Component 3 Section A: patterns and trends in social inequality, including the distribution of wealth and income, the measurement and definition of poverty, social mobility, and explanations of why inequality and poverty persist.

What this dot point is asking

This statement is about the patterns and trends of inequality: how wealth and income are distributed, how poverty is defined and measured (absolute versus relative), social mobility, and the competing explanations (cultural versus structural) of why inequality and poverty persist. It grounds the abstract theories in evidence about who has what, and tests whether you can explain persistence rather than just describe it.

The answer

Wealth, income and poverty

Both wealth and income are unequally distributed, but wealth is far more concentrated at the top than income, because assets accumulate and are inherited. The two definitions of poverty matter:

• Absolute poverty (Rowntree): a lack of the basic resources for physical survival (food, shelter, clothing, clean water), a fixed minimum standard.
• Relative poverty (Townsend): being poor relative to the rest of society, unable to afford the living standards most people take for granted. This standard rises as society grows richer, so relative poverty can persist even as living standards improve.

Measuring poverty is contested: the threshold chosen (for example 60 per cent of median income) directly shapes how many people count as poor.

Social mobility

Social mobility is movement up or down the class structure, either within a lifetime (intragenerational) or between generations (intergenerational). Britain has less mobility than its meritocratic self-image suggests: the wealthy reproduce their advantages (through private education, networks and inheritance), and mobility for those at the bottom is limited. This challenges the functionalist claim that rewards reflect ability alone.

Why inequality and poverty persist

Explanations of persistent poverty divide into cultural and structural:

• Cultural explanations locate the cause in the values of the poor. Lewis's culture of poverty argues the poor develop a fatalistic, present-time-oriented culture passed between generations. The New Right and Murray's underclass thesis argue welfare dependency creates an underclass that lacks the work ethic. Critics say these blame the victim.
• Structural explanations locate the cause in the economy and society. Marxists argue poverty is functional for capitalism (a reserve army of labour, low pay keeping profits up), and others point to unemployment, low pay, inadequate benefits and the unequal structure itself. Poverty is then a product of the system, not individual failings.

Most sociologists favour structural explanations because poverty tracks economic conditions (it rises in recessions) and affects predictable risk groups (children, the elderly, the disabled, some ethnic minorities, lone parents), though cultural responses may develop within structural constraints.

Examples in context

A strong answer keeps absolute and relative poverty distinct, links measurement to the threshold problem, and frames persistence as cultural versus structural, favouring the structural account with evidence.

Try this

Q1. Explain the difference between wealth and income. [6 marks]

• What the marker wants. A clear distinction (AO1): wealth is the stock of assets owned (property, savings, shares) and is highly concentrated, income is the flow of money received (wages, benefits), with the point that wealth is more unequally distributed because it accumulates and is inherited.

Q2. Analyse two structural explanations for the persistence of poverty. [12 marks]

• Cue. Two developed points chosen from the Marxist view that poverty is functional for capitalism (a reserve army of labour, low pay raising profits), and the role of unemployment, low pay and inadequate benefits, each explained and linked to poverty being a product of the economic structure rather than individual values.