Poverty and People’s Well-Being

Abstract: What is poverty? How poverty relates to people’s well-being? The concepts of poverty and of well-being are highly intertwined; however, there is little research on how specific conceptions of poverty relate to people’s well-being. This chapter revises the prevailing traditions in conceptualizing and assessing people’s well-being and how they end up being implemented in poverty studies. The chapter argues in favor of a subjective well-being approach to understand and assess people’s well-being. It is not only to get people out of poverty; it is also to get them into a life-satisfying situation. Poverty studies would benefit from placing greater attention to the essential experiences of being well people do have as well as to their overall assessment of life. A better theory of well-being could emerge on the basis of this information; and this would reflect in social programs that do really impact on people’s well-being.

Keywords: Poverty, happiness, subjective well-being, conceptions of poverty, conceptions of well-being, poverty-abatement programs