Mechanisms of Actualizing Certain Resources of National Resilience: From Theory to Empirics
Year: 2025
Type: book-chapter
Abstract: The epistemological platform, which combines the achievements of critical realism and the complexity paradigm, opens up new opportunities for understanding the phenomenon of the unexpected resilience of Ukraine and Ukrainians in the war against Russia. The conceptual framework built on this methodological basis suggests seeing the combination of systemic and agent activity in moments of social crisis – the bifurcation in which our country has found itself since the beginning of the enemy’s invasion. The concept of a fateful small fluctuation (an agent individual push from some social actor) and the idea of the power of self-organizing social structures that appear in a crisis situation allow us to see theoretically where the sought-after resources of social resilience are located. Empirically, this was observed in President Zelensky’s response to US President J. Biden’s offer to leave the country: “I need ammunition, not a taxi,” made during the hours of war. This led to the rise of patriotism and faith in victory, which is now often called “the unity of the nation around the flag.” The power of self-organization processes was manifested in the spontaneous and rapid emergence of volunteer military units, which determined much in terms of strengthening resilience and resistance.
Author: Lyubov Bevzenko
Language: English
Subfield: Education
Field: Social Sciences
Domain: Social Sciences
Open Access status: gold
OpenAlex ID: W7148903014