The citizens’ self-identification in the social structure of ukrainian society
Abstract
The article presents the results of the dynamics of social class identification research among the adult population of Ukraine. The individuals’ class positions were identified as the answers to openended question, unlike to popular in the Ukrainian sociology approach to identify the social characteristics of individuals, while using different forms of closed questions with predefined list of alternatives. Comparing the empirical data of 2001 and 2014 surveys it was found that there have been significant changes in the class selfidentification, if we analyze the answers to the openended question. The dominant in the early 2000s conventionally called «Soviet» scheme of social identity, when about 60% of employed adults identifed themselves with the typical Soviet classes or strata (the working class, peasants, intellectuals), has given way to postSoviet or proWestern subjective stratification centered around the middle class. There was a significant, almost threefold increasing of the employed adults’ identification with the middle class. Also there was a significant reduction of class identification with the working class, peasants and servants. The subjective approach to the definition of social-class membership of adult men and women is a generally recognized component of modern class and stratification analysis, including in domestic sociology. Such an approach is characteristic primarily of studies centered around criteria for definition and scale of the middle class. However, despite the usual appeal of domestic scholars to the subjective class self-determination, little attention is paid to comparing the results obtained, especially when it comes to empirical data, based on the use of various scales and types of questions in questionnaires, in particular open and closed, with the help of which the class self-identification of the adult population and its dynamics during the last decades is determined.References
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