Ukrainian Society

9-25

Authors: Zlobina O. G., Bliznyuk E. O.

The article describes the tool, which was formed and tested to assess politicians’ emotional attitude to predict the impact of affective polarization on the nature of political confrontations. Plutchek’s theoretical scheme of emotions has been operationalized, the tool for assessing emotional perception has been proposed, and its use for measuring the President’s emotional perception has been tested. Eight basic attitudes that can be used as the foundation for behavioural matrices, representing different types of links between emotional evaluations and behavioural attitudes, have been modelled. The tool was tested during the survey with the participation of 1420 respondents. There have been identified two latent factors, which demonstrate the internal connection of eight pairs of bipolar emotions concerning the figure of the President. The first factor covers the emotions of defeat, the second is – emotions of victory. As far as the emotional attitude to the President is concerned, the presence of an emotional split between those who voted for him and those who were against him has been confirmed. It was found out that the structure of the emotional perception of the President by the winners is mobile and combines both positive and negative emotions. At the same time, the structure of the emotional attitude of the losers is monochrome and is mainly represented by negative emotions. Comparison of emotional profiles of representatives of polar groups revealed that the behavioural model of the defeated is formed by mixing two fundamental attitudes, those of the Distressed and the Rejected. The behavioural model of the winners is formed on the ground of the essential attitude, that of the Stakeholders. The emotional profile of those who did not vote for any of the candidates is generally closer to the profile of the winners. Significant differences in the emotional perception of the President between those who voted for and against him have been defined. There have also been fixed the peculiarities of emotional perception of the figure of the President, depending on the level of education and financial status of the respondents.

46-63

Authors: Kushnirenko O. M., Gakhovych N. H.

The purpose of the article is to substantiate the European Green Deal (EGD) commitments, identify opportunities and threats for the development of Ukrainian industry, and elaborate proposals for the adaptation of Ukrainian producers to the requirements of the EGD. It is shown that the EGD is at the centre of the European agenda, and it is a modern challenge that can change the economy and consumption patterns not only in the European Union but throughout the world. This could have profound geopolitical implications. The authors justify that Ukraine has stable economic, social, and political ties with the EU and has been involved in new value chains with European producers, so implementing the EGD opens new opportunities for “green” transformations of the Ukrainian industry. It has been found that Ukraine should serve to implement international commitments on development. However, such compliance carries significant threats aggravated by technological backwardness and financial insecurity of industrial agents. Also, complying with Ukraine’s international commitments and other international agreements could further impede access of Ukrainian goods to the EU market by strengthening trade barriers associated with more stringent environmental requirements. It has been shown that today the level of climatic neutrality and environmental load on the environment in Ukraine does not correspond to European standards. This enhances the importance of adapting the Ukrainian industry to the requirements of the EGD. To address the shortcomings, the authors propose regulatory and institutional changes. Paper recommends developing economic incentives to save energy and primary material resources, modern waste management methods to minimize waste volumes, disseminate environmental innovations and environmentally friendly resource-efficient technologies to develop “green” business.

85-96

Authors: Borodina O. M., Prokopa I. V., Fraier O. V.

The decentralization reform in Ukraine has resulted in creating the primary level of the administrative-territorial system – territorial communities (TC). Rural settlements are also included in TCs, consisting of more than 25 and even 50. Today, TCs as administrative entities face the challenge of uniting communities and preserving and developing their people. The purpose of the paper is to substantiate the necessity and principles of TCs inclusive development, identify the situation of their rural communities referring to the example of Lokachynska TC, and test approaches to assessing their involvement in the functioning of the community. The following research methods were used: dialectical and abstract-logical (in the analysis of threats to rural communities due to their merger in the TC and justification of their inclusive development principles), monographic (to characterize Lokachinskaya TC), economic and statistical (in assessing the level of inclusive community development). It has been proven that one of the tasks of amalgamating territorial communities, especially those that include too many rural settlements is ensuring development based on inclusiveness. The TCs’ development and their rural communities aimed at reducing poverty, overcoming the economic, social, and political exclusion of people living in rural areas providing them with the opportunity to have a tangible impact on their lives is defined as inclusive development. The main characteristics of Lokachynska TC and the conditions of its rural communities’ functioning are revealed. Following the determining methodology of the rural sector of social inclusiveness, which is adapted to the community level, the involvement of Lokachynska TC communities in the economic, social and socio-political spheres was assessed. The study results can be used in strategies and plans for developing territorial communities, considering the specifics of community in each settlement, and identifying overcoming ways of its economic and/or social exclusion.

