Chapter 8. The Future as a Field of Symbolic Struggle: Temporal Horizons, Social Expectations, and Transformational Processes in Ukraine

Abstract: The chapter examines the transformation of future-oriented narratives in Ukrainian society under conditions of full-scale war with Russia. The first part traces the evolution of public discourse from early optimism toward growing uncertainty, applying Bruno Latour's actor-network theory. It analyzes the competition between the dominant official narrative, built on a linear temporality of inevitable victory, and alternative critical discourses proposing a cyclical-adaptive model of prolonged conflict. The failed 2023 counteroffensive constituted a bifurcation point that triggered an epistemological crisis of dominant narratives and a redistribution of agency from institutional toward non-institutional actors, including independent bloggers and frontline military voices. The second part examines the controversy over the decolonization of Odesa's urban space as a site of competing visions of Ukraine's future. The analysis reveals two distinct "cosmoses": one framing the war primarily as an existential struggle for ethnic and political identity, the other as a confrontation between democratic and authoritarian models. The authors conclude that overcoming this antagonism requires abandoning the search for a single authoritative truth in favor of cosmopolitics — the construction of a shared future through dialogue and mutual recognition of diverse perspectives.