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Seebom Rowntree Social Significance

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Seebom Rowntree Social Significance
Understand the significant historical and contemporary landmarks in social welfare provision.

Historical landmarks in the social welfare provision: focusing on issues up to 1945
Starting period of 1901 which will focus on Seebohm Rowntree who carried out a study of poverty and published his findings in 1901. Rowntree lived in yok and was an owner of a large chocolate factory based there. The Rowntree family did have a major impact on the town. He was the first British company to employ a full time in house industrial psychologist, the reasoning for this was to improve workers efficiency. The Rowntree family were of Quaker religion and Seebohm did in fact attend a Quaker school. The Quaker way of life did heavily impact his work ethic. He was committed to helping the poor and like many others he strongly opposed the British fighting in the First World War. He was very concerned about the impacts which alcohol caused for families, individuals and as a society. In the years 1887 and 1889 he and a team of researchers carried out a survey of the poorer areas of the city, these were the works which he published in 1901. This study was called Poverty: a study of town life. This work was what made him be recognized as one of the founders of empirical sociology
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This meant that these detailed surveys which were carried out got much more attention. Poverty was now been seen by more people who held influential positions as a cause for concern, and an issue that needed to be brought to nationwide attention and gotten rid of. Poverty was now been seen in a new light. Seebohm Rowntree became good friends with Lloyd George and would advise him in later years on areas of public policy, the Old age Pensions Act of 1908 and the National Insurance Act of 1911 were two of those

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