Author(s) / Editor(s):
Bevzenko Lyubov Dmitrivna, Doctor of Sciences in Sociology, Lead Research Fellow, member of Ukrainian Synergetic Society
email: lbevzenko@gmail.com
ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-4020-1937
Year: 2025
Pages: 33-54
Publication language: Ukrainian
Publisher: Institute of Sociology of the National Academy of Sciences of Ukraine
Type of Publication: chapter in edited volume
Publication Place: Kyiv
DOI: TBD
The epistemological platform, which combines the achievements of critical realism and the complexity paradigm, opens up new opportunities for understanding the phenomenon of the unexpected resilience of Ukraine and Ukrainians in the war against Russia. The conceptual framework built on this methodological basis suggests seeing the combination of systemic and agent activity in moments of social crisis – the bifurcation in which our country has found itself since the beginning of the enemy’s invasion. The concept of a fateful small fluctuation (an agent individual push from some social actor) and the idea of the power of self-organizing social structures that appear in a crisis situation allow us to see theoretically where the sought-after resources of social resilience are located. Empirically, this was observed in President Zelensky’s response to US President J. Biden’s offer to leave the country: “I need ammunition, not a taxi,” made during the hours of war. This led to the rise of patriotism and faith in victory, which is now often called “the unity of the nation around the flag.” The power of self-organization processes was manifested in the spontaneous and rapid emergence of volunteer military units, which determined much in terms of strengthening resilience and resistance.
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