From individual to collective
Vernacular security and Ukrainian civil society in wartime
Bibliographic Data
| ID | 6451193 |
|---|---|
| Authors | Bohdana Kurylo (0000-0003-4089-702X, London School of Economics and Political Science, corresponding author) |
| Year | 2025 |
| Volume | 56 |
| Issue | 5 |
| Pages | 575-592 |
| Publication date | 2025-05-16 |
| Peer Reviewed | Yes |
| Open Access | Yes |
| Type | ARTICLE |
| Venue | Security Dialogue (JOURNAL) |
| Journal identifiers | ISSN: 0967-0106 • E-ISSN: 1460-3640 |
| Publisher | SAGE Publishing (PUBLISHER • US) |
| DOI | 10.1177/09670106251329884 |
| OpenAlex | W4410447522 |
| Language | EN |
| Citations received | 4 |
| References cited | 36 |
Through a vernacular security lens, this article examines which meanings of security have driven Ukrainian civil society’s collective action in response to the Russo-Ukrainian war, which began with Russia’s invasion of Crimea and the Donbas in 2014. It draws on a four-year study (2018–2022) of civic engagement in wartime Ukraine, involving in-depth interviews with members of army support groups, humanitarian organizations, volunteer battalions, and anti-disinformation groups. The article challenges vernacular security studies’ tendency toward methodological individualism by showing how collective civic resistance produces shared security understandings that transcend individual-level constructions of security. The emergence of a new plural security actor from below blurs the elite/non-elite binary foundational to vernacular security scholarship, as citizen groups become prominent security voices without losing their community connections. The article finds that despite initially focusing primarily on military security, civil society groups’ discourse evolved to encompass emancipatory and societal security dimensions, emphasizing both freedom from authoritarian control and the preservation of Ukrainian national identity. As a result, this research also contributes to theoretical bridge-building between vernacular and other critical approaches to security while addressing an important gap in our understanding of civilian agency during armed conflict
Civil society · Linguistics · Political economy · Political science · Politics · Sociology · Ukrainian · Vernacular · Gender, Security, and Conflict · Global Security and Public Health · Law · Philosophy · Political Conflict and Governance
Theory of World Security
“Ukraine commits genocide on Russians”
Security
Whose violence, whose security? Can violence reduction and security work for poor, excluded and vulnerable people
Vernacular imaginaries of European border security among citizens
Whom You Don't Know, You Don't Trust
Memeing and Speaking Vernacular Security on Social Media
They need our help’
Volunteers in Ukraine
Toward a Vernacular Security Studies
Epistemic superimposition
National Identity in Time of War
How the War Began
Vernacular theories of everyday (in)security
Vernacular Security
The Formality of Informal Civil Society
Identity and security
Identity, migration and the new security agenda in Europe
Mapping the Contours of ‘Everyday Security’
Fighting on behalf of the state—the issue of pro-government militia autonomy in the Donbas war
Enactors of the State
The Postcolonial Moment in Russia’s War Against Ukraine
Human security/environmental security
Fit for purpose? Fitting ontological security studies 'into' the discipline of International Relations
Slow emergencies
Vernacular Securities and Their Study
Irregular Militias and Radical Nationalism in Post-Euromaydan Ukraine
| Unique citing works | 4 |
|---|---|
| Citations per year | 4 |
| Citation span | 2025 - 2026 (2) |
| Citation velocity | current |
| Highly cited | No |
| Citation types | Neutral: 3 |