Abstract
This chapter presents the results of a representative population survey. It shows how Ukrainians perceive the recent decentralization reform and the laws regulating Ukrainian as the language of instruction in the schools, and outlines how the border regions of Kharkiv and Chernivtsi differ in this respect. Drawing on Chan et al.’s model of social cohesion, the analysis measures two general components of social cohesion—people’s mindsets (subjective component) on the one hand and behavioural manifestations (objective component) on the other. Each component is investigated in its horizontal dimension (cohesion within the civil society) and its vertical dimension (state–citizen cohesion). Applying multiple correspondence analysis, we identify four basic types of respondents, which are, in relative terms, included or excluded, as well as active or passive. The results suggest that the reform policies have affected these two dimensions in different ways. Future research on diversity in Ukraine will need to go beyond regional and ethno-cultural features, as they intersect with socio-economic and elite–ordinary people cleavages.
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Notes
- 1.
Joseph Chan, Ho-Pong To and Elaine Chan, Reconsidering social cohesion: Developing a definition and analytical framework for empirical research, Social Indicators Research 75 (2006): 273–302.
- 2.
Thomas Maloutas and Maro Pantelidou Malouta, The glass menagerie of urban governance and social cohesion: concepts and stakes/concepts as stakes, International Journal of Urban and Regional Research, 28(2004): 449–465.
- 3.
Jane Jenson, Mapping Social Cohesion: The State of Canadian Research (Ottawa: Canadian Policy Research Networks, 1998).
- 4.
Chan et al. (n. 1 supra).
- 5.
For instance, Gianmaria Bottoni has largely followed Chan et al.’s set-up. He created a scheme of seven dimensions of social cohesion, covering three levels (macro-, meso-, micro-) and two perspectives (subjective and objective). See Gianmaria Bottoni, A multilevel measurement model of social cohesion. Social Indicators Research 136 (2018), 835–857; with references to Christopher T. Whelan and Bertrand Maître, Economic vulnerability, multidimensional deprivation and social cohesion in an enlarged European Community, International Journal of Comparative Sociology 46 (2005), 215–239; Kenneth A. Bollen and Rick H. Hoyle, Perceived cohesion: A conceptual and empirical examination. Social Forces 69 (1990), 479–504.
- 6.
Fernando Rajulton, Zenaida R. Ravanera and Roderic Beaujot, Measuring social cohesion: An experiment using the Canadian national survey of giving, volunteering and participating. Social Indicators Research, 80 (2007): 461–492.
- 7.
The self-proclaimed republics of Donetsk and Luhansk, as well as Crimea, were not included in the survey.
- 8.
The approach is described in more detail in Vladislav Baliichuk (2020), ‘The methodology of the ARDU survey’ (in Russian), available at https://uni.oslomet.no/ardu/publications/, accessed 23 February 2021.
- 9.
There are some 110 million potential mobile telephone numbers in Ukraine, of which about 55 million are in use. For the national survey, the opinion poll agency first generated 21,000 random numbers, of which 11,000 proved to be in use when the interviewers called. However, only about 4,000 answered the phone, of whom slightly over 2,100 were willing to participate in the survey.
- 10.
For the regional surveys, the opinion poll agency used a data base of approx. 2,000 telephone numbers in each region. When the interviewers called, only about 1,000 answered the phone, of whom just over 600 in each region were willing to participate in the survey.
- 11.
As there has been no census since 2001, and there has been a tendency for a larger share of Ukrainian citizens to identify as ethnic Ukrainians than some years ago (also due to the fact that Crimea and self-proclaimed republics Donetsk and Luhansk, where the share of ethnic Ukrainians is lower than elsewhere, were not included in the survey), it is hard to estimate the size of this over-representation. We therefore decided not to use weights for the different ethnic groups.
- 12.
Aadne Aasland, Mot økt folkelig innflytelse? Desentralisering og lokaldemokrati i Ukraina, Nordisk Østforum, 32 (2018), 174–194.
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Stavlennia hromadian do reform v Ukraini. Razumkov Centre. 4.03.2019. Available from https://razumkov.org.ua/napriamky/sotsiologichni-doslidzhennia/stavlennya-gromadyan-do-reform-v-ukrayini, accessed 28 March 2021.
- 14.
For both years we have excluded the 17–18% who said they did not know about the reform, did not know what to answer or refused to answer the question.
- 15.
Only differences that are statistically significant (p<0.05) are commented in the text.
- 16.
For more on the ATCs and their formation, see Ch. 6 by Aasland et al.
- 17.
Maryna Rabinovych and Olexandra Deineko, Die Lokalwahlen 2020 und ihre Bedeutung für Dezentralisierung und Konfliktlösung in der Ukraine. Ukraina-analysen no. 242 (2020):16–17. Available from https://www.laender-analysen.de/ukraine-analysen/242/UkraineAnalysen242.pdf, accessed 15 March 2021.
