Accumulated Adversity, Accumulated Coping Experience: Biographical Resources of Older Ukrainian Women in Forced Migration

Russia's full-scale invasion of Ukraine in 2022 forced millions of people to leave their homes. Among them were older women for whom forced migration became another turning point in lives marked by profound social, political, and economic transformations. The collapse of the Soviet Union, the post-socialist transition, economic crises, and the war that has continued since 2014 have shaped their life opportunities, family relationships, material circumstances, and ways of coping with adversity. At the same time, these processes unfolded within specific gender expectations and inequalities that shaped the everyday lives of several generations of Ukrainian women.

During the Urban Seminar Katarzyna Krakowska will present findings from a biographical study of forced migration experiences among Ukrainian women aged 60 and over who arrived in Poland after 24 February 2022. Drawing on autobiographical narrative interviews, she will examine the relationship between the accumulation of social inequalities across the life course and the development of practical ways of coping with crises. 

The discussion will focus on the relationship between social structure, individual agency, and biographical experience. Can the accumulation of adverse life circumstances be accompanied by an accumulation of coping experience? Under what conditions do previously developed practices become resources, and when do they prove insufficient? How do gendered and generational dimensions of life experience shape responses to forced displacement in later life? These questions will serve as a starting point for a broader discussion of the possibilities and limitations of individual agency in the context of structural inequalities and war.

Urban Seminar will be held in a workshop format. Researchers are invited to discuss scholarly projects, research at various stages of development, and completed research that is being prepared for publication.

Participation in the Urban Seminar requires preliminary reading and discussion of the researcher's text. If you would like to join the Seminar, please email Anastasiia Fabirovska (a.fabirovska@lvivcenter.org), and we will send you the materials in advance.

Credits

Cover Image: photo by Roman Baluk / "Visual Documentation of War" collection / Urban Media Archive of the Center for Urban History