Poverty in All Its Forms: Determining the Dimensions of Poverty Through Merging Knowledge

While multidimensional measures of poverty represent real progress over unidimensional monetary ones, there remain conceptual issues to be resolved as well as practical ones relating to the specification of appropriate dimensions. Contrary to the Guiding Principles on Extreme Poverty and Human Rights adopted by the United Nations in 2012, the measures have generally not been developed involving people experiencing poverty. Consequently, measures are lacking in both face and construct validity. This chapter explores how these deficiencies are being addressed by research that exploits a novel methodology, Merging of Knowledge (MoK), which is being undertaken in six countries: Bangladesh, Bolivia, Tanzania from the global south; and France, Great Britain and the USA from the north. Undertaken by national teams that include a substantial representation of people in poverty, the research is integrating knowledge gained from people in poverty, practitioners working to address poverty and academic specialists through a process of face-to-face dialogue and critical appraisal. Preliminary results are discussed to illustrate how they are likely to challenge received opinion.