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Margrethe B. Søvik and Olga Filippova, Images of the languages and politics of language and identity in Ukraine: burden of the past and contestations in the present, Ab Imperio, 2 (2005): 378–379.
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Paul S. Pirie, National identity and politics in Southern and Eastern Ukraine, Europe-Asia Studies 48 (1996): 1079–1104.
- 20.
Stavlennya naselennya Ukraí̈ni do zakonu pro movu (2020). http://kiis.com.ua/?lang=eng&cat=reports&id=960&page=1, accessed 22 March 2021.
- 21.
For example, the higher their socio-economic status, the more strongly do people tend to support implementation of the new language law. See e.g. Kyiv International Institute of Sociology (2020), Stavlennya naselennya Ukraí̈ni do zakonu pro movu. Available from http://kiis.com.ua/?lang=eng&cat=reports&id=960&page=1. accessed 22 March 2021.
- 22.
Ernest Gellner, Nationalism (New York University Press, 1997), at 3–4, 25.
- 23.
See Appendix 2 for details on how reliability analyses were performed for this and subsequent indices.
- 24.
Mykhailo Bondarenko, Svitlana Babenko and Oleksiy Borovskiy, Sotsial’na zgurtovanist’ v Ukraini (dosvid aplikatsii metodiki Bertelsmann Stiftung do danykh evropeiskoho sotsial’noho doslidzheniya, Visnyk iyivs’koho natsional’noho universitetu imeni Tarasa Shevchenka. Sotsiologiya 8 (2017).
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Razumkov Centre (2019), Derzhava i tserkva v Ukraini – 2019: Pidsumky roku i perspektyvy rozvitku vidnosti, Kyiv: Razumkov Centre, available from https://razumkov.org.ua/uploads/article/2019_Religiya.pdf (accessed 22 April 2021).
- 26.
See e.g. ‘Gromadyans’ke suspil’stvo v Ukraini: poglyad hromadyan’, Ilka Kucheriv Democratic Initiatives Foundation. Available from https://dif.org.ua/article/gromadyanske-suspilstvo-v-ukraini-poglyad-gromadyan?fbclid=IwAR05QDuGLUC2Zp5NlwYcrFyvRii2mYgEpVSbPASWLldFogfp5ajZWb6lW74, accessed 15 March 2021.
- 27.
See e.g. ‘Gromads’ka aktyvnist’ gromadyan Ukrainy’. Ilka Kucheriv Democratic Initiatives Foundation. Available from https://dif.org.ua/article/gromadska-aktivnist-gromadyan-ukraini, accessed 15 March 2021.
- 28.
See Appendix 2 for details of the institutions included in the index, and reported trust in each of them.
- 29.
See e.g. Y. Golovakha, N. Panina and O. Parakhonska (2019). Ukrainian Society in 1992–2018: Monitoring Social Changes. Kyiv: Institute of Sociology of the National Academy of Science of Ukraine.
- 30.
Stein Erik Clausen, Applied Correspondence Analysis: An Introduction. (Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage, 1998).
- 31.
See e.g. Radio Svoboda, Ukrayinizatsiyi Kharkova ne spryyatymutʹ dyskusiyi z predstavnykamy ‘p’yatovyi kolony’ (Discussions with representatives of the ‘fifth column’ will not contribute to the Ukrainianization of Kharkov), accessed from https://www.radiosvoboda.org/a/30940802.html, accessed 22 March 2021.
- 32.
The correspondence analysis does not take into account sample size and statistical significance, so some caution should be exercised in interpreting positions in the plot for groups with very small sample sizes, as is the case with people of Russian ethnic identity in Chernivtsi.
- 33.
Rogers Brubaker, Nationalism Reframed: Nationhood and the National Question in the New Europe (Cambridge University Press, 1996), pp. 55–69.
- 34.
John Gerring, Case selection for case study analysis: qualitative and quantitative techniques, in: Janet Box-Steffensmeier, Henry E. Brady and David Collier (eds): Oxford Handbook of Political Methodology (Oxford University Press, 2008), 645–84, at 653–654.
- 35.
Noah.E. Friedkin, Social cohesion. Annual Review of Sociology, 30 (2004), 409–425, at p. 409.
- 36.
See Chan et al. (n. 1 supra)
- 37.
Jenson (n. 3 supra).
- 38.
Thomas F. Pettigrew, Intergroup contact theory, Annual Review of Psychology, 49 (1998), 65–85.
- 39.
See Pettigrew (n 38 supra), 66–67.
- 40.
Henry E. Hale, Patronal Politics. Eurasian Regime Dynamics in Comparative Perspective (Cambridge University Press 2015); see Chapter 9.
