Poor Law Research Articles

‘Het zijn onze armen’

Since its inception in 1824, the Western Cape Synod of the Dutch Reformed Church (DRC) has played a key socio-economic role as provider of a range of poor relief strategies. However, the purpose of these charitable efforts was not solely rooted in theological principles. In the nineteenth and twentieth century South African context, poor relief work carried distinct political undertones, particularly surrounding the so-called ‘poor white problem’. A substantial body of literature has emerged surrounding ‘poor whites’ and the political efforts employed to ‘save’ them in the decades before the implementation of apartheid. While the Church’s poor relief schemes are often mentioned as significant in these studies, the Church’s poor relief systems and their development over time remain understudied. This paper identifies and discusses five distinct phases of development of DRC poor relief strategies over the past two centuries (1824-1860s; c. 1860-1900s; 1910-1940; c. 1940-1980s; and 1990-present) and argues that these stages and the practical implementation of the Church’s poor relief efforts has been notably shaped by the contemporary socio-economic and socio-political zeitgeist in which it was embedded.

Slavery, Colonialism and Civic Culture: The Development of Philanthropic Institutions in North East Scotland

This article explores the links between the development of civic culture, philanthropic endeavours, and the proceeds of enslavement and colonialism in North East Scotland. Assessment of the financial records of establishments dedicated to improving health, poor relief and education in this region underpins this article. This article demonstrates that the North East's colonial elite were keen philanthropists in ways similar to their counterparts elsewhere in Britain. Colonial capital played a discernible – if at times minor – role in funding North East philanthropy. There were differing degrees of impact across each institution, both in the scale of the financial contribution and its geographical provenance. Moreover, the evidence detailed in this article suggests that the Caribbean and South Asia milieu in the North East took different approaches to philanthropy. The former contributed more regularly and often to existing institutions; the latter tended toward endowing new projects. Deriving its conclusions from under-examined evidence and a Caribbean-South Asia comparative framework, this article shows that research on philanthropic organisations can generate a clearer understanding of the legacies of enslavement and colonialism in Scotland.

1782년 길버트법의 제정과 수용 그리고 그 영향

This paper aims to shed new light on Gilbert’s Act, which has been neglected in exsiting studies. The influence of Gilbert’s Act has long been underestimated due to its nature as a permissive act without coercive force. However, the reform of Thomas Gilbert, who drafted this act, were not merely intended to create a humanitarian relief system. He sought a comprehensive overhaul of the entire poor relief system. Yet, after the failure of his first legislative attempt in 1765, his reform gradually took a more moderate direction. Gilbert’s Act, enacted in 1782, not only represented a significant retreat from the original plan but also failed to mandate the reform nationwide, instead granting local governments the authority to implement the reform. Despite these limits, the extent to which Gilbert’s Act was adopted was far more widespread than what previous research has revealed. In Hampshire, about 40 parishes adopted Gilbert’s Act. Moreover, the motivations for its adoption were not limited to humanitarian concerns, but diverse, including the reduction of poor relief costs and the encouragement of labor among the poor. Remarkably, Gilbert’s Act continued to persist even after the 1834 New Poor Law, which brought a major overhaul to the poor relief system, and in some areas, it remained firmly upheld.

Women as child carers: Arranging and compensating mothering in early modern Lancashire

ABSTRACT This article uses a database of fifty petitions submitted to the Lancashire Quarter Session Courts between 1660 and 1720 to locate mothers who cared for non-kin children in early modern England. While boarding children with non-kin was a practice not unknown to historians, the identities and experiences of the women who provided the childcare have hitherto been largely absent from previous scholarships. These petitions were brought by women who were not receiving the appropriate or arranged financial compensation for their caring responsibilities. Through their descriptions of disorder in their arrangements, we can uncover not only the attributes of the carers and their lived experiences but also more broadly what early modern English society expected from them. In addition, these petitions allow for a deeper understanding of how the practice of boarding children operated within and without the confines of the poor laws. Given the importance of child-rearing and the belief that it was a female task, this mothering gave common women authority that would otherwise be less accessible to them. This article thus argues that women understood the wider significance of this labour and used the influence it offered them to their advantage in their petitions. More broadly, then, this article provides a re-examination of the relationship between women, the poor law and authority in early modern England.

