«SOCIOPROSTIR: THE INTERDISCIPLINARY ONLINE COLLECTION OF SCIENTIFIC WORKS ON SOCIOLOGY AND SOCIAL WORK»

Introductory word

2023-12-26T12:22:58+00:00

The official title in English is «Fostering the Urban food System Transformation through Innovative Living Labs Implementation». The research and innovation program of the European Union «Horizon 2020» H2020-CE-FNR-07-2020 in accordance with the grant agreement №101000717 finances the project. Official website of the project: www.fusilli-project.eu

Local food policy: implementation of food initiatives from the national level to the level of territorial communities of Kharkiv region

2023-12-26T12:41:23+00:00

The article is devoted to the analysis of food policy in the Kharkiv region. In addition, the article examines certain aspects of the national policy aimed at preventing the food crisis in the conditions of war. The author briefly examines the main problems and challenges faced by agriculture and the food sector in wartime conditions. The article highlights the main measures aimed at ensuring equal access to food products in wartime and the steps taken for this purpose at different levels: national, regional and in individual communities of the Kharkiv region. In more detail, the article examines the role of local authorities and public initiatives in improving food policy, as they allow not only to ensure food security, but also to involve internally displaced persons in economic activities. The author states that the prospects of food policy in the Kharkiv region are dependent on many factors, in addition to the actual course of the military conflict. The article concludes about the special importance of the following factors: strengthening the defense capability and security of agricultural facilities, transport routes; increasing the efficiency and transparency of the mechanisms of state regulation of food prices, control over the quality and safety of food products, prevention of speculation and abuse; expanding the scope and variety of state support to national food producers; development of international cooperation and integration into the European and world market; support and development of public organizations, volunteer movement, social entrepreneurship, local initiatives and projects that contribute to the provision of food and support to the needy; raising the level of education, culture, awareness and responsibility of the population regarding food security.

Food inequality in Kharkiv during the war: an overview of causes, manifestations and ways to overcome

2023-12-26T12:48:10+00:00

The article presents one of the aspects of the working theme of the Kharkiv team of the Fusilli project, namely, a general overview of the concept and phenomenon of food inequality as one of the forms of manifestation of general social inequality, as a process that outlines unequal and uneven access for different groups in different periods of time to benefits and resources necessary for the full reproduction of vital forces and provision of opportunities for personal development. Food inequality is problematized as a concept necessary to describe and explain the state of the city of Kharkiv under the conditions of a full-scale invasion at three stages: (1) the availability of food products as such in the Kharkiv region; (2) access to goods, that is, the very possibility of purchasing goods in one or another quantity and quality; (3) use of the goods, which are related to the possibility of consumption of the necessary goods. The concept and phenomenon of food inequality is correlated with other forms of social inequality, and an instrumental definition of the main causes and manifestations of food inequality is proposed. A general assessment of the state of food inequality in Ukraine is given and preliminary results of the author's sociological research are given. The article also reviews international, national and local initiatives aimed at solving the problem of food inequality, in particular the policies of central and local authorities, grant programs from foreign companies, the activities of local and international public, volunteer and charitable organizations. The authors come to the conclusion that the possibilities of solving the problem of food security exclusively by economic means and tools are limited, since it is a complex problem that requires a systematic solution involving not only economic, but also political, ecological, cultural, informational, etc. levers.

Kharkiv Living Lab: from an open innovation ecosystem to a participatory system of food sustainability during wartime

2023-12-26T13:04:26+00:00

Since its establishment, the main idea of the Kharkiv Living Lab has centered around the co-creation and dissemination of knowledge and innovative values related to children food. In the aftermath of Russia's full-scale invasion of Ukraine in February 2022, the Kharkiv Children's Living Lab has been transformed to adapt to the exigencies of wartime, and the primary focus shifted towards ensuring food sustainability during the war. The Kharkiv Living Lab reformulated its key principles, prioritizing transnationality, reactivity, and volunteerism. The activities undertaken by the Kharkiv Living Lab during the war time constitute a distinctive and unprecedented experience of implementing a Living Lab during war time, illustrating how «locality» and «globality» are cooperating to tackle food-related challenges during the war, and how a new quality of social ties emerges among diverse local actors, thereby contributing to the strengthening of social cohesion in the face of profound adversity.

