The Spirit Level was something of a sensation when it was
published in 2009. Written by the epidemiologists Richard Wilkinson and Kate
Pickett, both of the University of York, it swiftly joined the pantheon of
popular science tracts such as Tipping Point and Freakonomics, becoming a
prestigious member of an elite group of psych-socio-economic books which are widely
discussed if perhaps less widely read. The Spirit Level climbed still further
when its messages sashayed their way off the shelves and into the speeches of
politicians. But are such mentions sincerely meant or cynical attempts to jump
on the buzzword band-wagon?
The central tenet of the book is that unequal societies do
worse than more equal societies for almost every marker of social problem you
can imagine, from teenage pregnancy, to imprisonment rates, from obesity to
measures of trust. The writers acknowledge an intuitive tendency to agree with
such statements, however, they go further than making mere statements that
refer to levels of absolute poverty. For example, their claim that unequal
societies do worse does not simply refer to the lowest socio-economic levels in
society, rather they argue that at every level on society’s ladder, groups will
be doing worse than corresponding demographic groups in more equal societies.
Unequal societies produce steep social gradients of social
problems, so while you may enjoy better health than those on the rungs below
you – you can be assured that those on the rung just above are enjoying better
health than you.
This is perhaps the most revolutionary element of The Spirit
Level, the idea that inequality is bad for all, even those of us who are living
comfortably, far-removed from poverty-lines. It takes acknowledged drivers for
social problems, such as relative deprivation, and effectively scales awareness
of the problem up utilising an impressive array of cross-disciplinary research
and theories.
It is this grand theory which has drawn ire down on the
authors. There are few books which have
attracted such vociferous or sustained criticism, to the extent that books have
been published which set out solely to disprove the work. Complaints centre on
methodological issues and fire off accusations of cherry-picking data, the
position of outliers and exaggerating correlations. The debate became so
significant that it provoked a welcome level of engagement from the authors
Pickett and Wilkinson, who have released an updated version of the book
responding to their critics and have also participated in debates with their
detractors. This is truly public academia – to an extent that can only be
wistfully dreamed of by those criminologists who attempt to attain the same
level of public awareness.
Clearly in any such grand theory, it is always possible to
target flaws and problems. Achieving a level of nuance in a book that works in
generalisations and persuasion is out of the question, and to some extent this
book does function as a manifesto for change. It has become another
evangelising work which seeks to determine exactly what has gone wrong in the
final decades of the twentieth-century and into the twenty-first. The DA wondered how this theory of everything which focuses on inequality would relate
to criminological texts dealing with the same consequences but working at the
problem from a different discipline. In criminology, a variety of theories have
been proposed to explain our criminological and political cultures, with
terminologies ranging from late modernism, postmodernism, risk society,
neo-liberalism. Perhaps The Spirit Level has something to add to these
theories.
The authors’ statements that we are first generation to
struggle for new answers to the question of how to improve our quality of life,
sometimes seem peculiarly devoid of historical context. There is a danger,
which Lucia Zedner elegantly elaborates, of seeing our present as a dystopia. We are being spectacularly solipsistic when we consider our own time
as the apex or climax of history. However, refreshingly, Pickett and Wilkinson
are positive in their view of how we bring about change. They use the examples
of Japan and the US to illustrate just how quickly inequality can creep into a
society, and how over the same period the gap can be effectively closed.
Their final chapters on environmental concerns and
suggestions on how to close the inequality gap, are decidedly less compelling
than previous chapters showing the correlations between social problems and
inequality. These closing chapters are perhaps a pre-emptive strike against
criticism that they have merely uncovered a problem without providing any
solutions. While these chapters do not detract from the book, they are less
confidently and expertly written, being, as they are, clearly beyond the
authors’ areas of expertise. However, they do provide interesting examples and
anecdotes, such as the individual carbon quota scheme being piloted in Manchester.
The Spirit Levels provides an excellent summary of hundreds
of peer-reviewed studies, and effectively brings a considerable quantity of
research together to form its argument. And that argument is persuasive. There
are issues with causality, for example arguments in one section of the book
were often reinforced by reference to earlier correlations, a method which
seemed somewhat circular and lacking in internal validity. However, despite
some issues which were raised within the group, and despite the above mentioned
criticism from other academics, The Spirit Level remains a convincing
hypothesis. Certainly the work will continue, the authors' work with The Equality Trust is just one sign that this is a idea which has more to give.
This months blog was written by Lynsey Black.
The views expressed are those of the author alone.
thank u for info best hd cctv in dubai
ReplyDeletethank u for info cctv for business in dubai
ReplyDeletethank u for info Cctv Solutions Companies In Dubai
ReplyDeletethank u for info BIM documentation in USA
ReplyDelete
ReplyDeletethank you.
CCTV security systems
cctv suppliers in dubai
Thanks for the information CCTV security systems
ReplyDeleteWindow Intercom System is made of high-tech polycarbonate fiber resin material which makes it strong and virtually indestructible. The two-way voice intercom communications technology, automatic identification of processing speech signals during a call does not require any action.
ReplyDelete