ABSTRACT
This chapter examines key debates that have confounded the analysis of poverty from the very beginning: matters of definition, measurement, methodology, process, history – and of ideology. It examines some of the key fault lines in development as a process of transformation and development studies as a field of scholarship. We do not take any position on these debates, rather we draw attention to the reasons why, and the grounds on which, these differences of opinion emerge. Hundreds of millions of people in rich countries as well as poor live frugal, meagre lives, often without dignity, and with their rights frequently undermined. Understanding who these people are, and in all their complexity, remains a central task for development practitioners, policy makers and scholars that this chapter seeks to contribute to.
