1. Dr Myfanwy (Miffy) Williams
Research Assistant in Politics
Project led by Dr Matthew Johnson, Lecturer in Politics

2. Who am I and why am I here?
I have been working recently on academic projects exploring the impact of social disadvantage on health outcomes for children across Europe
Before that I studied for a year at Lancaster, earning a ‘Masters’ (which I was also paid to do)
Before that I studied Philosophy at Queens’ College, Cambridge
I worked for 6 years at the University of Manchester, working with schools to help pupils understand what university is all about and encourage those interested to apply
And I went to a big comprehensive school on the edge of Leeds, which is where I did my GCSEs and A-Levels
You’ll meet Dr Matthew Johnson, who wrote this session, in the videos as we go along!
I have a PhD in Philosophy, from the University of Manchester (which I was paid to do – lots of people are)

3. A taste of university… Today’s session will be about 2 hours long
We will be covering lots of academic content on a topic relevant to lots of subjects, especially politics
I will be doing quite a bit of ‘lecturing’ in the style of some university classes
What we cover is relevant to everyone, especially as you approach voting age and have the power to influence the country’s politics
You will also be doing a lot of ‘active listening’ – thinking about what is being said as we go along
Towards the end we will explore the role of university education in overcoming disadvantage, and at that point you can interrogate me as much as you like with any questions at all that you have about university life
Feel free (you must!) interject with questions to make sure you understand and stay switched on
There will also be lots of focused discussion; this is what you do in other classes called ‘seminars’ at university

4. How can we challenge disadvantage?

5. Introduction
Our current neoliberal economic model has delivered many benefits over the past 40 years.
The session is an abridged version of the Rethinking Disadvantage online module, which contains 5 x 2 hour sessions exploring the topic: w.php?id=166
However, there are many signs that serious harms associated with inequalities are emerging in society.
The sessions draw upon material produced by a participatory project, ‘A Cross-Cultural Working Group on “Good Culture” and Precariousness’, which involved community co-researchers from Ashington, Northumberland, and Aboriginal communities around Brisbane, Australia. More information is available at: wp.lancs.ac.uk/good-culture
This session will introduce the following:
What is disadvantage?
The causes of disadvantage
How should we challenge disadvantage?
University as a means of overcoming disadvantage
What do we mean by “Neoliberal model” – ask group - an economic system which sees ‘freedom of choice’ ass the highest value, and places all responsibility for one’s fate only at the feet of the individual. Competition is seen as the defining characteristics of human relations, and by consequence upholds and promotes competition as if it can deliver justice and fairness. Neoliberalism promotes the activity of the ‘free market’. Winners deserve to rise to the top, losers deserve to fail. Government policies prioritise the power of companies to compete, and at the same time tend to claim that it is not the role of the state to control or ‘nanny’ people by promoting individual welfare. Individuals are consumers: we are all free to choose, and our choices are exercised through buying and selling. The market simply responds to our ‘free choices’.
From the 1950s onwards, this model was seen by advocates as a preventive against the dark cloud of totalitarianism and other political system that strip the individual of autonomy and power, and took the ideal of freedom to the extreme, at the expense of any understanding of what freedom might mean beyond the theoretical availability of choice.
- in practice this has meant massive tax cuts for the rich, deregulation in trade and business, privatisation of public services – and outsourcing and competition for services that remained publicly owned -
- See to understand a little about its checkered history

6. Part 1: What is disadvantage? Merit and inequality
It is widely believed that people should be able to progress through talent and hard work.
British citizens widely believe that people should be rewarded for their effort.
On average, people believe that, in an ideal situation, the most successful fifth should only receive less than twice as much as the least successful fifth.
However, people wrongly perceive the real level of inequality.
The poorest fifth own less than 1% of all wealth, while the richest fifth own 60%.
What do you understand by ’merit’?
Inequality? Idea that within one society, people fair very differently on a number of different measures. Lots of resaerch evidences the existence of social gradients in
More inequality means a bigger gap between the extremes
Data from Households Below Average Income (HBAI) report from the Department of Work and Pensions 2013/14. Image Wikipedia
It’s worth bearing in mind that these figures are just from the UK; the global situation is possibly even worse, with recent figures from the World Economic Forum indicating that 42 people hold the same wealth as the 3.7 billion (that’s about half the global population) poorest

