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Centre for Urban Research

Poverty and Progress? Rowntree’s York, 1899-2001

Department of History and the Department of Sociology, University of York

Wednesday 11 January 2012, 1 pm

Speakers:Prof Mike Savage (Sociology), Dr Rowland Atkinson (Sociology), Dr Chris Renwick (History), Dr Mark Roodhouse (History)

The event held on 11 January 2012 showcased a major new research project that promises to change our understanding of the history of inequality in twentieth-century Britain and the history of social investigation.

Over the past twelve months a team of historians and sociologists from the University of York have been scoping out the potential for an exciting project tracing the history of poverty and social mobility in York across the twentieth century. York is an excellent place for such a study. Not only does the city possess a rich and vast body of sources about its recent past – unique for a city of its size – but it also shaped contemporary understandings of poverty through Seebohm Rowntree’s social investigations.

Under the leadership of Professor Mike Savage, the team has investigated the possibility of digitising and linking the data from Rowntree’s 1935-7 and 1950 surveys as well as a 1975-8 follow-up study by Tony Atkinson, Alan Maynard and Chris Trinder, and a 1999 living standards survey by Meg Huby, Jonathan Bradshaw and Anne Corden. Although the data from Rowntree’s 1899 survey are lost or destroyed, the team looked into linking census data from 1901 and 1911, and local housing surveys with Rowntree’s 1935-7 survey. In some cases, as York Archaeological Trust’s Hungate dig has shown, it may be possible to trace the history of families and properties back to 1841 using census data. Linking this data will allow us to trace social mobility across three generations, arguably a unique opportunity, as well as looking at the impact of slum clearance in unprecedented detail.

Media

A Social Science History of York, 1900-2000

History (PDF , 789kb)‌

 

Researching the Modern Social History of York

Research History (PDF , 677kb)‌

 

Understanding Inequality: An Interdisciplinary Social Science History of York, 1900-2000

Understanding Inequality (PDF , 957kb)‌