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Accounting for Poverty: Conflicting Constructions of Family Survival in Scotland, 1855–1925
Author(s) -
BLAIKIE ANDREW
Publication year - 2005
Publication title -
journal of historical sociology
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.186
H-Index - 26
eISSN - 1467-6443
pISSN - 0952-1909
DOI - 10.1111/j.1467-6443.2005.00255.x
Subject(s) - disadvantaged , poverty , agency (philosophy) , negotiation , politics , sociology , adaptation (eye) , political science , political economy , gender studies , law , social science , psychology , neuroscience
As in England, the moral implications of pauperism were significant in the operation of the Scottish Poor Law. While the ways in which kin were distributed reflect patterns of survival embedded in local cultures, those failing to conform to an idealised family model, especially unmarried mothers, were disadvantaged, as contested relief claims indicate. Analysis considers encounters between local Inspectors and applicants using a framework that draws upon perspectives from political, moral, and particularly social economy. The outcomes of negotiation reveal how individual agency was compromised by adaptation to circumstances as much as by official and popular frames of reference.