‘We’ve got a file on you’: problematising families in poverty in four periods of austerity

What is it about?

This research explores how families in poverty have been governed through data. It consists of a case study analysis of materials recorded and collected by the Charity Organisation Society and its subsequent guises. over four periods of economic recession, ranging from the late 19th century to the early 21st century. We argue that the construction, positioning and governance of poor families over time can be observed in terms of three key shifts in problematisation: (i) from the identification of deservingness towards the assessment of risk; (ii) from a gendered concentration of parents to the perceived needs of children; and (iii) from consultation of authority figures to a reliance on increasingly ‘professionalised’ data capture tools.

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