Instituto de Estudios Políticos y Derecho Público "Dr. Humberto J. La Roche"
de la Facultad de Ciencias Jurídicas y Políticas de la Universidad del Zulia
Maracaibo, Venezuela
Esta publicación cientíca en formato digital es continuidad de la revista impresa
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197402ZU34
ppi 201502ZU4645
Vol.41 N° 78
Julio
Septiembre
2023
Recibido el 24/04/23 Aceptado el 12/06/23
ISSN 0798- 1406 ~ De pó si to le gal pp 198502ZU132
Cues tio nes Po lí ti cas
La re vis ta Cues tio nes Po lí ti cas, es una pu bli ca ción aus pi cia da por el Ins ti tu to
de Es tu dios Po lí ti cos y De re cho Pú bli co “Dr. Hum ber to J. La Ro che” (IEPDP) de la Fa-
cul tad de Cien cias Ju rí di cas y Po lí ti cas de la Uni ver si dad del Zu lia.
En tre sus ob je ti vos fi gu ran: con tri buir con el pro gre so cien tí fi co de las Cien cias
Hu ma nas y So cia les, a tra vés de la di vul ga ción de los re sul ta dos lo gra dos por sus in ves-
ti ga do res; es ti mu lar la in ves ti ga ción en es tas áreas del sa ber; y pro pi ciar la pre sen ta-
ción, dis cu sión y con fron ta ción de las ideas y avan ces cien tí fi cos con com pro mi so so cial.
Cues tio nes Po lí ti cas apa re ce dos ve ces al año y pu bli ca tra ba jos ori gi na les con
avan ces o re sul ta dos de in ves ti ga ción en las áreas de Cien cia Po lí ti ca y De re cho Pú bli-
co, los cua les son so me ti dos a la con si de ra ción de ár bi tros ca li fi ca dos.
ESTA PU BLI CA CIÓN APA RE CE RE SE ÑA DA, EN TRE OTROS ÍN DI CES, EN
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Pe rio di cals Di rec tory, EBS CO. Se en cuen tra acre di ta da al Re gis tro de Pu bli ca cio-
nes Cien tí fi cas y Tec no ló gi cas Ve ne zo la nas del FO NA CIT, La tin dex.
Di rec to ra
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Co mi té Edi tor
Eduviges Morales Villalobos
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Ma ría Eu ge nia Soto Hernández
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Co mi té Ase sor
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Joan López Urdaneta y Nil da Ma rín
Re vis ta Cues tio nes Po lí ti cas. Av. Gua ji ra. Uni ver si dad del Zu lia. Nú cleo Hu ma nís ti co. Fa-
cul tad de Cien cias Ju rí di cas y Po lí ti cas. Ins ti tu to de Es tu dios Po lí ti cos y De re cho Pú bli co
“Dr. Hum ber to J. La Ro che”. Ma ra cai bo, Ve ne zue la. E- mail: cues tio nes po li ti cas@gmail.
com ~ loi chi ri nos por til lo@gmail.com. Te le fax: 58- 0261- 4127018.
Vol. 41, Nº 78 (2023), 246-258
IEPDP-Facultad de Ciencias Jurídicas y Políticas - LUZ
Rethinking destructive rumors as a
legal means of solving the problems of
intercultural interactions
DOI: https://doi.org/10.46398/cuestpol.4178.17
Lyudmila Afanasieva *
Natalia Hlebova **
Iryna Bukrieieva ***
Lyudmila Glyns’ka ****
Ihor Chychanovskyi *****
Abstract
The purpose of the study was to analyze situations of occurrence
and spread of destructive rumors and, at the same time, to identify
eective legal practices to counteract them in multicultural urban
communities. In most cases, rumors do not reect the factual
situation, so they cannot be a tool for unbiased presentation of
facts and, in the case of intercultural interaction, they can also provoke
extreme and unlawful negative feelings about a certain group of people.
