Shildrick - Poverty propaganda: confronting the myths

POVERTY PROPAGANDA

Exploring the myths

Tracy Shildrick

First published in Great Britain in 2018 by

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In writing this book I owe various debts of gratitude to family, friends and colleagues who have all been supportive in different ways. Robert MacDonald, the late Andy Furlong, Colin Webster, Kayleigh Garthwaite, Johann Roden and Robert Crow were all co-researchers on the various research projects referred to in the book. The research participants in all of those projects deserve a special mention for sharing their lives with such honesty and generosity. Particular thanks go to Anqi Shen and also to Ruth Patrick, Pauline Ramshaw, Louise Wattis, Anthony Ruddy and Georgios Papanicoloau. The occasional meet-ups really helped but we really ought to try and do it more often! Robert Crow at Teesside remained a loyal and reliable supporter of the work and his ability to find sometimes obscure material never ceased to amaze me. Sharon Elley at Leeds was generous with her careful proof-reading skills. Adrian Sinfield has provided no end of valuable source material as well as commenting on various ideas and drafts of the book. He and his wife, Dorothy, have supported the research in lots of different ways over recent years and I feel incredibly privileged to have benefited from their immense knowledge, kindness and hospitality. Policy Press has been endlessly patient and tolerant and particular thanks go to Ali Shaw who continued to believe in me and in the value of the book, even when I occasionally didn't! The ideas benefited enormously from the debates I had with my level three Leeds SSP undergraduate students studying the 'Class in Everyday Life' module in early 2017. Most importantly, my family have continued to support and believe in me. Looking back, it is hard to believe that my daughters, Jessica and Chelsea, were just babies when I embarked on my undergraduate degree as a mature student at Teesside University. They have grown into two exceptional young women who continue to indulge my 'poverty passion' with both patience and grace, and I will forever be enormously proud of them both. Finally, my husband Steve never stopped believing in my ability to complete the book and he has generously tolerated my (very) many evening and weekend absences with love and little complaint. I owe a lot to people who have supported me, but of course, the book and any flaws in it are all my own.

The issue of people moving repeatedly between work and unemployment is an endemic problem in the UK and has risen by 60 per cent since 2006, mostly as a result of the recession. Entering work cannot provide a sustainable route out of poverty if job security, low pay and lack of progression are not also addressed. (Goulden, 2010, p 1)

Evidence shows that poverty, and the insecurity that inevitably accompanies it, is affecting the lives of more and more ordinary working-age people and families, not just in Britain and the UK more broadly but also across the globe (Standing, 2010; 2014; 2016). Poverty has become a normalised aspect of day-to-day life for millions of individuals and families in Britain today, yet it occupies a peculiar and contradictory position in both popular and political debates. Poverty is widespread in Britain, as well as in the UK more broadly, and all indications show that its incidence, particularly for children and working-age households, will continue to rise under the current direction of policy (Hood and Waters, 2017). Poverty in Britain is most often caused by 'poor work' (Byrne, 2005) that is, work that fails to take people away from poverty either for long enough or far enough to make a difference to their lives and by inadequate 'welfare', particularly for those forced to rely on out-of-work benefits (JRF, 2016). More and more people find themselves trapped between the two as they cycle in and out of short-term, low-paid work and on and off inadequate (and increasingly difficult to access) 'welfare' payments. Yet the low-pay, no-pay cycle, as it is often referred to, still remains a relative blind spot in political and policy debates. Since 2010, cuts forced through in the name of austerity have also added to the problem, although the general trends towards increasing inequality and diminishing opportunities for those who are economically marginalised go back much further than the recession of 2008 and the subsequent imposition of numerous cuts. Yet, despite the widespread existence of poverty in Britain, it is all too frequently ignored, increasingly demonised and, when it is discussed, almost always presented in ways that are misleading and inaccurate. As a result, poverty both as a concept and as a condition, is generally misunderstood and it is this misunderstanding and misrepresentation that this book aims to address.

This book argues that poverty propaganda deliberately and often very carefully crafted myths and misrepresentations about poverty and those who experience the condition has the biggest influence on how poverty is understood in the contemporary context. Poverty propaganda works to ensure that myths and false pronouncements about poverty and its causes and consequences are disseminated widely: thus poverty is at one and the same time both increasingly a normalised condition in contemporary Britain and also one that is demonised to such as degree that its real causes and consequences are barely discussed. Such is the strength of stigma and shame that comes from this misrepresentation that even those experiencing deep poverty and related disadvantages do everything they can to distance themselves from the condition (Shildrick and MacDonald, 2013). One of the reasons why poverty propaganda is so successful is not simply its ability to disguise poverty but its capacity to stigmatise not just those people who are experiencing poverty, but whole swathes of often very loosely defined segments of society who are in some way disadvantaged. It is precisely this woolliness in the target populations of poverty propaganda that makes its messages so powerful and that ensures that poverty as a condition can continue to be largely overlooked. Neoliberal regimes, such as that which has dominated in Britain since the mid-1970s, provide fertile ground for poverty propaganda to flourish as life chances are increasingly presented as and largely understood to be the sole responsibility of individuals (Beck, 2002). Neoliberal capitalist regimes are predicated on the promotion of widespread improvements in living conditions and the increasing availability of opportunities for personal and economic advancement. The language of the day might change, but the British equivalent of the 'American dream', whether it be in the form of the 'the opportunity society' (Major, 1991) or the latest incarnation in the form of 'The Great Meritocracy' (May, 2017), holds a special place in the British public's psyche and does much to help overshadow the gross and growing inequalities in access to opportunities that blight the lives and potential of increasing numbers of people.