Luther and Biopower: Rethinking the Reformation with Foucault

In this article, we propose an alternative Foucauldian reading of Martin Luther’s thought and early Lutheranism. Michel Foucault did not mention the Reformation often, although he saw it as an amplification of pastoral power and the governing of people’s everyday lives. We aim to fill the gap in his analysis by outlining the disciplinary and biopolitical aspects in Luther and early Lutheranism. Therefore, we also contribute to the ongoing debate regarding the birth of biopolitics, which, we argue, predates Foucault’s periodisation. Our approach to tackling these questions is three-pronged. First, we establish the context by highlighting a few Reformation-era examples of the conceptual opposite of biopower, namely, sovereign power. Second, we scrutinise the disciplinary aspects of early Lutheranism, underscoring the fact that disciplinary institutions appear to subject people to new models of behaviour. Third, we describe the biopolitical undercurrents in Luther’s thought and its early reception. We argue that the reformer’s views on issues such as marriage and poor relief appear to carry a biopolitical significance before the alleged birth of biopolitics.

Oliver as Object: Character, Genre, and Agency in the Victorian Novel

Abstract: This essay revisits the perennial question of Oliver Twist's flat and inert character. It argues that the different genres overlaid within the novel—allegory, statistical report, it-narrative—allow Dickens to make the social critique that drives the novel. The statistical report and itnarrative, particularly, demonstrate that the discourse of Benthamism, which underpinned the New Poor Law, is inadequate to narrate human subjectivity. These genres dramatize Dickens's critique of the law: that it turns people into fungible units. The flat characters and objectifying genres of Oliver Twist drive the novel's powerful argument about humanity and community. For most of the novel, Oliver can be read via a posthuman critique; he has more in common with the objects and animals of it-narrative than with Pip or David Copperfield. To bring about novelistic resolution, Dickens finally turns to a familiar and satisfying romance plot, revising Oliver into a true protagonist with agency and a unique identity. This essay challenges the convention that flat characters are authorial failures by arguing that in Victorian novels, as genre and character co-create one another, they construct particular, strategic models of human subjectivity and agency.

Charity, Neighbors, and Gender in London Godly Sermons: John Downham and William Gouge

This article traces the response to the Elizabethan Poor Laws in two parishes in Jacobean London. The Elizabethan Poor Laws of 1598 and 1601 attempted to create a system of reliable poor relief in response to a series of late sixteenth-century economic and population crises. The establishment of an organized system of almsgiving formally centered in the parish and its officers shifted the understanding of charity from a voluntary and interpersonal act to a more bureaucratic process. Focusing on the diverging accounts of charity by John Downham and William Gouge, this essay demonstrates how the bureaucratic logic of the Elizabethan Poor Laws was debated and challenged in print and from two of London's most influential pulpits.

Advancing Justice Through Technology: A Comparative Analysis of Data-Driven Approaches to The Burden of Proof in Criminal Cases in The USA and Pakistan

In this paper, the burden of proof in criminal justice is examined concerning technological innovations: The United States and Pakistan A Comparative Analysis. This paper looks at how digital evidence, much like forensic technologies and AI have impacted the legal proceedings, especially on aspects of discovery up come to scrap for proof. The research uses a mixed methods approach through case analysis and interviews with legal professionals to illustrate some of the benefits and barriers on deploying technical solutions in criminal justice. The study concludes that these innovations improve the reliability and efficiency of legal processes while posing significant challenges for developing legals frameworks, reliable evidencing practice or regulations, as well as clear ethical standards. The findings illustrate the divide between digitally rich and poor law systems, highlighting that effective legal reforms must be accompanied by sustained training for justice sector officials with a nuanced approach buttressing core human rights such as data privacy or presumption of innocence. This research adds to the rich literature on technology in justice and provides important lessons for policy makers, legal professionals, academics who wish to transform the criminal justice system of the future by leveraging digital technologies.

Temporary Gasserian ganglion stimulation utilizing SNM electrode in subacute herpetic trigeminal neuralgia.

