| Summary/Abstract |
This paper is based on the results of field research conducted by the author in Donbass in 2015-2017 and studies the media space and everyday communication in social networks and face-to-face conversations inside the self-proclaimed Donetsk People’s Republic. We studied various types of internal discourse, the use of recognizable symbols and everyday practices to see whether the new political reality matches certain social reality and whether political borders have any correlation to social borders. Political separation of this part of Ukraine and mobilization by the local political forces of local identity symbols require people to reevaluate their views concerning the community they live in and its borders associated with a certain territory, the state system, ideology, and social connections. People are developing new self-identity approaches which are tested and implemented in emerging new contexts and related discourses. This work analyzes narratives related to the new socio-political (self-)identity in the process of its evolvement and alludes to a wide range of studies focusing on identity as a category of practice, social construction of borders, inclusion/exclusion mechanisms, and collective memory.
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