AQA A-level Sociology (7192): Paper 2 – Work, poverty and welfare – Revision Notes

These notes condense the Work, Poverty and Welfare study guide. Read that first if a term here is new to you.

They follow the AQA AS and A-level Sociology (7191, 7192) specification, Version 1.2 (14 October 2021), section 4.2.4 Work, Poverty and Welfare (the specification-at-a-glance list also shows it as 3.2.4). The specification places it in Paper 2: Topics in Sociology, Section A, where you answer “one from option 1: 4.2.1, 4.2.2, 4.2.3 or 4.2.4”. Section B is “one from option 2: 4.2.5, 4.2.6, 4.2.7 or 4.2.8”. Each section is extended writing worth 40 marks, in a 2 hour, 80-mark paper worth 33.3% of the A-level.

Find the rest of the course on the AQA A-level Sociology hub, track progress with the 7192 checklist, and test yourself with the practice questions.

The five content points

1. The nature, existence and persistence of poverty in contemporary society.
2. The distribution of poverty, wealth and income between different social groups.
3. Responses and solutions to poverty by the state and by private, voluntary and informal welfare providers in contemporary society.
4. Organisation and control of the labour process, including the division of labour, the role of technology, skill and de-skilling.
5. The significance of work and worklessness for people’s lives and life chances, including the effects of globalisation.

For every point, the specification asks for both the evidence and the sociological explanations, linked to the two core themes: socialisation, culture and identity; and social differentiation, power and stratification.

Key terms

Term	Definition
Absolute poverty	Lacking the minimum needed for physical survival and health
Relative poverty	Falling below the living standard that is normal in your society
Relative low income	UK official measure: household income below 60% of the median, adjusted for household size
Consensual measure	Poverty defined by lacking items the public agrees are necessities
Social exclusion	Being shut out from economic, social and political life
Culture of poverty	Lewis’s idea of distinct values among the poor, passed between generations
Underclass	Murray’s term for a group outside mainstream society, linked to welfare dependency
Income	A flow of money over time
Wealth	A stock of assets held at one point in time
Feminisation of poverty	Women’s higher risk of poverty compared with men
Welfare pluralism	Welfare from state, private, voluntary and informal providers together
Means testing	Paying a benefit only to people below an income and savings limit
Universalism	Paying a benefit to everyone in a category, whatever their income
Labour process	How work is organised, directed and controlled
Division of labour	Splitting work into specialised tasks
Taylorism	Scientific management: simple timed tasks, with planning held by managers
Deskilling	Jobs needing less knowledge and judgement over time
Flexible firm	Atkinson’s model of a secure core workforce and an insecure periphery
Emotional labour	Managing your own feelings as part of a paid job
Worklessness	No adult in the household in paid work
Precariat	Standing’s term for a growing group with insecure jobs and insecure identities

Theories and studies at a glance

Who	What	Key finding or claim	One evaluation point
Rowntree (York survey, 1899)	Absolute “primary poverty” line	Many families could not afford a minimum diet and essentials	Ignores changing social expectations
Townsend (1979)	Relative deprivation index	Below a certain income, participation in normal life fell sharply	Researcher chose the items
Mack and Lansley (1985)	Consensual approach in Poor Britain	Public defined necessities	Public views can reflect media and current norms
Lewis	Culture of poverty	Helplessness and marginality passed on to children	Based on Mexico and Puerto Rico, not the UK
Murray (1990)	Underclass and welfare dependency	Generous welfare encourages worklessness	Shildrick et al. (2012) found no three-generation workless families
Rodman (1963)	Lower-class value stretch	The poor share mainstream values but adapt them	Supports structural over cultural accounts
MacDonald and Marsh (2005)	Young people in a poor neighbourhood	Questioned the welfare-dependent underclass idea	Small local study; may not generalise
Westergaard and Resler (1975)	Marxist view	Poverty is built into capitalism	Underplays reforms that have reduced some poverty
Pahl (1989)	Money within households	Income is not always shared fairly	Patterns vary by household type
Esping-Andersen (1990)	Three worlds of welfare	Liberal, conservative, social democratic types	Neglects unpaid family care, say feminists
Hills (2014)	Good Times, Bad Times	Most people both pay in and draw out over a lifetime	Lifetime view may hide short-term hardship
Durkheim (1893)	Division of labour	Specialisation can create organic solidarity	Underplays conflict at work
Braverman (1974)	Deskilling	Managers use Taylorism and machines to control workers	Ignores resistance; assumes craft “golden age”
Blauner (1964)	Technology and alienation	Alienation depends on technology; advanced technology raises skill and discretion	Technological determinism
Gallie (1991)	Survey of skill change	Little widespread deskilling; skills became polarised	Self-reported skill may be inflated
Hochschild (1983)	Emotional labour	Service workers manage feelings for profit	Some workers find service work rewarding
Jahoda (1982)	Latent functions of work	Jobs give time structure, contact, purpose, status, activity	Unpaid roles can provide these too
Standing (2011)	The precariat	A growing insecure group	Size and unity of the group disputed

