A-Level Sociology: work, poverty and welfare

Work, Poverty and Welfare is one of the four options in the first section of Paper 2 in A-level Sociology (for example, AQA A-level Sociology 7192). It covers the nature, existence and persistence of poverty, the distribution of poverty, wealth and income, responses to poverty by the state and by private, voluntary and informal providers, the organisation and control of the labour process, and the significance of work and worklessness, including the effects of globalisation. This material covers each area, going beyond the basic absolute and relative poverty distinction already practised in the category's stratification material.

The quiz opens with measurement: Townsend's relative deprivation index, and a calculation of a poverty line at 60% of median income, the measure used in the UK's Households Below Average Income statistics. It then sets individualistic explanations, such as Lewis's culture of poverty and Murray's underclass, against structural ones: the poverty trap, the feminisation of poverty and the Marxist view of Westergaard and Resler.

Welfare comes next: the Beveridge Report and its five giants, the arguments for universal and means-tested benefits, and welfare pluralism, the mix of state, voluntary, private and informal provision found in any town with a food bank. The last three questions turn to work: Braverman's de-skilling thesis, Blauner's findings on technology and alienation, and Atkinson's flexible firm with its secure core and insecure periphery.

Every quiz question is built on an invented household, town or company, has one defensible answer, and comes with an explanation that adds the criticism or rival view needed for an essay.

The material offers four formats. The 12-question quiz explains each answer. The 17-card flashcard deck covers the key concepts, from consensual measures of poverty to Jahoda's latent functions of work. The printable written work sets eight open questions, from explaining the distribution of wealth and income to assessing the effects of unemployment and of globalisation on work, with ruled space for handwritten answers that are then checked. The oral exam puts you in front of an examiner who asks one question at a time, follows up on your reasoning and gives brief feedback at the end.

Use it if you are studying this option, or to add evidence on poverty and work to answers on stratification and families.

• Compare absolute, relative and consensual definitions and measures of poverty, and calculate a relative low-income threshold
• Evaluate individualistic, structural, feminist and Marxist explanations of the existence and persistence of poverty
• Describe the distribution of wealth and income between social groups
• Assess responses to poverty by the state and by voluntary, private and informal providers
• Explain changes in the labour process using Braverman, Blauner and Atkinson
• Explain the significance of work and worklessness for people's lives, including the effects of globalisation

Practice material written by Zestly, based on the Work, Poverty and Welfare option of A-level Sociology specifications (for example AQA A-level Sociology 7192, specification version 1.2, section 4.2.4). Relative low income measure as used in the DWP Households Below Average Income statistics.