Poverty and social exclusion as viewed by different groups of population

The article considers the potential of subjective assessment of poverty that may be used in evaluation of the social tension level and the efficiency of the State economic policy for overcoming poverty. Application of new approaches to studying social vulnerability requires more refined tools of data collection including, in particular, in-depth interviews with members of the main groups at risk of poverty and social isolation. The data collected in the course of studies furthers a broader interpretation of the socio-economic phenomenon of poverty and substantiation of the statement about insufficiency of the official methods of measuring poverty by in-come levels and necessity of «subjective» poverty assessment connected with individual’s feeling of being in the state of poverty, social vulnerability, social isolation. The article pays a special attention to considering respondents’ opinions of poverty, its specific features, and to finding out its causes. The respondents’ opinions are concerning their perception of poverty and wealth, attitude of people (or families) to the poor, living conditions, lack or shortage of income, consumer goods and ser-vices, as well as the effect of the shortage. The presented data, conclusions and recommendations are based on in-depth interviews of the representatives of different socio-demographic groups of Rostov oblast (the case of Rostov-on-Don).