A sociologist in conversation with the Adviser to the President of Ukraine about individual values

An interview with the Deputy Director of the Institute of Sociology of the NAS of Ukraine, Corresponding Member of the NAS of Ukraine, Doctor of Sociological Sciences Serhii Dembitskyi on the theme “Value analysis: why does adaptive sport help veterans?” has been published on YouTube.

Tetiana Lomakina, Adviser and Commissioner of the President of Ukraine for Barrier-Free Access, opened the conversation about a barrier-free society with a question: what motivates people to unite in particular communities?

Dembitskyi suggested focusing on what is common to all people and fills their lives with meaning, since the loss of meaning devalues coming together. Specifically, the conversation would concern individual values and how they work in the field that is the subject of this discussion.

Lomakina proposed considering the community of people who take part in the Invictus Games and recalled its three main principles: remembrance of fallen comrades; mastery of one's own body despite the severity of injuries; and outreach among people with disabilities who do not yet know about this movement and are not yet part of it.

The sociologist analysed these principles from the standpoint of individual-level values, which satisfy basic psychological and social needs and are perceived as necessary. In the hierarchy of such values, first comes the sphere of basic needs, which includes physical health, psychological comfort and interpersonal relations. There is the sphere of universal reference points, which includes morality and personal freedom. The third is the sphere of success, which includes various areas, for instance self-realisation. There is also the value of leisure and of raising one's status — 13 in all, and in these Games at least 9. Every person builds their own hierarchy; what matters is that there should be no conflicts of values.

This conversation between a representative of Ukraine's academic sociology and the Adviser to the President of Ukraine convincingly showed that the Institute's research is not only deeply scholarly but socially important, and that it can help not only in making sense of pressing problems but also in substantiating and designing solutions to them.

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Watch the video on YouTube