Contenu du sommaire : L'action sociale face aux publics précaires « invisibles » (I)

This research has been conducted for the National Observatory of Poverty and Social Exclusion (ONPES). Its necessity has arisen following the acknowledgement that French public statistics and, more generally, public and academic research, have very little knowledge on certain populations amongst the poorest and most excluded ones. As a consequence, public policy to address their needs either lacks or does not reach its goal. After analysing the causes and the patterns of this social invisibility, this paper reviews the existent literature and knowledge on six under-investigated social groups : homeless people hosted by friends or relatives ; people over which institutional/policy supervision of any kind has just ended (e.g. those who just got out of prison) ; relatives of children in out-of-family placement ; sheltered people suffering mental disorders ; self-employed poor workers ; rural and neo-rural poor dwellers. This paper then concludes by identifying further research areas to be explored in order to improve policy.

ATD Fourth World has been working since its inception, in the 50s, to help people that face extreme poverty to be heard and considered by society. This is the essential condition to eradicate poverty successfully, as fighting poverty without listening to and considering the poor themselves is vain. This is why ATD has promoted the dialogue between policy makers, scholars, social workers and people that face poverty and exclusion, firstly with the People's Universities and then with the Merging of Knowledge workshops that ATD runs since the early 2000s. Frédéric SUBBIOTTO, permanent volunteer and Merging of Knowledge workshops organiser at ATD explains how this approach is successful in bridging the gaps between different types of knowledge and life perspectives, and in empowering “socially invisible” people.