Ukrainian Sociological Journal

War and the Formation of a Political Nation in Ukraine

Yevgen Golovakha — 2022-11-30

The article emphasizes that the war and nationwide resistance to full-scale Russian aggression have significantly accelerated the long historical process of forming a political nation in Ukraine. It is noted that it is the political nation that has begun to gradually emerge in Ukraine that is the main target of the Russian invaders. It is not the traditional ethno-cultural attributes, which even the Soviet government did not prohibit in exchange for the political silence of the masses and the obedience of local elites, but the birth of a political nation in Ukraine that causes the hatred of the Russian neo-imperialists. It is emphasized that the results of sociological research, in particular the monitoring of social changes by the Institute of Sociology of the National Academy of Sciences of Ukraine, have shown that after the collapse of the USSR, Ukrainians lived for several decades mainly in a state of political ambivalence, uncertainty, and socio-political apathy. The full-scale Russian-Ukrainian war has led to a rapid change in these features of the mass political consciousness of Ukrainian citizens to the opposite, which contributes to the creation of a significantly renewed political nation. After February 24, 2022, the political consciousness of Ukrainians has changed more than in the 30 years before, as evidenced by sociological surveys conducted by domestic research centers directly during the war. Based on the analysis of their results, it is concluded that the attitude of citizens towards their state has fundamentally changed in Ukraine; Ukrainians have finally accepted the Ukrainian state as one that deserves respect and appreciation. The factors of possible changes in the development of the political nation in Ukraine after its victory over the Russian aggressors are identified. It is noted that the new idea of "Ukrainianness" will be formed on the basis of modern European political culture and deliberative democracy; pro-Russian forces will remain a marginal phenomenon. The conclusion is made that in the foreseeable future Ukraine will have to live in permanent military and political tension, but at the same time learn to maintain conditions for a full life and gradual development of a modern European political nation. The article identifies the main directions of sociological research in postwar Ukraine, in particular on the issues chosen by the author.

Formation of the Ukrainian Political Nation

Natalya Chernysh — 2022-11-30

Structurally, the material in the article is presented in three parts: the first is the problem of terminology; the second – the first attempts at empirical sociological research into the processes of formation of the Ukrainian political nation; the third - the state of formation of the Ukrainian political nation according to the data of modern sociological research during the acute phase of the Russian-Ukrainian war. An analysis was carried out of the definitions of the main hypernym concept - nation, as well as derived concepts, primarily ethnic and political nations, available in the scientific literature. The paper also provides the author's interpretation and definition of the concept of "political nation" as a political community uniting all citizens as equal before the law, regardless of ethnic and social origin, cultural-linguistic, confessional characteristics, social and economic status. Emphasis is placed on the fact that it is at the same time a civil community that has its own territory and state, where the state acts as a means of achieving common national goals. It is emphasized that the formation of a political nation is a long-term process of transformation of an ethnic group into a "nation-state" through a number of intermediate stages. We show how Ukrainian sociologists began to study this process after gaining independence (including with the participation of the author); its beginnings in the 1990s concerned primarily the problems of the formation of Ukrainian civic identity as a core of a political nation. This process was successful but slow until the first phase of the Russian-Ukrainian war; it has gained a radical acceleration as a result of the ongoing Russian aggression since February 2022. Based on the analysis of the databases of a number of Ukrainian sociological institutions and the opinions of the country's leading scientists, an argument is presented in favor of theses about the formation of the Ukrainian political nation with its main characteristic features and at the same time about the ongoing course of this process. Threats and risks in case of a prolonged war are emphasized.

Russian-Ukrainian War as Object of Sociological Reflection

Alla Lobanova — 2022-11-30

The article highlights factual content of sociological reflection among Ukrainian sociologists regarding to Ukrainians’ perception of Russian-Ukrainian war since 24^th February 2022 till 1^st September 2022. There has been done the content analysis of mass media, press releases and reports from leading Ukrainian sociological institutions and subsequently were presented main tendencies in public opinion among Ukrainian citizens in terms of their perception of the war, identities, value orientations, geopolitical choices, attitude to Russians, migration moods during full-scale war actions of Russian army on Ukrainian territory. There is representation of main research messages taken from public speeches of leading Ukrainian sociologists in mass media in which they present their expert evaluation of current social situation during the war time and their forecasts about possible scenarios in post-war period. The authors emphasize scientific and educational activities of Ukrainian sociological community during the half-year war period. It has been identified that Russian-Ukrainian war has formed social request for more profound development of such branch sociological theories as: sociology of war, environmental sociology, management sociology, history of Ukrainian sociology, sociology of systems. There has been supported the view about the necessity of renewal processes in education and developing of new methodological provision which meets social challenges. It has been proven that post-war period will require sociological rationale with main ways to improve management system of state structures based on usage of soft participative organizational forms which are integrated with different kinds of activities depending on accurately outlined strategic, tactical and operational goals in Ukraine’s further recovery and development.

