Local Context and Identity Change in Post-Revolutionary Ukraine

• In Event: Identity, Belonging, and Nation-Building in Eastern Europe and Russia

Abstract

In this paper, we look at the question of how identities, language and political commitments interact with one another in the context of a political crisis and conflict. We focus specifically here on the issue of how local context shapes how people respond to dramatic political change. While much of the literature looks at individual level variables in isolation, it seems highly likely that context will matter potentially at least as much as individual traits.
To illustrate the argument, we look at data on a combination of ethnic and linguistic identities and political attitudes from a panel survey we conducted in Ukraine in December 2012 and July 2015. These data represent an unusual opportunity to study the interplay between politics and identities in the context of crisis. We find that, indeed, identity change seems driven less by individual level factors and more by local context. What we see in terms of language use and even ethnic identities is a trend towards conformity with local majorities, even while civic identities are converging as part of a national level trend. The findings are theoretically important for the study of political change. They are also highly consequential for the substantive issue of politics in Ukraine, suggesting that there may be strict limits to the project of creating an ethnically and linguistically unified Ukraine, even as the Ukrainian state grows in legitimacy and distinctiveness among its own people.

Authors

• Grigore Pop-Eleches, Princeton University

• Graeme Robertson