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6PHILOSOPHICAL SCIENCES
DYNAMICS OF TRANSFORMATION OF EUROPEAN CIVILIZATION IDENTITY OF UKRAINIAN
CITIZENS IN 1991 - 2020
Voropayeva T.
PhD in Psychology, Associate Professor, Senior Research Associate, Centre of Ukrainian Studies, Faculty of Philosophy, Taras Shevchenko National University of Kyiv, Kyiv ORCID ID: 0000-0001-8388-7169
Abstract
Activation of globalization processes in the world leads to an acceleration of internal transformations in the post-soviet states and actualizing the problem of formation of different forms of collective identity. In this regard, the relevance of the theoretical and empirical study of the shaping of the European Civilization identity of citizens of Ukraine is not in doubt. The purpose of this article is to study the dynamics of formation of the European Civilization identity of Ukrainian citizens in the post-colonial era in terms of Ukrainian studies as an integrative science.
Keywords: identification, identity, European Civilization identity, integrative approach, citizens of Ukraine.
Introduction. In the modern world, there is a growing interest in the problem of forming a collective identity. As a rule, identification issues emerge full blown in time of crisis, transitional periods of society's development, when there is a need for a new self-determination of society, as well as the choice of new political-legal, socio-economic and socio-cultural models of development. In this regard, transitional and crisis periods can be viewed as a special turning point in the development of society and the individual, when not only cardinal transformations occur in many areas, but also the search for a new identity begins for large social groups.
Today, many European countries face with serious challenges that are associated with collective security challenges, information wars, the intensification of migration, terrorist acts, dramatic socio-economic and socio-political transformations, as well as threats of the gradual erosion of national cultures and the European civilizational identity. These problems are closely related to the interaction between civilizations, in fact, in the process of development of the modern world can be traced the growing influence of civilization factors determining a sufficiently large part of the changes occurring in the world.
Globalization carries a radical impact on the spiritual sphere of any society, distorting the traditional values and transforming collective identities. Under such conditions, particularly acute is the problem of the formation of a positive collective identity of the citizens of post-Soviet states. In this regard, the relevance of the integrative study of the shaping of European Civilization identity of citizens of Ukraine in the post-colonial period is not in doubt. Further civilizational development of Ukraine requires not only protection of national independence and state sovereignty, restoration of the state's territorial integrity, but also realization of national interests, achievement of political stability and national unity based on the positive collective identity of Ukrainian citizens.
Analysis of the latest researches. In philosophy, the problem of identity has been developed, starting
with separate reflections of Aristotle, and continuing in the works of John Locke, David Hume, Friedrich Wilhelm Joseph von Schelling, Georg Wilhelm Friedrich Hegel and other thinkers. Their successors explored the relationship between the concepts of «identity», «similarity», «I», «selfness», «identity», structure and criteria of different forms of identity, the nature of the interaction I - Another. For the first time, the term «identity» was used by William James, an American psychologist and philosopher, who emphasized such characteristics of the individual as the struggle of one's own and another's, identity and conformity to oneself and society. The first concepts of identity were presented in the works of Sigmund Freud, Erik Homburger Erikson, Henri Tajfel, John Turner, and others.
The French philosopher Paul Ricoeur and one of the founders of interactionism, George Herbert Mead, explain the concept of identity in their research through the category of «selfness». American psychologist Erik Homburger Erikson introduced the concept of «identity» in a broad scientific context and significantly popularized it. As early as the 1940s and 1950s, he began to study ethnic identity, drawing attention to the historical conditionality of the formation and evolution of any identity [1, p. 52]. The scientist identified three main types of identity: positive, negative and mixed. Today, belonging to a particular ethnic community is studied, as a rule, from the positions of two concepts: the theory of social identity of Henri Tajfel, John Turner and the model of two dimensions of identity of John Widdup Berry [2, p. 7-24; 3, p. 139-140].