The results of the study indicate that in the city Melitopol there are rumors
about immigrants, refugees, ethnic groups, national communities or other
groups, which are mostly negative. The analysis made it possible to identify
the most common ethnic rumors: «Roma are thieves», «Jews are selsh»;
confessional: «Muslims are terrorists»; socio-cultural: «IDPs live on state
aid», «Ukrainians are cheap labor from Western Europe». Based on a
qualitative analysis of social practices of Melitopol community members,
in the conclusions the authors corroborate the eectiveness of ways of
counteracting destructive rumors in multicultural urban communities as a
legal means of solving the problems of intercultural interactions.
* Ph.D in Рhilosophical Sciences, Associate Professor at the Department of Sociology and Philosophy
Bohdan Khmelnitsky Melitopol State Pedagogical University, Меlitopol, Ukraine. ORCID ID: https://
orcid.org/0000-0002-9386-6529
** Dr. in Sociology, Professor at the Department of Sociology and Philosophy Bohdan Khmelnitsky
Melitopol State Pedagogical University, Меlitopol, Ukraine. ORCID ID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-
3417-1337
*** Ph.D in Рhilosophical Sciences, Associate Professor at the Department of Sociology and Philosophy
Bohdan Khmelnitsky Melitopol State Pedagogical University, Меlitopol, Ukraine. ORCID ID: https://
orcid.org/0000-0002-7444-8321
**** Ph.D in Рhilosophical Sciences, Associate Professor at the Department of Sociology and Philosophy
Bohdan Khmelnitsky Melitopol State Pedagogical University, Меlitopol, Ukraine. ORCID ID: https://
orcid.org/0000-0003-2223-2024
***** Senior Lecturer at the Department of Sociology and Philosophy Bohdan Khmelnitsky Melitopol State
Pedagogical University, Меlitopol, Ukraine.ORCID ID: https://orcid.org/0009-0001-6235-9831
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Keywords: destructive rumors; incitement to hatred; critical legal
thinking; interaction with others; hate speech.
Repensar los rumores destructivos como medio
legal de resolver los problemas de las interacciones
interculturales
Resumen
El propósito del estudio fue analizar las situaciones de aparición y
propagación de rumores destructivos y, al mismo tiempo, identicar
prácticas legales ecaces para contrarrestarlos en comunidades urbanas
multiculturales. En la mayoría de los casos, los rumores no reejan
la situación objetiva, por lo que no pueden ser una herramienta para
la presentación imparcial de los hechos y, en el caso de la interacción
intercultural, también pueden provocar sentimientos negativos extremos e
ilícitos sobre un determinado grupo de personas. Los resultados del estudio
indican que en la ciudad Melitópol existen rumores sobre inmigrantes,
refugiados, grupos étnicos, comunidades nacionales u otros grupos, que en
su mayoría son negativos. El análisis permitió identicar los rumores étnicos
más comunes: «Los romaníes son ladrones», «Los judíos son egoístas»;
confesionales: «Los musulmanes son terroristas»; socioculturales: «Los
desplazados internos viven de las ayudas del Estado», «Los ucranianos
son mano de obra barata de Europa Occidental». Basándose en un análisis
cualitativo de las prácticas sociales de los miembros de la comunidad de
Melitópol, en las conclusiones los autores corroboran la ecacia de las
formas de contrarrestar los rumores destructivos en las comunidades
urbanas multiculturales, como medio legal de resolver los problemas de las
interacciones interculturales.
Palabras clave: rumores destructivos; incitación al odio; pensamiento
jurídico crítico; interacción intercultural; problemas
socioculturales.
Introduction
The study of the phenomenon of rumors is primarily driven by the need
to develop and eectively function mechanisms for regulating the legal
social behavior of citizens in interethnic interactions and to address such
problems as manipulation of public and individual consciousness, and the
spread of various forms of intolerance in society. The complexity of the
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Rethinking destructive rumors as a legal means of solving the problems of intercultural interactions
phenomenon of rumors lies in the fact that stereotypes of consciousness
are a rather unstable subject that can be studied only at the stage of their
material embodiment in human behavior.
