Social factors affecting people's understanding of the causes of poverty in Isfahan city (Providing a model to measure the perception of poverty in Iran)

The issue of poverty has been the dominant discourse in Iran in the past decades; politicians often ascribe the cause and root of poverty to external factors and underestimate the role of internal factors in its spread. Understanding people's views about poverty can give social planners a better insight into the issue and their accepted values in order to reduce poverty. Therefore, the main goal of the present research is to identify the causes of poverty (i.e., deterministic, individualistic, structural) with reference to sociological and economic categories.The research employed a quantitative method and was conducted as a survey. The statistical population was based is the city of Isfahan. The required data was collected from a sample of 397 people using a researcher-made questionnaire. For data analysis, descriptive and inferential statistics were calculated using the SPSS and the pls structural equation model.contextual variables and the dimensions of objective and subjective poverty were found to account for 0.97 of the changes in the understanding of poverty along the three dimensions of individualism, constructivism and individualism. The better the financial status of the households, the more the explanation of poverty based on individualistic factors.Awareness of public opinion allows us to identify the image of socially marginalized people in our society as well as the kind of social policy criteria that the public considers legitimate. Proposed solutions to reduce poverty differ depending on whether people consider themselves to be objectively or mentally poor or non-poor.Deterministic understanding, structuralist understanding, individualistic understanding, subjective poverty, objective poverty understanding, Isfahan city