Sociology Assignment help on : COMPARATIVE ANALYSIS OF POVERTY AND SOCIAL EXCLUSION IN UNITED KINGDOM AND AUSTRALIA

1.     INTRODUCTION

The main purpose of this research proposal is to provide an in-depth overview about the social policy issues of poverty and social exclusion in the two countries of Australia and United Kingdom. The concept of poverty and social exclusion has been found to be closely related and that is why the social issue of social exclusion has been chosen.

 Through this research proposal it would be easier to find out whether the concept of social exclusion and poverty has evolved in the two countries that is Australia and United Kingdom. The two countries have been chosen for comparison because in Australia there is very limited and systematic analysis of social exclusion in Australia and there are many problems found to be associated with the concept in the Australian context (Arthurson, 2002).

On the other hand the concept of social exclusion is found to be quite established in United Kingdom and it works as a very useful framework, using which the issues of poverty as well as inequality can be resolved (Arthurson and Jacobs, 2004). Therefore it would be very constructive to analyse and synthesise the lessons from the UK literature so that the value of social exclusion can be accessed before it can be firmly established in Australian context.

2. LITERATURE REVIEW

In order to assess the values associated with social exclusion it is argued that it is an important concept which lays emphasis on various dimensions of the everyday life where there exist inequalities (Madanipour, 1998) (Vobruba, 2000). Therefore there are three dimensions which have been identified for social exclusion (Somerville, 1998). Similar dimensions have been emphasised which includes political, cultural and social arenas too (Madanipour, 1998).

It has been analysed by some researchers that social exclusion is an entirely an urban problem wherein the cities concentrate and the social problems get intensified (Power, 2000). Thus if we analyse from this perspective  there are  gamut of disadvantaged places and clusters of  poverty  which have been found to be implemented  in social exclusion because they certainly limit  the opportunities of people and also lead to competition amongst community for job,  area stigma,  high level of conflicts and  dissatisfaction (Arthurson and Jacobs, 2004). In a study conducted in UK it has been found that  there is tendency amongst the households which have least resources or are poor to  get attracted towards the  social housing sectors (Lee and Murie, 1997). Therefore it is argued in UK context that the social policies which address the issues of social exclusion should not just focus on the inner areas of city on social housing estates rather it has been noticed that higher levels of deprivation is found in the private renters and the UK owner-occupiers as compared to the social housing estates which are located in neighbourhood. When studied in Australian context  in some of the Australian articles which were related to  housing and social exclusion it was found that the social exclusion should be  applied beyond the  social housing estates (Hulse and Burke, 2000). Regarding the social policy issue it has been argued that social exclusion offers an alternative foundation to concept of poverty in order to develop comprehensive and novel strategies (Taylor, 1998). The UK’s  social exclusion strategy has been criticised  and it has been argued that  there is more emphasis being laid  on combined government which makes the accountability very hard to enforce because it becomes difficult to  find traces of specific social policies and their impact (Levitas, 1998) (Bowring, 2000).

 In addition to the main cause which is highlighted inequality arises there is another societal dimension too there are very broad range of causes of social inequalities which are being incorporated by social exclusion which are depicted beyond the material disadvantage represented by poverty (Anderson and Sim, 2000).

Poverty is also defined as getting excluded from the ordinary living patterns, activities and customs (Townsend, 1979). This definition is quite similar to the contemporary definition of social exclusion. Therefore it is being argued that the concept of social exclusion helps in reinforcing the importance of understating poverty in the form of capability deprivation and the people living in the society are unable to reach and acquire their full potential in the society (Sen, 2000).

The Australian ,Howards government believes that the people who depend on income support for a longer period than on paid work face higher risk of social exclusion and financial hardships. This will lead to loss of self-confidence because of staying jobless for longer period and will have negative effect in the form of detachment from society (Commonwealth of Australia, 2002). Here it can be seen that the poverty word is not mentioned in the social policy statement of Australian government. But in case of European nations it has been found that emphasis is laid on the sub-sets of low income groups on population and all the low income peoples are not excluded from society (Whiteford, 2001). This shows that how social exclusion can contribute towards the various forms of exclusions which it should seek towards redressing.

3. OBJECTIVE AND RESEARCH QUESTIONS

3.1 OBJECTIVES

 The objective of this research proposal is to find a framework for the measurement and tackling the issue of poverty through social exclusion. Since the framework implemented in UK has been a successful in eradicating and lowering the poverty levels in UK, in Australia also a similar kind of framework needs to be developed for tackling poverty through social exclusion framework. Thus the main objectives of this research proposal are:

• To find out the range of processes as well as causes which lead to social exclusion and poverty in Australia and UK?
• To find the societal dimensions of social exclusion in the Australian context and UK context
• How can the framework of social exclusion implemented in UK be used for poverty eradication and tackling of social issues of social exclusion in Australia.

3.2 RESEARCH QUESTIONS

• How is social exclusion related to poverty?
• What are the various social dimensions of social exclusion?
•  What are the major differences between the social exclusion perspective as social issue in Australia and UK?
• How can social exclusion be used for eradicating poverty in Australia and UK?
• Can the social exclusion framework of UK be used for creating a new framework for social exclusion implementation in Australia?

4. METHODOLOGY AND METHODS

 The research methodology which would be adopted for this research would contain data gathered from secondary sources. The data will be gathered from various journals, books, magazines, blogs and some case studies might also prove helpful in finding relevant and authentic data.

 There are varied types of national data sets which can provide information regarding various aspects of social exclusion in Australia and UK. These sources can be classified under varied broad heads that are:

• Survey and Census Data

Some very promising survey data can be obtained from ABS Census of Population and Housing which gives a range of data reading national coverage of various variables. Australian Institute of Health and Welfare (AIHW) will also provide survey data on topics which are concerning welfare and health.

•  Administrative Data
•  Longitudinal Data
•  Varied Illustrative examples  of measurements  frameworks

 5. DISSEMINATION

5.1 ETHICAL CONSIDERATIONS

The main ethical aspect which the researcher will have to deal with is that the integrity and the data should be presented in proper manner giving proper credit to the source from which the data has been obtained. The collected data should not be tampered or should not be used by the researcher for unethical use. The data collected should not be used for any other illegal or for any hidden motives which might harm the integrity of the source of data. The necessary steps whichever are required should be taken to maintain the integrity and so that the quoting of data should not be considered as a plagiarism issue in the research.

5.2 RESOURCE REQUIREMENTS

In order to undertake this research different kinds of resources should be utilised. For acquiring the literature review the researcher should have proper access to the authentic resources. Varied kinds of resources are available online at Emerald, Science Direct and many social science related database which are available on the university website. To access this database the researcher should have university login facility and logon ID. The researchers can also consult some good books which are available in the university or any other library. Internet is the best available resource because this research is based upon secondary data which is available in ample amount online. It is available in the form of reports, surveys and articles on the internet and can be accessed easily by researcher. The online journals can also be accessed by availing internet facilities for the research proposal. Therefore for collecting information or data internet will act as vital resource.

6.TIME TABLE

 The researcher’s plan will follow the following timescale shown below:

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