Regional specificity of identity orientations in the socio-political dimension of society

Statement of the problem in general. The modern socio-political space in Ukrainian society is conditioned by the influence of both global and local factors, which contributes to the intensification of changes in identity orientations in the public consciousness. This is especially true for the formation and representation of political and civic orientations of identity, which act as important components of a more general category - social identity. Therefore, the problem of studying the orientations and identification strategies of the population of Ukraine is actualized in order to predict the further development of the socio-political sphere, and the strengthening of the factor of regionalism in the reproduction of socio-political practices contributes to the need to study the regional specificity of orientation strategies for the formation of identity, represented in the public consciousness as a discourse of internal socio-political political communication in Ukrainian society

Analysis of recent research and publications. Foreign works (B. Wilkenfeld, J. Habermas, B. Dakitt, B. Durie, M. Lenzi, K. Richardson,D. Garth, J. Younis, H. Tejfel, J. Turner) devoted their works to the study of personality identity, and domestic (I. Vasyutinsky, A. Golodenko, I. Zhadan, N. Ivanova, S. Poznyak, O. Sknar, L. Snigur, N. Khazratova) scientists.

The modern methodological foundations of the scientific analysis of the political < на-аи-шопк of identity are laid down in the works of G. Almond and S. Verba, a significant contribution was m^de by A. Vatoropin, I. Vorobyeva, D. Gavra, G. Diligensky, E. Gohvakba, V. Matusovich, G. Pirog, O. Reznik, V. Ruzhentseva and others. Both foreign (Yu. Gabermas, J. Yunis, N. Bezgina, T. Vodolazhskaya, N. Galaktionova,) and domestic (D. Arabadzhiev, P. Gomosiaii A. Karas, A. A. Kolodiy, I. Petirovskaya, N. Sawlyuк, M. Slyusarevsky) scientists. However, despite a fairly wide range of studies of identity orientations, today it is extremely necessary to constantly monitor changes in identity orientations in the socio-political dimension due to their regional specifics.

Formulation of the objectives of the article. The purpose of the study is to empirically explore the regional specifics of identity orientation in the socio-political dimension in Ukrainian society.

Presentation of the main material of the study. The concept that defines the subject of this study is the concept of «identity», the definition of which, in combination with the accompanying terms, will make it possible to give a vector for the study of identity orientations in the public mind, taking into account their regional specifics.

Identity acts in the form of a kind of selfpresentation, in which one person or a community of people evaluate their position in the context of the outside world. As A. Neumann notes, «identity is not a given, but a constantly formed and reformed attitude within a certain discourse» [11, p. 249]. In general, most definitions of the concept of «identity» indicate that it is mostly understood as the result of the process of identification and selfidentification, which contributes to the formation of the social self as a subject of social interaction. That is why we can talk about the social aspect of identity - social identity.

Social identity is the result of the process of social identification, which is understood as the process of defining oneself through membership in a social group. It performs important functions both at the group and personal levels: it is thanks to this process that society gets the opportunity to include individuals in the system of social ties and relationships, and the individual realizes the basic need for group membership, provides protection, opportunities for self-realization, evaluation by others and impact on the group.

H. Tejfel and J. Turner defined social identity as aspects of a person's «І-image» that arise from the social categories to which he feels he belongs [7]. The theory of social identity is based on the following general provisions: 1) people strive to maintain or increase their self-esteem, that is, they strive for a positive self-concept; 2) social groups or categories and membership in them are associated with a positive or negative value meaning, therefore, social identity can be positive or negative based on the assessments of those groups that participate in the creation of a person's social identity; 3) the assessment of one's own group is determined in relation to other specific groups by the method of social comparison of important parameters and features.

In the theory of social identity, H. T^^jzf^l and J. Turner introduce three basic concepts: social categorization, social comparison, social identity. Social categorization is seen as the classification of the social environment in terms of members of certain groups in such a way that is meaningful to the individual and acts as a cognitive process «in which the systematic transfer of classification to measurable stimuli leads to a perceptual emphasis on intra-class similarities and inter-class differences along this dimension» [12, p. 13]. The process that transforms perceptual and cognitive features in action is social comparison. It provides intergroup differentiation based on the advantage of the ingroup (the group in which the individual is included) over the outgroups (groups that do not matter to the individual; with which he does not coordinate his actions). Through comparison, the social identity of a person is achieved, according to the authors, this is «individual knowledge that a person belongs to a certain social group, along with some emotional and value personal meaning of group membership» [12, p. 14].

