Ukrainian Society During Wartime: Grassroots Resilience as a Mechanism for Social Transformation

This volume offers a timely, empirically grounded analysis of how Ukrainian society adapts and transforms under the strain of full-scale war. It reconceptualises resilience not as passive endurance, but as a dynamic process involving individuals, communities, and institutions. Focusing on bottom-up responses, contributors examine how resilience is enacted through local governance, civic activism, youth agency, linguistic identity, and social inclusion.

Based on qualitative and quantitative research - much of it conducted during wartime - the chapters demonstrate how decentralisation, civic engagement, and shifting social attitudes have enabled both resistance and adaptation. While the focus remains on societal responses, the volume also reflects on the methodological and ethical complexities of researching under conditions of war and suggests context-sensitive approaches to studying social resilience amid disruption.

This book is essential reading for scholars of Eastern Europe, conflict and resilience studies, sociology, political science, and governance, as well as for policymakers, NGOs, and practitioners working in crisis contexts.

Alberto Veira-Ramos teaches courses on Demography, Population Theory, and Introduction to Quantitative Research Methods at Carlos III University of Madrid, Spain. He is co-editor of the book Ukraine in Transformation (Palgrave Macmillan, 2020).

Kateryna Ivashchenko-Stadnik is Senior Research Fellow at the Institute of Sociology (Department of Research Methods and Methodology) of the National Academy of Sciences of Ukraine & CARA Fellow at Institute of Advanced Study, Durham University, UK.

TetianaLiubyva is Research Fellow at the Institute of Sociology (Department of Research Methods and Methodology) of the National Academy of Sciences of Ukraine and Director of Research and Learning at IREX (till March 2025).