One of the goals of the Odesa Decolonization project is to study existing myths about Odessa. To do this, it is important to know not only how locals perceive their city, but also to understand how Odessans and Odessa are seen by residents of other regions, what associations and stereotypes about this function in Ukrainian society. After all, the identity of the city consists, among other things, of such perceptions from the outside. To explore this topic in more depth and understand what needs to be worked on for the future, the project team commissioned a sociological study — a national survey and focus groups in Kyiv, Dnipro, and Lviv.

The report with the results of the study is available for review on the project website, we will leave the link in the comments. From it you will learn about the attitude towards Odessa and Odessans based on the respondents’ travels, their impressions of communicating with locals, their experience of getting acquainted with cultural works about Odessa, sources of information about the region, and the influence of news and facts on their perception of the city.

Thanks to the data obtained, we also have an understanding of the diversity of urban myths, their recognition, influence and prevalence, and we can take this into account in further work on their rethinking and transformation.

Authors:
✅ Tetiana Kryvosheia Tetiana Kryvosheia, candidate of sociological sciences, head of sociological projects of the NGO “Promotion of Intercultural Cooperation”.
✅ Viktoria Balasanian Viktoria Balasanian, senior expert in conducting social research of the NGO “Promotion of Intercultural Cooperation”.
The research was conducted by the NGO “Promotion of Intercultural Cooperation” Hanna Shelest at the request of the Odesa Business Club as part of the Odesa Decolonization project with the support of the United States Agency for International Development (USAID) project “Strengthening Public Trust (UCBI)”.