The activities of the Kharkiv Living Lab are a unique, if not the first, experience of the implementation of the Living Lab during the war, which demonstrated how «locality» and «globality» cooperate in the context of food support tasks, and how a new quality of social ties is created between different by local actors, which strengthens social cohesion in difficult times of trial. In this context, the Kharkiv Living Lab is an example of building a small integration system based on the principles of social interaction and cohesion. After all, the main task of the Kharkiv Living Lab is the joint and mutual creation, distribution and exchange of knowledge, innovative values, established social practices regarding children's nutrition. The involvement of students of Kharkiv secondary education institutions, their parents, teaching staff and the administration made it possible to create an innovative and permanent platform for the exchange of knowledge with their further integration into a common «knowledge bank», which is formed and supported by a consortium of partners of the international research project FUSILLI, which is focused on building food stability.

Social demand for Healthy Food for pupils in Ukraine: Case of Kharkiv region

2023-12-26T13:11:40+00:00

The article discusses the issue of healthy eating in Ukraine, namely the public demand for healthy eating and, as a result, the demand for reforming the nutrition system. The focus of the study is on students, which was done for several reasons: eating habits are formed at school age and become the basis for attitudes towards nutrition in adulthood; students are a social group that is particularly influenced by media marketing technologies and the advertising industry. Marketing in the media mainly promotes fast food and other types of junk food, which contradicts the formation of a healthy lifestyle. The Department of Science and Education of the Kharkiv Regional State Administration, together with V. N. Karazin Kharkiv National University, conducted a survey of 8-11th grade students of general secondary education institutions in Kharkiv region about their diet at school and at home. The online survey of students lasted from March 10 to April 12, 2021. A survey of parents and teachers of students was conducted from April 26 to July 1, 2021. The article analyzes the results of the study of nutrition in schools in Kharkiv region in several areas: sufficiency, accessibility of school meals, habits and attitudes. One of the main conclusions reached by the authors is that there is a demand for healthy food in schools and for improving the school diet. This conclusion raised the following research question: how to meet this demand. However, this issue is a systemic one, and therefore its solution plan should include the interests of all stakeholders. Based on the common areas of the concept of sustainable development and the theory of social cohesion, the authors propose the introduction of innovative living laboratories. Innovation laboratories are aimed at involving consumers in the evaluation of products and services along with other stakeholders. The article was published within the framework of the project "Stimulating Urban Food System Transformation through the Implementation of Innovative Living Laboratories" (FUSILLI) under the grant agreement № 101000717 (HORIZON2020).

«Green» practices of Kharkiv residents during the war: results of Kharkiv Green Urban Tour 2023

2023-12-26T13:19:17+00:00

The article is devoted to revealing the «green» practices of Kharkiv residents during the war, namely the continuation of growing home-grown vegetables and fruits and their distribution in the context of urban farming. After all, on February 24, 2022, when Russia`s full-scale military invasion of Ukraine began, urbanized Kharkiv was on the verge of a humanitarian catastrophe: logistics routes for the delivery of food and goods were damaged, infrastructure and residential areas were constantly shelled, and a huge number of people were forced to leave the city and move to safer regions of Ukraine. These factors demonstrated new challenges, new threats, and new trends that the city's remaining residents had to face and adapt to. In this article, we will focus on the results of the Kharkiv Green Urban Tour 2023, which was held in April-May 2023 and aimed to communicate with residents of different districts of Kharkiv about urban farming, gardening, and green practices.

This initiative was carried out as part of the international research project FUSILLI (Fostering the Urban Food System Transformation through Innovative Living Labs Implementation) at the School of Sociology of V.N. Karazin Kharkiv National University, funded by the European Union`s Horizon 2020 Research and Innovation Program under the grant agreement No.101000717. The results of this study will provide us with a clearer understanding of how and in what ways residents of an urbanized city engage in improvised farming, gardening, growing vegetables, adapting to the military situation, and reproducing “green” practices while helping others.

Culture of «green» festivals in urbanized space: the case of «Kharkiv Green Urban Fest 2023»

2023-12-26T13:26:02+00:00

The article is devoted to highlighting the culture of festivals on the example of the urbanized space of the city of Kharkiv through the prism of the ecological festival «Kharkiv Green Urban Fest 2023», which was held by the School of Sociology at V.N. Karazin Kharkiv National University on June 17, 2023, based on the cultural space «YermilovCenter». The festival was held as part of the implementation of the international research project FUSILLI (Fostering the Urban Food System Transformation through Innovative Living Labs Implementation) at the School of Sociology of V.N. Karazin Kharkiv National University, funded by the European Union’s Horizon 2020 Research and Innovation Program under the grant agreement №101000717. The main objective of the festival was to showcase local initiatives that focus on responsible consumption, farming, recycling, social entrepreneurship, healthy eating, and sustainable development.