Gasserian ganglion stimulation (GGS) is a neuromodulation technique that has been extensively applied in treating postherpetic trigeminal neuralgia. However, permanent implantation of GGS was preferred in most treatment approaches. Few studies have investigated temporary GGS for the treatment of acute/subacute herpetic trigeminal neuralgia. Moreover, previous research has reported lead dislocation when utilizing traditional electrodes, which was associated with poor pain relief. In GGS research, preventing the accidental displacement of lead following implantation has consistently been a primary objective. We report a case of a 70-year-old woman with subacute herpetic trigeminal neuralgia who underwent temporary GGS for 14 days utilizing a sacral neuromodulation (SNM) quadripolar-tined lead. Computed tomography-guided percutaneous foramen ovale (FO) puncture and temporary SNM electrode implantation were performed during the surgery. A telephone interview was conducted to record a 12-month follow-up. At admission, zoster-related trigeminal pain severity was assessed to be 9/10 on the visual analog scale (VAS). After a 14-day GGS treatment, the pain assessed on the VAS score reduced to 1/10 at discharge but increased to 4/10 at the 12-month follow-up after surgery. Additionally, the anxiety level improved from 58 points to 35 points on the Self-Rating Anxiety Scale (SAS), and the depression level improved from 62 points to 40 points on the Self-Rating Depression Scale (SDS). The Physical Component Summary score of the 12-item Short-Form Health Survey (SF-12) increased from 33.9 to 47.0, and the Mental Component Summary (MCS) score of the SF-12 increased from 27.4 to 41.9. Temporary GGS might be a potentially effective treatment for subacute herpetic trigeminal neuralgia, and an SNM electrode might be a good choice for reducing the risk of dislocation.

The Extent of Illicit Cigarette Sales in Five Rural Districts of Pakistan: A Cross-sectional Study.

The Illicit Tobacco Trade (ITT) subverts tobacco control efforts. Cigarette packs sold without legal health warnings undermine efforts to warn the public about the dangers of tobacco. Furthermore, cigarettes sold below minimum retail prices are indicative of tax evasion leading to revenue loss and budgetary deficits in high tobacco-burden economies. The extent of the ITT in rural areas of such countries might differ from urban. We estimated the extent of illicit cigarette sales in selected rural areas of Pakistan. We analyzed cigarette packs collected from 85 villages in Pakistan as part of a cross-sectional consumer survey of 2550 rural households. We classified cigarette packs as noncompliant if these were missing: A text health warning, pictorial health warning (PHW), underage sale prohibition warning, retail price, or manufacturer details. To measure the extent of tax evasion, we estimated the proportion of packs purchased below the legal minimum retail price. Only 35% (429/1228) of rural smokers were able to show their cigarette packs. Out of these, 89% (382/429) of packs were noncompliant with the cigarette packaging and labeling laws. In rural areas, 83% (357/429) of packs did not have PHW and 33.8% (145/429) did not have printed retail prices. Among all packs, 41% (177/429) were purchased below the minimum retail price of 63 Pakistani Rupees and hence highly likely to have evaded taxes. We found a very high previously unreported proportion of noncompliant cigarette packs in selected rural areas of Pakistan indicating weaker implementation of tobacco control laws in rural areas. This paper presents previously unreported estimates of the share of illicit cigarette sales in rural areas of Pakistan. Most packs (89%) in our sample were noncompliant with the packaging and labeling regulations and a significant proportion (41%) were purchased below the minimum price. The extent of illicit tobacco was found to be far greater in rural than in urban areas of Pakistan. Taking advantage of poor law enforcement, the tobacco industry may be complicit in flooding the rural markets with illegal and cheap cigarettes. Given this disparity, law enforcement authorities must focus on rural areas.

The history of inequality: the deep-acting ideological and institutional influences

Abstract After reviewing evidence on long-run national trends in inequality since the 1320s and the history of ideas and measures of inequality, the focus is on the history of institutions which have influenced the trends in inequality. Here, the major surprise for many will be to learn that a progressively funded universal social security, health and welfare system was instituted by Elizabeth I in 1601. The welfare state was not invented but restored by the Labour government of 1945–51, decreasing inequalities substantially. In 1834, the parliament had reduced the Elizabethan Poor Law to a deterrent workhouse system, its funding halved in accord with the ideas of Bentham, Malthus and economic liberalism. Since 1979, the successor ideology of neo-liberalism has again increased inequality by reducing the progressivity of taxes and restraining expenditure on public services. After 1979, child poverty more than doubled to over 30% and has never returned to previous lower levels.

