Building Ukraine from Within: A Sociological, Institutional, and Economic Analysis of a Nation-State in the Making

Ukraine drew significant media attention after the 2013–2014 Revolution of Dignity and the subsequent undeclared war waged by Russia. However, the nature of these events and their impact on the social, economic, and political development of this country remain understudied and hence often misunderstood. Building Ukraine from Within offers an inside look at the recent developments in Ukraine and poses the question of whether transition from externally to internally driven development is possible in this case.

Anton Oleinik argues that Ukraine is currently going through a revolutionary period aimed at building a nation-state and its aftermath. Ukraine is a latecomer in this process, especially compared with most other European countries. Its outcomes cannot be predicted with certainty. It is yet to be seen if a current surge in volunteerism and bottom-up civic initiatives will lead to the emergence of a viable and sustainable national democratic system in this country.

Anton Oleinik is professor of sociology at Memorial University of Newfoundland and Labrador, MUN (St. John’s, Canada) and senior research fellow at the Central Economics and Mathematics Institute of the Russian Academy of Sciences, CEMI (Moscow). He holds two doctorates, in sociology (from the EHESS in Paris, 2000) and economic sciences (Habilitation from the CEMI, 2012). As a visiting professor, he taught at Smolny College (St. Petersburg State University, Russia), the National University of Mongolia (Ulaanbaatar), and the Academy of Public Administration under the President of the Republic of Kazakhstan (Astana). He is the author of The Invisible Hand of Power: An Economic Theory of Gatekeeping (2015), Knowledge and Networking: On Communication in the Social Sciences (2014); Market as a Weapon: The Socio-Economic Machinery of Dominance in Russia (2011), and Organized Crime, Prison and Post-Soviet Societies (2003); and edited Changing the State without Changing the Model of Power (2009) and The Institutional Economics of Russia’s Transformation (2005). Oleinik is also a regular contributor to Ukrainian Pravda, Vedomosti, and RBC Daily.