Olga Onuch

The University of Manchester · Department of Politics

Moments of mass mobilization astound us. As a sea of protesters fills the streets, observers scramble to understand this extraordinary political act by 'ordinary' citizens. This study presents a paired comparison of two 'moments' of mass mobilization, in Ukraine and Argentina. The two cases are compared and analyzed on a cross-temporal and an inter...

What drives ordinary citizens to want their country to join or stay in the European Union (EU)? Whilst scholarship addressed value‐based dispositions as drivers of pro‐EU positions, material benefits dominate explanations of support for EU accession and membership. New research suggests that it is precisely the growing import of being an adherent o...

We don't agree that Nato membership for Ukraine would provoke a conflict with Russia. The Guardian. https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/article/2024/jul/27/ukraine-nato-membership

How can and should we analyze mass mobilization and its outcomes in authoritarian (and potentially democratizing) states as social scientists? Are there any distinctive features to the study of mass mobilization and its outcomes in Eastern Europe? And how much should we focus on comparative analyses versus context and country specificities? The cas...

Who are the people who, in the face of extreme repression, unexpectedly take to the streets en masse in an authoritarian state? This article aims to answer this question with reference to the case of the Belarusian anti-Lukashenka mass mobilization of 2020. It employs unique data from an original online protest survey among citizens of Belarus who...

How was Ukraine able to stand up and defend its independence against Russia's all-out invasion in 2022? One cannot understand these historic events without understanding Zelensky, the country and its people. What makes Zelensky most extraordinary in war is his very ordinariness as a Ukrainian, though he is "ordinary" in a way that not everyone coul...

How was Ukraine able to stand up and defend its independence against Russia's all-out invasion in 2022? One cannot understand these historic events without understanding Zelensky, the country and its people. What makes Zelensky most extraordinary in war is his very ordinariness as a Ukrainian, though he is "ordinary" in a way that not everyone coul...

How was Ukraine able to stand up and defend its independence against Russia's all-out invasion in 2022? One cannot understand these historic events without understanding Zelensky, the country and its people. What makes Zelensky most extraordinary in war is his very ordinariness as a Ukrainian, though he is "ordinary" in a way that not everyone coul...

How was Ukraine able to stand up and defend its independence against Russia's all-out invasion in 2022? One cannot understand these historic events without understanding Zelensky, the country and its people. What makes Zelensky most extraordinary in war is his very ordinariness as a Ukrainian, though he is "ordinary" in a way that not everyone coul...

How was Ukraine able to stand up and defend its independence against Russia's all-out invasion in 2022? One cannot understand these historic events without understanding Zelensky, the country and its people. What makes Zelensky most extraordinary in war is his very ordinariness as a Ukrainian, though he is "ordinary" in a way that not everyone coul...

How was Ukraine able to stand up and defend its independence against Russia's all-out invasion in 2022? One cannot understand these historic events without understanding Zelensky, the country and its people. What makes Zelensky most extraordinary in war is his very ordinariness as a Ukrainian, though he is "ordinary" in a way that not everyone coul...

How was Ukraine able to stand up and defend its independence against Russia's all-out invasion in 2022? One cannot understand these historic events without understanding Zelensky, the country and its people. What makes Zelensky most extraordinary in war is his very ordinariness as a Ukrainian, though he is "ordinary" in a way that not everyone coul...

How was Ukraine able to stand up and defend its independence against Russia's all-out invasion in 2022? One cannot understand these historic events without understanding Zelensky, the country and its people. What makes Zelensky most extraordinary in war is his very ordinariness as a Ukrainian, though he is "ordinary" in a way that not everyone coul...

How was Ukraine able to stand up and defend its independence against Russia's all-out invasion in 2022? One cannot understand these historic events without understanding Zelensky, the country and its people. What makes Zelensky most extraordinary in war is his very ordinariness as a Ukrainian, though he is "ordinary" in a way that not everyone coul...

How was Ukraine able to stand up and defend its independence against Russia's all-out invasion in 2022? One cannot understand these historic events without understanding Zelensky, the country and its people. What makes Zelensky most extraordinary in war is his very ordinariness as a Ukrainian, though he is "ordinary" in a way that not everyone coul...

