Browsing by Subject "Ukraine"

Now showing 1 - 4 of 4
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    Democracy in Ukraine after the Orange Revolution : youth activists' insights on past events, present efficacy, and future prospects
    (2008-09) Shyyan, Vitaliy
    This study investigates the democratic developments in Ukraine beginning with the 2004 Orange Revolution. After its break-off from the Soviet empire, Ukraine began democratizing its systems but continues to struggle with remnants of its communist past. The non-violent Orange Revolution was a democratic breakthrough in the recent history of the country, and youth activists were key agents in the revolution. Their perceptions of the revolutionary events, political self-efficacy as one of the identifiers of civil society, and futures of democracy in Ukraine will help to depict the socio-political climate inside the country and in Europe. The dissertation employs three research methods: content analysis of extensive testimonials written by 19 youth activists (to generate information about youth activists' socio-political experiences during and after the revolution), a survey of 76 youth activists (to collect demographic and political efficacy data), and Ethnographic Futures Research interviews with nine youth leaders (to extrapolate futures of democracy). Study findings on post-revolutionary developments are composed into 14 semantic themes that summarize youth activists' perceptions. Political self-efficacy results indicate high levels of internal and task-oriented efficacy among youth activists. This study also provides extrapolations of optimistic, pessimistic, and most probable futures of the Ukrainian democracy as projected by youth leaders.
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    Forced migration processes and global refugees at the borders of Europe in Ukraine
    (2014-08) Rechitsky, Raphi Konstantin
    As of 2013, nearly half of the world's refugees stay in camps adjacent to countries of origin, largely in the Global South. Yet it is those people on the move able to seek asylum near Global North countries that have become objects of control and exclusion. This dissertation explores this asylum paradox with an extended case study of refugee migration to Ukraine, asking why do refugees stay or move again from this buffer country to the European Union (EU). It does so by exploring the impact of social network formation, household resources, and international refugee policy on the capacity, motivation, and execution of either onward mobility or settlement. Using interviews and observation in three Ukrainian cities with urban refugees from 25 countries, triangulated with legal aid case files, this project shows that questions of social action, such as why people move, are best answered by taking seriously first person narrative research methodologies. Specifically, findings demonstrate (1) the security of social networks drives capacity to move or stay; (2) access to different resources influences exit, voice, or adaptation; and (3) refugees seek to settle or move on regardless of EU-funded humanitarian policy for their local integration. This study challenges the transnational paradigm in migration studies, bridging literatures on how migration is sustained with political sociology and refugee studies. The contribution links micro and macro levels in the sociology of migration, building on recent studies of migration trust networks, Bourdieu's view on the transfer of capital in everyday life, and the role of international institutions in the extraterritorial "remote control" of asylum.
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    Silha Bulletin 2024 Winter/Spring
    (Silha Center for the Study of Media Ethics and Law; Hubbard School of Journalism and Mass Communication, 2024-06-01) Kirtley, Jane; Liston, Ryan; Harrington, Mallory; Tate, Jack; Hargrove, Elaine
    The Silha Bulletin is a publication of the Silha Center for the Study of Media Ethics and Law, published three times a year. The Silha Center is a research center located within the Hubbard School of Journalism and Mass Communication at the Twin Cities campus of the University of Minnesota.
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    Theoretical substantiation of trip length distribution for home-based work trips in urban transit systems
    (Journal of Transport and Land Use, 2018) Horbachov, Peter; Svichynskyi, Stanislav
    Modern approaches to the modeling of transport demand imply the use of calibration procedures during the origin-destination (O-D) matrix estimation or transit assignment. These procedures lead to misrepresenting generated and attracted trips or changing the trip length distribution (TLD). It means that the methods of transport planning can be improved by means of determination, validation and implementation of the TLD to calculate the O-D matrix. The analysis of research results in the field of mass transit reveals an explicit similarity between TLD in different cities and the gamma distribution. It points to general regularities in various systems of mass transit that lead to the similarity in TLD. The regularities are determined by studying the spatial distribution of mass transit stops, which are considered trip origins and destinations. The experimental research was conducted in 10 Ukrainian cities using probability theory methods.