Civil Society and Peripheral Activism in a Donbas Monotown

Abstract

The condition of civil society and grass-roots activism in post-socialist countries is often perceived as a distorted mirroring of its Western equivalent, with the implication that it is impaired or even flawed. Particularly in places such as the monotowns of the Donbas region of Ukraine, the symptoms of grass-roots activism and signs of thriving civil society rooted in local modes of understandings are often overlooked when only scrutinized through the lens of Western-based concepts and ideas. This article is based on ethnographical research that was conducted in the Donbas monotown of Kramatorsk and its surroundings over a period of several months. It argues that local notions of activism are fueled by hope and a sense of peripherality that shapes the local dynamics of activism and engagement.