Chernova K. Evolution of the Ukrainian diaspora as a socio-cultural system.

In the dissertation, the conceptualization of the evolution of the Ukrainian diaspora as a socio-cultural system is realized for the first time in the domestic ethnosociology. The central place of the theoretical analysis presented in the dissertation is occupied by the questions concerning the structure and elements of the Ukrainian diaspora and the strategy of interaction of the diaspora with a foreign ethnic medium. A special attention is paid to the development of a conceptual scheme of investigations of the Ukrainian diaspora, as well as to the separation of structural indices that define the diaspora as a socio-cultural system. Together with the theoretical elaboration, the dissertation contains the empiric results of the author's investigations, whose theoretical comprehension and interpretation allow one to characterize the tendencies inherent in the Ukrainian diaspora. The evolution of the Ukrainian diaspora testifies that it manifests itself at present as an open socio-cultural system, in which the processes of instituzionalization, self-organization, and self-government are running.