Images of everyday life under the occupation (on the example of Southern Ukraine)

Abstract

The article analyzes life in the occupation of the population of Southern Ukraine from the standpoint of sociology of everyday life. The author examines everyday reality by integrating the theoretical approaches of A. Schütz, T. Berger and P. Lukman, as well as the ethnomethodology of H. Garfinkel. At the centre of the researcher’s attention are the problems of social divisions in the de-occupied territories of Southern Ukraine. Based on empirical data obtained in conducting in-depth interviews with residents of the liberated districts of the Kherson region, the researcher characterizes the images of everyday life through which people perceive the beginning of the large-scale Russian invasion, life under occupation and the return of the Ukrainian army. It is noted that with the arrival of the enemy, the surrounding world turns from a close and understandable one into a foreign and dangerous one, the available everyday knowledge loses its relevance, the disruption of the usual way of life is characterized by a powerful emotional outburst and the collapse of social activity. The construction of strategies for survival under new conditions and the creation of accessible knowledge of military times begins. The new subjective reality is perceived through visual and acoustic images – explosions, the roar of military equipment, foreigners in green camouflage, the alarming barking of dogs, constant and all-encompassing fear. At the same time, there is a narrowing of social space (a tightly closed gate), violations by the occupiers of the boundaries of public and private (searches day and night), the return of archaic social practices (extortion on the roads), the emergence of new forms of social adaptation (the “two mobile” rule), powerful mechanisms are at work in the economic robbery of seized lands (“scissor prices” for local agricultural products and imported goods). The key characteristic of the post-occupation picture of the life world is the awareness that the war will continue for a long time and it is time to build one’s life in a new way. At the same time, it is noted that the inability of the authorities to bring numerous collaborators to justice harms the stabilization of the situation in the region.