Announcement of issue No. 1 of the journal “Sociology: Theory, Methods, Marketing” (2025)

The following articles and materials will be published in issue No. 1 of the journal:

Serhii Dembitskyi, Olha Burova, Dmytro Hlomozda, Natalia Soboleva, Ihor Burov, Iryna Marynich

The effect of states of stress on the values and motivation of Ukrainians during the war

The article is devoted to the effect of destructive psychological stress on the values and motivation of Ukraine's population during the war. To conceptualise the sphere of values and motivation, a systemic approach to the sociological study of values is used. This approach distinguishes thirteen individual values divided into three value spheres: basic needs, success and universal reference points.

To measure states of value and motivation, the experimental instrument “Index of vital forces and ambitions” is used, aimed at assessing value apathy, value exhaustion, value frustration and value strength in respect of each of the individual values — physical health, psychological comfort, interpersonal relations, personal freedom, morality, wealth, beauty, domestic comfort, power, status, leisure, knowledge and self-realisation. Destructive psychological stress is studied with the help of seven scales: hostility, depression, somatisation, interpersonal sensitivity, anxiety, exhaustion and paranoid ideation.

The article studies the complex effect of destructive psychological stress in its various manifestations on particular values through such value-motivational states as apathy, exhaustion, frustration and strength (2023 data, a sample representative of the adult population of Ukraine). It establishes that, when value forces and ambitions across all values are considered together, the most substantial factors are interpersonal sensitivity, somatisation, depression and exhaustion as states of stress that suppress the sphere of values and motivation, and hostility as a state of stress that activates it.

It was found that destructive states of stress have a comparatively weak effect on the value forces and ambitions of the three “value pillars” of Ukrainians during the war — interpersonal relations, morality and knowledge. This feature is one of the reasons why they retain a high potential for realisation in the difficult conditions of wartime.

Yuliia Hetman

The institutionalisation of Ukrainians' civic and political online activity under conditions of the great war

First COVID-19 and then the full-scale war in Ukraine substantially affected Ukrainians' civic and political online activity. Given the restrictions on traditional forms of civic and political activity, citizens began to make active use of online instruments. The digital public sphere became the main space for civic and political engagement, making it possible to sustain national resistance, initiate volunteer movements, raise funds for the army's needs and address social and political questions through petitions and other means. Preconditions thus arose for the institutionalisation of civic and political online activity, the study of which appears extremely relevant amid the digital transformations of contemporary society.

The article analyses the theoretical aspects of the institutionalisation of civic and political online activity, in particular through the prism of the neo-institutional approach, which emphasises the equal standing of the formal and informal norms regulating citizens' behaviour in the digital public sphere.

It also examines the experience of empirical studies of civic and political online activity in Ukraine in 2013–2019, which helps to understand the trends in the institutionalisation of such activity. To establish its features under war conditions, an instrument for measuring civic and political online activity was applied in the monitoring survey of the Institute of Sociology of the NAS of Ukraine. Using the concept of transaction costs, it proved possible to identify the main forms of online activity. And to compare their prevalence across various social groups, such socio-demographic characteristics as sex, age, education, material situation and type of settlement were included.

It emerged that the digital public sphere does indeed enable various social groups to pursue their interests on the basis of their own social and psychological resources. Material deprivation, unequal access to education and the urban-rural gap in internet access, however, substantially reduce online activity and slow the process of its institutionalisation overall.

Tetiana Khraban, Mykhailo Khraban

Gender analysis: principles and conceptual schemes

Every particular social context has different gender imbalances and problems in securing gender equality, and so there is no universal model for implementing a gender approach. The aim of this article is to identify and interpret all the potentially significant conceptual foundations of gender analysis. Understanding the advantages and/or limitations of using particular conceptual schemes of gender analysis can help a researcher to formulate research hypotheses or tasks clearly and to obtain reliable results on which conclusions can be based and decisions taken. The material for the article consisted of reports on gender audits and of publications offering practical guidance on conducting gender analysis or using gender analysis as their main research method. The starting point for taking gender issues into account at the macro, meso and micro levels is gender analysis. It is a combination of various approaches and methods used to understand and study the consequences of the existing differences between the social roles played by women and men, in particular: differing volumes of resources (authority and representation in politics and decision-making, free time, finances, reputation, personal qualities and so on), their differing needs, constraints and opportunities, and the effect of these differences on their lives. In a particular context, depending on which aspects of gender inequality come to the fore, different approaches to gender analysis may be used. There are several conceptual schemes for conducting gender analysis, adapted to different needs and priorities: the Harvard analytical framework; the 4R framework; the social relations framework; the triple-role framework; the Gender Analysis Matrix; the “web of institutionalisation” framework; and the framework based on the concepts of capacity and vulnerability. The ultimate aim of all approaches to gender analysis is the development of gender-sensitive strategies for advancing gender equality.