So, the concept of social identity interprets the processes of its formation based on the basic needs for social belonging to communities and social groups that encourage individuals to social categorization, and at the level of social abstraction in the process of categorization, personal and social components of identity are part of one whole. Identity can be represented as a construct, described through such categories as individual identity (as a cognitive, emotional-evaluative and behavioral system of the I about myself representations), social identity (as belonging to a group, community, class, etc.), societal identity (as a self-attitude based on constantly changing psychosocial factors). Moreover, social identity covers various spheres of an individual's existence in society, including in the socio-political dimension through the formation of political and civic orientations of identity.

In the context of this study, of particular importance is the regional specificity of the identity orientations of individuals and social groups living in a certain social space and the characteristics of the socio-political life of the region.

In domestic scientific opinion, the regional specificity of identity orientations is determined through the understanding of the region as a social space in a certain territory. For example, I. Kononov notes: «Region is the main subnational territorial unit of industrial and information societies, associated with the existence of special territorial communities that are formed with the localization of a cluster of practices during the development of specific geoterritories» [3, p. 54]. I. Sidor, in his own conceptual approach, defines the social space of the region through two main groups of conditions that determine the social interaction characteristics of the community of people living on its territory: first, natural, climatic and economic conditions; secondly, the specificity of sociocultural features (features of historical development, features of the social structure of the population, linguistic and confessional features, political guidelines, features of social behavior, etc.) [10, p. 165-166].

Consequently, the region acts as an intersection of different spaces, in particular: territorial, political, social, economic, functional, institutional, environmental and information. Any region has a number of characteristics common to all regions, such as the presence of a territory, a regional community, economic infrastructure and political institutions. Moreover, the formation of a region and a regional community as an integral condition for its existence is impossible without considering regional identity, which includes emotional attachment to a particular region, a sense of closeness and kinship with it. After all, the place (territory) plays an important role in the formation of identity, since this process has internal (goes on in the mind of the individual) and external (manifested in the system of social practices of individuals) dimensions.

In the socio-political dimension, identity orientations have a fairly significant regional specificity, as pointed out by Ukrainian researchers. Thus, M. Kraskovskaya notes that regional fragmentation as a strong influence of regional identities occupies a rather significant place in the public consciousness of Ukrainians, which leads to a multi-vector sociopolitical orientations [4, pp. 154-160].

Among the features of the identity orientations formation in the socio-political space of society, V. Malinin noted such factors as: a high level of regional identification; the presence of «Soviet identity» and its predominance in certain territories; social and economic motives in the process of self-identification, due to the low level of income among the majority of the population; correlation of national identity (verbal, cultural) with the ethnic composition of a certain area population; ambivalence of identities as a manifestation of «split consciousness», «double identity»; the specificity of speech, ethnic, confessional orientation has a regional dimension [6, p. 198].

Therefore, we can talk about the importance of an individual's belonging to a certain regional social space in the process of forming and presenting identity orientations in the socio-political dimension.

Structural and content features and regional specifics of the identity orientations of the Ukrainian electorate and their semantic load were revealed through determining the degree of selfidentification of the respondents with certain social groups (by socio-demographic, professional, religious-ethnic, civil and political characteristics) and psychological attitudes using the pilot method. sociological survey among the potential electorate of Ukraine (Zaporizhzhia, Lviv and Kiev regions) (August-September 2021).

The survey involved 500 respondents aged 18 and over from Kyiv, Zaporizhzhia and Lviv regions, representing voters in the North-Central, South-Eastern and Western regions of Ukraine. The sample is quota, randomized, distributed by sex, age, region and place of residence (urban and rural areas). On fig. 1 presents the results for the whole sample.

Fig. 1. The structure of self-identifications of the respondents in the sample as a whole

Source: results of the author's research

The results of a sociological survey indicate that most identification strategies have average indicators («sometimes» answers), but it should be noted the advantage of the meaningful features of group identity that characterize modern society - family, age group, profession. Such orientation signs of self-identification are inherent in traditional Ukrainian society.

