Peter Townsend (1928-2009)

After early years working for the independent research organisation - Political and Economic Planning (PEP) - and then research at the Institute of Community Studies (1954-57), Peter Townsend became Research Fellow and Lecturer at the London School of Economics (1957-63). He was then appointed Professor of Sociology at the University of Essex in 1963. Subsequently, he held posts in social policy and development at the University of Bristol and the London School of Economics and Political Science (LSE).

Peter Townsend was regarded as one of the pioneers of research on poverty in the United Kingdom. He was Chairman of the Child Poverty Action Group from 1969 and of the Disability Alliance from 1974. Prior to his death in June 2009 he was Emeritus Professor and Senior Research Fellow of Social Policy at the Centre for the Study of Poverty and Social Justice, University of Bristol, and Centennial Professor of International Social Policy, LSE.

Townsend's work questions many of the philosophical and theoretical models of poverty whilst also playing a key role in developing new measurements, models and definitions of poverty and inequality. His publications include The Family Life of Old People (1957), The Last Refuge (1962), Poverty in the United Kingdom (1979) and World Poverty: New Policies to Defeat an Old Enemy (2002).