The identification problem was actualized in the XX century. Different aspects of this problem were studied within the framework of psychology, sociology, philosophy, history, political science, anthropology, ethnology, pedagogy, etc. New approaches to the study of identity from various theoretical and methodological positions were represented by Jan Assman, Martyin Barrett, Marco Cinnirella, Anthony Smith, Samuel Hantington [1; 2; 3; 4], etc. Well-known Russian and Ukrainian scientists (Stefanyia Andrusiv, Petr
Hnatenko and Valentyna Pavlenko, Ola Hnatiuk, Jaroslav Hrytsak, Kostiantyn Kysliuk, Mykola Kozlovets, Taras Kuzio, Mykola Riabchuk, Svetlana Ryzhakova, Tatiana Riazanova, Mykhailo Stepyko, Margarita Vo-lovikova and others) studied ethnic, religious, regional, civic and national identity, ethnic and national self-consciousness.
The phenomenon of collective identity was one of the first to be studied by Italian scientists Alberto Melucci [5; 6, p. 329-348] and Alessandro Pizzorno [7, p. 355-373], later - Peter Berger, Thomas Lukman, Jan Assman and other scientists. The concept of «collective identity» covers a certain collective «We» of a specific community or a specific group (regional, religious, ethnic, national, civilizational etc.), on this basis, formed different forms of collective identity (regional, religious, ethnic, national, civilization etc.) are identified. Since most modern researchers believe that identity is a result of the identification process (which is considered a process of assimilation, self-identification or own reference to the group with someone or something), this phenomenon must be considered a dynamic structure that develops throughout human life, its development being nonlinear and uneven, can unfold in both progressive and regressive directions, passing stages of overcoming identity crises. The main function of identity consists of providing adaptation to a new social setting, preserving determinacy and integrity of personality.
The conceptual methodological core of the research is the integrative analysis of the collective identity as complex, multi-level and multi-component system. The study is based on a conceptual position: any form of collective identity is a system, which consists of separate parts, linked by certain relations; this system is in the process of continuous development and interaction with the environment. Identification processes are inextricably linked with cognitive, emotional, value-semantic and conative spheres of a personality, due to its needs, motives, goals and attitudes, induced by normative, landmark, symbolic, figurative, axiological systems of culture. For example, European Civilization identity is a dynamic structure that develops non-linearly and unevenly in the process of human socialization, and resides in identifying oneself with a specific civilization. So, for the formation of European Civilization identity, the semantic links between the individual and his civilization community, as well as a clearly structured semantic field of European Civilization identity, are extremely necessary [8, p. 23-26].
The purpose of the article. The purpose of this article is to study the dynamics of formation of the European Civilization identity of Ukrainian citizens in the post-colonial era in terms of Ukrainian studies as an in-tegrative science.
Research Methodology. The most scientists believe that identification is a fundamental process of individual self-determination, and identity is the result of this process. Since an individual is simultaneously a member of many groups, a system of identities is formed, that correspond to various spheres of his experience and activity (age, gender, family, territorial, eth-
nic, national, religious, professional, subcultural, continental etc.). The identity system of an individual is formed when its various components begin to function as a single mechanism.
As a methodological basis, most researchers use Henri Tajfel's social identity theory and John Turner's theory of self-categorization. To research identity (as a systemic, multi-component and multi-level education) integrative approach is most appropriate allowing to study various types of identity in their systematic integrity.
Modern American philosopher and writer Ken Wilber, by developing the ideas of Immanuel Kant, Franz Brentano, Wilhelm Dilthey and Carl Jung, was the founder of the integral meta-theory, designed to combine into one dialectical whole the science of the world and of a human, the traditions of Eastern mysticism and Western rationalism, external experience and internal mental states. The integral approach (integral theory) is an approach to a person, society, and science that affects all areas of human activity [9, p. 71-92; 10, p. 2-38]. Ken Wilber's ideas are being developed by scientists from many countries. In particular, Lariya Ki-iashchenko and Viacheslav Moiseiev justify the philosophy of transdisciplinarity, based on the Wilber's integral approach.
