本篇論文擬重讀英國社會學者畢爾翠絲•瑋柏 (Beatrice Webb) 所出版，回顧其在1880 年代，於倫敦東區貧民窟，從事社會調查與慈善工作的自傳式寫作《我的見習札記》(My Apprenticeship)、日記及社會調查報告。瑋柏採取明查與暗訪兩種方式，深入觀察東區碼頭工人的就業狀況、猶太移民社群的屬性、貧民窟裡壓榨勞工血汗的製衣產業，並親身體驗女性裁縫工鎮日工作，所承受的辛勞與剝削。瑋柏將在貧民窟調查的所見所聞加以記錄，其敘述方式迥異於當時廣泛流行於大眾媒體裡針對貧民窟的煽情、主觀敘述。瑋柏採取的是較為客觀、科學的角度，試圖為已成為社會病灶的貧窮問題尋求解決之道。準此，本篇論文將探討瑋柏的貧民窟書寫與十九世紀關於貧窮的論述之間的關聯，並指出瑋柏的敘述展現了對於貧窮較進步的理解。

Poverty has been viewed as a symptom of moral degradation since the enforcement of New Poor Law in 1834, which replaces conventional outdoor relief with workhouses whose stringent conditions are intended to intimidate the applicants. While publicly owned workhouses aim at discouraging people from falling into penury, private charities dispensed relief to those showing “character” instead of those most in need. Underlying this charitable practice is, however, an unquestionable surrender to the liberal, capitalist economy that the poverty-inducing British industry relies on. It is not until the latter half of the nineteenth century that such a moralistic, liberal view on poverty is challenged by socialists who approach penury through the lens of the exploited poor. This paper thus intends to study the investigations of London’s East End conducted by the well-known socialist and social reformer Beatrice Webb in the context of Victorian discourses on poverty and to reveal that the observations and solutions Webb offers anticipate a crucial departure from moralizing poverty to understanding it as a largely economically induced matter that needs the socialist intervention of the government.