National identity and language: Class differences among youth in western Ukraine

Abstract

In Ukraine, promoting the Ukrainian language has been an important part of nation-building after post-Soviet independence. However, different regions of the country question this connection between language, identity, and the nation-state. In western regions, speaking Ukrainian is believed to be essential to legitimizing one’s Ukrainian ethnic identity. In practice, however, there are a variety of ideologies of language related to national identity. To date, little has been done to examine how young people in this region utilize competing discourses of identity at multiple spatial scales in defining their own notions of identity. Drawing upon ethnographic data, I examine how 13- to 15-year-olds interpret language use in relation to ethnic and national identity. Through this research, I aim to show how young people’s everyday engagements with local, national, and global ideologies complicate notions of a coherent, territorially based nation.