The flagship event in the world of global sociology brought together representatives from the USA, Germany, and Austria in Salzburg, Austria. The Ukrainian delegation consisted of researchers from KMIS, Factum Group, and the Rating Sociological Group, represented by the Deputy Director of Rating Online and Rating Lab expert, Tetiana Skrypchenko. The representative of Rating was the only participant who presented two reports at the conference.
During the conference, Ms. Tetiana acquainted her colleagues from the international community with the results of sociological research in war-torn Ukraine: the methodological challenges faced by domestic sociologists and the new research technologies that emerged during the war. "I shared with my colleagues how we established the Rating Lab and conducted SATI surveys during the COVID-19 epidemic, followed by the Rating Online platform, and how all of this strengthened our research capabilities," Ms. Tetiana noted.
"In the minds of many of our international colleagues, nothing happens in Ukrainian sociology during the war, and we convinced them otherwise! Colleagues were truly impressed that such massive projects are being implemented in Ukraine during the war. Figures such as surveying 9,000 mothers or 2,000 refugees abroad in a very short period seemed like something out of science fiction to them. Some colleagues were moved to tears when I talked about conducting surveys during the war about children's problems and how our interviewers sat in bomb shelters making phone calls," Ms. Tetiana shared her impressions.
A particular emphasis of Ms. Skrypchenko's presentation was the Resilience Index, developed by Rating Lab. By the way, international colleagues, especially those conducting research on different continents, showed great interest in the Resilience Index. The high level of interest that colleagues expressed towards the Rating Group at the conference will definitely lead to further collaboration in new projects, which we are already planning to implement together with international companies and universities.
"We were pleased to receive international recognition for our work. The time was spent very productively; we exchanged experiences, colleagues showed interest in our research, and accordingly, we plan to establish cooperation with some of them. Specifically, with the University of Michigan, Gala International as an organization, and many others. I am also very grateful to our Ukrainian colleagues for the productive time we spent together. Together, we demonstrated a very high level of Ukrainian sociology!" concludes Ms. Skrypchenko.
