Announcement of issue No. 2 of the journal “Sociology: Theory, Methods, Marketing” (2024)

The following articles and materials will be published in issue No. 2 of the journal:

Liubov Bevzenko

War and the new world order: possible expected scenarios in the context of the complexity paradigm

The situation taking shape in the world after the beginning of Russia's full-scale invasion of Ukraine may be characterised as a constantly growing chaotisation that is loosening the foundations of the global order that existed in the world before this war began. The theme of an inevitable change in the world order is becoming one of the main ones in the global narrative space, bringing to the fore the question of what a new global ordering might be.

The complexity paradigm, as a methodological basis for constructing new sociological conceptions, makes it possible to offer conceptual schemes and models of social change that can work with the notions of social chaos, bifurcation and social order. At the basis of the proposed forecast of the possible scenarios in which events may develop lies a model of social change built on the complexity paradigm, which posits two mechanisms for creating and maintaining social order — the organisational and the self-organisational. The author stresses that it is impossible to predict which variant will be realised. A small chance event may decide everything, but knowing such regularities does not exclude the possibility of at least preparing for all the possibilities mentioned, and perhaps of working towards one of them.

Olha Burova, Dmytro Hlomozda

A study of trust and satisfaction with local authorities in Ukraine. The impact of populism

The article analyses a number of aspects and factors that, in the authors' view, affect the penetration of populism into local government. It is the aspect of trust that may affect the penetration and growing influence of populism in local self-government. The authors set out the important theme of the factors that might contribute to populism's success in government and study the specifics of its manifestations at local level. Particular attention is given to analysing Ukrainian citizens' trust in and satisfaction with the work of local authorities on the basis of empirical data obtained in cooperation with the survey centre Factum Group.

The article examines populism in local politics as a phenomenon requiring serious attention and analysis. It may have negative consequences for local self-government and lead to political instability and insufficiently effective decisions, especially where democracy is weak.

One of the main problems of populism is its focus on short-term populist promises and rhetoric instead of long-term planning and real development. This can lead to the unjustified spending of resources and to the formation of dependence on external sources of funding, which may negatively affect the resilience of the local economy. Populism can also undermine the principles of democracy and the rule of law.

Larysa Foster, Yuliia Hetman

Civic and political activity: transformational challenges under war conditions

The development of civil society is closely bound up with the historical process of the formation of the Ukrainian nation. After the beginning of the full-scale war, civil society adapted quickly and is addressing at various levels the social, economic, humanitarian, political and other problems the country has faced. The authors stress that martial law substantially affects the structure and functions of civil society and the intensification of Ukrainians' civic and political involvement. The article therefore first examines the theoretical aspects of studying civil society as a whole and the civic practices of online activism and the volunteer movement during the war. Alongside this it presents the results of a pilot study of the civic and political activity of students at Kyiv's higher education institutions.

Tetiana Khraban, Mykhailo Khraban

The reflection in the mass media of the war's effects on gender segregation in the Ukrainian labour market

The article aims to outline the effects of the war on gender segregation in the Ukrainian labour market as emphasised in the Ukrainian mass media. The study was conducted within qualitative approaches, in particular content analysis. Its material consisted of online text publications — namely interviews with managers, specialists and staff of the State Employment Centre, and interviews in which women living in Ukraine share their experience of finding work and working during the war. A situation has arisen in Ukraine in which two factors operate simultaneously. The authors conclude that Ukraine in fact lacks effective levers for overcoming gender segregation in the short and medium term, and that the equality of the two social sexes in the labour market is practically declarative. In the crisis conditions of wartime, the problem of gender segregation displays a high degree of negative dynamics. Such a situation may lead to a still firmer entrenchment in society of the stereotypes according to which men are considered more suitable for managerial positions, and to a decline in women's motivation to work and in their career aspirations.

Oleksandr Rakhmanov

Ukrainians' conceptions of political life in the post-war period in the context of the prospect of populism spreading

The rejection by most of Ukraine's population of the idea of elections during a full-scale war is an enforced prolongation of the legitimacy of the existing state institutions. Ukrainians understand all the risks such elections pose to the political system under martial law, and they accept the norms of the legislation and the observance of democratic procedures. At the same time a fairly substantial group of the population is forming that does not accept the monopolisation of power during the war by a single political force. The accumulation of political questions, which will become salient in the post-war period, will be a significant challenge to Ukraine's political class. The low level of trust in the existing political parties and the growing demand for new political forces may become favourable ground for the spread of populism's anti-elitist ideas.

