ABSTRACT
This chapter outlines definitions and theories of poverty, first considering income/monetary definitions before focusing on the capabilities approach. It establishes the concepts of thresholds and deprivation as essential in relation to poverty, and explains the meaning of capabilities and functionings in determining wellbeing and illbeing. It investigates the debates around basic or central capabilities as fundamental entitlements of a dignified human life, and ties the discussion in to universal human rights. The chapter also details other key concepts in the capabilities approach including agency, conversion factors, and freedom. It illustrates how poverty equates to unfreedom using several ethnographic examples. The chapter then considers several alternative definitions of wellbeing, including happiness, while concluding that subjective measures such as happiness have significant limitations. Finally, the chapter presents some of the most common critiques of the capabilities approach, and succinctly states the book’s methodology for subsequent chapters, which involves considering poverty from a multidisciplinary, human-centric perspective, and incorporating debate and discussion.
