Ukraine’s poor majority: exploring the driving factors of subjective poverty
Keywords: capabilities
populism
relative deprivation
subjective well-being
recognition theory
subjective poverty

Existing scholarship indicates that there are divergences between objective and subjective poverty; yet subjective poverty remains under-researched and not well understood. This research contributes to addressing this gap by identifying and exploring influential factors contributing to high rates of subjective poverty in Ukraine, where nearly 70 per cent of people self-identify as being poor. This rate is surprisingly high given that the World Bank and the National Statistical Service of Ukraine estimate poverty in the country to be around 30 per cent. To understand the drivers of high rates of subjective poverty, the thesis investigates the questions ‘what does self-identification as poor entail in the context of Ukraine?’ and ‘why does the attribution of subjective poverty not correlate with income and material circumstances?’ The questions are explored through a qualitative case study in Rivne city in Western Ukraine, using recognition theory as the main theoretical lens. The analysis draws on data from 50 in-depth semi-structured interviews across low- and high-income groups and across three age groups, with individuals ranging from 20 to 81 years old. Amongst the 50 participants, 39 were subjectively poor, 11 of whom were high-income.
The thesis posits that self-identifying as poor is simultaneously a claim of deservingness for a better life, and an internalization of negative stereotypes associated with low social status. In the context of Ukraine, self-identification as poor also has a strong element of collective identity and is accompanied by a binary understanding of inequality, with a perception of a large poor majority and a small rich elite. Consequently, for subjectively poor participants, the average Ukrainian is seen as poor. Moreover, structural explanations of poverty dominate, making it less shameful to self-identify as poor compared to other contexts, in which poverty is associated with individualistic failure.
The thesis further illustrates that subjective poverty does not correlate straightforwardly with income and material circumstances because the main drivers of subjective poverty affect everyone on the stratification curve, but to varying degrees. The interview data shows that the feeling of being poor arises from experiencing long-term economic volatility, fears about the future due to vulnerability to shocks, lack of meaningful and secure work, and perceptions of deprivation relative to Western Europe and Ukraine’s small economic elite. The combination of these factors leads to shared profound feelings of powerlessness, resentment, and misrecognition due to not being valued by the government. The consequent demands for recognition amongst the subjectively poor include the provision of social protection in the spheres of healthcare and pensions, procedural justice within social institutions, and inclusion in the material standard of living characteristic of EU countries.
Given the above findings, the thesis argues that analysing subjective poverty can provide important insights into policy failures. The thesis also contributes to the literature applying recognition theory to the topic of poverty, provides evidence for the importance of psycho-social dimensions in the conceptualization of poverty, and sheds light on the under-researched topic of the poverty experience in Ukraine.