Introduction

Poverty is the outcome of modes of regulation of social processes that, on the one hand, shape the system of opportunities and disadvantages, and on the other, construct some social groups as disadvantaged. As summed up by Brady (2006: 154), ‘macro-level labour market and demographic conditions put people at risk of poverty…. Structural theory is a compositional type of explanation: the more people in vulnerable demographic or labour market circumstances, the more poverty there is. The concept of structure refers to the set of labour market opportunities and/or demographic propensities that characterize the population's likelihood of being poor.’ These modes of regulation are rooted in the specific history of a country, although they have adapted to the changing circumstances. They involve economic processes, but also forms of family and social solidarity, systems of social protection, and cultural norms and representations.

This is what is meant here by the concept of poverty regime: a specific combination of labour market conditions, the balance between public and private (family) responsibility in buffering against social risks, a gender division of labour within families and within society, and (gendered) social norms and cultural values. The incidence of poverty, its composition and how it is experienced by those concerned depend on the peculiar combination and interaction of these factors in a given context and in a given historical period.

In societies characterised by different balances of regulative institutions, the sub-groups mostly affected by the risk of impoverishment may differ. For instance, in 2017, the risk of poverty was 20.3% in Italy and 12.4% in Denmark. However, in the case of families with three or more children, the difference was much greater: 37.1% in Italy and 8.9% in Denmark (Eurostat online database). Generally in Italy, households with dependent children have a higher risk of poverty than childless households (24.8% against 16.2%), while in Denmark the reverse is true (8.3% against 15.9%). In Denmark, the highest risk of poverty (33.4%) concerns adults aged under 65 who live alone, a figure that amounts to ‘only’ 25.9% in Italy.