A near-real-time analysis of societal responses to Ukrainian refugee migration in Europe

Recent events in Ukraine led to a surge in refugee migration originating from within Europe not seen since WWII. Using global data on daily news coverage, this research highlights that during the 8 weeks before the outbreak of open hostilities, there was no change in the relative interaction frequency between societal stakeholders and refugees. This changed dramatically in the 8 weeks thereafter: In neighbouring countries, the share of news reporting interactions with refugees rose from next to nothing to between 5 and 13%. In the rest of Europe, this share increased to 1% or 2%. Beyond governments, an event-study reveals inter-governmental organisations, civil societies and businesses as major societal forces driving not just the public discourse but levels of support for refugees. Initially, business actors displayed the strongest responsiveness to individuals in need: They became 25% points more likely to engage in material cooperation with refugees. Gradually fading support from non-government actors suggests that prolonged humanitarian crises may require a continuous near-real-time monitoring system and the coordination of various stakeholders' contributions to ensure an efficient provision of aid.     

Elite women in the Ukrainian Hetmanate

The history of the Ukrainian Hetmanate has been studied from the perspective of war, political struggle, and diplomacy. This article studies various aspects of women’s lives in Cossack society: their legal status, economic rights, role in society, relations with husbands and sons, the tradition of women’s presence at formal receptions, and their interference in political life. It is also about “women in politics,” “witches,” sex and premarital relations, kidnappings, and love affairs. The general argument is that the position of Ukrainian women was closer to that of women in Catholic Poland than in Muscovy.     

European Influence in Ukrainian Modernist Prose

Abstract

Digital technologies make possible new ways of managing folklore field recordings. Two programmers, a graduate student, and the author developed a database that allows the user to go directly to the point in a sound file where a particular topic is discussed. This is a research tool and the task here was to create a modified site for the general public. The technique used was crowdsourcing, asking the public to transcribe and translate songs, stories, and accounts of belief. The project revealed how heritage issues affect public participation. People who expressed initial enthusiasm were reluctant to participate because they were timid about their language knowledge. Paradoxically, formal instruction leads to the timidity we observed. People who did contribute to our project transcribed and translated songs only. Language is retained in song even as it is lost elsewhere. Songs are also familiar material, associated with the past. Contributions driven by interest in new material directly from Ukraine did not materialize. A romanticized image of the past and suspicions that Ukraine has been Sovietized and Russified encourage preservation of the old and work against interest in the new.     

Image Myths in the 2004 Ukrainian Presidential Election Campaign

This paper discusses the phenomenon of inculcating myths into the electorate’s consciousness and analyzes the 2004 presidential campaign in Ukraine in order to conclude whether the classification of electoral myths proposed by American political scientists D. Nimmo and J. Combs, and broadened by K. S. Jonson-Cartee and G. A. Copeland, can be applied for studying political mythology in post-Soviet countries. The analysis of television political advertisements on the main state Ukrainian channel, which were broadcast during free TV time provided by the Central Election Commission, makes it possible to conclude that some of the myths described by American scientists were used in Ukraine in their original version, others were adapted to Ukrainian realities, and only elements of some were found in candidates’ ads. Close study of TV political commercials shows that some of the candidates (mainly representatives of financial-industrial and business circles) based their campaigns on a single myth, while the majority preferred to influence voters using a “myth mosaic.”     

Don Juan: A Universal Theme in Ukrainian Drama

This article uses the University of Calgary Gorbachev Foundation Public Policy Project (UCGF99) as a case study for exploring the challenges of international participation in promoting reform of the content and context of public policy in postcommunist Russia. Drawing on evidence from a series of interviews with Russian and Canadian participants, it focuses on how cultural and power issues played out in UCGF99’s work. Because public policy stands at the juncture between state and society, public policy reform is an ideal rubric for exploring how values accompany aid and the way that the culture of the receiving society shapes the implementation of that aid. The interviews reveal an inherent tension between the ideal of egalitarian co-operation and the reality that the work done by the partnership was dedicated, ultimately, to the “reform” of one side by the other. They also highlight the extent to which reform is a process of translation: as concepts and international models make the transition to another society, their own cultural specificity becomes apparent, as does the challenge of translating them in a manner meaningful to the society undergoing “transition.” This article focuses on two related questions of translation: how issues of language, culture and power played out in the “consultant” structure of UCGF99 partnerships, and the concrete challenges of transforming Russian political culture using Canadian models.     

Ukrainian Symbolism and the Problem of Modernism

This article explores the role of children’s literature in the formation of Stalinist identity and assembles a list of moral principles developed in the most popular early works of Arkadii Gaidar. It is not in Marxist texts nor in Pioneer slogans, but in these simple stories that the essential narrative structures of Soviet morality were created. Gaidar’s books are representative of a whole group of Soviet children’s literary classics published in the late 1920s–early 1930s and written by young people whose coming of age coincided with the years of political and social turmoil. This study argues that Gaidar’s own personal experiences as a youthful Red Army commander during the Civil War underpinned the moral vision of these popular novels. A new military-like value system, with courage (not kindness or love) as its central value, originated in Gaidar’s books and moulded several generations of Soviet children.     

Jabotinsky and Ukrainian nationalism: A reinterpretation

Israel Kleiner, From Nationalism to Universalism: Vladimir Ze'ev Jabotinsky and the Ukrainian Question (Edmonton and Toronto: Canadian Institute of Ukrainian Studies Press, 2000). 199pp. Foreword by Wolf Moskovich. Bibliography. Index. ISBN 1–895571–33–2 (paper)     

The delayed transition from folk to labor migration: the Netherlands, 1880-1920

"This article analyzes Netherlands government statistics on overseas emigration, 1880-1920, which reveal that the process of industrialization caused a major social structural shift in the 1890s. A system of urban labor migration replaced the traditional rural folk movement and the primary destination shifted away from the United States to Dutch colonies in Asia and South America. The Netherlands belatedly 'caught up' with the rest of Western Europe in the shift from family to industrial overseas emigrants."     

Negotiating Magic: Ukrainian Wedding Traditions and Their Persistence in Canada

Magical efficacy has been important in Ukrainian wedding ritual. The korovai, rushnyk, omens, gifts, the showering of the couple, and other “sacred” objects and acts of the Ukrainian folk wedding are believed to be imbued with prophetic qualities. Uprooted folklore tradition, however, faces inevitable transformations, and Ukrainian immigrants in Canada tend to know and believe in magical objects and actions significantly less. The examination of magical beliefs and practices in the context of weddings among Ukrainians in Ukraine and in Canada shows that the two groups possess different belief systems: magical and anti-magical respectively. Rural and urban dwellers, divorced people, and the clergy from both countries were interviewed retrospectively about their wedding days. Their answers confirm that magical beliefs and practices are the most fragile part of the folklore complex transmitted to a different cultural context. By contrast, material culture, which becomes a major means of ethnic identification, remains well preserved and cherished.