The content and dynamics of representations of Ukrainian society about national symbols
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Abstract
The relevance of the article. Nowadays, it’s very important to analyze the phenomena of socio-psychological nature that being on the border of conscious and unconscious allow to reproduce politically significant semantic characteristics and trends of social development, which remain mostly «invisible» during public opinion polls and studies of verbally expressed preferences and beliefs. Public perceptions of national symbols, the study of which has not yet become sufficiently widespread, are among these phenomena.
The present paper aims to: 1) reproduce the content and dynamics of Ukrainians’ ideas about national symbols according to the obtained empirical data;
2) assess on this basis the state of symbolic consciousness of Ukrainian society; 3) give psychology-based recommendations for its further formation.
Method and methodology. Using theoretical analysis, three main modes (types) of national symbols were identified: materialized, personalized, and dramatized symbols. Ukrainians’ perceptions of these types of symbols have been reconstructed according to monitoring data that have been carried out since the early 2000s. Monitoring has been conducted through public opinion surveys in a sample representing the adult population of Ukraine aged 18 and older. As a rule, 2,000 respondents have been interviewed in all geographical regions of Ukraine, since 2015 – except for the Autonomous Republic of Crimea and the certain areas of Donetsk and Luhansk regions captured by separatists.
The results show that Ukrainians’ perceptions of national symbols over the past two decades have become much more unanimous and intense; the range of objects covered by them has significantly expanded. As a result, the symbolic consciousness of society has acquired the signs of primary formation, a clear state content and has become more semantically rich and politically mature, but at the same time its formation is still far from complete. There are currently few objects in the symbolic space of Ukrainian society that are perceived as national symbols by the vast majority of the population in all regions. This space is largely impersonal and inactive; it lacks the universally recognized personalities and dramatized symbols to provide an emphasis on patriotic sentiments in society and generate new commemorative practices. It is shown that one of the main reasons for the insufficient formation of the symbolic consciousness of Ukrainians is an ineffective policy of historical memory.
Practical significance. Based on the obtained data, it is suggested that the potential for spontaneous formation of the symbolic consciousness of the Ukrainian people has exhausted itself to date. Its further development requires a set of targeted efforts. The need to start a state-coordinated system of measures for the formation of symbolic representations of Ukrainians is substantiated.
Prospects for further elaboration of the problem are seen in the development of strategies and technologies that take into account regional and generational aspects of the current state and trends in the dynamics of symbolic consciousness of Ukrainian society in the process of its formation.
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