Paper short abstract:

In my presentation I would like to focus on affective and emotional dimensions of social reality of Ukrainian state and look closer on practices of various social actors aimed at crafting the sense of citizenship and egagements with state.

Paper long abstract:

Recent dramatic events in Ukraine left its mark not only on researches on social transformation in post-socialist context, but also on a question of affective dimension of citizenship and engagement with state. Many very different narratives followed the question of what does it mean to be both Ukrainian and citizen. In a tangle of discourses of democratization, nationality, modernity and westerness/easterness, many people struggle to find their own sense of belonging to the state in which they experienced often very abrupt shifts of meanings in components of national imaginary they feel they could not follow. This relate in particulary to inhabitants of eastern parts of the country, where political and military conflict has been reshaping the senses of 'being a citizen' in both political and nationalistic terms very roughly. In my presentation I would like to look on this affective and emotional dimensions of social reality of state and how different social actors - such as NGO, civil society activists and also people not engaged in civic activities - try to influence and challenge the boundaries of belonging to and engagement with state through practices based on discourses mentioned above. This process, often mentioned as 'citizen-crafting' focused on (re)creation of 'new' civil society and a 'new' citizen in the context of eastern Ukraine, will be my main point of interest during the presentation.