7. Inequality in the UK
The United Kingdom has, compared to other developed countries, a high rate of income inequality.
There is also considerable regional variation in income and wealth, which has a significant impact on, among other things, access to healthcare and quality of housing and education
Inserted from session 3 – a vivid snapshot

8. Britain and inequality
Once societies have achieved a certain level of wealth seen, for example, in Western Europe, national income no longer determines how well a society does with regard to such hugely important outcomes as:
Life expectancy
Illness
Literacy
Trust
Crime rates
Social mobility
Teenage births
Source: Wilkinson, R. and Pickett, K. (2009) The Spirit Level: Why More Equal Societies Almost Always Do Better. London: Penguin. See
Levels of inequality, not national income and growth, determine these outcomes.

9. How inequality affects society
See 12:45-14:19

10. A crisis of poverty in a wealthy society
Because people who are poor are more likely to fail to pay off debts, creditors charge much higher interest rates for loans and utility companies charge extra for providing electricity, gas and water using meters which are prepaid.
Large numbers of British children grow up in serious poverty.
Moreover, poverty affects people’s ability to make decisions that promote long- term interests.
The problem is getting worse. One major provider of food banks, The Trussell Trust, provided 1,182,954  three day emergency food supplies to people in crisis via their network of foodbanks last year.
Living in poverty is actually costly.
Image Independent.co.uk. Sources ;
The Trussell Trust

11. Poverty affects choices
See all

12. Disadvantage as social disability
Being in a society with significant inequalities results in:
Serious mental and physical health problems
Serious social problems with regard to trust, crime, punishment and community cohesion
Health and social barriers to people rising out of poverty
In effect, people in poverty are disadvantaged: inequality means that people are less able to take advantage of opportunities to progress.
See the Joseph Rowntree Foundation to read more about this and understand the details
See

13. Part 2: The main causes of disadvantage today
Our current neoliberal economic model has delivered many benefits over the past 40 years.
It was not always like this.
From the end of WWII until the late s, the British Government adopted two distinct approaches that promoted challenged disadvantage:
Globally, there has been poverty reduction in developing countries, such as China and India, as a result of industrialisation.
i) the creation of a comprehensive welfare system
People have access to more consumer goods.
ii) the creation of national institutions
These policies were advanced to deal with extremes of poverty and destruction in the wake of World Wars.
People have been able to travel more widely, experiencing a broader range of goods than previous generations.
However, inequality and disadvantage continues to rise in the UK.
Sources:
What is the Neoliberal Economic model referred to here?

14. The post-War crisis In the wake of WWII, Britain was bankrupt.
Private industry seemed unable to solve these challenges independently.
Successive generations had fought global wars at great cost.
Political parties of all ideological positions had promised the British people that a better future awaited the end of war.
Austerity measures were introduced, food was rationed and employment was often relatively low-paid.
The Election of a Labour Government in led to the development of a radical series of policies that shaped what came to be known as the ‘Post-War Consensus’.
Home ownership and educational attainment was relatively low.
There were many public health issues, including those stemming directly and indirectly from the war, from industry and from poor housing.
The consensus would last from the middle of the 1940s until the end of the s.
Sources:

15. The Post-War Consensus
the creation of the National Health Service
The post-War consensus consisted of:
high and progressive taxation, such that, in 1979, the highest earners were subject to a rate of 83% income tax
the expansion of educational institutions, such that increasing numbers of people pursued higher qualifications through Further Education Colleges, Polytechnics, which had a vocational focus, new universities, such as Lancaster, and the Open University
the nationalisation of industry, meaning that the state controlled directly the production of goods as varied as natural minerals and motor vehicles
the creation of the welfare state, replacing earlier and less comprehensive forms of support for the poor.
engagement with trade unions in the development of policy

