The Development of National Identities in Ukraine (original) (raw)
Since the Euromaidan debates around shifts in nationality and belonging continue to dominate the media agenda in Ukraine. The post-Euromaidan search for new commemoration practices with a simultaneous attempt to sweep away the Soviet past — which resulted, first, in the massive dismantlement of Lenin statues (Leninapad) and later in the passing by parliament (Rada) of controversial decommunization laws — launched another powerful wave of discussions in the media. At the same time relatively little work has been undertaken to analyze the transformations of identities in connection with historical memories adopting a comparative cross-regional perspective in Ukrainian social studies. Methodology Current sociological and political science studies on Ukraine (both in Ukraine and abroad) are limited by available resources (the size of a survey's sample) and, as a rule, have no choice but to group the largestt Ukrainian administrative units (oblasts) into four macro-regions (East, West, South and Center). Due to the specifics of sampling procedures, the majority of sociological surveys recently conducted in Ukraine can only grasp regional differences at the level of macro-regions and thus provide very little information about local communities in each oblast. The average nationwide sample is N=1800-2000. As Ukraine consists of 27 administrative units (24 oblasts and the Autonomous Republic of Crimea, plus two cities with special status, Kyiv and Sevastopol), researchers have to combine several oblasts into a larger unit – a macro region — to be able to compare data at a statistically significant level. Such studies unavoidably level differences among oblasts included in one or another of the macro-region and stress differences among macro-regions. As a result, they contribute to the formation of stereotypical images of Ukrainian regional divisions rather than help to reconsider Ukrainian regionalism and map more precisely Ukrainian cultural identities and political loyalties. Studies that make use of representative samples of residents of Ukraine on a level of analysis other than the typical four macro-regions (which often are reduced to two: East and West) must involve a much larger number of respondents. The project " Region, Nation, and Beyond: An Interdisciplinary and Transcultural Reconsideration of