Institute of Sociology NASU

Breaking the boundaries: How war redefines the sociologist and sociology (case of Ukraine)

stmm. 2025 (4): 29-50

DOI https://doi.org/10.15407/sociology2025.04.029

Full text: https://stmm.in.ua/archive/ukr/2025-4/4.pdf

OLGA KUTSENKO, Professor, Doctor of Sciences (Sociology), Principal Research Fellow, Institute of Sociology, National Academy of Science of Ukraine (12, Shovkovichna St., Kyiv, Ukraine, 01021); Philipp Schwartz Fellow (Alexander von Humboldt Foundation), Technical University Berlin (Berlin, Germany)

olga.kutsenko.ua28@gmail.com; olga.kutsenko@tu-berlin.de

https://orcid.org/0000-0001-9921-0654

SCOPUS ID: 55824755400

Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine in 2022 posed an existential challenge not only to Ukrainian society but also to sociology as a scientific discipline. This article explores how war erases conventional boundaries between academia and society, researcher and participant, neutrality and engagement, theory and action. It focuses on the triple crisis of Ukrainian sociology — institutional, epistemological, and ethical. Drawing on the frameworks of Pierre Bourdieu, Michel Foucault and postcolonialism approach, the article develops the concept of “hybrid knowledge”, which balances scientific rigor, civic responsibility, and ethical involvement. It examines the adaptation of academic institutions under wartime conditions, shifts in research agendas, methodological compromises, and the expanding public role of sociologists. The war has accelerated the decolonial turn, foregrounded the transnational dimension of inquiry, and catalyzed the search for a new conceptual language to capture Ukrainian realities. Ukrainian sociology emerges as a sociology of action — a form of knowledge that resists, bears witness, and sustains collective subjectivity amid historical catastrophe.

Keywords: sociology of war; hybrid knowledge; epistemological crisis; postcolonial perspective; social resilience; academic engagement; Ukrainian sociology

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Received 09.08.2025