This thesis examines the perceptions of poverty and own-poverty held by people living in poor
communities, and uses these to understand their realities as evident in the risks they face and
the livelihood strategies they carry out. It engages with the debate on relationships between
perceived poverty and objective indicators which dominate the poverty discourse. A
comparative analysis of rural and urban areas is carried out motivated by literature findings on
differences in perceptions between these areas. Qualitative and quantitative data was collected
during seven months of fieldwork (2006) in relatively poor areas of Lagos state, South-West
Nigeria. Perceptions of poverty in a highly populated and commercial area such as Lagos were
found to be consistent with the factors that have informed traditional approaches to poverty.
However, the identification of the poor based on perceptions of own-poverty differed
remarkably from that based on locally identified indicators of poverty, and relative deprivation
was found to be a key explanation. In using the perceptions of poverty and own-poverty to
further understand the realities of poverty as understood by the poor, risks and livelihoods are
also examined. The poor are faced with risks which they have limited capacities to insure
themselves against and health risks featured prominently as the most anticipated and realised
risk. Informal risk-sharing was the main risk-response used, however its capacity to cope is
limited. Livelihood diversification is also a response to risks and in analysing this further (with
a focus on the rural poor), a diversification spectrum made up of three categories: the least,
mid and highly diversified, was constructed. The majority of those who perceived themselves
as poor were in the middle of the spectrum and were engaged in a non-farm activity,
suggesting that diversification into non-farm activities was not necessarily the preferred option
in their perspective.