Abstract

The article presents the results of the dynamics of social class identification research among the adult population of Ukraine. The individuals’ class positions were identified as the answers to open­ended question, unlike to popular in the Ukrainian sociology approach to identify the social characteristics of individuals, while using different forms of closed questions with predefined list of alternatives. Comparing the empirical data of 2001 and 2014 surveys it was found that there have been significant changes in the class self­identification, if we analyze the answers to the open­ended question. The dominant in the early 2000s conventionally called «Soviet» scheme of social identity, when about 60% of employed adults identifed themselves with the typical Soviet classes or strata, has given way to post­Soviet or pro­Western subjective stratification centered around the middle class. There was a significant, almost three­fold increasing of the employed adults’ identification with the middle class. Also there was a significant reduction of class identification with the working class, peasants and servants.