So, integrative approache and transdisciplinary research strategies can integrate new facts, knowledge and results of theoretical and empirical research into a coherent system that contributes to a deeper study of various objects and phenomena. The conceptual methodological core of the research is the integrative analysis of the collective identity as complex, multi-level and multi-component system. The study is based on a conceptual position: any form of collective identity is a system, which consists of separate parts, linked by certain relations; this system is in the process of continuous development and interaction with the environment.
Presenting main material. Based on the theory of social identity of Henri Tajfel and John Turner (who were among the first to study a group identity), taking into account the concept of the identification matrix of Serge Moscovici (who, in justifying the theory of social representations, proposed the idea of an identification matrix based on various group identities), as well as the studies of John W. Berry (who distinguished four types of ethnic identity: monoethnic identity, biethnic identity, altered and marginal identity), we distinguished different levels of the collective identity development: high, medium and low. Our theoretical and empirical studies have shown that using the adapted questionnaire of collective identity (developed by Riia Luhtanen and Jennifer Crocker) high, medium and low levels of various forms of collective identity of citizens of Ukraine can be distinguished.
The process of formation of the collective identity of Ukrainian citizens was investigated by us in 1991 -2020 years in several international research projects of the Center for Ukrainian Studies of Taras Shevchenko National University of Kyiv («Ukrainian national idea: theoretical and empirical aspects», «Socio-psychologi-cal and regional aspects of formation of national consciousness of Ukrainian citizens as a factor of state-
building»; «The transformation of national identity: historiosophic, culturological and socio-psychological aspects», etc.), which were supported by the «Renaissance» Foundation, the Friedrich Ebert Foundation, the State Foundation for Basic Research, as well as the Association of Ukrainian Banks. In these projects were studied religious, ethnic, meta-ethnic, local, regional, national, European, planetary, post-Soviet and other types of identity of Ukrainian citizens, living in different regions of the country. A total of 58100 respondents were studied from 18 to 89 years (of whom 48,5% were men, and 51,5% - women).
In order to study different types of identity transformation, we used the «Who am I?» method of Manfred Kuhn and Thomas McPartland, an adapted technique of «Identity Measurement Scale» by Marco Cinnirella, an adapted questionnaire of collective identity (developed by Riia Luhtanen and Jennifer Crocker) and other methods.
Surveys were conducted in all regions of Ukraine (in the period from 2014 to 2020 in the occupied territories of Ukraine no research was conducted) by the
The conducted research showed that: a) the transformation of collective identity is influenced by many factors (one of the most important factors is the mass media, which can, with the help of an information war, to destroy any form of collective identity); b) European Civilization identity gradually extends to the East and South (2014 - 2020); c) respondents are sincerely proud of the achievements of Ukrainian citizens in sports and art, considering this as the affirmation of Ukraine.
Main results:
1) the prestige of the European Civilizational identity is growing more slowly in the East and South of Ukraine, as opposed to the North, Center and West of Ukraine;
2) European Civilizational identity is the most rapidly growing one among the inhabitants of large cities;
3) by 2010, ethnic Ukrainians in the South and East of Ukraine experienced a tendency to increase European and national identity (in 2010 - 2013 this process was stopped);
4) ethnic Ukrainians, Armenians and Moldovans living in the East and South of Ukraine have a more pronounced nostalgic mood towards the USSR, but the same ethnic groups living in the North, Center and West Ukraine, want to feel as they are Europeans;
5) in 1991 - 2020 there was a tendency to increase the indicators of European civilizational identity (both in the group of ethnic Ukrainians and in the group of national minorities); European identity until 2020 did not lose its significance to Ukrainian citizens because the demand for Europeanism is very strong in Ukrainian society.
method of personal interviews (face-to-face) at the place of residence. The sample is represented by the main social and demographic indicators. The reliability of the results of the research was based on the methodological substantiation of its initial positions; using a set of diagnostic techniques that are adequate to the purpose and objectives of the study; combining quantitative and qualitative analysis of empirical data; using methods of mathematical statistics with the use of modern data processing programs, representativeness of the sample. The margin of error does not exceed 2.0%. Data processing was carried out with the help of IBM SPSS Statistics 21.0 application. The method of factor analysis, correlation analysis, scales congruence calculation, indicators of descriptive statistics were used for the analysis.