Is there evidence of significant ethno‐linguistic/ethno‐national rallying around the nation in Ukraine—as social science would have us expect in times of conflict? And, if so, might we expect this ethno‐linguistic/ethno‐national identity to rise with the prolongation of war? Or instead, is Ukrainian “civic‐ness” the primary rally call that shaped a...

We strongly support Ukraine's candidate status in the European Union and call on EU leadership and its Member States to grant this status to Ukraine in June 2022, opening the door to Ukraine's membership and fulfilling the aspirations of the Ukrainian people. https://www.politico.com/f/?id=00000181-67d7-d592-a1cb-7fdfabcc0000

Do geopolitical orientations distinguish anti-Lukashenka protesters from non-protesters in Belarus? Employing data from an original online protest survey among 18+year-old citizens of Belarus residing in the country (MOBILISE 2020, n= 17,174) fielded 18August2020–29January2021, this paper compares protesters (n = 11,719) to non-protesters (n = 5,45...

His symposium employs established social science theory to frame and place into comparative perspective the case of Belarusian mass mobilization that began in August 2020. We not only argue and explain how this is a case of mass mobilization that occurred in a competitive authoritarian context, but also that is a far more “typical” example (rather...

Using the original MOBILISE survey dataset, we conduct statistical analyses to account for between cohort patterns in support for Ukraine’s EU accession. Controlling for age, we devise two sets of political event cohorts: the first testing the so-called “EuroMaidan Generation” hypothesis about cohorts based around major moments of mass mobilization...

When people join in moments of mass protest, what role do different media sources play in their mobilization? Do the same media sources align with positive views of mass mobilizations among the public in their aftermath? And, what is the relationship between media consumption patterns and believing disinformation about protest events? Addressing th...

How do people form beliefs about the factual content of major events when established geopolitical orders are violently challenged? Here, we address the tragic events of 2 May 2014, in Odesa, Ukraine. There, Euromaidan protest movement supporters and opponents clashed following Russia’s annexation of Crimea and the onset of the Donbas conflict, cul...

Building on past survey-based studies of ethnic identity, we employ the case of Ukraine to demonstrate the importance of taking seriously the multidimensionality of ethnicity, even in a country that is regarded as deeply divided. Drawing on relational theory, we identify four dimensions of ethnicity that are each important in distinctive ways in Uk...

The 1990 Revolution on Granite was an innovative contentious performance. The protest created new boundaries for the discourse of contention in independent Ukraine, which is represented in an ongoing struggle between national and liberal claims. It also created a new generation of political leaders who go on to inspire, train and mentor subsequent...

The Maidan protests provide us with insights into Ukrainian society and the dynamics of mobilisation more generally. Based on the EuroMaidan Protest Participant Survey, on-site rapid interviews with protesters, interviews with politicians, activists and journalists, and focus groups with ordinary citizens and activists, this essay maps the actors,...

In this chapter we provide an analysis of European Union (EU) narratives and policies with respect to mass mobilisations in Eastern Europe (EE) and in the Middle East and North Africa (MENA) region. Specifically, the focus here is on the 2004 ‘Orange Revolution’ and the recent ‘EuroMaidan’ in Ukraine; as well as on the 2011 ‘J25’ Egyptian revolutio...

Employing original, on-site EuroMaidan Protest-Participant Survey data collected by the author in Kyiv between November 26, 2013, and January 13, 2014, triangulated with interview, focus group, and documentary data, the article contextualizes who was the average EuroMaidan protester and what did they want? Yet, the main focus is on the question of...

This article examines the role of Information Communication Technologies (ICTs) and, specifically, social media in the EuroMaidan mobilization process. Based on extensive data collection (surveys, interviews, focus groups, and digital archival research), this article argues that, while social media was not the only mechanism behind the mobilization...

Since the fall of the Soviet Union in 1991, Ukrainians and Russians have been living peacefully in two separate and independent states for nearly a quarter of a century. Much has been said about the cultural and historical links between these two ‘brotherly’ countries, but also about the tensions between the two countries’ different perspectives on...

