The roles of sociology in wartime Ukraine and its contributions to global sociology

GEOFFREY PLEYERS, President of the International Sociological Association, Professor at the Catholic University of Louvain — Université catholique de Louvain (UCL, Belgium); Director of the National Fund for Scientific Research — Fonds national pour la recherche scientifique (FNRS, Belgium)

Geoffrey.Pleyers@uclouvain.be

http://orcid.org/0000-0001-9949-5047

This article is dedicated to the study of the phenomenon of Ukrainian national resilience under the conditions of full-scale Russian aggression. The author analyzes the civilizational determinants of Ukrainian society's resistance, which extend beyond traditional military-political and economic factors. Russia's war against Ukraine is interpreted as a manifestation of the global confrontation between democratic and authoritarian models of social order, wherein Ukraine acts as a frontier state, defending the fundamental principles of the free world. It is argued that Ukrainian resilience holds not only local but also global civilizational significance.

Keywords: national resilience, civilizational choice, Russo-Ukrainian war, Ukrainian identity, values, democracy, authoritarianism, social cohesion

References:

Golovakha, Ye. & Dembitskyi, S. (Eds.). (2024). Ukrainian Society in Wartime. The Year 2024. Kyiv: Institute of Sociology, National Academy of Sciences of Ukraine. [=Головаха, Є. (ред.) & Дембіцький, С. (ред.). (2024). Українське суспільство в умовах війни. Рік 2024. Київ: Інститут соціології Національної Академії наук України.]

Arugay, A. & Baquisal, J. (2023). Bowed, bent, & broken: Duterte’s assaults on civil society in the Philippines. Journal of Current Southeast Asian Affairs, 42(3), 328–349. https://doi.org/10.1177/18681034231209504

Bakirov, V. & Golovakha, Ye. (Eds.). (2018). Ukrainian Sociology in the 21st Century: Theory, Methods, Research Results. Kharkiv: V.N. Karazin Kharkiv National University.

Bakirov, V. (2025). The Phenomenon of Ukrainian Resilience: The Synergy of Sociocultural Factors. Keynote at the Fifth Ukrainian Congress of Sociology, 20–21 November. Retrieved from: https://sau.in.ua/

Bakke, K., Dahl, M., & Rickard, K. (2025). Conflict exposure and democratic values: Evidence from wartime Ukraine. Journal of Peace Research, 62(5), 1376–1392. https://doi.org/10.1177/00223433251347769

Bloch, E. (1986 [1954]). The Principle of Hope. Vol. 1. Cambridge, MA: MIT Press.

Boichak, O. & McKernan, B. (2024). Narratives of volunteering and social change in wartime Ukraine. Cultural Sociology, 18(1), 48–71.

Bradshaw, S., Elswah, M., Haque, M., & Quelle, D. (2024). Strategic storytelling: Russian state-backed media coverage of the Ukraine war. International Journal of Public Opinion Research, 36(3), edae028. https://doi.org/10.1093/ijpor/edae028

Burawoy, M. (2021). Public Sociology. Cambridge: Polity.

Coles, J., Astbury, J., Dartnall, E., & Limjerwala, S. (2014). A qualitative exploration of researcher trauma and researchers’ responses to investigating sexual violence. Violence Against Women, 20(1), 95–117. https://doi.org/10.1177/1077801213520578

Costas, J., Prokhorova, A., Stepanenko, V., Sudyn, D., Yermolenko, V., & Zaremba-Kosovych, H. (2024). Academic activism in time of war: Voices from Ukraine. Organization, 32(5), 760–771. https://doi.org/10.1177/13505084241284487

Emeran, C. (2017). New Generation Political Activism in Ukraine 2000–2014. Routledge.

Fassin, D. (2025). Moral Abdication: How the World Failed to Stop the Destruction of Gaza. London: Verso.

Golovakha, Y., Ivashchenko-Stadnik, K., Mikheieva, O., & Sereda, V. (2023). From patronalism to civic belonging: The changing dynamics of the national-civic identity in Ukraine. In: B. Madlovics & B. Magyar (Eds.), Ukraine's Patronal Democracy and the Russian Invasion (pp. 297–329). Vienna: Central European University Press.

Grushetsky, A. & Paniotto, V. (2025). War and the Transformation of Ukrainian society (2022–23). Empirical Evidence. Stuttgart: Ibidem Press.

Grzebyk P. & Uczkiewicz, D. (Eds.). (2025). The Russian-Ukrainian Conflict and War Crimes: Challenges for Documentation and International Prosecution. Routledge.

