Social Progress in Britain

In his landmark 1942 report on social insurance Sir William Beveridge talked about the 'five giants on the road to reconstruction' -- the giants of Want, Disease, Ignorance, Squalor, and Idleness. Social Progress in Britain investigates how much progress Britain has made in tackling the challenges of material deprivation, ill-health, educational standards, lack of housing, and unemployment in the decades since Beveridge wrote. It also asks how progress in Britain compares with that of peer countries -- Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Japan, Sweden and the USA. Has Britain been slipping behind? What has been the impact of the increased economic inequality which Britain experienced in the 1980s -- has rising economic inequality been mirrored by increasing inequalities in other areas of life too? Have there been increasing inequalities of opportunity between social classes, men and women, and different ethnic groups? And what have been the implications for Britain's sense of social cohesion?

1 - Beveridge's Five Giants and other challenges to social progress
2 - The fight against Want: material prosperity, inequality and poverty
3 - The fight against Disease: life expectancy, disease, and lifestyle
4 - The fight against Ignorance: participation, standards and non-economic outcomes
5 - The fight against Squalor: overcrowding, homelessness and affordability
6 - The fight against Idleness: unemployment and discouraged workers
7 - The challenge of inequality of opportunity: class, gender and ethnic inequalities
8 - The challenge of social corrosion: national identity, social divisions and disengagement
9 - Progress in tackling Beveridge's five giants: the successes and limitations of social reform

Anthony F. Heath is the Director of the Centre for Social Investigation, Nuffield College, University of Oxford. His publications include The Political Integration of Ethnic Minorities in Britain (with Stephen D. Fisher, Gemma Rosenblatt, David Sanders, and Maria Sobolewska, OUP, 2013), Hard Times: Inequality, Recession, Aftermath (with Tom Clark, Yale University Press, 2015), and Unequal Attainments: Ethnic Educational Inequalities in Ten Western Countries (co-edited with Yael Brimbaum, Proceedings of the British Academy, OUP, 2014).