Conference: Poverty Research in Ireland: North and South

Venue: Old Staff Common Room, Lanyon Building, Queen’s University Belfast

The impact of the great recession, the implementation of budgetary austerity policies and the persistence of extremely high unemployment pose severe challenges for social welfare policy. In this context, it is timely to consider developments in relation to both poverty and inequality North and South. In doing so it is necessary to go beyond consideration of income poverty per se to develop broader multidimensional and dynamic perspectives that encompass living standards, debt and economic vulnerability and the relationship between work/joblessness, social investment and social welfare.

This conference, which is being organised on a collaborative basis by the School of Sociology, Social Policy and Social Work, Queen’s University Belfast, the Economic and Social Research Institute, Dublin and the Geary Institute, University College Dublin, will provide an overview of recent research relating to poverty and social exclusion North and South and provide a platform for researchers and policymakers to discuss the potential for comparative North-South work. The contributions will draw on the infrastructure for poverty and social exclusion research provided by databases such as the UK Poverty and Social Exclusion survey (PSE) and the European Union Statistics on Income and Living Conditions survey (SILC).

In the context of the profound economic and social changes associated with the Great Recession, the topics covered will include the relationship between, patterns and determinants of deprivation, poverty and household joblessness, multidimensional poverty and deprivation in childhood and trends in economic vulnerability.