After the summer break, our lecture series The Future of Europe in a Global Context Kicks off with a talk by our affiliated iASK fellow Larysa Tamilina from Ukraine. The event in English will take place on Tuesday, 4th of October on Zoom and it will be streamed on iASK’s Facebook page. We are sending a Zoom link upon request to anyone who wish to participate in the whole event that comprises the lecture and discussion. Registration is possible until Monday, October 2nd till 12:00pm.

Larysa Tamilina received her doctoral degree from Bremen University (Germany) and her master’s degree from the Catholic University of Leuven (Belgium). She was for many years employed by Zeppelin University as a lecturer and a postdoctoral researcher, where she worked on advancing theories of human capital accumulation and modelling individuals’ decision-making regarding their participation in various forms of learning. Additionally, she studied the impact of formal institutions on economic growth rates and levels of social trust in Europe. Her current research addresses the conflict in Ukraine-Russia relations and the possible implications that the recent war might have on various aspects of political and socio-economic developments in the two countries.

The title of her lecture is “Making a Difference Through Similarities: A Comparative Analysis of Social Trust Formation Between Ukraine and Russia”. The study uses a comparative perspective to analyse social trust in Ukraine and Russia. Drawing upon the assumption that the two countries share many similarities, I focus on exploring the degree to which their trust formation processes resemble each other. I demonstrate that the modes of trusting behaviour differ significantly between both societies. I argue that these differences can be explained by the recent gap between Ukraine and Russia in their political and social systems. Special attention is paid to the impact of the war in the East of Ukraine on intensifying the divergence in how trust is built and preserved among individuals. The findings are used to question the pervasive effects of cultural similarities with Russia on the Ukrainian population’s behavioural values and preferences.