Must-know distinctions

• Absolute v relative poverty. Absolute asks “can you survive?”; relative asks “can you live like others around you?”.
• Income v wealth. You can have a high income and little wealth (a young professional renting), or wealth and low income (a retired homeowner).
• Cultural v structural explanations. Cultural accounts look at values of the poor; structural ones look at jobs, pay, benefits and power.
• Universal v means-tested. Universal benefits avoid stigma but cost more; means-tested ones target money but can create poverty traps and low take-up.
• The four welfare providers. State, private, voluntary and informal. The specification names all four, so cover all four.
• Deskilling v upskilling v polarisation. Braverman says deskilling; Gallie found little widespread deskilling but growing polarisation of skills.
• Fordism v post-Fordism. Mass assembly lines versus flexible production with a core and periphery.
• Unemployment v worklessness. Unemployment is about individuals looking for work; worklessness describes whole households.

Mini essay plan

Typical extended question style: “Evaluate the view that poverty persists mainly because of the attitudes and behaviour of the poor themselves.” Your teacher will confirm exact question formats from AQA’s own papers.

1. Introduction. Define poverty (relative, 60% of median). State the debate: cultural versus structural explanations.
2. Cultural case. Lewis’s culture of poverty; Murray’s underclass and dependency culture. Apply to a long-term workless household. Link to the core theme of socialisation and identity.
3. Evaluate the cultural case. Rodman’s value stretch; MacDonald and Marsh on young people in a poor neighbourhood; Shildrick et al. (2012) on intergenerational worklessness.
4. Structural case. Townsend on low pay and benefits; Marxists on capitalism needing a reserve of cheap labour; feminists on caring roles. Link to the core theme of power and stratification.
5. Evaluate the structural case. May underplay agency; New Right argue it ignores benefit incentives.
6. Bring in dynamics. The “low-pay, no-pay” cycle shows poverty is often a churn between work and benefits, not a fixed group.
7. Conclusion. Weigh the evidence. Reach a judgement that follows from your argument, and note which kinds of evidence would settle the issue.

Quick self-test

1. What is the UK’s main official measure of relative low income?
2. How did Mack and Lansley decide what counted as a necessity?
3. Give one difference between income and wealth.
4. Name the four types of welfare provider in the specification.
5. What did Shildrick et al. (2012) fail to find in Glasgow and Middlesbrough?
6. What does Rodman’s “value stretch” suggest about the values of the poor?
7. According to Blauner, what does the level of alienation depend on?
8. What is Taylorism?
9. In Atkinson’s flexible firm, who is in the periphery?
10. List three of Jahoda’s latent functions of employment.
11. Which welfare regime type did Esping-Andersen place the UK closest to?
12. What did Gallie’s survey evidence suggest about skill change?

Answers

1. A household income below 60% of the median household income, adjusted for household size.
2. Through a survey: the public said which items all adults should be able to afford.
3. Income is a flow of money over time; wealth is a stock of assets at one point.
4. State, private, voluntary and informal.
5. Any family with three generations who had never worked.
6. The poor share mainstream values but adapt them to their circumstances.
7. The type of technology; he argued that more advanced technology makes tasks more complex and gives workers more skill and discretion.
8. Scientific management: breaking work into simple, timed tasks, with planning and control held by managers.
9. Workers on temporary, part-time, agency or subcontracted terms.
10. Any three of: time structure, social contact, collective purpose, status and identity, regular activity.
11. The liberal type.
12. Little evidence of widespread deskilling, but a marked tendency towards polarisation of skills.

Where marks are usually lost

• Defining relative poverty vaguely as “being poor compared with others” instead of linking it to a normal living standard or a share of the median.
• Writing about the underclass as a proven fact rather than a contested claim with counter-evidence.
• Answering a welfare question with only the state, when the specification also names private, voluntary and informal providers.
• Mixing up income and wealth, or quoting wealth figures to make a point about income.
• Describing Braverman without any counter-view such as Blauner, Gallie or post-Fordism.
• Using “globalisation” as a buzzword without a mechanism, such as offshoring of manual jobs or the growth of flexible contracts.
• Ignoring gender and ethnicity in the distribution of poverty, which loses the core theme of differentiation and stratification.
• Inventing or misremembering statistics; describe the pattern if you are unsure of the number.
• Listing studies with no application to the question or the item, which limits AO2 credit.

Next steps

Work through the practice questions. For evaluating the research methods behind poverty studies, see the Methods in Context revision notes. For links between deprivation and achievement, see the AQA Education revision notes. For links between poverty and crime, see the Crime and Deviance revision notes. For class, life chances and the transnational capitalist class, see Stratification and Differentiation; for state policy and domestic labour, see Families and Households.

Official syllabus

AQA AS and A-level Sociology (7191, 7192) specification, Version 1.2 (14 October 2021): Work, Poverty and Welfare (section 4.2.4), assessed in Paper 2: Topics in Sociology, Section A.