«Poverty» trilemma through victimization concept

Abstract

Introduction: The concept of poverty is multifaceted. It develops along with the idea of growing importance of the individual in economic relations. Considering approaches to poverty in the context of various vectors of understanding, we can identify three main scientific directions of thought development: economic-sociological, psychological and political vectors. The paper considers the main features of the above-mentioned approaches with their contradictions and with special focus on the role of victimization within the vectors.

Materials and methods: The methodology of the work is based on the general theoretical views of Russian and foreign authors pertaining to the concept of "poverty" and its significance in economic and political science. Psychological view is also studied.

The results of the study: The presented vectors (economic-sociological, psychological, and political) are found to have some contradictions between them, either explicit or implicit. However comparing the approaches from the victimization point of view it is possible to say that the vectors in question complement each other, offering to the analysis new facets of victimization of the poor population which in turn go into the basis of poverty definitions. Therefore, it brings forward the question of the relationship between the identified types of victimization through the interdisciplinary approach’s perspective and/or in terms of their assessment.

The studied vectors were also differentiated by the criterion of victimization. Thus, within the framework of the analysis of the political vector, the following understanding of poverty was introduced: poverty is a victimization state of a person, which determines their inability to use their civil rights. It can be assumed that the contradictions found will be solved by developing a general structure of interaction of the considered vectors that explains the mechanisms of mutual influence of the considered vectors, covers all aspects of "poverty" and reflects the ways of interaction of different victimization types with respect to different vectors and/or in general.

Discussion and conclusion: The study of poverty in economic-sociological, political or psychological perspective requires not only scientific differentiation, but also a terminological differentiation with respect to legal definitions, in particular, pertaining to the poor, very poor (almspersons) and indigent population.