In this article, based on small semi-structured interviews with event participants, we propose a conceptualization of festival culture and identify its inherent features, at the normative-value and structural-functional levels. Using some methodological approaches, we propose to consider the culture of festivals as an example of spontaneous social (inter)action, during which subjects are involved in the construction of a new social reality, which can, although not necessarily, be exported to their own environment. This example of social (inter)action helps to disseminate certain values and beliefs that can be shaped by interactional actions. In addition, we demonstrate the importance and necessity of such events to promote the values of responsible consumption and the development of the city’s food system.

The impact of the Ukrainian food crisis on the globalized world

2023-12-26T13:31:10+00:00

The article is devoted to an overview of the main effects of the food crisis in Ukraine, caused by the Russian invasion, in relation to the world situation in the food sector. The author gives a systemic outline of the macro-level impact of Russia's war against Ukraine on the problems of hunger, access to healthy food, prospects for destabilization processes in the sphere of food production and supply. The most significant aspects of the influence of hostilities on the production of agricultural products in Ukraine and on its export are considered. We are analyzing the consequences in the field of global pricing on food markets, the global fight against hunger in different countries. The global food crisis, which began long before the Russian invasion, has turned into a lever of global political struggle. Despite the partial leveling of processes in the field of global food security in 2023, it is not yet possible to talk about a return to the indicators of the beginning of 2022. We highlight the general aspects of the operation of the Black Sea Grain Initiative and the consequences of the disruption of its operation are considered. The author notes the ambiguity of the case with the Black Sea Grain Initiative; this ambiguity is illustrated by the position of five Eastern European countries, at whose request the European Commission limited the sale of Ukrainian grain on their territories. The dependence of the global situation in the field of food security on political intrigues and nuances further complicates the process of overcoming food problems. This case causes reputational damage to Ukraine in addition to the direct damage caused by the Russian invasion. It records the growth of crisis processes in the fields related to the food sphere and the ambiguity of the positions of individual European states regarding the crisis of Ukrainian grain exports. We made a conclusion about the large-scale damage caused to the stability of the world food market by direct and indirect consequences of the war in Ukraine, and about the negative prospects of this problematic field.

Sustainable development at school: teaching the «5R» principle (on the example of the Zero Waste Kharkiv summer camp for children from the IDPS)

2023-12-26T13:37:52+00:00

Today's Ukraine is facing unprecedented environmental pollution caused by a full-scale invasion and military aggression. In addition to systematic work to reduce the impact of military operations on the environment, the issue of developing environmental awareness and adherence to environmental behavior to prevent or at least reduce environmental pollution is becoming even more urgent. Teaching environmental behavior to school-age children is particularly important and promising in this context. The article is devoted to the study of the practice of teaching the «5R» principle to children through interactive games, informal lectures and discussions. The «5R» principle is a comprehensive approach that aims to achieve environmental safety for modern society and future generations, that is why it must be learned in childhood. The principle itself is an element of the «zero waste» lifestyle, which was launched by a French eco-activist in the 2000s. The article examines the essence and components of the «5R» principle (refuse, reduse, reuse, recycle, rot), how this principle will contribute to sustainable development, and how this principle can be implemented in education. An example of the implementation of the 5R principle in education is the Kharkiv Zero Waste summer camp, which was organized for children from IDP families (from the de-occupied areas of Kharkiv region). The project was implemented by the Center for Civic and Media Initiatives (Zero Waste Kharkiv) with the support of Calidris and information support from the Ministry of Education and Science of Ukraine and the Ministry of Environmental Protection and Natural Resources of Ukraine. Out of the total number of 64 applications submitted, 13 participants were selected to participate in the project, including the Kharkiv team of the FUSILLI project. The article highlights successful camp practices, peculiarities of working with the target audience (in particular, the need to take into account the previous experience of children) and prospects for implementing the 5R principle not only during local events (such as camps), but also implementing the principle as a cross-cutting practice in the educational process.