Methods of studying living space in border areas

Author

VermenychYaroslava

a Doctor of History, professor, head of the Department of historical regional studies of the Institute of History of Ukraine of the National Academy of Sciences of Ukraine.

Methods of studying living space in border areas

Abstract

The South of Ukraine is an extremely specific region. This is, first of all, the contact zone, the range of the meeting of the Mediterranean and nomadic civilizations, the region of the coloniza- tion processes, which have started long before the period of our era. Secondly, this is the terri- tory of the Ukrainian Cossacks formation. It is the belligerent military community, which has responded adequately to the challenge of the nomadic Steppe and cleared the space for new social relations on this territory. Thirdly, it is an arena of active mixing of various ethnic communities and the competition of various types of nationalism. Contacts and conflicts on this territory for centuries have created a diverse mixture of borrowings and mutual misunderstandings, which form the object of increased scientific interest.

The complex interweaving of various civilizational influences in combination with the histori- cally determined ethno-cultural, linguistic, confessional diversity for many centuries has created a society that is unstable in its conscious priorities in the South of Ukraine. It is difficult to identify it by traditional features that have dominated in Ukrainian regional analytics for a long time. Traditional Soviet vision of the Southern Ukraine region predominantly as an area of a new familiarization, has not been useful for its study as a historically formed integrity with its own ethno-genetic code, peculiarities of social stratification, socio-normative and political culture. The scientific searches and established approaches with the domination of the narrative and the lack of attempts to enter the history of the region into the global process of interaction of civilizations, states, ethnic groups and cultures have been hindered.

The time has come for the transition to a new scientific language, which is devoid of linearity in the approaches and simplified explanations. The latest trends in world history and the focus on universalism of conceptual foundations, the emphasis on related stories and interstate, inte- rethnic relations, captious attention to the borderline specificity of territories and societies should be taken into account as much as possible.

Keywords

Historical Regionalistics, Southern Ukraine, civilizational boundary, regional analysis, borders.

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