Revealing poverty that is true to life
A genre in British writing from the 1800s onwards is known as social passing. It consists of writers faking poverty to report on the poor. The EU-funded FALSEPOVERTY project focused on the reality of passing, as opposed to only the literary and cultural aspects. The movement is thus a shift away from a text-based literary one to an interdisciplinary historical one. Primary and secondary sources were identified and collected. Initial outcomes recognised incognito social exploration as a genre that led to a string of further investigations. This included looking into the life of gypsies and the romantic construction of their lifestyle by social investigators. More research and analysis took place in the course of the project than originally planned and included work in the United States. Furthermore, papers were presented at international conferences and a book has been drafted. The work will provide a historical account on the poor that can be used by policymakers as a means of comparison that is more true to real life.