The second group of identifications represents the societal dimension of identity, which has become relevant in modern sociological and political science and is defined as societal identity. For example, E. Afonin, A. Donchenko, V. Antonenko define societal identity as a «multidimensional psychosocial reality» [1, p. 80], which is not always identical to the surrounding objective social world of a person, and even more so is not identical to the former mode of social identity associated with the mechanism of identifying oneself with external groups and classes, it is influenced by cultural and social differentiation, psychological stereotypes. Among such significant identifications one can single out: unity of views (ideological, religious, political, etc.); some behavioral strategies are those who make their own destiny; those who have not lost faith in the future. In the sociopolitical dimension, the similarity of political orientations and views is a fairly significant factor in the self-identification of Ukrainians (74% of the respondents answered «often» and «sometimes»), another 60% of the respondents are the factor that determines their identity, determine belonging to those engaged in (or can potentially engage in public and volunteering, which is a sign of the selforganization development of the Ukrainian society, both in increasing the degree of civil society institutionalization, and in striving to implement significant social and political practices.

The third group is represented by such a type of identity as civic identity. Civil identity is represented by such strategies as: self-identification according to national, civilizational, local-territorial features. It is interesting that identification with European values has a rather small indicator - 18% completely identify themselves with Europeans, almost a third (30%) - never at all.

91% of the respondents always or sometimes consider themselves Ukrainians, citizens of Ukraine, which is reflected, first of all, as a civic identity in the state-political context as the basis for the formation and development of civil society. Thus, J. Habermas, in the context of the theory of communicative action, considers civic identity as the basis of civil society, presented as a public space where a politically active public is constituted, which forms public opinion and translates it into the political sphere [2, p. 313]. In this sense, the scientist defines the communicative factor as the main factor in the political sphere, which is realized in discursive social practices that create conditions for the formation and self-deployment of civil society (the so-called discursive concept of civil society). As A. Mikhailova notes, the content of the concept of «civil identity» in the discursive concept of civil society becomes clearer, given how this concept comprehends two problems: the relationship between civil society and the state, as well as the relationship between civil and political spheres [8, p. 63-64].

In this study, we agree with I. Petrovskaya, who defines the civic identity of a person «as a complex multi-level systemic formation, which is the result of self-categorization, understanding (giving meaning-value) of one's belonging to the community of citizens and the state (as a citizen) and subjective attitude (emotive and conative) person to its membership. Moreover, civic identity is a multi-level personal formation and manifests itself at the institutional («citizen - state»), group («citizen - community of citizens») and individual («I am a citizen») levels» [9, p. 246]. In this sense, civic identity is reflected as a concept of attitude towards the state and the nation at the cognitive and emotional levels.

Therefore, in order to determine the content of civic identity, the respondents were asked to answer an open question: «Most citizens of Ukraine consider themselves...». A total of 463 responses were received. The content analysis of statements made it possible to single out two main groups of categorizations: 1) the national-civil aspect of selfidentification; 2) emotional and evaluative aspect of self-identification. The results are presented in fig. 2.

The categorical group «national-civil aspect of self-identification» (51.11% of all statements of respondents) included answers reflecting: firstly, the values of patriotism («patriots», «patriotic citizens»), manifested in such signs as «liberty», «independence», «responsibility for the country», «the ability to change the country»; secondly, belonging to the Ukrainian nation (Ukrainians, Ukrainian people) and orientation towards the European vector of development (Europeans).

The second group of statements (48.89%) is represented by answers that have an emotional and evaluative nature regarding belonging to the citizens of Ukraine, and 26.67% of statements are emotionally negative assessments («insufficiently provided», «offended», «unprotected», «deceived», «abandoned»), and 22.22% - emotionally positive assessments («smart», «enlightened», «strong», «correct», «tolerant», «friendly», «kind»). This group of statements as a whole reflects the socioeconomic and socio-psychological aspects of the well-being of society [5].

Significant disagreements were revealed in terms of the content features of civic identity depending on the region (Fig. 3).

Fig. 2. Structural and content features of identity orientations in the socio-political dimension (according to the results of content analysis)