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to enjoy social rights, they suffer from low self-esteem and inadequacy in their capacity to meet their obligations. Social opportunities, privileges and resources are not part of their daily life, they rather experience inequality. Similar circumstances tend to reproduce similar responses, and these responses can develop into a culture- that is learned, shared and socially transmitted behavior of a social group. This has lead to the concept of the 'culture of poverty'.

This idea of the culture of poverty was first introduced in the late 1950s by the American anthropologist, Oscar Lewis which referred to thr life style of poor in Mexico and Puerto Rico. This line of reasoning explain that a culture of poverty exist among the poor where they own their own norms and values. The culture of poverty goes beyond a mere reaction to a situation. It takes on the force of culture because its characteristics are guides to actions that are internalized by the poor and passed on from one generation to the next. Its characteristics can be seen as a mechanism that leads to an attitude of fatalism and resignation which lead to acceptance of the situation. By starting to live on the outskirts of the society, individuals start developing a different social identity than from the mainstream.

Lewis believes that the culture of poverty is a design for living which is transmitted from one generation to the next. On the individual's level, in Lewis words, the major characteristics of the poor, in other words the excluded have a strong feeling of marginality, of helplessness, of dependence and inferiority, a strong present-time orientation with relatively little ability to defer gratification, a sense of resignation and fatalism.

On the family level, life is characterized by: free union or consensual marriages, a relatively high incidence of abandonment of mothers and children, a trend towards mother centered families and much greater knowledge of maternal relatives. There are high rates of divorce and desertion of male family head resulting in matrifocal families headed by women.

Marginal groups are those which lack organizations to represent their interest in political life, and which also lack clearly defined goals. Lea and Young argue that the marginalized groups in society are particularly more prone to use violence and riots as forms of social actions (Haralambos& Holborn, 2000). In other words, marginalized groups commit more crime and deviant acts while not respecting the norms and expectations of the society. Furthermore, Anderson believes that a spatial concentration of unemployed people provide negative roles model for youngsters, it is that negative role model that reduces the youth efforts to improve their skills and subsequently reduce their labour market opportunities. (Anderson et al, 2005: 763).

Adaptive aspects of the culture of poverty
Rodman argues that there are many popular misconceptions about the poor. It was clear that the way the poor lived lead to the existence of some cultural and economic forms which were beneficial to them since they served as adaptive functions. (Rodman, 1956) Thus, the inhabitants' lifestyles were valued positively though outsiders might view it negatively. The divergence from the society main culture, into cultural modifications enabled the poor to cope with the economic uncertainties and to live with their conscience, (Fanfa