From a theoretical point of view, the relevance of the research topic is
conrmed by the need to deepen the knowledge developed in sociology
about intercultural interaction and, accordingly, those legal forms of
group counteraction to destructive factors of consciousness and behavior
of people which ensure the integrity of multinational communities. Since
modern society is characterized by a high level of tension, which increases
the number of intercultural conicts, sociological science and practice have
recently detailed and specied many essential aspects of the emergence and
spread of rumors as a manifestation of hate speech.
Therefore, from a practical point of view, the relevance of a qualitative
sociological study of intercultural interaction is explained by the need to
identify eective means of overcoming the consequences of acute illegal
manifestations of negativism, in particular, nding eective means of group
counteraction to the manipulative use of rumors as a manifestation of hate
speech in multinational communities.
1. Theoretical Framework or Literature Review
Theoretical and methodological developments in the eld of intercultural
communication and interaction show that it is important for sociological
science to analyze the possibilities of understanding social interaction
based on the theory of social communication and the subject of attention
of such scholars as Aksenova (2013), Batsevych (2007), Donets (2019),
Horovyi (2010), Kvit (2006), Rizun (2008), Kholod (2018), Timler (2008)
and others. The social and psychological aspects of studying the factors of
rumor origination and spread are reected in the works of Moskalenko
(2008), Potapchuk and Potapchuk (2015) and other researchers.
The search for ways to counteract destructive manifestations in
intercultural relations in modern Ukrainian society is the subject of research
by Stegniy (2011), Ruchka (2014), Afanasieva et al. (2021) a large group of
researchers - authors of the “Antirumors Rumor Counteraction Manual” and
many others. In considering the method of critical thinking as a means of a
conscious approach of an individual to socio-cultural phenomena in social
practice, we relied on the principles set forth in the works of Terno (2009),
Tyaglo (2017), Halpern (2013) and other researchers of the problem.
Intercultural relations have dierent forms of manifestation and
channels of functioning. However, the traditionally formed stereotypes of
interethnic and intercultural relations, connections and communications
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do not fully correspond to modern realities, and the insucient level
of intercultural competence today is often the cause of illegal conict
situations and various communication diculties (Aksenova, 2013). In
the process of this interaction, forms of unmanaged information exchange
are also manifested, which is expressed in the phenomenon of “destructive
rumors” (2021).
Based on the fact that rumors as a form of intercultural interaction
function through language, to understand the nature of this interaction, we
rely on the scientic concept of the theory of intercultural communication,
according to which this phenomenon is considered as “the process of
communication between people (groups of people) who belong to dierent
national communities, who, using dierent languages, feel the linguistic
and cultural “foreignness” of the communication partner, have dierent
communicative competence, which can cause communicative failures or
cultural shock in communication” (Potapchuk and Potapchuk, 2015).
Rumors are among the most inuential and actively circulating
phenomena in the spiritual life of people and remain an objectively inevitable
attribute of interpersonal communication. A rumor is an informative
message based on true or false information about real or ctitious facts,
events, and phenomena of reality.
Rumors most often do not reect the objective situation, so they
cannot be a tool for objective presentation of facts, and in the case of
intercultural interaction, they can also provoke unlawful extreme negative
feelings towards a particular group of people or specic representatives
of groups with a dierent attitude to the problem, in particular, groups of
people dened by race, ethnicity, national origin, gender, religion, sexual
orientation, etc.
The fundamental features of a productive dialogue of cultures include
not only traditional cultural and communicative compatibility in everyday
life, but also active counteraction to the destructive inuences of the
information environment. It is this activity, based on critical thinking, that
expresses the socio-cultural orientation of the joint activities of dierent
groups and their members in their desire to reach agreement. The search
for criteria for such compatibility is evidenced by a wide range of scientic
discourse: these include value, motivational, and normative criteria and
orientations of the subjects of the dialogue, critical objectivity, experience,
and practices of dialogue.