111-153

Authors: Kotygorenko V. O.

Unlike the scientific terms and concepts, which help to learn about reality, the terms and concepts of legislation affect the formation of this reality. In 2019, the Parliament of Ukraine adopted the law “Onto Ensuring the Functioning of the Ukrainian Language as the State Language”. In this act, there is an immanently contradictory postulate, according to which two Ukrainian nations form the Ukrainian society: ethnic and civil, where the former is a systemic component of the latter. Since then, all branches of state power, politicians, scientists, and the general public should understand which values of Ukrainians should be considered national and be protected and cultivated: Ukrainian national-ethnic or Ukrainian national-civic. To prevent such potentially conflicting contradictions, the article uses the phrase “national-civil values” as a synonym for the term “national values”. Both are derived from the idea and understanding of the modern Ukrainian nation as citizens of Ukrainian and all other ethnic identities, united by values mutual compatible with the ethno-Ukrainian majority in a community within which individual and group ethnic, cultural, linguistic, religious, regional, political and other differences persist. As reasoned in the article, this is how the Ukrainian nation is perceived by the majority of the country’s population. This position is consistent with the recommendation of the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe (PACE) 1735 (2006) dated January 26, 2006, entitled “The Concept of “Nation”. Sources of information on the research problem were the results of mass surveys that represent the entire population of Ukraine and its regions, conducted by respectful sociological institutions. Based on these materials’ analytical and synthetic processing, an array of facts has been formed that show the trends and specifics of the All-Ukrainian and regional dynamics of national-civil values with the most significant integrative potential. It shows Ukrainian nation as a multifaceted civil society with an ethno-Ukrainian core, Ukrainian citizenship, a sense of patriotism and pride in belonging to the community of Ukrainian citizens, and the Independence of the Ukrainian state.

170-181

Authors: Kipen V. P., Nykyforenko N. O.

Relevance of the study of access to quality public services of the population living in the territories of Donetsk and Luhansk oblasts controlled by the Government of Ukraine is due to the high level of the social vulnerability caused by the ongoing military conflict in eastern Ukraine, the ambiguous consequences of decentralization reform, and the introduction of quarantine restrictions caused by to the COVID-19 pandemic. The purpose of the article is to analyze the quality of services provided by public authorities and local governments to residents of the government-controlled territories of the Donetsk and Luhansk regions, based on focus group interviews. The 6 focus groups were conducted within the project of the Donetsk Institute for Social Research and Political Analysis “Services available to the population and assessment of power in Donbas on both sides of the line of demarcation” in February 2021 in Mariupol, Slovyansk, Bakhmut (Donetsk region), Severodonetsk, Lysychansk and Stanytsia Luhanska (Luhansk region), which allowed collecting information on the range of available public services in these locations, define the most popular services and barriers to their delivery, and criteria for assessing the activities of residents of public service entities, as well as ways to improve quality of those services. Focus group discussion revealed that in the locations covered by the study, the influence of the spatial factor on ensuring the quality of public services is significant. Due to the manifestations of crisis consciousness formed in living conditions near the zone of military conflict, residents are not too demanding about the quality of services and react mainly to cases of long-term lack of services, vital for life-support. There are no clear criteria for assessing the quality of public services in their collective mindset. The availability of public services (the actual possibility of obtaining them at the place of residence) and the transparency of the authorities’ activities that provide them are essential. For the most part, residents do not feel their responsibility for the quality of services. When substantiating the expressed trust or distrust in the authorities, their rational arguments are often inferior to the affective ones. In addition to overcoming the identified problems in the primary spheres of life support, the study showed the expediency of focusing the efforts of local authorities and the “third sector” on the formation of appropriate client competence of public service recipients in controlled by Ukraine areas of Donetsk and Luhansk regions, in particular, of the full range of services available in situ, the conditions and mechanisms for their provision, the powers of local governments, the nature and essence of relations between the subjects of public services); on the development of instruments of “participatory democracy” and public control of power mechanisms. The positive perception by the population of decentralization reform, digitalization programs, CAS activities outlined the prospects for improving the management of public services in the direction of further devolution, modernization of service delivery mechanisms through technologicalization and depersonalization of processes, principles of “single window”, efficiency, transparency customer-tailored orientation.

204-215

Authors: Liudohovska K. V., Burak D. I.

The paper dwells upon the results of surveys of the innovative youth project U-Report for September – November 2021: public initiatives, the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on childhood practices, youth participation in environmental initiatives.