Alexander Seminar Kyiv

Announcement from the program organizers at National University of Kyiv-Mohyla Academy:

The Strong Program in Cultural Sociology: Analyzing Meanings of Contemporary Social Phenomena

Seminar in Cultural Sociology
Date: Monday, January 26
Time: 18:00 (Kyiv time)
Venue: National University of Kyiv-Mohyla Academy
Format: online

A Zoom link will be sent to all the registered participants. LINK TO REGISTRATION FORM

This seminar introduces the Strong Program in Cultural Sociology as a key paradigm within contemporary sociological theory and argues for its particular relevance to the Ukrainian sociological context today.

We proceed from the assumption that the current historical moment in Ukraine - marked by full-scale war, profound social transformations, collective trauma, and moral reorientation - demands a broad and reflexive methodological toolkit. Ukrainian sociology has already produced substantial and methodologically rigorous empirical research documenting these transformations.

At the same time, rich empirical evidence raises a crucial theoretical question: how can sociologists adequately interpret the meanings, narratives, moral frameworks, and symbolic boundaries that underpin these measurable changes? How do societies make sense of war, loss, resistance, solidarity, and transformation - not only structurally, but symbolically and culturally?

It is precisely at this analytical juncture that the Strong Program in Cultural Sociology, developed by Jeffrey C. Alexander and Philip Smith, offers indispensable tools. Central to this approach is the insistence that culture should be treated as an autonomous variable, rather than as a dependent reflection of social structures or material conditions. Through a deep hermeneutic methodology, cultural sociology reconstructs meaning structures, symbolic codes, binaries, narratives, and moral schemas that organize social life and shape social action. As Alexander has repeatedly argued, culture cannot be reduced to a derivative dimension of social life; it must be analyzed in its own terms if sociologists are to grasp how social realities are lived, interpreted, and contested.

Key speakers:

  • Jeffrey C. Alexander, Professor of Sociology, Yale University, will deliver a short lecture on The Strong Program: Studying the Meanings of Social Life, outlining the foundations of the Strong Program in Cultural Sociology and its relevance for analyzing contemporary social phenomena in times of crisis and transformation.
  • Nadya Jaworsky, Professor, Department of Sociology, Masaryk University, will discuss cultural sociology and its application in the study of migration, focusing on meaning-making processes, symbolic boundaries, and cultural narratives.
  • Anna Osypchuk, Associate Professor, Department of Sociology, National University of Kyiv-Mohyla Academy, will reflect on studying experiences, identities, and identity and trauma narratives, resilience, and social cohesion in the wartime Ukraine and discuss the challenges and analytical potential that cultural sociology provides for it.

Moderator: Olga Zhmurko, doctoral student in the Sociological and Population Studies program at Masaryk University.