"Because It Hits you a Bit": Women, Social Change and Collective Trauma after the Collapse of the Soviet Union in Ukraine
(2014) SIMV21 20141Sociology
Master of Science in Social Studies of Gender
Graduate School
- Abstract
- This thesis examines social change and the collective trauma for women in Ukraine after the collapse of the Soviet Union by investigating general subjective wellbeing at the intersection of gender, generation and ethnicity. It argues that women had a special position during and after the Soviet regime due to the existing familialistic discourses both in the Soviet Union and independent Ukraine, and therefore experienced social change differently.
The work uses Sztompka’s and Alexander’s theoretical conceptualization of social change and collective trauma, but also incorporates the notion of subjective wellbeing in order to study the social change and collective trauma on both the structural and individual levels. Hence the unique... (More) - This thesis examines social change and the collective trauma for women in Ukraine after the collapse of the Soviet Union by investigating general subjective wellbeing at the intersection of gender, generation and ethnicity. It argues that women had a special position during and after the Soviet regime due to the existing familialistic discourses both in the Soviet Union and independent Ukraine, and therefore experienced social change differently.
The work uses Sztompka’s and Alexander’s theoretical conceptualization of social change and collective trauma, but also incorporates the notion of subjective wellbeing in order to study the social change and collective trauma on both the structural and individual levels. Hence the unique contribution of the thesis is that it connects the large-scale social change to its individually measured impact in the form of subjective wellbeing and a sense of trauma.
The first part of the thesis assesses individual and societal factors influencing general wellbeing of the Ukrainian population as a whole, based on a quantitative analysis of the HITT (‘Health in Time of Transition’) data base from 2012. The second part explores the significance and meaning of the social change through qualitative interviews of Ukrainian and Russian women in Ukraine.
The main findings show that most of the respondents associate different aspects of their life, such as economic situation, health and social environment, with distress which may indicate the existence of a collective trauma. The qualitative findings also illustrate the existence of different types of collective trauma for Ukrainian and Russian women. Economic wellbeing, distress and ethnicity are found to be associated with the collective trauma and shape the strategies for dealing with the social change after the collapse of the Soviet Union. Women are found to be active agents of the social change and differ between generations. The older generations seem to be suffering more distress than younger people, and have been affected the most by the social change. (Less)
Please use this url to cite or link to this publication:
http://lup.lub.lu.se/student-papers/record/4457874
- author
- Voytiv, Sofia LU
- supervisor
- organization
- course
- SIMV21 20141
- year
- 2014
- type
- H2 - Master's Degree (Two Years)
- subject
- keywords
- social change, collective trauma, women, post-Soviet Ukraine
- language
- English
- id
- 4457874
- date added to LUP
- 2014-06-16 10:14:39
- date last changed
- 2015-01-26 09:00:58
@misc{4457874,
abstract = {{This thesis examines social change and the collective trauma for women in Ukraine after the collapse of the Soviet Union by investigating general subjective wellbeing at the intersection of gender, generation and ethnicity. It argues that women had a special position during and after the Soviet regime due to the existing familialistic discourses both in the Soviet Union and independent Ukraine, and therefore experienced social change differently.
The work uses Sztompka’s and Alexander’s theoretical conceptualization of social change and collective trauma, but also incorporates the notion of subjective wellbeing in order to study the social change and collective trauma on both the structural and individual levels. Hence the unique contribution of the thesis is that it connects the large-scale social change to its individually measured impact in the form of subjective wellbeing and a sense of trauma.
The first part of the thesis assesses individual and societal factors influencing general wellbeing of the Ukrainian population as a whole, based on a quantitative analysis of the HITT (‘Health in Time of Transition’) data base from 2012. The second part explores the significance and meaning of the social change through qualitative interviews of Ukrainian and Russian women in Ukraine.
The main findings show that most of the respondents associate different aspects of their life, such as economic situation, health and social environment, with distress which may indicate the existence of a collective trauma. The qualitative findings also illustrate the existence of different types of collective trauma for Ukrainian and Russian women. Economic wellbeing, distress and ethnicity are found to be associated with the collective trauma and shape the strategies for dealing with the social change after the collapse of the Soviet Union. Women are found to be active agents of the social change and differ between generations. The older generations seem to be suffering more distress than younger people, and have been affected the most by the social change.}},
author = {{Voytiv, Sofia}},
language = {{eng}},
note = {{Student Paper}},
title = {{"Because It Hits you a Bit": Women, Social Change and Collective Trauma after the Collapse of the Soviet Union in Ukraine}},
year = {{2014}},
}