Skip to main content

Charles Booth Biography

Charles Booth

(Liverpool, 1840-Whitwick, 1916) British sociologist.His research contributed to the knowledge of the social problems suffered by the less privileged classes of English society as a consequence of the Industrial Revolution, and to the establishment of a methodology that sociology later used.

Charles Booth

Before dedicating himself to sociological studies, Booth founded in 1866, together with his brother Alfred, a shipping company that served between Europe and Brazil, the Steamship Company Ltd., in which served as CEO.A member of the conservative Tory Party and defender of the protectionist economic policy carried out by Chamberlain, Booth was appointed a member of the Customs Reform Propaganda Board between 1903 and 1904, to go on to be appointed private councilor of the Government and member of a commission in charge of studying the state of poverty of the English lower classes, in order to elaborate laws aimed at mitigating such a painful condition.

Booth was appointed to this role for the publication of his impressive work Life and Labor of the People in London ( Life and work of the people in London ), drawn up between 1902 and 1903, whose data on the causes, location and degrees of poverty in London strongly influenced the authorities to take action on the matter.

The work, in which Booth counted on the appreciable collaboration of the sociologist Beatrice Webb, it is divided into seventeen volumes.Booth first described the living conditions of the different social classes that coexisted in London, then went on to carry out an in-depth analysis to determine the causes of the extreme levels of poverty that existed.Booth used the example and direct testimonies of 4,076 real cases that he personally interviewed, distributed among marginalized, alcoholics, unemployed, sick and a long etcetera.

Apart from the novelty of the subject and the data that he contributed , the importance of Booth's work lay in the methodology and way of approaching the study that he put into practice; He was the first to use what was later called by sociologists the Social Surveys (social surveys).These social surveys, as Booth approached them, were intended to collect as much data or information as possible on the living and working conditions of a certain locality or population stratum, in order to be able to prepare later, once it had been obtained the knowledge of the existing reality, the suitable and opportune measures of social action.

The methodology created by Booth was continued until today by the British School of Social Science and the London School.Booth worried about the direct relationship between old age and the different poverty lines, he defended a pension project for the very elderly who lived in terrible conditions or who lacked sufficient income to lead a decent life.

Comments

Popular posts from this blog

Edouard Manet Biography

Édouard Manet (Paris, 1832-id., 1883) French painter and printmaker.Son of an important civil servant of the Ministry of Justice, Édouard Manet was a mediocre student interested only in drawing.Faced with paternal resistance to starting an artistic career, he tried unsuccessfully to enter the Naval Academy until, after a second failed attempt, his family reluctantly agreed to finance his artistic studies, which began in 1850 in the workshop of the classical painter Thomas Couture. Édouard Manet After six years of apprenticeship, Édouard Manet established himself in his own studio.In those early days he established a relationship with artists and writers such as Henri Fantin-Latour, Edgar Degas and Charles Baudelaire.At the beginning of 1860 some of his works began to be recognized, which deserved, among others, the warm reception of the critic and writer Théophile Gautier. In his production at the end of the 1870s he accentuated the naturalism of his subject matter, to give th...

Don Omar Biography

Don Omar (Stage name of William Omar Landrón, Puerto Rico, 1978) Puerto Rican singer and songwriter.Educated in Villa Palmeras, an underprivileged sector of Puerto Rico, Don Omar began to compose his first songs and poems at the age of twelve; Soon he was strongly attracted to reggaeton , a musical genre that emerged in Puerto Rico in the early 90's. His musical beginnings are linked to the church, to which he was linked as a pastor.For four years he was pastor at the Church of the Restoration in Christ in Bayamón, which he left due to a sentimental disappointment (his well-known theme Although you left includes this episode from his biography).During this period he was part of several groups that sang in religious celebrations. Don Omar In 2002 Don Omar's career took a turn when Héctor El Bambino , a famous member of the duo Héctor y Tito , heard him and decided to sponsor him as a music producer.It was then that Landrón adopted the name Don Omar and began to par...

Harry Lloyd Hopkins Biography

Harry Lloyd Hopkins (Sioux City, 1890-New York, 1946) American politician.He was a Roosevelt collaborator from his time as governor of New York.During his presidency he was one of the promoters of economic recovery and its representative in Europe during World War II.

José Sarmiento and Valladares Biography

José Sarmiento y Valladares (17th-18th centuries) Spanish colonial administrator.He was viceroy of New Spain (1696-1701), a position he left after the death of Carlos II and the change of dynasty.During his tenure, he managed to reactivate mining activity, suspended for lack of quicksilver, and trade in the colony.He held the titles of Count of Moctezuma and Tula.

Angel Fole Biography

Ánxel Fole (Ánxel Fole Sánchez; Lugo, 1903-1986) Spanish narrator and playwright in Galician language.Belonging, along with Álvaro Cunqueiro and Rafael Dieste, to a generation of Galician writers trained before the Civil War, Fole chose not to go into exile after the war and was subjected to a total internal ostracism. Ánxel Fole He began studies of philosophy and letters and law in Valladolid and Madrid, but abandoned both careers.He began to publish in the Lugo newspaper La Provincia (1927) and later collaborated in El Pueblo Gallego, in which his first article in Galician (1934) would appear and began his journalistic series Andar y ver .During the Second Republic he intervened in politics; He was vice president of the Lugo Grouping of the Republican Party and later militated in the Galician Party.At the same time he directed the literary page of Guión, wrote in Resol and founded Yunque, magazines that disappeared at the beginning of the Civil War (1936-1939). In...

Edouard Balladur Biography

Édouard Balladur (Smyrna, 1929) French politician.Born in Smyrna into a family of bankers of Armenian origin, Édouard Balladur studied law at the University of Aix-en-Provence and graduated from the Institute of Political Studies in Paris. His political career began in the early 1960s.Technical adviser in Pompidou's cabinet from 1966 to 1968, the Prime Minister entrusted him with relations with the unions.Between 1969 and 1974 he was Secretary General to President Pompidou.Considered the shadow mastermind of that government, Balladur served as de facto president during Pompidou's long agony. After his death, he rejected the post of ambassador to the Vatican proposed by Valery Giscard d'Estaing and went on to work for a private company.In 1977 he was appointed president-director of General de Servicios Informáticos and in 1980, president of the European Accumulator Company.In 1984 he was appointed Councilor of State, and in the legislative elections of March 16, 198...

Álvaro de Albornoz Liminiana Biography

Álvaro de Albornoz Liminiana (Luarca, 1879-Mexico, 1954) Spanish politician and writer.In 1929, together with Marcelino Domingo, he intervened in the founding of the Radical Socialist Party.He was Minister of Development and Justice of the Second Republic and President of the Republican Government in exile (1945-1946).

Joseph plateau Biography

Joseph Plateau (Brussels, 1801-Ghent, 1883) Belgian physicist.Professor at the University of Ghent, he carried out research work on static and fluid dynamics phenomena.He devised a strobe system for the study of vibratory movements.

Edouard Mortier Biography

Édouard Mortier (Édouard Adolphe Casimir Joseph Mortier, Duke of Treviso; Cateau-Cambrésis, 1768-Paris, 1835) French military.He entered the militia in 1791 and with the rank of Marshal of France (1805) he intervened with the Napoleonic armies in Spain, where he participated in the second siege of Zaragoza and obtained the victory of Ocaña (1809).After the Hundred Days, he recognized Louis XVIII.With Luis Felipe, he was President of the Council and Minister of War (1834).He died the victim of an attack suffered by King Luis Felipe.