Processes of poverty and social exclusion in poor families

Abstract

W are a clinical psychologist/ family therapist and a sociologist coming from the archipelago of Malta in the Mediterranean Sea. Given the general higher prevalence of poverty in families with children (Immerval, Sutherdal, & De vos, 2001; Micklewright & Stewart, 2000), we joined forces to research the dynamics of poverty and social exclusion amongst Maltese families, those with children in particular (Abela & Tabone, in press). Even though we inhabit a very small country with its distinctive, regional, cultural, and social differences (see Petmesidou & Papatheodorou, 2006), we believe that the concept of social exclusion that has certainly “achieved a wide currency in Western Europe” (Daly, 2002, p. 52)1 may help us “grasp the multidimensionality and relational nature of being poor” (Saraceno, 2006, p. 95). We tend to endorse Saraceno’s views and those of Fassin (1996) who suggest that this framework has now taken over that of the underclass common in the United States and that of the marginalidad in Latin America. In this chapter, we aim to highlight the interplay between poverty and social exclusion, keeping in mind the global perspective. We will use Malta as a case example.