Current State of Forced Migration Processes and Challenges for Ukraine

Nataliya Kovalisko — 2022-11-30

The scale of migration processes as a result of the war creates a humanitarian challenge for Ukraine, which it has not yet faced in modern history. The collection of statistical information from various sources, as well as the conduct of numerous sociological studies, in general, provide a complete statistical picture and geography of the movements of Ukrainians both internally between the regions of Ukraine and abroad. According to the results of the International Organization for Migration (IOM), as of June 2022, more than 6 million people were internally displaced persons (IDPs) within Ukraine. As of mid-July, there are about 6 million Ukrainian refugees in mainland Europe. The largest number of refugees with the status of temporary protection is in Poland, followed by Germany and the Czech Republic, Spain, France, Slovakia, Austria, Great Britain, the Netherlands and Switzerland. The reasons for the return of both IDPs and refugees include the perception of a security situation, reunification with family, difficulties in finding housing or work, temporary return to collect belongings, see family or evacuate loved ones. Reasons for not returning to Ukraine: families with children who will go to school or enter a higher education institution abroad; those who have a higher education, speak foreign languages, had a high level of income and are more mobile; people who planned to leave Ukraine before the start of a full-scale war; those who seasonally or permanently worked abroad; people with disabilities who receive better social and medical care abroad and are less mobile, etc. Migration challenges for Ukraine are: the continuation of hostilities and martial law in the long term, which will be deepened by socio-economic and demographic consequences; restoration of the full functioning of urban/rural infrastructure; the increase in the level of unemployment and the burden on the state budget regarding the payment of financial assistance to both unemployed and displaced persons; development of both short-term and long-term effective migration social policy regarding the return of the majority of citizens with the adoption of relevant regulatory and legislative documents, etc.

(Non)Transparent Society: Choice Between Privacy and Freedom

Lidiya Starodubtseva — 2022-11-30

The article is devoted to delineating the "transhorizon" of elimination of opposition between transparent and opaque society in the digital age based on the analysis of the problem of choosing between privacy and freedom on the Internet. Interpretations of the concept of transparency in European intellectual history from Jeremy Bentham to Walter Benjamin are considered. Modern concepts of a transparent society are characterized (Gianni Vattimo, David Brin, Byung-Chul Han, Isaac Nahon-Serfati, etc.). The conflict between "white" and "black" understanding of social transparency, manifested in the opposition of freedom and privacy, accessible and confidential, public and private in the Internet space, in the watershed between cybercrime and cyber security, is studied. The front and back sides of the network "openness" of the inhabitants of the Internet galaxy to each other have been analyzed. It has been proven that radical sensitive content should not be in public access and necessarily raises questions of media ecology, media hygiene and media law. The pessimistic "gesture of cancellation" of the very idea of information openness is outlined, concentrated in the questions: "how to disappear?", "how to become invisible?". It is shown why the presence of secrets, the right to privacy and the preservation of confidentiality are necessary conditions for the life of society, guarantees of its safety. The key topics of discussions regarding the openness and availability of information on the Internet are revealed. It is shown that being transparent in a democratic society is dignified and honorable, in a totalitarian society it is risky and dangerous. Contemporary society is defined as "supposedly transparent" (als-ob-transparent), i. e. "semi-transparent", "quasi-transparent", "as if transparent", which implies its elasticity, flexibility, plasticity, ability to be fluid and arbitrarily change the degree of information permeability ad hoc, depending on the specifics of the communication situation.

