Axiological space of coevals of independence of Ukraine: sociological dimensions

Abstract

The paper offers an attempt of theoretical conceptualisation of coevals’ values of independence of Ukraine, as well as carries out the approbation of the put forward theoretical positions in empirical studies with the participation of authors. Coevals of independence are the oldest age cohort of the generation born in free Ukraine, and the central line-forming concept is the concept of “generational values”. The authors emphasised that in the multiparadigmality of modern sociology, it is methodologically expedient to develop several variants of “generational values” concepts following the main lines of sociological theorising, each of which provides appropriate empirical research methods. Paper considers four possible research schemes of these concepts in the framework of the “first”, “second”, “third” sociology (based on the works of G. Zborovsky and P. Sztompka), and a scheme based on the work of K. Mannheim is singled out. Semantic modelling of the “generational values” concept of using the axiological core of the “first” sociology (or neoclassical, objectivist) metaparadigm of sociological theorising with the appropriate method of quantitative empirical research. This allowed testing the theoretical provisions of this concept in the development of methods and empirical research with the authors’ participation and a comparative analysis of sociological information with databases of the World and European Values Surveys 2020 (particularly in Ukraine). The common and distinctive features of axiological spaces of respondents aged 29–30 in the global, European, and local context are determined, the specifics of the axiological system of the older age cohort (coevals) of the generation born in 1991–1992 are revealed to emphasise the peculiarities of the value spaces of Ukraine’s independence coevals, first of all, in relation to the ratio of materialist and postmaterialist values. The general conclusion is the recorded ambivalence of the axiological space of thirty-year-old respondents with barely noticeable shifts towards the older generations in the context of the prevailing trend of transition to post-materialist values.