The Origins of Poor Relief

Fundamentally, poverty can be defined as lacking the resources to sustain life. This is a sort of definition that dominated our understanding of poverty in the UK right off until the latter part of the 20th century. The work of sociologist Peter Townsend was instrumental in identifying that poverty is relative and must be understood in social context. If social norms prevalent in a particular society mean that it is normal to live in a home with an internet connection, anybody who can't afford one might be considered living in relative poverty.