Authors

Austin Garey¹;  ¹ University of Pennsylvania, United States

Discussion

News broadcasts usually talk about warfare as a contest between nation states. A city is gained or lost; missile strikes begin; forces are repelled; defenders are pressured; ground offensives are conducted. But during all of this, ordinary people are living—or at least trying to survive. Over one billion people around the world currently live in conflict zones. They must find food, water, and medicine every day, entertain children, and mark religious holidays. But community life does not disappear when war comes to town. This paper examines textual and audio diaries about the war in Ukraine with attention to normalcy instead of rupture. How do people maintain routine in situations of conflict, and what practices emerge as most important to preserve? What can individual responses to violence tell us about social processes? Discourse analysis of first-hand reports from Ukrainians reveals the strategies people use to maintain agency, dignity, and community during warfare they neither caused nor control.