Solving placement problems: local decision-making and the Finnish correctional labour facility system c.1920–1980

ABSTRACT Finnish correctional labour facilities, which were closed institutions that operated on the basis of forced labour from the 1920s to the 1980s, were designed mainly to detain individuals perceived to be vagrant, maladjusted or alcoholic and those who were defaulters on child maintenance or the paying back of poor relief. These people had committed no crimes but were detained as a result of administrative decision-making. This article considers what grounds there were for sending people to correctional labour facilities from the perspective of the local level of the municipalities in which the individuals lived and were most likely known (including as neighbours) to the local social board members who made decisions. The main argument is that local social boards in northern municipalities primarily used correctional labour facilities to solve problems of placement originating within institutions themselves or, if outside, typically in family life. By analysing the types of cases that, in the view of social board members, were sufficiently problematic to require intervention, the article shows that everyday experiences might differ significantly from the legal grounds for detention.

Classical Economists in the Face of the Old English Poor Law: Prejudice in Scholarly Clothes

Objective: The purpose of this article is to identify the ideological functions of economic theory using the historical case of the opinions of classical economists on the poor law as an example (treating ideological sets of ideas as justifications for the social order). Research Design & Methods: The research method adopted in this paper is an analysis of the text carried out in the context of its social function. Findings: The article analyses some moral and social aspects of the emergence of economic theory and shows classical economists’ criticisms of the Old Poor Law as rationalisation of social prejudices of upper classes of society. The essence of the discourse of mainstream economists has been to show low moral resources in the working class as the cause of poverty, together with the thesis that social assistance perpetuates this condition. The opposite of these theories were John Barton’s arguments, portraying welfare as an investment in the moral resources of the poor, allowing them to return to the ranks of working people. This dispute was forgotten for many years, but seems still relevant in the 21st century context. Implications / Recommendations: This paper supports the opinions of eminent scholars (like Blaug or Lindert) that the main problems with poverty are essentially the same in our times as in the 19th century. Blaming poor people for their poverty seems as familiar to us today as it was two hundred years ago. Thus the issue of the welfare state is more moral and political than it is theoretical. Contribution: This paper is a contribution to the identification of the role of social prejudice in the emergence of economic theory.

The Poor Laws: A Comparison of Three Original Reform Proposals

The Poor Laws: A Comparison of Three Original Reform Proposals

“Capacity for Labor,” Work, and Disability in the Early Republic, 1791–1833

Abstract: In the northeastern cities of the early United States, healthy, physically versatile workers were few and far between. Even as employers and welfare administrators experimented with the emerging bureaucratic categories “disabled” and “able-bodied” to delineate workers and non-workers, the unpredictability and fluidity of the population’s health resisted simple classification. This article argues that, between the 1790s and 1830s, the architects of the early national political economy were keenly aware of workers’ varied capacity for labor. Early advocates even argued that manufacturing work would prove more accessible to groups they believed had not been “usefully” employed in the colonial economy—namely, women, children, the elderly, and those with illnesses and impairments. When this did not prove to be the case, welfare administrators retained a commitment to flexible labor in their organization of poor-relief structures and institutions. Bringing disability into the narrative complicates scholars’ long-held assumptions about the rationale directing early manufacturing, poor relief, and institutional practices. The early republican period is crucial both to the emergence of disability as an (albeit unstable) social category and the formation of the antebellum American labor force and welfare system.

Overseers of the Poor: Relief, Surveillance, and Control in the Early Republic Northeast

Abstract: Early Republic communities were represented by officers of the poor law operated almshouses, distributed relief, and collaborated with other local authorities to implement the state poor laws. The scale of poverty experienced in the early American republic, when the rates of destitution and level of need for high welfare budgets were a constant preoccupation of lawmakers and philanthropists, points to the importance of this singular figure of the overseer. Working within a highly mobile population adjusting to the nascent system of wage labor in this period, overseers tracked people experiencing poverty across community lines. Overseers of the Poor acted as agents of the state writ large, operating at local and municipal levels to implement the logics of state laws relating to citizenship and poverty.

