Implications for Conceptualizing and Measuring Poverty

Abstract In this chapter we explore the implications of the analysis and results that have been set out in previous chapters for the way poverty is conceptualized and measured, focusing particularly on how they throw a good deal of light on current debates. We begin by reiterating our understanding of the key concepts of deprivation and poverty, and setting out the central message of our own empirical approach and results. We then structure the discussion around a set of distinct but related concerns of the recent literature: the influential capability approach put forward by Sen, debates about defining and measuring deprivation and the implications of its multidimensionality, the relationship between poverty and social exclusion, the rights approach to poverty and minimum income, and poverty and the underclass.