The index of responsibility in Ukrainian society: presentation of the findings of a study by the Institute of Sociology of the NAS of Ukraine and the Bohdan Hawrylyshyn Family Foundation

The full presentation in PDF format is available at: https://bit.ly/4ddkvFr

On 14 May the first public discussion of the findings of a nationwide survey on the perception of responsibility in Ukraine took place at the Sheptytsky Center of the Ukrainian Catholic University in Lviv. The theme of responsibility in Ukrainian society has been a focus of research before, but this survey was the first attempt to create a systematic instrument for long-term monitoring of change.

At the event the Bohdan Hawrylyshyn Family Foundation, together with the Institute of Sociology of the NAS of Ukraine, presented Ukraine's first Scale of the Perception of Responsibility in Society. The research instrument was developed by Serhii Dembitskyi, Deputy Director of the Institute of Sociology of the NAS of Ukraine, Doctor of Sociological Sciences, and Marianna Yeleiko, Candidate of Sociological Sciences, head of the Bohdan Hawrylyshyn Family Foundation.

“At the Bohdan Hawrylyshyn Family Foundation we have been speaking for many years about the theme of responsibility in Ukrainian society, and the premise for this is the legacy left to us by Bohdan Hawrylyshyn — a Ukrainian economist, visionary, member of the Club of Rome and co-founder of the World Economic Forum in Davos,” Marianna Yeleiko said.

The scale is built on Bohdan Hawrylyshyn's Declaration of Human Responsibility. The fifteen principles of the Declaration were transformed into sixteen empirical indicators that make it possible to measure responsibility in various spheres of social life.

The distinctive feature of the instrument is that it measures not people's self-assessment but their perception of the social environment. Respondents assessed the behaviour of the majority of the people they interact with in everyday life.

“We projected onto the environment in order to reduce the effect of socially desirable answers and to capture real social norms better,” said Serhii Dembitskyi.

The findings of the study show that Ukrainians most often associate responsibility with everyday relations between people. The highest values were recorded in the sphere of responsibility towards one's close circle: from 68% to 73% of respondents believe that most people take a responsible attitude towards their family duties and the upbringing of children.

The sphere of civic and social responsibility shows lower values. Only 26% to 57% of respondents believe that most people show civic initiative, take the interests of the community into account or take part in solving shared problems.

The category of responsibility towards the environment and the future deserves particular attention. While a responsible attitude towards the environment shows high values (68%), aligning one's own actions with building a better future received only 39%.

Thus, across the 16 indicators derived within this study, the mean value of the index of responsibility is 8.5. This indicates a moderately positive perception of responsible behaviour in Ukrainian society.

Lidiia Savchenko-Duda, Deputy Director of the Institute for Cultural Strategy, joined the discussion of the findings. She focused on how cultural institutions work with the theme of responsibility and shared the experience of Lviv's bid for the title of European capital with the programme “The Responsibility to Be”.

“Culture becomes the force through which we do not lose our humanity. Culture heals, culture cares, and culture is responsible,” Lidiia Savchenko-Duda noted.

Mariana Kashchak, director of the Ukrainian Educational Platform, also took part in the public discussion. She described how her team is working towards its vision — “A country of responsible people, communities, organisations and networks”. She shared the experience of working with hundreds of communities and what motivates them to be responsible.

The responsibility of young people was a separate focus. In the study, among the various socio-demographic groups it is young people aged 18–29 whose index of responsibility is the highest. “Hope matters for responsibility. And our young people also have a high level of hope,” Mariana Kashchak said.

The conversation was moderated by Solomiia Maksymovych, director of the Institute of Leadership and Management of the Ukrainian Catholic University: “Cultivating a responsible society begins with the personal responsibility of each of us in our own place.”

The Scale of the Perception of Responsibility in Society has been created as an instrument for long-term monitoring. Its authors plan to carry out regular annual measurements and to work on the international validation of the instrument and on comparative studies.

The event was held in cooperation between the Bohdan Hawrylyshyn Family Foundation, the Institute of Leadership and Management, the Sheptytsky Center of the Ukrainian Catholic University and the Institute of Sociology of the NAS of Ukraine.