From Social Uprising to Legal Form: Rethinking transformation in Ukraine

This July and August 2017, I will be conducting ethnographic research as part of a larger research project that uses Ukraine’s Maidan/ Revolution of   Dignity   as   a   case   study   to  open   up  the  definition, analysis   and   methodology of transformation and transitional law. 

This project involves a mixed methodology of qualitative interviews and critical analysis of existing literature to re-visit theoretical frameworks used to assess transition, transformation, social movement and its jurisprudence. 

The interviews, or rather encounter conversations that I will be conducting this summer, will serve to ground the theory that is being developed around the aftermath of social movement and revolution.  Rather than focus on formal governance or legal administration, the conversations/interviews aim to illustrate how transformation, transition  and  change  are  felt,  or  not,  from  the  perspectives  of  people  at  work. 

I use this prism to move away from more conventional approaches that focus on assessing social change through political, legal and economic ‘transitions’. Problematically transition or transformation can be uncritically measured according to implementation of internationally imposed austerity programmes and foreign investment projects. My project urges alternative thinking of alternatives to Ukraine's current development and ongoing crises.

This summer's (2017) project aims to collect narrative, ethnographic, situated and anarchic perspectives on Ukraine's current transition, transformation post-uprising, and ongoing conflict.

Rough timeline:

July 15-July 29: Kyiv

July 29-August 3: Kharkiv

August 3-15: Lviv

August 14-28: Odesa

I would welcome anyone to contact me who may be interested in participating in a conversation or feedback.

Dr Anastasia Tataryn

Lecturer in Law  School of Law and Social Justice 

University of Liverpool; a.tataryn@liverpool.ac.uk

This project is made possible with the generous support of the Alexander and Helen Kulahyn Endowment Fund, and the Dr I. Iwanciw and Dr M. Mysko-Iwanciw Fund, Canadian Institute of Ukrainian Studies, University of Alberta. And the Research Development Fund, School of Law and Social Justice, University of Liverpool.