- 41.
Max Bader, Decentralization and a risk of local elite capture in Ukraine, in: Hannah Shelest and Maryna Rabinovych, eds. Decentralization, Regional Diversity, and Conflict: The Case of Ukraine (Basingstoke: Palgrave Macmillan, 2020), 259–282.
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Appendices
Appendix 1
Independent variables used in the survey. Distribution (%) | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|
Chernivtsi | Kharkiv | All Ukraine | ||
(N=607) | (N=606) | (N=2,103) | ||
Gender | Female | 49.3 | 57.6 | 55.6 |
Male | 50.7 | 42.4 | 44.4 | |
Age group | 18-24 | 8.6 | 5.8 | 7.6 |
25-35 | 19.6 | 13.3 | 19.6 | |
36-50 | 25.7 | 31.8 | 29.9 | |
51-59 | 15.5 | 16.3 | 14.2 | |
60+ | 30.5 | 32.8 | 28.7 | |
Missing (N) | 1 | 3 | 5 | |
Type of settlement | Oblast centre | 37.4 | 56.3 | 38.4 |
Other city | 10.5 | 14.7 | 27.6 | |
ATC | 44.8 | 22.1 | 25.7 | |
Other rural | 7.2 | 6.9 | 8.3 | |
Ethnic identity | Ukrainian | 86.3 | 76.6 | 87.0 |
Russian | 2.5 | 12.8 | 6.2 | |
Other | 7.9 | 4.9 | 3.8 | |
Mixed | 3.3 | 5.7 | 3.0 | |
Missing (N) | 9 | 13 | 26 | |
Economic well-being | Not enough money even for essentials | 16.2 | 14.4 | 15.0 |
Enough only for essentials | 25.8 | 27.0 | 25.1 | |
Ok, but difficult to afford some goods | 31.6 | 38.7 | 35.5 | |
Good, but cannot afford expensive luxuries | 23.9 | 19.1 | 22.3 | |
Can afford anything | 2.5 | 0.8 | 2.2 | |
Missing (N) | 9 | 9 | 51 | |
Educational level | Not completed secondary | 2.6 | 1.3 | 2.4 |
Completed secondary | 19.7 | 13.1 | 13.8 | |
Professional | 33.6 | 33.2 | 37.9 | |
Not completed higher | 7.1 | 7.1 | 8.5 | |
Higher | 31.4 | 39.0 | 32.0 | |
Two or more higher degrees | 5.6 | 6.3 | 5.5 | |
Missing (N) | 2 | 3 | 11 | |
Appendix 2
Basis of indices used in the chapter | Chernivtsi | Kharkiv | All Ukraine | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
Mean score 0 (no trust) - 4 (full trust) | ||||
Institutional trust index | The President** | 1.86 | 1.32 | 1.68 |
To what extent do you trust … | The national parliament (Rada)** | 1.10 | 0.85 | 0.99 |
Chronbachs Alpha: 0.73 | Judges | 0.93 | 0.80 | 0.92 |
Local authorities | 1.79 | 1.97 | 1.86 | |
Mass media** | 1.79 | 1.97 | 1.56 | |
Mean score 0 (no trust) - 4 (full trust) | ||||
Interpersonal trust index | Neighbours | 2.81 | 2.75 | 2.75 |
To what extent do you trust | People in community | 2.44 | 2.32 | 2.36 |
Chronbachs Alpha 0.70 | People you meet first time** | 2.43 | 2.24 | 2.28 |
People of other ethnic groups* | 2.00 | 1.95 | 1.85 | |
Group accordance | Mean score 0 (no conflict) (4 conflict) | |||
Level of conflict between groups | Between ethnic groups | 2.70 | 2.78 | 2.63 |
in community | Between language groups** | 2.71 | 3.00 | 2.82 |
Chronbachs Alpha 0.81 | Between inhabitants and internally displaced* | 2.83 | 3.04 | 2.87 |
Belonging | Mean score 0 (not at all) 4 (fully) | |||
To what extent do you feel as a | Your local community (village, town, city) | 3.80 | 3.80 | 3.76 |
representative of … | Your ATC* | 3.60 | 3.38 | 3.47 |
Chronbachs Alpha: 0.67 | Your region | 3.56 | 3.64 | 3.63 |
..a citizen of Ukraine | 3.78 | 3.71 | 3.76 | |
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Aasland, A., Deineko, O., Filippova, O., Kropp, S. (2021). Citizens’ perspectives: Reform and social cohesion in Ukraine’s border regions. In: Aasland, A., Kropp, S. (eds) The Accommodation of Regional and Ethno-cultural Diversity in Ukraine. Federalism and Internal Conflicts. Palgrave Macmillan, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-80971-3_9
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