ISSN online: 2221-1616

Bulletin of the Institute of Sociology (Vestnik instituta sotziologii)

Research Article

Анна А Алексеёнок Doctor of Sociology, Associate professor,
Central Russian Institute of Management-Branch of the Russian Academy of National Economy and Public Administration, Orel, Russia
alexaconst@rambler.ru
ORCID ID=0000-0001-5178-6857
Юрий Ю Каира Candidate of Sociology, Associate professor,
Central Russian Institute of Management-Branch of the Russian Academy of National Economy and Public Administration, Orel, Russia
kaira@orel.ranepa.ru
ORCID ID=0000-0001-8402-2001
Евгений Е Колмогоров
Central Russian Institute of Management-Branch of the Russian Academy of National Economy and Public Administration, Orel, Russia
jonson1974@bk.ru
ORCID ID=0000-0003-4296-5479
The position of impoverished citizens in a region’s social structure (based on material from Orel Province).
Vestnik instituta sotziologii. 2020. Vol. 11. No. 3. P. 99-120

Дата поступления статьи: 10.07.2020
This Article is downloaded: 235 times
Topic: Social Differentiation Issues in Contemporary Russia

For citation:
Алексеёнок А. А., Каира Ю. В., Колмогоров Е. В. The position of impoverished citizens in a region’s social structure (based on material from Orel Province). Vestnik instituta sotziologii. 2020. Vol. 11. No. 3. P. 99-120
DOI: https://doi.org/10.19181/vis.2020.11.3.665


Abstract

This article presents the results of the authors’ research, conducted in one of Russia’s more significant agricultural regions – Orel Province. The study was based on an integrative approach, which involves a combination of objective and subjective criteria and sub-criteria for inclusion into the impoverished strata. The sample’s representativeness (n=1154) is guaranteed by age, gender, area of employment and type of settlement, with margin of error for the population sample amounting to no more than 2.3%. The method for interpreting the results of the study is based on dividing the community into impoverished and non-impoverished strata, as it was done for analyzing poverty and inequality in modern Russia in a report of the same name by the Institute of Sociology of the RAS. Such an interpretive approach allowed for the authors to identify considerable discrepancies in the qualitative assessments and quantitative characteristics of the phenomenon of poverty by the highlighted strata consisting of the impoverished and non-impoverished. The research results allowed for isolating the primary reasons leading to poverty, based on the evaluations of both the impoverished and the non-impoverished.

The authors figured out that, when members of the population identify their position in the social structure of the region, the non-impoverished tend to underestimate their status in comparison to the objective values of poverty criteria, while the impoverished tend to over-estimate their social standing. Comparing the impoverished and non-impoverished based on social-professional criteria confirmed one of the clauses of the social stratification theory, the broad interpretation of which suggests a direct correlation between one’s education level and belonging to non-impoverished groups of the population. The general conclusion to the study suggests that the impoverished groups of Orel Province’s population lead less fulfilled lives when compared to the non-impoverished, especially when it comes to commercialized forms of recreation, as well as that the former find themselves in a state of deprivation, despite their own desire to position themselves outside of the poverty zone.

The authors draw the conclusion that, given a situation when poverty is a global issue, with it becoming a target index for an increasing amount of countries and regions in the last few years, singling out poverty should become a priority for Russian social policy, both on a federal and regional level.

Keywords

poverty, poverty criteria, causes of poverty, social stratification, social structure

References

Golenkova Z.T. Samba A.D.B. Past, Present and Future of Social Space in the Region. Informacionno-analiticheskiy biulleten Instituta sociologii FNISC RAN = Information and Analytical Bulletin of the Institute of Sociology of the FCTAS RAS, 2019: 3: 5–17 (In Russ.).

Gorshkov M.K. Russian Society in the Sociological Dimension. Vestnik Rossiyskoy akademii nauk = Bulletin of the Russian Academy of Sciences, 2020: vol. 90: 3: 232–242 (In Russ.).

Gorshkov M.K. Sedova N.N. Self-sufficient Russians and Their Life Priorities. Sotsiologicheskie issledovanija = Sociological Studies, 2015: 12: 4–16 (In Russ.).

Lezhnina J.P. Socio-demographic features of poverty in the Russian Federation. Sociologicheskie issledovanija = Sociological Studies, 2014: 1 (357): 20–28 (In Russ.).

Mareeva S.V. Tikhonova N.E. Poverty and social inequalities in Russia in the public consciousness. Mir Rossii. Sotsiologija. Etnologija = World of Russia. Sociology. Ethnology, 2016: vol. 25: 2: 37–67 (In Russ.).

Pechetova T.I. Poverty as a factor determining the standard of living of the population in the Russian regions. Molodoy uchioniy= Young Scientist, 2017: 5 (139): 223–226 (In Russ.).

Poverty and Inequality in Modern Russia: Ten Years Later. Moscow, IS RAS publ., 2013: 168 (In Russ.).

Poverty and the Poor in Modern Russia. Ed. by M.K. Gorshkov, N.E. Tikhonova. Moscow, Ves’ mir, 2014: 304 (In Russ.).

Tikhonova N.E. Factors of life success and social status in the minds of Russians. Vestnik Instituta Sotsiologii = Bulletin of the Institute of Sociology, 2018: vol. 9: 4 (27): 11–43 (In Russ.).

Tikhonova N.E. Karavay A.V. Dynamics of some indicators of the total human capital of Russians in 2010–2015. Sotsiologicheskie issledovanija = Sociological Studies, 2018: 5 (409): 84–98 (In Russ.).

Tikhonova N.E. Stratification on income in Russia: the specifics of the model and the vector of changes. Obshhestvennye nauki i sovremennost’ = Social Sciences and Modernity, 2017: 2: 23–35 (In Russ.).

Tikhonova N.E. Stratification on the life chances of mass sectors of modern Russian society. Sotsiologicheskie issledovanija = Sociological Studies, 2018: 6 (410): 53–65 (In Russ.).

Tikhonova N.E. The phenomenon of poverty in modern Russia. Sotsiologicheskie issledovanija = Sociological Studies, 2014: 1: 7–19 (In Russ.).

Tikhonova N.E., Slobodeniuk E.D. Heterogeneity of Russian poverty through the prism of deprivation and absolute approaches. Obshhestvennye nauki i sovremennost’ = Social Sciences and Modernity, 2014: 1: 36–49 (In Russ.).