From this perspective the notion of poverty (or rather poverties) has a
number of limitations and the literature around it is becoming increasingly
complex and to some extent muddled. There are discussions and debates
over many different types of poverty; from consumption to income poverty;
to poverty defined in terms of the human development index or by social
exclusion. Poverty can be relative or it can be absolute. We contend that
‘wellbeing’ (including its inevitable obverse of illbeing) is a wider concept
that can usefully encompass and connect these debates over different types
of poverty. This does not entail abandoning concepts of poverty; they all
have their different analytical and policy uses, but that we locate them in a
wider discourse about wellbeing.