In this paper, we will present and discuss the concept of poverty ways of life and its advantages for the study of poverty and the development of effective policies to fight against it. Poverty corresponds, generally speaking, to the most subaltern positions in the structures of distribution of different types of resources, such as income, work, education and skills, health, housing, political power, social status, quality networks and social support, life in a community with positive identity, or self-esteem. Individuals, families and groups penalized by the occupation of these positions possess, however, a structured set of social dispositions, values and cultural orientations that shape a particular lifestyle. Poverty ways of life thus refer to the intersection between, on the one hand, the living conditions and, on the other hand, lifestyles adopted by different categories of people vulnerable to poverty. The approach to the problems of poverty by analyzing poverty ways of life has two major advantages. First, it allows for a thorough understanding of the phenomenon. Even in similar conditions, different social groups adopt differentiated practices and cultural patterns (resilience, such as fatalism and accommodation, can be a specific process of this relationship, among many others). As will be shown in the Portuguese case, it is possible to develop a typology of poverty ways of life based on those practices and cultural pattern. Second, an approach to poverty based on the concept of poverty ways of life helps the fine tuning of policies of resource allocation and for promoting equal opportunities. The same policy can have different effects on different groups, families and individuals in the process of interaction with their lifestyles. Considering this fact facilitates the design of tailor-made policies, allowing for significant gains in their efficacy and efficiency.

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Poverty Modes of Live, Resilience

This publication is an output of the following project(s):

• Patterns of resilience during socioeconomic crises among households in Europe