In the City’s Shadows: How Homeless People in Odesa Survive During Wartime
Odesa has long had a reputation as a city of drifters and seekers. Its mild southern climate and historic status as a “free port” made it a magnet for refugees of various nationalities, the destitute, those in search of shelter or work—and for many, a place where spending the night outdoors felt less brutal. Since […]
Land Stripped of the Right to Harvest: War and the Crisis of Small-Scale Farming in Ukraine
War leaves its mark on everything: land, water, and people. But perhaps its consequences are felt most acutely by small-scale agricultural producers. In this article, we examine how the war has changed Ukrainian agriculture, focusing on the needs of small farms, which were actively developing before the war but are now facing an unprecedented crisis. […]
“Drill, Baby, Drill”: How the Extraction and Export of Critical Raw Materials Can Exacerbate Ukraine’s Resource Trap
Interest in Ukraine’s mineral wealth has surged against the backdrop of global competition for critical raw materials needed for the transition to green energy and new technologies. This transition, presented as a path to sustainable development and the fight against climate change, is increasingly masking a fierce geopolitical struggle over resources, with various players striving […]
“We’ll Hope That Someday We’ll Be Remembered”: Social Workers in Times of War
Care work is immensely valuable to society, yet for centuries, it has largely remained behind the scenes—hidden behind the closed doors of homes and social institutions. Globally, women and girls perform three-quarters of unpaid caregiving at home, and more than two-thirds of professional caregivers are also women. Ukraine is no exception: the labor market in […]
Bakhmut-Kyiv-Prague: Industrialization, Literary Modernism and Ukrainian Nation-Building Across Interwar Borders
My lecture[1] discusses Ukrainian literary modernism from the perspective of various socialist visions of modernity and is aimed to combine different cases from entangled Ukrainian history of the interwar period through the figure of literary critic, politician and sociologist Mykyta Shapoval-Sriblians’kyi. I propose to consider socialism, including the radical Bolshevik one, – as a distinct […]
The Beginning of the Russian Invasion in the Spring of 2014: An Interview With Serhiy Kudelia About the Seizure of Cities and the Taming of Elites
On February 24, 2022, Russia launched a full-scale invasion of Ukraine. However, this was only a new stage, as the conflict dates back to 2014, when Russia seized Crimea and the armed conflict in Donbas began. Russia's role therein had been debated until 2022, once the invasion revealed that it was a Russian operation against […]
Austerity or Raising the Minimum Wage: Catarina Martins on Portugal’s Experience
Catarina Martins was the national coordinator of the Left Block, a democratic socialist political party in Portugal, from 2012 until 2023. She was elected a Member of the European Parliament in the 2024 European election and sits in the Left group in the European Parliament — GUE/NGL. Catariana has a training in linguistics and a […]
Groups of Resistance: How Ukrainians Protect Their Interests from ‘Arbitrariness from Above’
Both the war and the economic problems have led to the introduction of a number of controversial reforms in the social sphere. A new labour law has made life for employees significantly more difficult. Healthcare and education reforms are also noticeable, with hospitals and schools often being closed on account of these reforms. Those and […]
Trade Unions, Deregulation, and Social Dialogue: An Interview with Vitaliy Dudin
Vitaliy Dudyn is one of those lawyers for whom the idea of fighting for justice defines his professional practice. This shouldn’t surprise us, as it is the foundation of any legal profession. However, what makes Vitaliy an outstanding lawyer is his understanding that achieving individual justice is impossible without a collective struggle for rights. As […]
Social Reproduction, Destruction and Adaptation: Care Infrastructure and Networks in Ukraine during the War
Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine since February 2022, as well as both national and international policies to deal with the impact of the war, have surely influenced the spaces and networks of social reproduction, both in Ukraine and in refuge. The destruction and resulting displacement, neoliberal austerity, unprecedented border regulations, and refugee policies, have all […]
