Joyful revolution: poverty, social justice and a pioneer of participation

Tackling poverty and campaigning for social justice must be with, not just for, people in poverty. This key insight will be explored by speakers and lived-experience activists at this event, through reflections on the life-story of pioneer Mary Rabagliati and on contemporary anti-poverty struggles, and through a community theatre performance.

A new biography charts Rabagliati's 'Joyful Revolution' from the war on poverty in New York City and an emergency housing camp outside Paris, through her studies under Richard Titmuss at LSE, to founding the British branch of ATD Fourth World and ground breaking work at the first three UN World Conferences on Women. She was a force to be reckoned with. Kate Evans will introduce author Diana Skelton, in conversation with Tania Burchardt. Fran Bennett and Eileen Alexander will discuss the participation in research and advocacy of people with experience of poverty and activists will perform a scene inspired by the ‘Joyful Revolution’.

Meet our speakers and chair

Eileen Alexander is an LSE fellow in qualitative methodology in the Department of Methodology. She received her PhD in Social Policy from LSE in 2022. She is interested in using creative and collaborative methods in qualitative research to better understand people’s lived experience of inequality, insecurity, and informal everyday welfare practices.

Fran Bennett is an emeritus fellow in the Department of Social Policy and Intervention at the University of Oxford and has a particular interest in social security policy, gender issues, and poverty and participation.. Fran is a fellow of the Academy of Social Sciences and a member of the policy advisory group of the Women's Budget Group.

Kate Evans is a writer and member of the ATD Fourth World Trust.

Diana Skelton (@DianaSkelton) is the Deputy Director of the ATD Fourth World International. As part of ATD’s full-time Volunteer Corps since 1986, she has lived and worked in low-income neighbourhoods in New York and Madagascar, and represented ATD at the United Nations from 1996-2004.

Tania Burchardt is Associate Director of the Centre for Analysis of Social Exclusion and an associate professor in the Department of Social Policy.

More about this event

CASE is a multi-disciplinary research centre exploring social disadvantage and the role of social and public policies in preventing, mitigating or exacerbating it. Social disadvantage is multidimensional, and often best understood in a dynamic or lifecourse perspective, and with individual, family, local, national and international aspects.

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This event is part of the ESRC Festival of Social Science 2025, taking place from 18 October to 8 November with events across the UK.

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