policy and research into poverty and inequality in the United States and more widely, especially in the 1960s and 1970s. Particularly with Marty Rein in a series of articles on poverty, he mapped out problems, critiqued policies and the lack of them, including the patchwork of the War on Poverty, and proposed structural and particular policies in a broad context. The Future of Inequality (1970), written with Pam Roby, took off from Richard Titmuss’s social division of welfare to set forward a challenging strategy for society. Among much other work I was particularly stimulated by was his writing on taxation and its beneficiaries (with Ron Corwin, 1972), creaming the poor (with Pam and others, 1970) and the exclusion of youth through credentialism (1968).
Hearing the sad news that Mike did not reach his 99th birthday has brought many good memories. We first met him in 1964 at LSE when he was visiting Titmuss and his colleagues and I was working as a research assistant to Peter Townsend and Brian Abel-Smith. During our subsequent year of research in Syracuse, upstate New York, where Mike was then based but in another research centre, he made us very welcome and was a very good friend. There were subsequent meetings in the States, but also back in Europe, including a very pleasant time with him, John Veit-Wilson and Zsuzsa Ferge visiting her country cottage some hours’ drive from Budapest.
Mike was a man of great warmth and encouragement. I always left his company feeling stimulated. In teaching and my own research I made much use of his work. I still re-read some of his very short pieces to get me going. I’ve also cited and circulated them widely - particularly Prevention of poverty (1999) and Re-inventing the broken wheel (1970).
This note only touches on Mike’s contributions and the nature of the man. Many of you will have other memories. If anyone has found a full obituary, I would be very glad to see it. If I find one, I may well share the link, Adrian Sinfield.
Adrian Sinfield
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