Kalender des ICES

The current lecture series is aimed at revealing some of the aspects that pre-defined and framed the current occasions. On the one hand, the lectures will present the development of Ukrainian identity, nation and sovereignty in different historical context and under various, often contradicting factors. On the other hand, important part of the series is to show how Russia attempted to influence the country from several angles, often using media, culture and religion as tools of spreading narratives harmful for Ukrainian nation-building.

1. Lecture

Tracking Ukrainian national identity: from ‘unexpected nation’ to the ‘freedom nation’ by Olga Filippova, V.N. Karazin Kharkiv National University

In 2000, after first decade of Ukrainian independence the British researcher Andrew Wilson published his book "The Ukrainians. Unexpected nation". As A. Wilson has noted, for many western people Ukrainians were indeed an ‘unexpected nation’. Focusing on the complicated relations between Ukraine and Russia, bringing a long historical perspective on Ukrainian experience under the tsars and the Soviet period, and Ukraine’s way to independence in 1991, this book also penetrated the debates over Ukrainian national identity. As for many postcommunist and postcolonial states, politics in Ukraine, social cohesion, and the state’s existence per se revolved(s) around the issue of national identity. In his book’s new edition (2022) A. Wilson offers further understanding of Ukraine, naming the book "The Ukrainians. A story of how a people become a nation".

What path did Ukrainian society go through in its national identity construction? What point has it reached on this path? Based on the results of different research conducted by the author and other Ukrainian researchers over the years of independence this lecture proposes to think about Ukrainian national identity through the prism of politics of identity and its key issues: who proposes and controls the meaning of identity; and what ‘content’ (what key elements) was/is Ukrainian national identity built on? Tracking Ukrainian national identity from ‘Ukrainians as unexpected nation' this lecture proposes reconsidering Ukrainians as a crystalizing ‘freedom nation’.

Olga Filippova is an associate professor at the School of Sociology, V.N. Karazin Kharkiv National University, Ukraine. Her main research interests evolve around national identity, politics of identities, post-socialist transformation, sociology of cyber space, sociocultural anthropology. Among her recent publications "Moral Economies of Care and Women Who Use Drugs in Ukraine" (Contemporary Drug Problems, 2023, co-autrhored) and "The Politics of Identity in Ukrainian Border Regions" (2021, Chapter in edited book The Accommodation of Regional and Ethno-cultural Diversity in Ukraine"). She was also the leading researcher in the project ARDU – The accommodation of regional diversity in Ukraine, funded by the Research Council of Norway (NORRUSS Plus programme).

2. Lecture

"Building bridges: the power of social cohesion in Ukrainian society under the war" by Oleksandra Deineko, V.N. Karazin Kharkiv National University & Oslo Metropolitan University

The lecture will shed light on the social cohesion shifts that occurred in Ukrainian society since 24th February 2022. Drawing on the case study method, the lecture applies to juxtapose pre-war surveys with data collected in Ukraine during March-December 2022 along with the text analysis of Ukrainian media designed to explain the qualitative angles. The study confirms the comprehensive strengthening of social cohesion at both attitudinal and behavioral levels accompanied by unprecedented high institutional trust, civic identity, and mass-spread volunteering. The paper indicates how the value of Ukraine's independence became a crucial point for national consolidation under war conditions. Along with the prospered mutual support, emotional connectedness, and enhanced horizontal bonds the social cohesion risk zones are identified. The practices of resistance; citizens' expectations about the state's future; their feelings associated this the state and their belief in victory are proposed as additional indicators of social cohesion measurement during wartime.

Oleksandra Deineko is an associate professor at the School of Sociology, V.N. Karazin Kharkiv National University, Ukraine, and a researcher at the Centre for Welfare and Labour Research, Oslo Metropolitan University, Norway. In her research Dr. Deineko focuses on synthetic sociological theories, youth and culture studies, identity and social cohesion. Among her recent publications the article "Dimensions of Social Cohesion in a Transitional Society: The Case of Ukraine" (Europe-Asia Studies, 2022, co-authored) and "Social Cohesion in Decentralised Urkaine: From Old Practices to New Order" (Studia Socjologiczne, 2021). She was also the leading researcher in the project ARDU – The accommodation of regional diversity in Ukraine, funded by the Research Council of Norway (NORRUSS Plus programme).