A sociologist on the sources of social discontent

The latest video on the theme “The sources of social discontent” by 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 has been published on YouTube in the programme Academic Sociology UA.

Watch the video on YouTube

This study was prepared by the research agency Rating Sociological Group at the request of the project “Transformation Communications” with the support of the United States Agency for International Development (USAID).

Continuing the subject matter of previous video editions, the scholar took as the theme of this analysis the factors that worsen attitudes and become sources of social discontent. The author identified seven such factors, represented in the study by the following statements (items):

1. The view that conflicts between ordinary people in society arise above all because of the activity of politicians at the national level.

2. Fear of a dictatorship being established in the country.

3. Satisfaction with one's position in society.

4. Satisfaction with life in one's locality.

5. Assessment of the level of conflict between people at the top and at the bottom of society.

6. Readiness to endure problems because of the war.

7. Assessment of the prevalence of cynicism among most people.

The author notes that there are other factors too, but their influence is considerably weaker.

Besides these seven indicators, the researcher built an additional one on their basis, which he called “cumulative negativism”, with gradations from 0 to 7 as negative attitudes increase.

The author poses an interesting research question: what is the basic diffuse indicator of social negativism that operates irrespective of other factors, that is, as a subjective factor worsening attitudes towards the functioning of the state and spreading in the process of social interaction?

In closing, the author examines the indicator “Attitudes towards the country's position in the war”, using an instrument recently developed at the Institute of Sociology of the NAS of Ukraine.