Bringing together contributions from a multi-disciplinary and international group of experts, this volume explores the effects and legacies of Argentina's 2001-2002 social, economic, and political implosion. Interrogating the nature and effects of the crisis, the contributors reject the dichotomy of 'old' and 'new'; instead, they argue that respons...

We have thus far mapped out the different developments and structural factors of the mobilization process leading to mass protest. In order to place the moments of mass mobilization in context we traced the longer history of activism, we analysed medium-term and contextual structural variables, and investigated how these variables help us identify...

Social movements in LA seem to follow a similar pattern of busts and booms to those in EE. The main difference is that the claims through which mobilization has been framed seem to be almost opposite. Whereas liberal and nationalist ideas were combined in EE, socialist and socio-economic claims were the key in predominant opposition movements in LA...

Now that we have mapped the historical foundations of activism, helping us understand the important legacy of mobilization in both countries, we can turn to the next stage of the mobilization process. As explained in the introduction, analyses of the Ukrainian (2004) and Argentine (2001) ‘moments’ of mass mobilizations have predominantly focused on...

As we now see, crisis-related mass mobilization is a multi-actor, multi-step phenomenon. It does not come out of nowhere but rather is built upon a long-term process of mobilization. Different actors enter into the mobilization equation at different stages, their motivations and access to information are also different and they are affected by thei...

Even in the presence of the key variables discussed earlier, without the participation of ‘ordinary’ citizens we can, at most, expect to observe a large protest event organized by activists and opposition insiders. Activists represent a small portion of the population and are expected to take part in some form of collective action. As noted earlier...

Before any attempt to answer the main question regarding mass mobilization is made, we first need to establish a theoretical framework for the discussion and analysis to come. As noted earlier, this book is novel in that it presents a detailed comparison of the phenomenon of mass mobilization in two countries, in two different regions, both at the...

Moments of mass mobilization, such as those experienced in Argentina (2001) and Ukraine (2004), do not occur in a vacuum. And thus, we return to the first question of this study: Are the patterns of mobilization actually different in democratizing states with differing authoritarian legacies such as those in EE and LA; Can we identify similar patte...

Moments of mass mobilization, like those in Argentina (2001) and Ukraine (2004), tend to catch governments and analysts by surprise. These are moments when millions of previously disengaged ‘ordinary’ citizens1 join activists in protests en masse, making regime change likely and systemic (social, economic or political) transformation possible. Firs...

In the months just prior to this book going to press, on 24 November 2013, exactly nine years after the Orange Revolution, a new moment of mass mobilization stunned observers of Ukrainian democratization. The first calls to protests by activists and journalists began on 21 November, following President Yanukovych’s government’s announcement that he...

As touched upon in the introduction, it is common practice for political scientists to infer causal implications of short-term contextual factors, such as political or economic crises, in the production of mass mobilization (Åslund and McFaul 2006, Birn 2005, Eckstein 2001, Epstien 2004, Giarracca and Teubal 2001, Tucker 2007). In the case of Ukrai...

On December 19, 2001, the unexpected happened; hundreds of thousands of “ordinary” citizens 1 took to the streets of Argentina’s urban centers, nowhere in greater numbers than in the city of Buenos Aires. This mobilization followed months of coordinated trade union strikes and piquetes, several weeks of Peronist-provoked lootings, escraches and cac...

Abstract: The EuroMaidan, shocked most observers of Ukrainian politics, not only for its longevity (November 2, 2013 – February 22, 2014) but also for its turn to violent repertoires1 of protest in the later stages. What was at first a peaceful mass protest event which saw nearly equal participation of men and women (Onuch, 2014d; Onuch & Martsenyu...

Abstract will be provided by author.

Abstract will be provided by author.

This paper provides a theoretical argument for conducting inter-regional comparisons of social mobilisation in Eastern Europe and Latin America within the broader scope of democratization theory. Theoretically, the paper examines how two schools: one of Transitology and the other of Democtratisation or Democratic Development have assigned themselve...

Over the last decade, protest politics have become an increasingly important element of the political environment of most regions in the world: in the EU (Greece), in MENA (in Egypt, and Israel), in EE (in Serbia, Ukraine, Latvia, and Russia), in Latin America (Argentina, Mexico, and Chile), and in North America. Some of these protest events are co...