Those of us on the Action on Poverty and Hardship degree team from Staffordshire University appreciate a good book that helps to inform our understanding on tackling poverty and inequalities. We have partnered with Re-Thinking Poverty (a fantastic national network) to bring to you an online ‘meet the author’ session on Tuesday 26th April from 2-3pm. This session is essential for anybody interested in anti-poverty work, academics and policy makers alike. If you are interested in coming to study on our Action on Poverty and Hardship degree course then this would also be useful for you to attend so that you some insight into what is on our course reading list!
To book onto the event sign up here to attend: https://www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/meet-the-author-stuart-lansley-tickets-289635727257
Author Stewart Lansley will be sharing from his book ‘The Richer; The Poorer; How Britain Enriched the Few and Failed the Poor’. This book has been described as a ‘remarkably informed and readable history with a powerful message’ by Professor of Political Science, Jacob Hacker at Yale University who is also a policy advisor. The book details the history of both rich and poor over the last 200 years.
On the Action on Poverty and Hardship course, we think that understanding the past, helps us to better address issues and reconfigure the future. We can learn from past mistakes and try to avoid them in going forward. Our Action on Poverty Degree Students and Staff will be interviewing Stewart Lansley on his book and there will be opportunities to learn more about the degree, Lansley’s ideas and to ask questions yourself.
Staffordshire University Lecturer, Martin Coates, said:
“It is an enjoyable and very informative read. It is a chronology of how, over the last 200 plus years, the powerful elite have enriched themselves at the expense of the mass population, leaving large sections of society suffering abject poverty. It covers the period 1800 up until the present day, Covid elements included. It includes the relevant Poor laws, the workhouse etc, the reports of Charles Booth, Seebohm Rowntree, the grinding poverty of the 1930s, the 30 year ‘Golden Period’ of social democracy 1945-1975 (the consensus years) and then the Neoliberal period after Thatcher. Blair’s Third Way is covered in detail, leading up to the 2008 crash and the austerity measures post-2010. For students, it provides a detailed historical context that is critically forthright in viewing the global financial elite as the primary cause of poverty, through controlling social policies without adopting any political bias. There are links back to Karl Marx and Adam Smith throughout the text to place policy and ideology in context. It is a useful text for students studying poverty and sociology.”
Our Action Against Poverty and Hardship degree is a practical course, supporting students to develop skills in how to positively impact peoples lives, communities and contribute to policy reform. Our course is co-designed with experts in tackling poverty from national organisations including Re-thinking Poverty, Trussell Trust and Joseph Rowntree Foundation, through to organisations working more locally in Stoke-on-Trent, such as Expert Citizens, the Honeycomb Group, GingerBread and Stoke All the Small Things. We look forward to meeting you at the ‘Meet the Author’ online event.
If you want to find out more about our Action on Poverty degree course please check out https://www.staffs.ac.uk/course/action-poverty-hardship-ba and you can also contact the course leader directly via email: Julie.Tipping@staffs.ac.uk