The Fabian Society, in association with the Webb Memorial Trust , is conducting a major research project to celebrate the centenary of a landmark contribution to social justice.

Beatrice Webb's 1909 Minority Report to the Poor Law Reform Commission first set out the vision, arguments and values of social justice that were to become the foundations of the modern welfare state. It challenged the dominant assumption that the poor were solely to blame for their own poverty, demonstrating that the causes of poverty are structural as well as individual, and argued that society has a collective responsibility to prevent poverty, not merely alleviate it. Culminating in 2009, Fighting poverty and inequality in an age of affluence will commemorate the centenary of the Minority Report by making a major contemporary contribution to the strategy for fighting poverty and inequality in today's Britain.

At a time when arguments about the causes of poverty, the principles of social justice and the responsibilities of the state are again central and contested issues in our political discourse, the project will explore how the Minority Report's key insights should be renewed and applied today. In doing so, the project will set out some core principles of contemporary citizenship that should underpin a new welfare settlement for the 21st century, as well as a series of practical proposals that will make a real difference to tackling poverty and inequality.

The project will seek to influence the ideas, policies and arguments of government and the major political parties through a series of publications, lectures and seminars. In the spirit of Beatrice Webb's central concern with winning public support for change, the project will also explore public attitudes towards measures to tackle poverty and inequality, to investigate what must be done to build a public consensus for making a socially just society a reality.

The project will address in detail some key areas of emerging policy development and public debate that will be central to making progress towards a more equal society:

Citizenship, participation and the voluntary sector – How can public participation prevent exclusion and build citizenship?

Families, parenting and the state – How can we harness the potential of the family to combat inequalities in society?

Inequalities of wealth and power – How can we reduce wealth inequalities and stop them undermining equality of opportunity?

Public attitudes to tackling poverty and inequality – How can we harness the public's sense of fairness to build support for fighting poverty?

 Tim Horton and James Gregory are leading the research project. 

For more on the Webb Memorial Trust click here .

Events

Ed Milliband Research Project launch lecture: Fighting Poverty and Inequality in an Age Affluence

Peter Townsend Lecture: 1909-2009: Beatrice Webb and the Future of the Welfare State

Housing & Community Policy Network seminar on assets, opportunity and inequality

Fabians and Policy Network: Tackling Poverty and Inequality in an Age of Globalisation

External links

Tim Horton discusses Beatrice Webb on BBC Radio 4's Woman's Hour

James Gregory discusses the long-term impact of the policies raised in the Minority Report

James Gregory writes on the influence of Beatrice Webb's Minority Report on the last 100 years of welfare policy

Sunder Katwala discusses the Fabian tradition in Comment is Free

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