Poverty Research and Social Policy

Poverty Research and Social Policy--The Background Poverty research had its genesis in the work of churches and church based agencies in the early years of the 20th century. At this time the slum dweller, the homeless, the jobless, `the poor', all began to attract the attention of Australian moral reformers. The historian Graeme Davison (2000), cites the Methodist layman, J Oswald Barnett and the Anglican priest, Gerard Kennedy Tucker, founder of the Brotherhood of St Laurence, as two early reformers who, in order to provide authority for their work among the slums of inner-city Melbourne, carried out social surveys. These surveys, intended more to arouse public indignation than to find out what was the `existing state of the play', were an important component of religious social action strategies. Davison maintains that much of the flavour of social Christianity persisted in social research even when it was brought out from under the aegis of the churches and charities and given a place in the halls of academe. At this time the emphasis was on `paternalistic' measures of relieving conditions for the poor and differentiation was made between the `deserving' and the `undeserving' poor. From the 1960s, reflecting the social justice ethos of that time, progressive agencies developed in Melbourne which endeavoured to look beyond individualistic strategies for dealing with injustice and deprivation and made some effort to address some of the structural reasons for poverty. An example of this change is seen in the work of a group of Protestant churches in inner city Melbourne who sought innovative ways of addressing the unmet needs of the local poor, many of whom were immigrants. Reflecting in its name a commitment to research-based action with, and on behalf of, the inner city poor, the Centre for Urban Research and Action (CURA) sought non-paternalistic approaches to community welfare, directing its efforts and resources to `justice rather than charity, co-responsibility rather than dependence' (Ekstasis 1: 5). This emphasis conformed with the objectives of Saul Alinsky, radical organiser of people's movements in America, whose ideas were very influential at this time. Alinsky wrote: It is highly undemocratic to plan, govern, arrange, and impose programs without communication with the people for whom they are designed; it is also disastrously impractical. I do not believe that democracy can survive except as a formality if the ordinary citizen's role is limited to voting, and if he is incapable of initiative or all possibility of influencing the political, social and economic structures that surround him (Alinsky 1969: 216-218). Taking seriously such ideas, and working alongside the Brotherhood of St Laurence, and other welfare agencies such as the Hanover Centre for the homeless, a team of like-minded academics, church people and activists, developed a model of Christian ministry that balanced the need for research and reflection with the call for fullest possible participation (Ekstasis 1: 4). We would actually work with the groups and they would be part of the research process forming the key issues and questions through to implementation of the findings, plus there would actually be both in kind and actual support given to those groups in financial and other ways (Madden 2000). Such participative and innovative methods of investigation were later to became models for policy research in the Australian Labor Party (ALP) which, until this time, had had little experience in carrying out complex scholarly research projects to drive or support its policies (See Ward 1989). (1) CURA disbanded in the early 1980s, many of its members opting for a more active role in policy-making through the ALP or the Hawke governments. The Brotherhood of St Laurence, on the other hand, continued to develop its research base to become a significant player in researching policies aimed at addressing poverty in Australia (McClelland 2000: 5). …