after finishing his undergraduate studies mattelart joined a community of secular monks in brittany for one year, but went on to study law and political science at the catholic university of louvain. afterwards he studied demography at the institute of demographic studies in paris (founded by the influential left intellectual alfred sauvy, who in 1952 coined the term third world). upon finishing his studies he was appointed as an expert on the politics of population by the vatican, and in 1962 was sent to the universidad católica de chile. while in chile he married michèle mattelart.