Poverty of country people in Altai Territory as region of agrarian specialization: scale, depth and dynamics (by results of sociological research)

The article is devoted to the problem of poverty of agricultural population of regions of agrarian specialization. On the basis of results of the sociological research made in Altai Territory, scale, depth, dynamics of poverty of agricultural population of the region are considered, major factors and mechanisms of formation and overcoming of rural poverty are revealed. The methodological basis of research was the basic concepts of poverty: absolute, relative, subjective; the concept of human potential; and the estimation of experts. The urgency and the importance of the problem of poverty of country people of the region of agrarian specialization are revealed by consideration of the rating of the basic vital problems, which poor people in the village had to face recently. For complex estimation of scale, depth of poverty the value judgment of financial position of families of poor peasants, their incomes are compared with the financial position of inhabitants of the state, estimation of experts, data of official statistics. The analysis of the given sociological research has shown that at present the poverty scale is high among country people of Altai Territory, which leads to negative consequences for reproduction and sustainable development of rural community as a whole. More than half of the peasants classified themselves as poor, every eighth respondent claiming oneself the poorest. Experts estimate the abject poverty level more highly than the population. The dynamics of rural poverty in Altai Territory is characterized by essential growth of the share of the poorest among peasants for the last three years (at considerable fall of level of abject poverty in 2002 - 2008), an over 50% increase of the share of the averagely poor group that occurred in the notable decrease of the share of peasants who classified themselves as a safe group of the poor (by about one third). The analysis of factors and mechanisms of poverty formation and overcoming has shown that the principal causes of deterioration of financial position of peasants are loss of incomes (connected with reduction of jobs), employment in low-paid branches of the majority of peasants, inflationary processes. Except socio-economic factors the situation with poverty is influenced by social-demographic and social-psychological factors.

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