ABSTRACT
Dynamic research on poverty to date tends to stress the temporalised and democratised nature of the phenomenon. It describes poverty as a short or transient experience shaped essentially by individual characteristics. Empirical evidence, however, remains inconclusive. Recent studies focussing on social assistance paint a more nuanced picture that reveals the existence of both short- and long-term trajectories. The present study aims to advance this debate by exploring trajectory patterns of social assistance recipients in Switzerland. Trajectory patterns have been substantiated by means of sequence analysis. Multinominal logistic regression analysis was then used to study the effect of individual and contextual factors on these trajectories. Results yield four clearly discernible patterns associated with well-established indicators of poverty risk and social inequalities. The study concludes that poverty, defined as social assistance benefit receipt, is neither a highly temporalised nor a markedly individualised phenomenon.
