Alevel Links: Health, Welfare and Poverty

A-Level Links	Welfare and Poverty

Welfare

Social Policy		The Workhouse
This site, from Robert Gordon University, offers an extensive range of well-written notes focused around the concept of welfare. This extends into a wide range of areas (from family life, through education and deviance, to social inequality and stratification) and provides a way of integrating social policy issues across the whole Specification.		A nice historical site tracing the development, in words, pictures and sound, of the workhouse, from its 17th century origins to its "heyday" as a tool of welfare policy in Victorian Britain. It's a large site containing a wealth of information, not just in terms of general welfare policy but touching on areas like health and education in the 19th century (the Timeline is also worth exploring for a brief history of welfare in our society).

JRF Bookshop		AS Guru
It's not often you get "Books4Free" but this, my friend, might just be your lucky day (presupposing the books you're after relate to things like "Faith and Social Capital" or "What’s new about new immigrants in twenty-first century Britain?" - not, it has to be admitted, high on most people's required reading lists). However, just as it's not politic to look a gift horse in the mouth, this offer is not to be sniffed at (or something). The downloads are, as you might imagine given this is a complete book, quite large...		Part of the BBC's General Studies module, this particular part of the site discusses various aspects of the Welfare State in Britain, from its post-war origins, through funding, to a comparison with other systems. The site contains all the usual bells 'n' whistles you've come to expect and, while it's not exactly extensive it's a useful introduction.

Poverty

Institute for Research on Poverty		The New Inequality
Although this site is aimed at an American audience, the kinds of questions it ask ("How is poverty measured?", for example) are applicable to a much wider audience. As well as general empirical information about US poverty you'll find a range of useful links to poverty-related sites around the world.		This is the text of an article called "9 characteristics of the New Inequality in Europe". It's probably best-used as a discussion piece...

Causes of Poverty		Townsend Centre
As the name suggests, this is a site about poverty and its causes - but you'll also find a wealth (sic) of information relating to poverty around the world in general. Much of the information - although presented clearly and relatively concisely will require some sort of context from teachers to make it understandable for A-level students. However, if you're looking for resources for classroom discussion / reading this site will be a valuable first port of call.		The Home Page for the latest "Poverty and Social Exclusion Survey of Britain" is not only useful for the empirical material it provides (in both summary and full-report formats) but also for the opportunity it gives students to examine a range of methodological issues - from definitions and measurements of poverty to questionnaire construction (you can, for example, download the questionnaire used in the survey).

New Internationalist		Poverty and Policy
Although somewhat dated now (it was originally published in 1988) this series of slides on the "Politics of Greed" is part of a wider examination of the New Right economic policies that dominated Western societies during the 1980's. The material's still useful, however, for historical and comparative and theoretical purposes.		Or "One hundred years of poverty and policy" to give the book its full title. Published by the Joseph Rowntree Foundation this is a full, free, Pdf version of a textbook that examines current (2004) UK policies on poverty in the context of poverty over the past century. Bargain (although it's a near 1mb download, so if you're on dial-up it will probably be cheaper to buy the print version).

AS Guru		New Policy Institute
An interesting part of the General Studies module that examines poverty in the context of Development / World Sociology. As per, not a huge amount of information is provided but once again worth looking at if you need a general overview / introduction to this particular area.		The Publications section of this "Think Tank" site offers a range of research materials (the majority of which are available for download in full / summary form) relating to Poverty and Social Exclusion in the UK - not everyday reading, perhaps, but certainly useful for teachers wanting to access up-to-date information about these topics.