The Ukrainian-Polish research and practice conference “Social resilience and solidarity during the war: the experience of Ukraine and Poland”, 21–22 March 2025

On 21–22 March Kyiv hosted the Ukrainian-Polish research and practice conference “Social resilience and solidarity during the war: the experience of Ukraine and Poland”. The conference was organised by the Institute of Sociology of the NAS of Ukraine and the Polish Stefan Batory Foundation, which invited to Kyiv Polish sociologist colleagues from the SWPS University of Social Sciences and Humanities in Warsaw, the University of Warsaw, the Jagiellonian University in Kraków and other Polish research centres. The conference was the practical and successful realisation of long professional exchanges and discussions about mutual cooperation between the Director of the Institute of Sociology of the NAS of Ukraine, Corresponding Member of the NAS of Ukraine Yevhen Golovakha, and the director of the Stefan Batory Foundation, Edwin Bendyk.

The theme of the social resilience and solidarity of Ukraine and Poland brings together many shared and distinctive experiences of Ukrainian and Polish society, from the era of post-authoritarian revolutions and the lessons of the Polish Solidarity movement to the present dramatic circumstances of the war in which Ukraine is defending its independence and identity against Russian invaders. In this war Poland, as a neighbouring country, is demonstrating many examples of genuine social and political solidarity with Ukraine, supporting our country's social resilience and also forming its own national experience of mobilisation.

In his welcoming address the President of the Ukrainian Sociological Association, V. Bakirov, stressed the relevance of the conference's subject matter for both societies, and also the remarkable nature of the event itself — an international research and practice sociological conference held offline in wartime. The contributions and presentations of the conference's participants were devoted to many important aspects of social resilience and solidarity in Ukraine and Poland, among them: the civilisational significance of Ukrainian national resilience (V. Bakirov); measuring Ukrainians' will to fight in psychological and societal dimensions (S. Dembitskyi); social divisions in Poland and their consequences for solidarity (M. Filiciak and M. Cześnik); civil society in Ukraine as a factor of social resilience (V. Stepanenko); the historical metamorphoses of the ideas of the Solidarity movement in Poland (J. Kołtan); social dynamics, solidarity and conflicts in Ukraine (O. Symonchuk, O. Klymenko, H. Chepurko); the dynamics of attitudes towards Ukrainian refugees in Poland (P. Marczewski); the socio-economic aspects of social resilience in Ukraine (I. Sokolovskyi); corruption as a threat to national resilience (O. Burova); and other important presentations by Ukrainian and Polish participants. In their contributions Professors Ye. Golovakha and V. Paniotto set out their reflections on the development of Ukrainian academic sociology and on sociology's experience of conducting empirical research during the war.

The conference will result not only in the preparation for publication of a collection of the participants' contributions. Ukrainian and Polish colleagues also expressed their conviction that further mutual academic cooperation must continue. The conference itself is seen by its organisers and participants as the first necessary step towards and prologue to such cooperation. It is likewise beyond doubt that a Ukrainian-Polish research dialogue is essential for making sense of and developing the important social experience of solidarity and social resilience of both countries during the war and in the post-war perspective.