Perceptions of Poverty in Small Russian Towns

Abstract

The paper reviews some of the perceptions and categorizations of poverty discovered through a study of participatory approaches to poverty reduction in provincial Russia. It draws on theorizations of poverty as a subjective reality which is socially constructed and perhaps differently perceived by different subsections of the population. The paper argues that perceptions of poverty matter because they feed into both formal categorizations of need and entitlement to assistance or support. They also involve more informal, cultural understandings of impoverishment that may be morally and emotionally inflected. The authors show that perceptions of poverty are subjective, socially constructed, and vary for different categories of the population. It is important to take into account the existence of different types of poverty perception, as it is associated with both the formal definitions of "power needs", the right to receive benefits and financial support and the informal, cultural perceptions of poverty. As such, poor people’s access to support, both formal and informal, the extent of their inclusion in wider social structures and environments and the capabilities these forms of inclusion or exclusion create for them are to some degree determined by perceptions of poverty, the attribution of responsibility and blame and concepts of deservingness and respectability. Perceptions of poverty and the positioning of the poor are influenced by their own explicit desire to distance themselves from the stigmatized image of the poor. This determines the interpretation of the situation and has a significant impact on the current hard-ships of the family and its capability to improve its situation in the future.