Oleksandr Reznik

The political consequences of Ukrainians' traumatic experience in the large-scale war

The article examines the potential of applying the notion of social trauma to the political consequences for Ukraine in the context of continuing Russian aggression. The conceptualisation of social trauma has distinguished two types of trauma. Collective trauma is largely ontological and is formed through periodic interaction among those who lived through it directly. The political consequences of collective trauma depend on the course and outcome of the continuing war. Cultural trauma, by contrast, relates more to the post-war period and reflects a symbolic interpretation of tragic events, forming through a collective identity that can be shared without social interaction. As a result of Russia's aggression in 2014 and of the low-intensity war, Ukrainians' support for the Euro-Atlantic course grew, their national identity strengthened and regional polarisation declined. At the same time this had little effect on ideological convictions, with about half the population retaining its ideological indeterminacy. Under conditions of large-scale war, especially in the initial phase, the “rally round the flag” phenomenon reappeared, trust in state institutions grew, and political consciousness radicalised through a substantial rise in support for right-wing ideologies and a decline in indeterminacy. Empirical data show that people who suffered trauma directly, lost their businesses or lost loved ones more often identify themselves as national democrats and nationalists. The political radicalisation of precisely these social groups indicates that the social traumas of Ukrainians caused by the prolonged war are gradually acquiring a collective content, in which self-reflection on social pain concerns mainly the victims who directly experienced the destruction of the foundations of their social relations.

Nataliia Otreshko

Micro-macro synthesis on the example of theories of social practices in sociology

The article studies the conceptions of social practices in the approaches of Pierre Bourdieu and Anthony Giddens and highlights their contribution to the micro-macro synthesis of contemporary sociology. Micro-macro synthesis seeks to unite the analysis of social phenomena at two levels: individual actions (micro) and broader social structures and systems (macro). The concept of practices combined with micro-macro synthesis offers a multidimensional approach to studying social phenomena, focusing both on individuals' actions and on the influence of structural conditions. Such an approach makes it possible to understand how individual behaviour shapes society and how social structures in turn affect the behaviour of particular people.

Bourdieu defines practice as the product of historical development, structure and habitus integrated into social reality. For Bourdieu, practices are regulated not by rationality but by the effectiveness of actions in everyday situations, which is secured by the correspondence of an individual habitus to the structure of available resources. Giddens, by contrast, does not single out practice as a separate sphere in his theory of structuration; he analyses everyday life as a form of social practice, focusing on the process of routinisation. For Giddens, it is precisely through routinisation that individual forms of behaviour gradually turn into stable social structures.

The author also examines the question of the constraints on agents' activity in social space through the prism of theories of social practices. The approaches of Bourdieu and Giddens contribute to a deeper understanding of how social structures affect individual behaviour, forming the frameworks of human activity.

Yurii Saveliev, Oleksandra Bahatska

Narratives instead of scenarios: what went wrong with forecasting the full-scale Russian invasion of Ukraine?

On the basis of an analysis of media reports in January–February 2022 (up to 24 February), the article establishes which forecasts about the possibility of a full-scale Russian invasion prevailed on the eve of it. A quantitative and qualitative analysis of the statements and interviews of 54 Ukrainian media figures, political actors and experts, and of Russian ones well known in Ukraine, made it possible to determine the reliability of their forecasts and to identify the main arguments and narratives they used. While assessments in media reports at the beginning of 2022 were on the whole characterised by maximum indeterminacy, the divergence of forecasts depended on media figures' position in the political landscape and on their ideology. Representatives of the Ukrainian authorities largely avoided a clear answer about the possibility of a large-scale Russian offensive beginning. This was compounded by the active denial of the likelihood of further Russian aggression by Kremlin spokespeople and pro-Kremlin media, which was largely echoed in media reports by pro-Russian political forces in Ukraine. Those who largely predicted the course of events correctly were Ukrainian independent experts and commentators and Russian radical nationalists. The arguments used in forming forecasts, including those given by professional experts, rested on popular narratives rather than on the results of scenario analysis. Some narratives were shared by different groups of media commentators who might hold opposing ideological positions. The quality of the forecast would probably have been higher if, instead of narratives, media commentators had given attention to considering possible scenarios.

Mykola Shulha

Conceptions and expectations in images of the future

Without an understanding of what time is and what kinds of it are distinguished, one cannot make sense of our expectations about the future. The article therefore deals first of all with time as a specific phenomenon and with conceptions of future time, and examines the features of future social time, in particular the future in the future, the future in the present and the future in the past. Conceptions of what lies ahead take the form of images of the future. The article analyses what kinds of images of the future exist in terms of their degree of reliability, the generalised content of possible events and their time horizon. It examines the fundamental differences between images of the distant and of the near future and shows that the main elements of images of the distant future are conceptions, and of images of the near future, expectations.