Factors of Self-Realization and Life Success of an Individuals in Modern Society (Case of Public Opinion Leaders)

Vadym Nikolenko — 2022-11-30

Using the example of world-famous personalities, the article identifies factors that contribute to self-realization and achievement of success in life by a modern person. Based on the phenomenological paradigm, the author turns to the analysis of public speeches of prominent personalities of modern democratic society. Among them are such famous politicians as Barack Obama and Justin Trudeau, such famous businessmen as Bill Gates, Mark Zuckerberg and Steve Jobs, representatives of literature, film industry, music, etc., such as JK Rowling, Oprah Winfrey, Natalie Portman, Steven Spielberg, Meryl Streep and Taylor Swift. Particular attention is paid to their meetings with students and the teaching community of US universities. It is emphasized that the significance of these meetings is determined by the fact that it is student youth (at least a significant part of them) that in the near future should become the intellectual elite of society, take positions of public opinion leaders who have a significant influence on public consciousness, on the development of society in all sphere’s life activity. It is noted that in their speeches to student audiences, public opinion leaders not only in the United States, but also throughout the democratic world, emphasized such factors for achieving life success and self-realization as systematic hard work, competitive education, innovative thinking style, ability to work in a team, leadership qualities, self-criticism, lack of fear of failure, achievement motivation, clear internal moral principles. The speeches of the presented political figures, entrepreneurs, and representatives of creative professions emphasized that achieving success in life and personal self-realization closely correlates with the sustainable development of society as a whole, the spread of democracy, the creation of a solidary society, and the absence of various forms of social discrimination. Directions for further research on the issues chosen by the author are determined, in particular: studying the experience of self-realization and achieving life success of famous domestic figures in the field of politics, economics, law, art, etc.

Day of All (Self-)Lovers: the Individual and Collective Dimension of the Holiday

Alexander Golikov — 2022-11-30

The article presents theoretical and methodological approaches to the phenomenon of celebration in a globalized, individualized, commodified, rationalized society. The authors examine modern and postmodern theories on the processes and consequences of individualization; trace a direct link between the processes of individualization and increasing alienation, using the work of such sociologists and anthropologists as G. Bataille, R. Caillois (Le College de Sociologie) and theorists of consumer society and the spectacle J. Baudrillard and G. Debord. At the conceptual level, the authors take into account the logic of unity and struggle between the collective and the individual in the holiday, distinguishing and describing two types of holidays – a true mythical holiday and a feast-holiday, and also formulating the assumption of the existence of pseudo-mythical and synthetic (in the modes of collective and individual) holidays. The authors propose and conceptualize a number of features that can be used to measure and empirically define certain types of holidays. Based on the results of the theoretical analysis, a number of hypotheses are formulated, including the hypothesis of the dominance of pseudo-mythical and holiday holidays within modern holidays. Analysing the empirical material (messages on Twitter), the authors come to the conclusion that the specific Valentine's Day has transformed into the Day of All (Self-)Lovers. In particular, they identify signs of emotional decline and alienation, reflection on loneliness, the use of obscene vocabulary, elements of antisocial behaviour, consumerism of the holiday (emphasis on alcohol and food consumption, focus on iPhones), the transition of the holiday to the language of things, conceptualizing all this as signs of reification and naturalization, fetishization and alienation of the holiday. The study states that the practices of self-love related to the body show signs of reification, including a special aspect of corporeality – sexuality. The hypothesis about the transformation of the mythical holiday into a pseudo-mythical one, as well as the hypothesis about the profanation of the holiday, is confirmed. Conclusions are drawn regarding the limitations of the study and the prospects for further research on the chosen problem.

«Biographies of ethnicity" of students in the conditions of war: changes in the contours of national and ethnic identities and new opportunities for national solidarity

Vira Kutyrоva — 2022-11-30

The article is devoted to the description of the diversity of experiences of national identification and transformation of ethnic and national identities of Ukrainian students in the conditions of war. The analysis of biographical essays completed by students is carried out according to the criteria of the significance of national and ethnic identities for them, markers of their construction, factors of transformation and the associated feeling of biographical security of the individual. It is noted that the situation of subjective recognition of the threat to identities, which is often actualized in conditions of global upheavals, including in conditions of war, is reflected in the feeling of personal security and always objectifies the problem of identity transformation. It is recognized that changes in ethnocultural identities in historical retrospect are not reduced to a linear movement from the generic form of identity to ethnic, and subsequently to national, but represent a nonlinear process of integration of these identification bases. As a result, a complex identification model arises, the components of which are able to be actualized and restructured under the influence of various factors. Therefore, when defining national identity, we must recognize that it can contain in its structure various ethnocultural foundations of social consolidation, which are refracted through the prism of a unified civic identity. These features of national identity are also very well reflected in the materials of students' biographical essays, devoted specifically to descriptions of the formation and transformation of ethno-national identities and their factorial conditioning. It is concluded that the strengthening of national identity and an increase in the sense of pride for the nation, which has been more often noted in students' biographical essays since the beginning of the full-scale war in 2022, often becomes an important resource for the formation of personal biographical security in conditions when physical security and life prospects are significantly problematized, as well as an indicator of the potential of national solidarity.