Department of Social Structures
About the unit
The Department is a direct descendant of the Sociology Department (in 1979–1990 known as the Department of Social Studies of Labour) of the UkSSR Academy of Sciences Institute of Philosophy, led by the legendary sociologist and science organiser, Candidate of Philosophical Sciences, Professor Vilen Pylypovych Chornovolenko. During the 1980s, the Department's primary research topics were the dynamics of the prestige of professions and the social and professional orientations of young people, problems of inter-generational labour mobility, families and the reproduction of the labour structure, social problems of the reproduction of scientific cadres, and social transitions in the city.
The Department has existed since the establishment of the NAS of Ukraine Institute of Sociology. In 1992–2023 it was led by the outstanding researcher of sociostructural problems, Doctor of Sociological Sciences, Professor Serhii Oleksiiovych Makeiev. Since 2024 the Department has been led by Doctor of Sociological Sciences Olena Volodymyrivna Simonchuk.
Research directions
Stratification, inequality, class, social mobility.
Members
Research projects
Stability and change in the reproduction of social structure and inequalities under extraordinary conditions
Principal investigator — Simonchuk Olena Volodymyrivna
International Social Survey Programme (ISSP)
Ukraine took part in the International Social Survey Programme with two modules: 'Religion' (2008) and 'Social Inequality' (2009, 2019). The national coordinators in different years were Serhii Makeiev, Olga Ivashchenko, Svitlana Oksamytna and Olena Simonchuk.
In 2025 the Department of Social Structures, in partnership with the Rating Group, secured Ukraine's full membership of the ISSP. The national coordinators on behalf of the Institute are Olena Simonchuk and Svitlana Oksamytna; in that year a survey was carried out with the 'Digital Society' module.
Factors, direction and intensity of change in the social structure of generations
Principal investigator — Makeiev Serhii Oleksijovych
Global trends and local features in the reproduction of social inequality
Principal investigator — Makeiev Serhii Oleksijovych
The innovative and adaptive potential of the everyday-life structures of different population categories in a society in crisis
Principal investigator — Makeiev Serhii Oleksijovych
Social stratification in Ukraine in global and local perspective
Principal investigator — Makeiev Serhii Oleksijovych
Social structure, value orientations and the image of the future among citizens of Russia and Ukraine: a comparative analysis
Continuity and change in the transformations of social structure
Principal investigator — Makeiev Serhii Oleksijovych
European Social Survey (ESS)
In every wave of the project the Department's researchers code the occupational and industry variables, using the ISCO and NACE classifications respectively.
The legitimation and institutionalisation of new social inequalities
Principal investigator — Makeiev Serhii Oleksijovych
Structural change in Ukrainian society (late twentieth to early twenty-first century)
Trends in the formation and transformation of social institutions
Principal investigator — Makeiev Serhii Oleksijovych
Status and occupational identities: destruction and construction
Principal investigator — Makeiev Serhii Oleksijovych
The social consequences of the reform of Ukraine's coal industry
Principal investigator — Simonchuk Olena Volodymyrivna, Anzhela Patrakova
Monitoring of the legal and humanitarian aspects of the reintegration of formerly deported peoples in Crimea
Principal investigator — Pribytkova Iryna Mykhajlivna
The status legitimation of elite groups in contemporary Ukrainian society
Principal investigator — Vilen Chornovolenko
Contemporary trends of social mobility in Ukrainian society
Principal investigator — Makeiev Serhii Oleksijovych
The prestige and attractiveness of occupations for different population groups and the prospects for staffing the branches of Ukraine's economy
Principal investigator — Makeiev Serhii Oleksijovych
Features of family life under the transformation of Ukrainian society
Principal investigator — Nataliia Lavrinenko
Attitudes to Change Project
The project was carried out in partnership with Nuffield College, Oxford. The national coordinator for Ukraine was Serhii Makeiev.
A study of the trends and mechanisms of social differentiation and stratification
Principal investigator — Makeiev Serhii Oleksijovych
Features of social-status stratification under conditions of an emerging market economy
Principal investigator — Vilen Chornovolenko
Selected publications
Institute of Sociology of the NAS of Ukraine
National Academy of Sciences of Ukraine. The country's leading sociology research institution, founded in 1990.