Volunteers drive social change in wartime Ukraine

Dr Olga Boichak A year into Russia's full-scale invasion, a new study by Dr Olga Boichak has found ordinary citizens who volunteer their time and resources can bring about social and political change. Research published in an international peer-reviewed journal Cultural Sociology , has found the large-scale collective effort of hundreds of thousands of Ukrainian volunteers throughout the Russian-Ukrainian war has seen a fundamental reshaping of the relationship between the Ukrainian state and its citizens, as well as a widening definition of what makes, or can be considered, a strong civic society. Dr Olga Boichak , sociologist and lecturer in digital cultures in the University of Sydney's Discipline of Media and Communications, interviewed Ukrainian citizen volunteers to understand what motivates their efforts in helping Ukraine resist the Russian invasion. "Volunteering is never just about helping those immediately affected by the war," Dr Boichak said. "When thousands of people engage in daily acts of solidarity and care, they transform the meaning of citizenship and foster the emergence of a strong and agile civil society". "Wars are significant crisis events that blur distinctions between military and civilian, public and private, volunteering and activism, as we see from these emerging forms of collective behaviour in Ukraine," Dr Boichak said. The study, conducted in collaboration with sociologist Dr Brian McKernan from Syracuse University, analysed the volunteers' reflections to understand how they made sense of their involvement in the war, and what they were hoping to achieve.