Child Labor in English Literature

Child labor is an old social problem. It peaked during the Industrial Revolution which greatly influenced English society, such as rural exodus, lack of equal job opportunities, miserable living and working conditions, social classes, lack of mandatory education, poverty, and, most importantly, child labor. The paper investigates the crimes against children carried out under the cover of child labor and poses the question of whether authorities, governments, religious institutions, businesses, and even parents are complicit in these crimes or have chosen to overlook them in spite of the constant backlash against them. The main aim of this study is to show the positive role of some authors like Charles Dickens, William Blake, Frances Trollope, Charles Kingsley, Robert Southey, Samuel Taylor Coleridge, Caroline Norton, and Elizabeth Barret Browning who refused to ignore such atrocities and their consequences. These writers showed their opposition to child labor through great literary works such as Oliver Twist, Hard Times, David Copperfield, The Chimney Sweeper, A Voice from the Factory, The Water-Babies: A Fairy Tale for a Land- Baby, and The Cry of the Children. The study follows the close reading method and the sociology of literature approach. The study concludes that poverty and urbanization were some of the adverse outcomes of the Industrial Revolution. It reveals the official’s role in profiting from child labor and presents the authors’ role in changing The Poor Laws and Factory Acts to ban hiring minors. The study recommends national child labor regulations that should be enacted and enforced in order to prevent or at least control child work, as recommendations for further research.

Effect of thoracolumbar fascia injury on reported outcomes after percutaneous vertebroplasty.

Thoracolumbar fascia injury is often associated with poor early pain relief after percutaneous vertebroplasty (PVP). This study will evaluate the effects of thoracolumbar fascia injury on early pain relief and time to get out of bed after PVP. A total of 132 patients treated with PVP for osteoporotic vertebral compression fractures (OVCF) were included and divided into injured group (52 cases) and non-injured group (80 cases) according to the existence of thoracolumbar fascia injury. Before surgery, 1 day, 3 days, 1 week, 1 month, and 3 months after surgery, and at the last follow-up, the primary patient-reported outcome measures (PROMs) were the visual analogue scale (VAS) of pain while rolling over and standing, and the secondary PROMs was the Oswestry disability index (ODI). Meanwhile, the achieved rate of minimal clinically important differences (MCID) and patient acceptable symptom states (PASS) of the above measures in both groups was evaluated at the last follow-up. Except for the postoperative 3 months and the last follow-up, there were statistically significant differences in VAS-standing and ODI between the two groups at other time points after surgery (P < 0.05), and the non-injured group was significantly better than the injured group. At the last follow-up, there was no statistically significant difference in the MCID and PASS achievement rates of the above measures between the two groups (P > 0.05). In addition, the proportion of patients who got out of bed 1 and 3 days after surgery in the non-injury group was significantly higher than that in the injury group (P = 0.000 for both). Thoracolumbar fascia injury significantly affected early pain relief and extended time of getting out of bed after PVP. Attention should be paid to preoperative evaluation of thoracolumbar fascial injury in order to better predict the postoperative efficacy of PVP.

Providing for the Poor: The Old Poor Law, 1750–1834, ed. Peter Collinge and Louise Falcini

<i>Providing for the Poor: The Old Poor Law, 1750–1834</i>, ed. Peter Collinge and Louise Falcini

Population Checks and Natural Laws: Malthus, Climate Determinism and Emigration

Through the lens of emergent laws of climatology developed to advance the scientific foundations and popular reach of practical meteorology in the nineteenth century, this article examines the checks on population and the global movement of people linked to reoccurring climate patterns and abnormal climatic events. Meteorological research contributed to debates within political economy and the public health movement, and to the disputed moral rationale for poor law reform. Scientific authority for this new analysis rested on a network of personal, religious, and professional links between T.R. Malthus, Thomas Chalmers, Francis Jeffrey, David Brewster, James D. Forbes, James Stark, Edwin Chadwick and William Pulteney Alison. The work of climate determinists argued that several causations were simultaneously affecting the nation’s vital statistics. The potential advantage to health from moving on a permanent basis to a more salubrious climate was explored. Adding further to the conundrum of colonisation, and the case for assisted migration, the laws of climatology offered reasons why any migrants pulled into parts of urban and Highland Scotland by freed resource – the vacuum effect – would still experience a positive Malthusian check on their life chances.