From the neoliberal and neoconservative empowerment perspective, there is a widespread notion that poverty disempowers and that leaving social risk through material resources is the path towards empowerment. This article aims to put this notion into question, resuming the centrality of symbolic resources to make clear that empowerment is possible even under poverty conditions, when viewed from an emancipatory perspective. For this, we conduct a theoretical review that debates poverty and exclusion with regard to the symbolic resources, discusses the concept of empowerment, and addresses its relations to praxis. Then, we analyze the empirical evidence from the case "Citizenship valley" and present the final remarks.
poverty; social exclusion; empowerment; social project