16. The core principles
Given that the first half of the 20th Century had witnessed two global wars, and then the Cold War between two opposing ideological blocs and wars of independence against European powers, this investment was also seen as essential to ensuring a nation’s ‘competitiveness’ against rivals.
The post-War consensus was grounded in belief that all British Citizens ought to be able to work, improve themselves through education, receive medical support when ill and material support when unemployed through no fault of their own.
It was believed that only the state could perform this function, as no private enterprise would bear the costs of loss- making activities, such as the provision of services in rural or declining areas.
It was believed that the state had to invest in its citizens in order for its citizens, the economy and society as whole to function and advance.
Sources: ;

17. The outcomes
The Consensus promoted equality, contributing to a range of positive outcomes:
People’s life expectancies increased
People were more highly educated
People were more likely to own their own house
People had access to increasing numbers and types of consumer goods
In addition, society began to become more liberal socially

18. How were people affected?
Prof Gibson Burrell, University of Leicester, was born in Newcastle and raised in Ashington, a mining village in Northumberland, in the 1940s, 1950s and 1960s.
Gibson’s father, who was a manager in the mines, was a member of a number of institutions, including the Masons, which ensured that his family were secure even after his death.
He talks of the importance of institutions in shaping the lives of people in his community.
Indeed, while he talks of the hardship, violence and gender divisions of life in the community, the institutions, combined with increasing wages, ensured that Gibson was able to become a Professor at leading universities – perhaps the clearest example of social mobility.
The National Coal Board, which took over Britain’s collieries in 1947, provided increasing security in what was an incredibly dangerous job.

19. Institutions and security
See 06:02-06:58

20. The end of the Consensus
The election of Margaret Thatcher’s Conservative Party in 1979 marked the end of the Post-War Consensus.
The trade unions were seen as too powerful, having imposed inconvenience and hardship on the country during the Winter of Discontent in through a series of strikes that affected such things as rubbish collection.
The Conservative Party promised to challenge the unions and to modernise the economy, even if it meant further strike action.
The economy and society had seemed to stagnate and the electorate supported a manifesto that promised economic freedom, industrial modernisation and greater wealth overall.
With its neoliberal wing ascendant, Britain adopted policies of lowering and equalising taxes, such that the burden on the wealthy was lifted, privatising national industry, reducing the welfare state and promoting private healthcare.
Source:

21. There is no such thing as society
Whereas, in the previous decades, people had access to a range of institutions through which to progress, from 1979 onwards, those institutions were systematically dismantled or neglected.
The intellectual basis of this project was illustrated by Prime Minister Thatcher as follows: ‘I think we have gone through a period when too many children and people have been given to understand “I have a problem, it is the Government's job to cope with it!”… and so they are casting their problems on society and who is society? There is no such thing! There are individual men and women and there are families and no government can do anything except through people and people look to themselves first’.
In regions, such as the North East, in which there was an active trade union movement, industries were privatised or closed and no alternative employment developed.
Institutions associated with those industries, such as trade unions or Social Clubs, withered.
People moved in to long-term unemployment and social problems rose.
Sources:

22. The loss of institutions
See 34:01-35:35

23. The loss of income, identity and capital
While people have gained access to consumer goods, holidays and increased house values, the loss of institutions meant that many people lost, among other things,:
their daily routines that limited some social problems, such as drinking and drug use
some of the skills that enabled them to perform effectively in work
This meant that their children grew up in a totally different and much more chaotic environment than their parents, meaning that disadvantage became entrenched, worsening with each generation.
their sources of income and the ability to support families
their identities as workers and social esteem as self-sufficient
their social ‘capital’ and networks that served to create opportunities and prevent loneliness
Whereas, once, people had developed the capacity to advance ambitious social projects, decades of destitution meant that communities had collective forms of disadvantage inflicted on them.
Sources: ; ;

24. The human cost
See 06:24-09:39

25. Exercise 1: Comparing generational approaches to institutions
Thinking back to your homework and the material you have just covered, work in pairs to consider the following over 10 minutes:
What are the differences between the way that your grandparents viewed the NHS when they were young the way that you view it today?
Are there any differences between your views and the views of your grandparents with regard to the notion of nationalised organisations, industries or companies?
What are the differences between the organisations and institutions that played a role in your grandparents’ lives and those in your lives?
Do you agree with your grandparents’ assessment of whether society is more equal today or during their youth?
Why might you have different views to your grandparents?