Mikhail Alexseev, Serhii Dembitskyi

Victory in freedom: Ukraine's democratic resilience in the face of war

The article offers a rare systematic analysis of political attitudes in societies experiencing massive military invasions using statistical analysis of two original surveys conducted by the Ukraine National Academy of Sciences Institute of Sociology — a panel survey tracking the same respondents in three waves (N = 329, November 2021, June-July 2022, and June 2023) and an additional larger survey (N = 869, June 2023). Despite devastating suffering, Ukrainians’ support for democracy as a political system and for freedom of speech have stayed remarkably resilient over this time period. Cross-sectional and longitudinal regression tests, as well as supplementary focus group conversations in all of Ukraine’s macro-regions, show that this democratic resilience is grounded in the victory-in-freedom synergy—a widespread sense of shared sacrifice that drives determination to win the war and restore Ukraine’s territorial integrity. Survey data also indicates that democracy support has become more intrinsic to Ukrainian national identity. At the same time our findings indicate that sustaining this resilience would require not only battlefield successes, but also accountable governance, countering Russia’s media impacts, and sustaining family incomes. Our findings contribute to the literature on war and democracy by showing the importance of considering both the external context (war duration and impacts and the aggressor state type) and the mobilization of national identity in the face of aggression.

Volodymyr Reznik

Research programmes and the advance of theories in sociology: the post-positivist conception of J. Berger, M. Zelditch Jr. and D. Wagner

The article presents an explication of the post-positivist conception of the advance of sociological theories within research programmes developed by J. Berger, M. Zelditch Jr. and D. Wagner. Their conception specified the related types of theoretical structure and dynamics of research programmes and their functions in sociological theorising. Structural and dynamic differences between research programmes represent different types of conceptual link between theories and the corresponding basic modes of theoretical growth. The theoretical development of research programmes is secured by their functions, which are analogues of the functions of paradigms in mature sciences: determining the theoretical significance and tractability of sociological problems; evaluating and making a cognitively grounded choice among competing theoretical formulations of their solutions; and securing the synergy of the consequences of performing the above functions.

Oleksandr Stehnii

Environmental public opinion: the methodological foundations of research

On the basis of a structural analysis of the instruments of foreign monitoring studies, the article analyses the methodological foundations of measuring environmental public opinion. It examines in detail contemporary work on social-psychological models for forecasting environmental concern and patterns of environmental behaviour, the influence of social context on environmental activism, and the effect of methods of measuring environmental concern on the relationship between material and post-material values. It notes that traditional indicators of environmental concern are being displaced by sociological instruments for measuring environmental consciousness, above all anthropocentrism and its relation to ecocentrism. It argues that the main task of monitoring environmental public opinion is to identify the dynamics of social change as a derivative of anthropogenic effects on the environment, and to adjust environmental policy taking account of the population's existing environmental orientations.

Olena Ivanenko

Digitalisation as a new reality under conditions of social instability

The article examines the phenomenon of digitalisation as a new reality of today's economic life and everyday existence, and its active spread and expansion. The emphasis on the conception of developing a digital economy and society long before the pandemic and the full-scale war (for the period 2018–2020), and the subsequent approval of the National Strategy to 2030, defined Ukraine's place in the global context and set out the incentives for the further development of digitalisation with a view to achieving a competitive position for our country in the world. The article also deals with the advantages and potential risks of digitalisation in every sphere (the danger of cyber threats, unemployment, digital inequality, the development of artificial intelligence and so on). Emphasising the positives and the negatives is relevant and important for strategic forecasting and planning, both in defeating the enemy on the battlefield and in the subsequent reconstruction of the state and its competitiveness internationally.

In the section “Sociological commentary”:

Valerii Pylypenko (his last article), Viktoriia Smakota

Sociological forecasting: features of its study and the problems of the present

The article sets out some important methodological problems of forecasting in general and of sociological forecasting in particular, together with the principles and verification bases for testing and evaluating forecasting projects in sociology, both theoretically and practically. This line of enquiry can and should be continued and widened in order to overcome the lag behind contemporary scholarly and practical requirements that is still observed in forecasting work and that testifies to a lack of demand in society for this line of research, so important for the life of society, in both its theoretical-cognitive and its applied aspects.

Securing well-grounded, reliable and effective management of social processes is among the most pressing and promising directions of exploratory and fundamental interdisciplinary research. Only by combining the efforts of specialists with theoretical and practical work in various branches of specialised scholarly knowledge about the human being and society can the gap between accumulated scholarly knowledge and the practice of taking managerial decisions be bridged.

The section “Academic life” presents a brief review of the materials of the first sociological readings in memory of V. M. Vorona, Academician of the NAS of Ukraine, “Ukrainian sociological thought in search of paths of social and economic development”