Mixed Methods in Poverty Measurement: Qualitative Perspectives on the ‘Necessities of Life’ in the 2012 PSE-UK Survey

Abstract

Recent years have witnessed growing interest in the applications of mixed methods research strategies and specifically in the integration of qualitative and quantitative perspectives within social research. As a result, advocacy of mixed methods strategies has become increasingly accepted in research on the international analysis of poverty and vulnerability. However, despite its growing appeal in global poverty research within the United Kingdom, poverty research mixed methods designs remain rare with limited dialogue between proponents of qualitative and quantitative approaches. This partly reflects the persistence of longstanding methodological controversies in the applications of mixed methods approaches in poverty research. Combining data derived from multiple sources and generated using different data collection methods therefore continues to raise important conceptual, epistemological and methodological challenges in poverty measurement. In this chapter we illustrate some of these issues by drawing on qualitative development work undertaken as part of the 2012 UK Poverty and Social Exclusion Survey (PSE-UK) comprising a series of 14 focus group discussions in different locations in the UK. In doing so, we seek to illustrate the potential applications of qualitative evidence on poverty in assessing the credibility of evidence derived using large-scale survey methods.