26. The end to the neo-liberal consensus
Until the Referendum on Exiting the European Union in 2016, the neo-liberal consensus had survived even the Global Financial Crisis and the Great Recession that followed it.
However, the election of Jeremy Corbyn as Leader of the Labour Party, the vote to leave the European Union and the election of Theresa May as Leader of the Conservative Party and Prime Minister seemed to mark the end of the consensus.

27. Theresa May: Injustice
See 00:50-

28. Part 3: How should we challenge disadvantage?
Britain faces a number of challenges that seem certain to exacerbate the issues identified by Mrs May.
The Government has thus far remained committed to low tax and low spend neo-liberal policy both in advance of and following the 2017 General Election.
However, a number of policies have been suggested by figures from across the political spectrum to deal with the core issues of the day.
Industry is increasingly automated, threatening existing jobs, while those jobs that will remain, such as in delivery, are increasingly piecemeal and precarious and associated with flexible and zero hours contracts.
We will now examine some of them.

29. Universal Basic Income
However, proponents claim that it simplifies the state, reduces bureaucracy and makes citizens’ relationships with one another and the state more positive.
Universal Basic Income (UBI) ensures that all citizens receive a secure, predictable monthly cash payment.
The size of the payment and the means of securing funds through tax to pay for it is disputed.
This is intended to reduce insecurity associated with unemployment and precarious employment.
It replaces some or all elements of needs-based or means-tested welfare systems.

30. The reason for UBI See 01:27-05:32
See 01:27-05:32

31. UBI and disadvantage
Most importantly, UBI raises the incomes of the worst off and promotes equality.
Indeed, if UBI is generous, workers have the capacity to refuse work that is poorly paid or performed in poor or dangerous conditions.
It challenges the social disabilities inflicted by disadvantage.
This promotes the standard, quality and esteem of work that remains within the remit of human beings.
Instead of having to devote time to proving eligibility for benefits, citizens are free to engage in constructive activities that may not otherwise be supported by the free market.
However, critics argue that it is expensive, that it encourages laziness and that it undermines the free market.
In particular, it supports essential caring and cleaning professions that are otherwise poorly paid and lowly regarded by employers.

32. Assessing UBI
See all

33. Exercise 2: Should we have UBI?
In groups of 4 or 5, spend 5 minutes discussing the following:
What are the strengths of UBI?
What are its weaknesses?
With those considerations in mind, is there a level of UBI (monthly payment) that you think would be justifiable?

34. Investing in institutions
Indeed, there is also a care crisis, in which people who require care, but who are not in need of critical hospital treatment, have no other place to go than hospital, thus blocking access for those who do need that treatment.
Redistributing wealth is, though, only one possibility.
The broader success of the Post-War Consensus lay in the creation of institutions such as the NHS.
Mrs May sought to deal with that issue through the so-called ‘Dementia Tax’, but has since relented. This has meant that the issue remains unsolved and is worsening by the day.
Our NHS is now in crisis due to underfunding, poor planning, poor private finance initiatives and an ageing population.

35. The NHS Crisis
See all

36. Should we invest?
It is not just the health service that is in crisis. Our privatised public transport system remains crowded, inefficient, unprofitable and propped up through Government subsidies. Indeed, foreign state owned companies operate some rail franchises, being paid by our state to provide services to our citizens.
In 2015, Labour Leader Ed Milliband was described as ‘Red Ed’ for proposing caps on energy prices. Conservatives argued that interference in the economy would distort prices and undermine fundamental property rights. However, Mrs May has recently adopted similar policies.
Moreover, our natural monopolies, such as water, and energy system remain controversially in private hands. Prices continue to rise along with profits, while the Government again provides subsidies to overseas companies and governments to provide us with essential goods.
Indeed, Jeremy Corbyn’s Labour Party has called for greater funding for the NHS, the creation of a national care service to deal with the care crisis, introduction of a publicly owned national energy company and the nationalisation of the railways.
What should we do?

