Melitopol is a city of the Azov region where, for more than 225 years, there has been a harmonious coexistence of ethnic-religious and national minorities. Today it is the home to over 158,000 residents, belonging to 93 ethnic and religious groups.
Upon the initiative of the NGO “Democracy through Culture” in 2008, Melitopol carried out a representative survey on “The role of the multi-cultural environment in shaping inter-ethnic tolerance of youth in Melitopol”. It revealed discrete patterns of the formation and manifestation of tolerance (or intolerance) towards people of other cultural backgrounds, and also the values and emotional attitudes of young people. The survey was based on the ‘scale of social distance’ by E. Bogardus (as modernized and adapted by Ukrainian sociologists). It attitudes to identity, openness and tolerance of foreigners. Respondents were asked whether they would tolerate a foreigner
- as a member of the family
- as close friends
- as neighbours
- as a separate group within the country
- as equal citizens
- as tourists
- or not at all.
This fed into the development of the “Strategy of Melitopol 2020” which took account not only experts’ ideas, but also those of local inhabitants. 10 focus groups with different compositions and an enormous survey of more than 12,000 respondents, revealed that a quarter of people considered interculturality one of the main advantages of Melitopol, compared to other Ukrainian cities. 62% believed that the city’s intercultural profile promotes a culture of tolerance and 20% of respondents wanted to see the development of an Intercultural Park of Culture and Leisure as a physical symbol of this.
The Laboratory of Sociological Research of the State Pedagogical University of Melitopol then tested methods of measurement of “cultural competence” (based upon the ideas of G. Hofstede and tested by Ukrainian sociologists N. Kostenko and L. Skokova). This involves analysing the interaction of four components, namely: competence motivation (interest, confidence and desire to adapt to different cultures); cognitive (understanding of cross-cultural issues and differences); metacognitive (strategy understanding of cultural diversity and experience); and behavioural (changing verbal and nonverbal actions according to the situation of interaction in different cultures) in different intercultural situations.
The University of Melitopol invites other cities and institutions to cooperate in conducting comparative analytical research, and to develop practical recommendations for policy
