Does poverty have a future? Today's realities, tomorrow's utopias[La pauvreté a-t-elle de l'avenir? Réalités d'aujourd'hui, utopies pour demain]

Asking the question about the future of poverty is, in a way, postulating that our societies will not succeed, contrary to what the programmes or plans to fight poverty suggest, in "eradicating" it. The traditional monetary dimension of poverty, if it is analysed as a consequence of the loss or absence of the fundamentals of existence (work, social status, rights and obligations, etc.), provides objective data to qualify poverty both from a historical point of view and in a prospective approach. It is this first, traditional approach that is first addressed in this contribution, while being aware of its limits. We close this first moment with an approach to the representations of poverty, particularly in its relative aspects. Secondly, we open the reflection on the recurrent, still unresolved question of global warming and, more immediately, that of the pandemic linked to Covid 19, as contemporary determinants of the increase in poverty. We conclude by re-examining the dominant political and economic model in Western societies, whose perpetuation without radical change, or, on the contrary, the realisation that other paths are possible, seems to us to be one of the challenges of change, no doubt including a part of utopia, towards a world truly free of poverty. This article is part of a wider research project organised by CNAHES Grand Est and ARHESS Lorraine Champagne Ardennes: "Poverty, yesterday, today and tomorrow?