Holovakha, Ye. (2025). Socio-political transformations in contemporary Ukrainian society. Guest lecture at the Ivan Franko National University of Lviv, 30 October. Retrieved from: https://lnu.edu.ua/lvivskyy-universytet-vidvidav-profesor-yevhen-holovakha/

Hrybenko, O. (2025). Intermediaries of change: How media-focused non-governmental organizations shape meta-journalistic discourse in Ukraine. Journalism, 26(4), 862–880.

ISAR Ednannia. (2023). A study of recovery initiatives in Ukraine: Mapping post-war recovery initiatives (2022–March 2023). KIIS – Kyiv International Institute of Sociology. Retrieved from: https://ednannia.ua/images/A_study_of_recovery_initiatives_in_Ukraine.pdf

Jawad, R., Dawani, S., Shehadeh, S., & Nateel, B. (2025). Against Frames of Trauma and Testimony: Palestinian children’s narratives from within a contemporary genocide. Journal of Palestine Studies, 54(3), 71–82.

Karakai, D. & Moskotina, R. (2025). Existential upheavals: Tracing war’s immediate effect on individual religiosity in Ukraine. Social Compass, 72(1), 66–85. https://doi.org/10.1177/00377686241311421

KIIS – Kyiv International Institute of Sociology. (2024). To what extent do Ukrainians consider Ukraine a democratic country and the priority of a democratic system? Retrieved from: https://kiis.com.ua/?lang=eng&cat=reports&id=1406&page=1

Klein, E. et al. (2025). Public opinion research in Ukraine under wartime conditions. Ukrainian Analytical Digest, 6, 2–4. [ETH Zurich Research Collection].

Klosterkamp, S., Jeffrey, A. (2024). The intimate geopolitics of evidence gathering in war crime investigation in Ukraine. Political Geography Open Research, 3, 100008. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jpgor.2024.100008

Kostenko, A. et al. (2024). Resilience and vulnerability of Ukrainians: The role of family during the war. Problems and Perspectives in Management, 22(1), 432–445. https://doi.org/10.21511/ppm.22(1).2024.35

Krymets, L., Saienko, O., Nedvyha, O., Tserkovnyak-Horodets’ka, O., & Logvinenko, N. (2025). The formation of Ukrainian national identity in the context of Russian aggression: A philosophical and psychological analysis. International Journal on Culture, History, and Religion, 7(SI1), 518–536. https://doi.org/10.63931/ijchr.v7iSI1.153

Kutsenko, O. & Babenko, S. (2024). The power of Ukrainian sociology in post-USSR transformations and Russia’s war in Ukraine. Іn: B. Roncevic & T.B. Valič (Eds.), Sociology and Post-Socialist Transformations in Eastern Europe (pp. 437–462). London: Springer.

Kutsenko, O. (2025a). Democratic resilience: Ukrainian alternative to militant authoritarianism. Іn: B. Wejnert (Ed.), The Global Rise of Autocracy: Its Threat to a Sustainable Future (pp. 251–285). London: Routledge. https://doi.org/10.4324/9781003516583-15

Kutsenko, O. (2025b). La sociologie ukrainienne face à la guerre: défis, adaptations et pratiques de recherche. Socio-logos, 21. Retrieved from: http://journals.openedition.org/socio-logos/7013

Kutsenko, O. (2025c). Resilience under fire: Navigating societal challenges, agency, and innovation in times of war. Innovation: The European Journal of Social Science Research, 38(1), 1–10. https://doi.org/10.1080/13511610.2025.2465177

Lavrysh, Y., Lytovchenko, I., Lukianenko, V., & Golub, T. (2025). Teaching during wartime: Experience from Ukraine. Educational Philosophy and Theory, 57(3), 197–204. https://doi.org/10.1080/00131857.2022.2098714

Levitas, R. (2013). Utopia as Method: The Imaginary Reconstitution of Society. Palgrave.

Mishalova, O., Hordiichuk, O., & Sokolovskyi, O. (2024). Russia’s war in Ukraine as a “war for identity” and appropriation of cultural tradition. Ethics in Progress, 15(1), 73–94. https://doi.org/10.14746/eip.2024.1.4

Musleh, A. (2026). Weaving life through stories: Lamlamah – the art of gathering and uplifting “ourselves”. Critical and Radical Social Work, 20, 1–16.

Nechitailo, I. & Alieva, A. (2025). Resilience of the educational system in conditions of global social upheavals: The ratio of centralization and autonomy. Innovation: The European Journal of Social Science Research, 38(1), 28–49. https://doi.org/10.1080/13511610.2025.2462959

Nekoliak, R. (2025). The Centre for Civil Liberties. In: P. Grzebyk & D. Uczkiewicz (Eds.), The Russian-Ukrainian Conflict and War Crimes: Challenges for Documentation and International Prosecution (pp. 159–175). Routledge.

