Discursive (re)production of social cleavages in the 2019 Ukrainian parliamentary elections

ABSTRACT

This article studies the problem of discursive (re)production of social cleavages in the politics of divided societies. Through the discourse analysis of communication of a wide variety of political parties, politicians, and actors during the 2019 parliamentary election in Ukraine, we supplement and clarify the theory of cleavages in its application to Ukraine and similar societies with deep division and armed conflict. The results show that cleavages are (re)produced in different ways in the discourses during the 2019 Ukrainian parliamentary elections. The sharp cleavages are articulated in a simplified form, while the fundamental cleavages are masked by discursive means, which, overall, blocks the overcoming of fundamental cleavages. Our results indicate that it is necessary to supplement the theory of cleavages with discursive components of separation and distinguishing between instrumental and fundamental cleavages.

KEYWORDS:

• cleavages
• articulation
• discourse analysis
• divided society
• electoral discourse
• Ukraine

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

Notes

1. Details of this discourse analysis are described in (Lytovchenko et al. 2021, 124–129).

Additional information

Funding

The work was supported by the NORDRUSS Plus programm [287620]; NORRUSS Plus programme [287620].

Notes on contributors

Oksana Nekhaienko

Oksana Nekhaienko is a Ph.D. student and senior lecturer at the Department of Political Sociology, School of Sociology, V. N. Karazin Kharkiv National University. She authored of more than ten scientific articles, encyclopedic dictionary entries, and international monographs’ sections. Her research interests include historical sociology, language and discourse, and minority issues.

Daria Yashkina

Daria Yashkina is a Ph.D. student and junior researcher at the Department of Political Sociology at the School of Sociology of V. N. Karazin Kharkiv National University, Ukraine. Her research interests include political sociology, comparative research, social changes and lifestyles.

Artem Lytovchenko

Artem Lytovchenko is a Ph.D. (candidate of sciences) in Sociology, Associated Professor at the Department of Political Sociology, School of Sociology, V. N. Karazin Kharkiv National University, Ukraine. Author of more than twenty scientific articles, encyclopedic dictionary entries, international monographs’ sections. His research interests include political sociology, critical sociology, political discourse, cleavages.

Dmytro Boiko

Dmitriy Boiko, Ph.D, is and Assistant Professor at the Department of Political Sociology, School of Sociology, V. N. Karazin Kharkiv National University, Ukraine. He authored of more than ten scientific articles. His research interests include political sociology, critical sociology, political discourse, cleavages.

Ruslan Zaporozhchenko

Ruslan Zaporozhchenko is a Ph.D. student and lecturer of the Department of Political Science of School of Philosophy, and junior researcher of the Department of Political Sociology of School of Sociology of V. N. Karazin Kharkiv National University, Ukraine. His research interests include political sociology, critical sociology, political discourse, cleavages.