Along the past decade, poverty broadened widely, involving new social actors and leading to new impoverishment pockets. The present work pursues the objective to better understand the characters of emerging poverty paths from a qualitative point of view, by analysing some biographical narratives. The main highlights of an ethnographic study carried on in Abruzzo and Molise Caritas centres are pointed out. The analysis of the life-histories confirms the strength of proximal ties as a prevention instrument against the risk of poverty chronicization. It also shows the subject’s capability in putting itself at the core of its universe, to manage it according to its social and relational competencies. Therefore, poverty appears as a phenomenon that has to be analysed on a multidimensional level. This means that the subjective competencies have to be integrated with communitarian ones.
Keywords: Poverty; Proximal Ties; Biographical Paths; Social Competence.