OHCHR/UN. (2026). Ukraine: Protection of civilians in armed conflict. December 2025 update. Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights. Retrieved from: https://ukraine.ohchr.org/sites/default/files/2026-01/Ukraine%20-%20protection%20of%20civilians%20in%20armed%20conflict%20%28December%202025%29_ENG.pdf

Oinas, E., Onodera, H., & Suurpää, L. (Eds.). (2018). What politics? Youth and political engagement in Africa. Brill.

Oleinik, A. (2018). Building Ukraine from within: A sociological, institutional, and economic analysis of a nation-state in the making. Stuttgart: Ibidem Press.

Oleinik, A. & Paniotto, V. (2024). Propaganda channels and their comparative effectiveness: The case of Russia’s war in Ukraine. International Sociology, 39(3), 217–240. https://doi.org/10.1177/02685809241232637

Paniotto, V. (2024). Methods for data quality assessment in wartime surveys in Ukraine. Public opinion research in Ukraine under wartime conditions. Ukrainian Analytical Digest, 6, 9–13. [ETH Zurich Research Collection].

Pleyers, G. (2024). For a global sociology of social movements. Globalizations, 21(1), 183–195.

Pleyers, G. (2025a). A Congress to Celebrate the Resilience and Dynamism of Ukrainian Sociology. ISA President's Address to the Fifth Congress of the Sociological Association of Ukraine. ISA: Presidential Corner. Retrieved from: https://www.isa-sociology.org/uploads/imgen/2367-5th-congress-ukraine-geoffrey-pleyers.pdf

Pleyers, G. (2025b). Facts and rigour at the core of the sociological ethos. Grassroots, 19, 33–39.

Reckoning Project. (2024). Reckoning Project: our mission. Retrieved from: https://www.thereckoningproject.com

Said, E. (1984). Permission to narrate. Journal of Palestine Studies, 13(3), 27–48. https://doi.org/10.2307/2536688

Sanchez, P. (2021). Engaging in public sociology. The Philippine case. In: M. Burawoy (Ed.), The Routledge International Handbook of Public Sociology (pp. 154–172). London: Routledge.

Shalhoub-Kevorkian, N. (2024). Ashlaa’ and the genocide in Gaza: Livability against fragmented flesh. Fieldsights, 31 October. Retrieved from: www.culanth.org/fieldsights/ashlaa-and-the-genocide-in-gaza

Smith, E., Pooley, J.-A., Holmes, L., Gebbie, K., & Gershon, R. (2023). Vicarious trauma: Exploring the experiences of qualitative researchers who study traumatised populations. Disaster Medicine and Public Health Preparedness, 17, e69. https://doi.org/10.1017/dmp.2021.333

Stepanenko, V. & Stewart, S. (2025). ‘‘Who, if not us?’: Civic activism and defence in wartime Ukraine. Innovation: The European Journal of Social Science Research, 38(1), 152–168. https://doi.org/10.1080/13511610.2025.2467214

Tamer Institute for Community Education. (2019). Thirty Years of Community Education and Cultural Resistance. Ramallah: Tamer Institute for Community Education.

The Economist. (2025). Russia's summer Ukraine offensive looks like its deadliest yet. The Economist, 19 January. Retrieved from: https://www.economist.com/interactive/graphic-detail/2025/07/09/russias-summer-ukraine-offensive-looks-like-its-deadliest-so-far

Tondo, L. (2025). Israel is committing genocide in Gaza, world’s top scholars on the crime say. The Guardian, 1 September. Retrieved from: https://www.theguardian.com/world/2025/sep/01/israel-committing-genocide-in-gaza-worlds-top-scholars-on-the-say

UNHCR. (2025). 2025 Impact Report. UN: United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees. Retrieved from: https://www.unhcr.org/media/unhcr-s-2025-impact-report-response-new-emergencies-and-protracted-crises

Ward, M. (2025). How the past became a weapon of genocide in Palestine. Public Humanities, 1, e134, 1–9. https://doi.org/10.1017/pub.2025.10051

Williamson, E., Gregory, A., Abrahams, H., Aghtaie, N., Walker, S.-J., & Hester, M. (2020). Secondary trauma: Emotional safety in sensitive research. Journal of Academic Ethics, 18, 55–70. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10805-019-09348-y

Wylegala, A. (2025). Ethical and methodological challenges of documenting the war. In: P. Grzebyk & D. Uczkiewicz (Eds.), The Russian-Ukrainian conflict and war crimes: Challenges for documentation and international prosecution (pp. 145–158). Routledge.

Zayachuk, Y. (2025). Ensuring quality higher education in Ukraine in times of war. Journal of Adult and Continuing Education, 31(1), 135–159. https://doi.org/10.1177/14779714241270254

Received 31.01.2026

Accepted for publication after review 30.03.2026