Hanna Samchuk, Olha Bezrukova

The sociology of genocide: the Ukrainian experience and the challenges of interpretation

The article examines the sociology of genocide as a new and important line of sociological enquiry that arose in response to numerous challenges connected with mass violence, humanitarian crises, hate speech and their destructive effect on contemporary societies. Particular attention is given to the Ukrainian context, in particular the experience of Russia's current war against Ukraine, which is accompanied by numerous crimes that may be classified as acts of genocide.

The authors analyse the reasons why this subject is insufficiently developed in Ukrainian scholarship. Among the key factors they note the colonial legacy, which for decades constrained the development of the humanities; the traumatic nature of such research, which complicates scholars' work; and the lack of the interdisciplinary approach needed for a comprehensive interpretation of this phenomenon.

One of the article's key elements is G. Stanton's model, which describes ten stages in the organisation of genocide — from classification to denial, which is the final stage of the process. The authors note that this model is not only a means of analysing historical events but also a powerful instrument for preventing crimes against humanity, since it makes it possible to identify dangerous tendencies at early stages. At the same time the article identifies the model's shortcomings.

The article also discusses the possible post-genocidal changes in societies that have suffered catastrophic losses and the importance of overcoming them. An important aspect here is overcoming collective trauma, restoring social ties, countering the consequences of the marginalisation of victim groups and developing policies of memorialisation that help to preserve the memory of these tragedies. Particular significance is given to Claudia Card's concept of social death, which allows a broader interpretation of genocide's effect on identity, cultural memory and the life prospects of future generations.

The authors stress the importance of a thorough study of genocide in the Ukrainian context for developing effective policies of reconciliation, protecting the rights of vulnerable groups, forming a strong national identity, preserving historical memory and opening the way to the further development of the sociology of genocide and to deeper scholarly debate.

Rodion Pryshva

Ukrainian society between cabinet war and total war (submitted in English)

The article examines the state of the Clausewitzian trinity in periods of cabinet and total wars and during the Russian-Ukrainian war. It studies the problem of setting military aims in these wars through the prism of Max Weber's theory of types of social action. It examines the state of the military system of such wars within the classical military theories of Antoine-Henri Jomini, Hans Delbrück, Basil Liddell Hart, J. F. C. Fuller and J. C. Wylie. It sets out an attempt at a general theoretical description of the ways in which labour is divided during these wars by using Émile Durkheim's theory. Conclusions are drawn about the character of the Russian-Ukrainian war, which tends towards the cabinet conflicts of the 18th century. The article criticises the policy of military aims of the governments of Ukraine and Russia and offers a general description of the principles of the dominant positional system of waging war. Hypotheses are advanced about the possible actions of the new American administration, which may introduce a rational element into the development of the Russian-Ukrainian war and thereby create the conditions for a lasting peace.

In the section “Sociological publications: reflections and reviews”:

Viktor Burlachuk

The narrator-king, the plot of existence and war. Some thoughts on Dm. Bykov's book “VZ. A portrait against the background of a nation”

The reviewer reflects on the content of Dm. Bykov's book “VZ. A portrait against the background of a nation”, published at the end of last year by the independent Kryvyi Rih publisher Freedom Letters. The book deals with Volodymyr Zelenskyi's political biography. The writer's distinctive vision, however, gives the reviewer grounds to go beyond that biography into a broader context of meaning — not only political but civilisational.

In the section “Academic life”:

Olena Horoshko

The 16th conference of the European Sociological Association: “Tension, Trust and Transformation” (Porto, Portugal, 27–30 August 2024) (submitted in English)

The aim of the conference was to examine contemporary social challenges, in particular the COVID-19 pandemic, climate change, social inequality and political instability. It gave sociologists a platform for discussing these questions and for studying the transformative potential of sociological research in various social spheres, and it emphasised the importance of sociological research for understanding and overcoming today's global challenges, stimulating debate about tension, trust and transformation.

In the section “Discussions”:

The discussion “Time and tempo in the work of Ukrainian women researchers: ‘slow' vs ‘fast' science” (moderated by Olena Strelnyk)

The discussion, held on 28 November 2024, was devoted to the concept of “slow science” in the context of the work of Ukrainian women researchers, in particular under war conditions. Taking part were representatives of the Ukrainian research network UNET (Ukraine Research Network) and of Das Zentrum für Osteuropa- und internationale Studien (ZOiS, Berlin), which is supported by Germany's Federal Ministry of Education and Research.

The meeting examined the problems of the different tempos of research work — “fast” science, which responds to pressing demands, and “slow” science, which focuses on long-term processes and thorough investigation. Alongside this, it also addressed alternative formats for publishing research results and the need to develop new indicators for assessing research work and supporting the development of the Ukrainian research community.