ABSTRACT
Poverty is a persistent problem which has presented political and moral challenges to all societies at all times. The word itself, poverty, is a familiar one which everyone understands, or thinks they understand. But the specific meaning we attach to the word depends upon the underlying concept of poverty we have in mind. It is possible to conceptualise poverty in many different ways, each one leading towards a different understanding of the meaning and significance of the term, towards a different precise definition, which in turn will lead to parallel differences in the methods and measures used to estimate the numbers in poverty and gauge the depth of their impoverishment.