37. Exercise 3: Should we create institutions
In groups of 4 or 5, spend 5 minutes discussing the following:
Is it morally wrong for the nation to own the resources (water, energy, etc.) and the state to provide essential services (health, social care, transport, etc.) within a country?
Would you be willing to raise taxes in order to fund national institutions?

38. Part 4: University as a means of overcoming disadvantage
Often, criticism of people in poverty is driven by prejudice: a misunderstanding of the circumstances in which people develop and their ability to shape lives.
Individuals from wealthy backgrounds not only avoid suffering from the negative consequences of poverty and disadvantage, they benefit from access to a range of institutions to which few have access.
As we saw in session 4, the institutions through which people used to progress have been undermined.
Private schools, sporting clubs, social institutions all induct individuals into elite social groups.
For many people throughout Britain, it is extremely difficult to enter the world of employment, let alone to become affluent.
Individuals are taught to behave in ways that others recognise as elite and form relationships that open up opportunities for individuals later in life.
Those who are already affluent are often unaware of the institutions from which they have benefited as they have progressed through their lives.
These institutions advantage individuals
Sources: ;

39. Educational disadvantage
Individuals from poorer families not only lack the resources to access private education and state schools in wealthier areas, they also lack access to elite institutions that prepare children for life within the elite.
This means that children from disadvantaged families grow up aware of the differences between them and their wealthier peers and believe that they do not belong in certain institutions like university.
Moreover, they lack the personal connections to facilitate access to better universities. While the journalist Toby Young mocked working class students at Oxford who had gained access to university on merit, he had his father, the academic, Michael Young, to thank for personally convincing an admissions tutor to admit him.
Their schools are often underfunded and unable to provide the support and extra- curricular activities needed to prepare students for life at university
Educational disadvantage is real and stands in contrast to the general public’s meritocratic impulse
Source: ; ;

40. The scale of the problem
See 00:00-3:51

41. University as one institutional opportunity
University is an institution.
As session 4 suggested, for many people, there are fewer institutions that perform this function than in the past. However, there are apprenticeships and other vocational forms of training, while many people find that employment itself serves this purpose.
It doesn’t just give individuals a qualification, it prepares individuals for life.
By going to university, individuals develop life skills that enable them to deal with a number of personal and professional challenges.
However, there are many people that would benefit from university, but who do not apply or attend for a number of reasons.
Often, it is the key institution that individuals experience in their lives. People often talk of university as the place at which they grew up and became adults.
Sources: ;

42. The challenges of education
Often, students, particularly those with genuine intellectual talent, do not like school.
The environment does not suit many students’ learning needs.
This leads people to write off the possibility of trying to study at university, excluding them from a whole range of opportunities which require high levels of education.
Why is this?

43. Schools and universities
Education is very different in different settings.
In general, as people grow older, the amount of freedom, independence and respect they are given grows. 
While at school, students are heavily managed in what and how they learn, at sixth form college and then at university, students have much more freedom to learn about subjects that interest them and learn in ways that better suit them.
At university, people are treated as adults with the potential to contribute to the world.

44. Just because you hated school…

45. Exercise 4: Evaluating school
Working in pairs over 5 minutes, examine the following:
How might university support those relationships and basic skills?
What similarities and differences are there between the school experiences of your parents or grandparents/great grandparents and your own?
How has education contributed to social mobility in your family history?
What relationships and basic skills do you need to secure employment?

46. Summary Inequality inflicts disadvantage on people.
However, there is also good reason to re-invest in institutions, such as the NHS, that have promoted the interests of people left behind by the free market.
This has a number of consequences for individuals and society as a whole.
Education is a key institution that is facing challenges. However, university remains an institution that can enable those interested in, and suited to, it to gain skills beyond their qualifications and to find their way through networks into the world of work.
While the neoliberal consensus has delivered many material goods, it has also damaged institutions that challenged disadvantage during the Post-War Consensus.
There is good reason to consider new policy approaches, such as Universal Basic Income, in order to deal with new challenges, such as automation.
The fact that people are recognising the structural basis of disadvantage is a good thing.