How we define poverty is critical to political, policy and academic
debates about the concept. It is bound up with explanations
and has implications for solutions. Value judgements
are involved. Definition thus has to be understood as a political
as well as a social scientific act and as such has often been
the source of controversy. There is no single ‘correct’ definition.
However, as we shall see, most researchers now accept
that any definition has to be understood, at least in part, in
relation to particular social, cultural and historical contexts.
This has implications for studies that attempt to compare
poverty in very different kinds of society