This article discusses the collective reactions to social and economic impoverishment, conceived as a process leading to the destruction of the social fabric, and to the degradation of social rights. It draws out the often underestimated importance of the spatial dimension, which turns out to be especially important in the era of globalization. It argues that the solution generally proposed with regard to the impoverishment of places — geographic mobility and the exodus of people — is an ineffective means of correcting territorial inequalities, and that the latter can only be dealt with by favouring a broad mobilization of collectivities, conceived as territorial communities.