IDENTITIES RESEARCH TRADITIONS IN CONTEMPORARY UKRAINIAN SOCIOLOGY: FOCUSES AND CONTEXTS

Abstract

The article is focused on the historical sociology analysis of social identities studies, the results of which are presented in scientific publications in top Ukrainian periodicals. The direction of development of such researches in thematic, theoretical, and methodological aspects of their socio-cultural context is outlined. Possible new directions of research on the problem chosen by the author are determined.  The author conducted a content analysis of the professional publications where the subject is identity and identification placed in the online archives of professional publications of Ukraine in sociology for the last decade.  An analysis of the thematic diversity of the articles revealed that the vast majority of them are devoted to specific identities, primarily ethnic-national and local, identity is considered as a specific feature of the group; only a quarter of the publications have a general theoretical character and focused in the analysis of identity as such. It was found that the dominant research focuses have long been dominated by conceptualization and analysis of the formation of a selected social identity, but in recent years the authors pay more attention to the functional load of social identities, in particular their impact on Ukrainian society, especially its integration/disintegration, on conflicts and solidarity. The conclusion about a certain decrease in attention to the subject of social identities, and at the same time theoretical, methodological, thematic, and subject complication of their researches are formulated. It is emphasized that further comprehensive studies of identities (their connections, contexts, and social consequences) have a scientific perspective because it is possible to reach a deeper understanding of the processes taking place in modern Ukrainian society with their help.