Child poverty as capability deprivation: How to choose domains of child well-being and poverty

Development Studies series In this chapter the authors define child poverty as the deprivation of basic capabilities and achieved functionings. The authors explore briefly two procedures for selecting relevant dimensions, and use an open list of relevant capabilities to explore and compare the different methods used by the researchers; five methods that are generally used to choose and select domains are considered. The chapter is supplemented with two appendices: the first reviews the domains of child poverty and well-being based on various different approaches, while the second provides a concrete example of multidimensional child poverty. Making the CA operational, however, does not merely entail identifying and measuring ‘missing’ dimensions of well-being. It involves a fundamental change in research design which begins with collecting information and continues with data elaboration methods.