The realities of today have extremely actualized the approach associated
with its understanding of these correspondences as a means of minimizing
illegal risks, and the modern type of this kind of social relations can be
attributed to those based on expert qualitative sociological knowledge,
which, therefore, acts as a systemic factor in predicting the necessary
measures to counteract destructive rumors (Batsevych, 2007).
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Rethinking destructive rumors as a legal means of solving the problems of intercultural interactions
2. Materials
Since modern society is characterized by a high degree of tension,
which increases the number of intercultural conicts, sociological science
and practice have recently detailed and specied many essential aspects
of the emergence and spread of rumors as a manifestation of hate speech.
Therefore, from a practical point of view, the relevance of a qualitative
sociological study of intercultural interaction is explained by the need to
identify eective means of overcoming the consequences of acute unlawful
manifestations of negativism, in particular, to nd eective legal means of
group counteraction to the manipulative use of rumors as a manifestation
of hate speech in multinational communities.
Hate speech is a generalized designation of linguistic means of expressing
a sharply negative attitude of “opponents” - holders of a dierent system
of religious, national, cultural or more specic, subcultural values. This
phenomenon can be an unlawful form of racism, xenophobia, ethnic hatred
and intolerance, homophobia, and sexism (Hate speech, 2021).
As for rumors, hate speech should be understood as all types of
statements that spread, incite, support or justify racial hatred, xenophobia,
anti-Semitism and other forms of hatred caused by intolerance, including
intolerance manifested in the form of aggressive nationalism and
ethnocentrism, discrimination against minorities and hostile attitudes
towards them, as well as immigrants and persons of immigrant origin.
The main characteristic of hate speech is that it provokes extreme negative
feelings about a particular group of people or specic members of a
group through communication and is based on such phenomena as social
stereotypes, rumors and discrimination.
From the perspective of intercultural conict, linguistic unlawful
aggression is understood as a speech action that establishes psychological
or social inequality between participants in a communicative discourse.
This is an individualistic and self-centered manner of human behavior that
denies moral canons, aimed at destroying or partially destroying the social
status of the addressee, with the possible subsequent illegal subjugation of
oppression and exploitation of the aggressor’s victim.
3. Methodology
In order to identify situations of emergence and spread of destructive
rumors and eective legal practices to counter them in multicultural urban
communities, we analyzed the materials of the survey of city residents of
the Ukrainian Network of Intercultural Cities (UNIC-Ukraine), conducted
by the Center for Sociological Research of Melitopol Bohdan Khmelnytsky
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State Pedagogical University from June 11 to July 02, 2021, in order to
classify existing rumors and prejudices related to cultural diversity (Terno,
2009).
The empirical basis of the article is based on the materials of the
sociological study “Fighting Rumors” conducted by the Center for
Sociological Research of Bohdan Khmelnytsky Melitopol State Pedagogical
University from June 11 to July 02, 2021, among residents of the cities of
the Ukrainian Network of Intercultural Cities (ICC-Ukraine). (Analysis and
classication of rumors. ICC-Ukraine project “Fighting Rumors”, 2021).
The article aims to accomplish the following tasks:
• to identify the essence and role of rumors in the manifestation of
various illegal forms of negativism and intolerance in the relations
of multicultural communities;
• to identify eective ways of counteracting destructive rumors in
multicultural urban communities based on a qualitative sociological
analysis of eective legal practices.
4. Results and Discussion
The results of the prevalence survey indicate that more than half (54%) of
Ukrainian city residents answered positively to the question “Are there any
rumors about migrants, refugees, ethnicities, national communities or other
groups in your city?”, and 73% of them noted that these rumors are mostly
negative. The analysis also made it possible to identify the most common
ethnic rumors - “Roma are thieves”, “Jews are selsh”; confessional rumors
- “Muslims are terrorists”; socio-cultural rumors - “internally displaced
persons live on state aid”, “Ukrainians are cheap Western European labor”
(Terno, 2009).