The dynamics of the formation and development of European Civilizational identity of respondents is reflected in Table No.1.
Table 1
It is known that at the beginning of the 21st century the most important collective identities are regional, ethnic, national and civilizational. For Ukraine, the formation of the European (both continental and civilizational) identity of citizens is particularly important. European identity is the result of subjects' self-identification (both individual and collective) with Europe and European civilization, the representatives of which these subjects consider themselves to be. Of course, continental as well as civilizational identity is practically not recognized by people in their daily lives. It is actualized mainly when the subject meets with representatives of other continents and other civilizations, or in those cases when it becomes necessary to understand the civilizational role and mission of its own country.
Self-Identification «I am a European», «I am a representative of European civilization», «we are Euro-peans» and others like them have a great consolidation potential, since they combine not only the aspirations, dreams and ideals of respondents, but also become value-semantic the basis of joint activities of both ethnic and political Ukrainians and representatives of the Ukrainian diaspora. European civilization identity, which unites not only Ukrainian citizens but all of Ukrainianness, is able to accelerate the consolidation processes in the modern Ukrainian society, which has been living for more than 6 years in the conditions of the Russian-Ukrainian war. This is manifested in the activities of volunteers, community activists and organizations. But to consolidate the overwhelming majority of Ukrainian society in order to identify the urgent challenges facing Ukraine today, it is necessary to intensify
Dynamics of Transformation of European Civilizational Identity of respondents in 1991 - 2020
Levels of identity development The year of the survey
1991 2001 2011 2020
High level 24% 30% 27% 36%
Average 49% 47% 38% 37%
Low level 27% 23% 35% 27%
the processes of de-oligarchization, demonopolization and decolonization of Ukraine. So, the establishment of a national and European civilization identity in Ukrainian society is one of the most important axiological and ideological tasks necessary for the further survival and development of Ukraine as an independent state.
Conclusions. The integrative approach allows us to consider various forms of collective identity (religious, regional, ethnic, national, civilizational, etc.) in their systemic unity as an integral configuration. Identity is not an innate characteristic of an individual, it is formed and maintained throughout a person's life and depends on many factors.
The conducted theoretical and empirical study has shown that in the identification matrix of Ukrainian citizens for many years various forms of collective identity have been formed. The factors that had the greatest influence on the activation of these forms of collective identity were: the Orange Revolution of 2004, the Eurovision final held in Ukraine in 2005, the European Football Championship final held in Ukraine in 2012, the government's rejection of the scheduled for the end of November 2013 signing of the Association Agreement between Ukraine and the EU, the events of Euromaidan and the Revolution of Dignity, as well as the Russian-Ukrainian inter-state armed conflict.
Today, many modern theoretical and empirical studies (philosophical, historical, politological, cultural, sociological, psychological, anthropological, etc.) prove undoubted cultural and civilizational kinship Ukrainians with the Europeans. In particular, the majority of scientists are convinced that Ukraine has always belonged to the European civilization and attempts to tear her away from this «mother's womb» have never been successful.
Thus, today, the European orientation should become not only one of the directions of Ukraine's foreign policy, but also a strategic vector of the internal transformation of Ukrainian society. The European choice, the Europeanization of Ukraine, dedication to European values, introduction of European standards in real life should become important geopolitical, economic and socio-cultural strategies for our state. Consequently, a fundamental rethinking of the policy of identity in Ukraine is needed. Adoption of the national-cultural, civic-political and European civilizational
identity of the citizens of Ukraine is one of the most important axiological and ideological tasks necessary for the further survival and development of Ukraine as an independent state.
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