Since the frequency of detection of rumors about representatives of
a certain group in dierent media is almost identical, and respondents
identify “indigenous people” as the leaders of the spread of all stereotypical
expressions-rumors oered for evaluation, the negative stereotype about
Roma - “Roma are thieves”, and usually latent and not so emotionally
expressed rumor that “Jews are selsh” should be classied as “chronic”
for many cultures. At the same time, given the vague personalization and
uncritical argumentation, these rumors have all the social prerequisites for
overcoming them.
The second-ranked rumor containing signs of a dismissive attitude
towards the nation, “Ukrainians are cheap Western European labor,”
is classied by respondents as primarily a consequence of current and
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Lyudmila Afanasieva, Natalia Hlebova, Iryna Bukrieieva, Lyudmila Glyns’ka y Ihor Chychanovskyi
Rethinking destructive rumors as a legal means of solving the problems of intercultural interactions
unresolved social issues in Ukraine, such as economic security, employment,
political trends, etc.
Indeed, if we think about the content of the positive arguments given
by Ukrainian specialists who have worked abroad for a long time: “People
everywhere are valued for their moral qualities, life principles, culture
and professionalism”; “in Europe, Ukrainians have salaries at the level of
indigenous citizens and their work is appreciated”; “good specialists earn
good money abroad”, the importance of the socio-psychological contexts
of self-esteem of Ukrainians in their own communities as talented and
hardworking people becomes obvious. Obviously, major cultural and
industrial centers in Europe (as well as domestic ones) have always needed
high-quality specialists. Therefore, the activity of recruitment agencies
inviting qualied specialists shows that the presence of qualied, and thus
adequately rewarded, Ukrainians there will only grow.
The third position in the ranking is occupied by the rumor that internally
displaced persons do not want to work (“live o state aid”). This is a fairly
widespread negative stereotype, one of the reasons for which respondents
cited the fact that wealthier IDPs of the rst waves had enough money to
take their time with employment and the nal choice of a place of permanent
residence. However, according to the survey data, in practice this statement
is most often associated with signicant problems of nding a job in their
specialty in the context of high regional unemployment rates.
The fourth position, according to the rating, is occupied by the rumor
that “Muslims are terrorists and we should stay away from them.” This
statement has historical roots in the global information space and is relevant
today due to the growing level of illegal terrorism in the world. The low
readiness (18%) to oppose the least widespread of the rumors oered for
evaluation (only 48% have heard the phrase “Muslim terrorists”), despite
its relative personalized vagueness, indicates a serious underestimation
by respondents of the negative consequences of its spread. This increases
the possibility of an uncritical attitude of Ukrainians to both world and
domestic news and can be seen as a latent source of interethnic tension.
At the same time, the respondents are aware that since the Muslim
community is integrated into the civil and political space of Ukraine and is
a full-edged subject of the development of Ukrainian statehood, ignoring
such statements about Muslim Ukrainians in public places is a violation
of a number of legislative acts. Given the accessibility and frequency
of fabricated biased news feeds of the Russian media in information
networks (in fact, the information ethnic war of the Russian Federation
against the indigenous people of Ukrainian Crimea - the Crimean Tatars),
tolerance of such statements about the Muslim confessional group in the
Ukrainian media and public space is unacceptable and is legally classied
as participation in inciting interfaith and interethnic hatred.
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5. Implementation stages
Understanding this has led to the need for a sociological study of social
processes and mechanisms for guiding people’s behavior, primarily through
their identication and self-identication with certain communities and
their inherent normative systems based on critical thinking. Thus, based on
the identied peculiarities of the respondents’ attitudes towards rumors,
and with the aim of developing practical tools for further research, we see
that the culture of social groups in relation to the rumor factor is determined
by the close interconnection of various forms of behavior of individuals and
groups with dierent values and their hierarchical congurations in the
social consciousness of social actors (Terno, 2009).
The present-day Ukrainian urban communities have many dimensions
that allow us to identify these features, to show the content and nature
of their current trends. A signicant role is played by the ability of
urban communities to self-develop, which begins with answering simple
questions: who are we? how do we treat ourselves? who do we consider
ourselves? how do we want to be seen in the eyes of European communities
and national cultures? what are we doing for this?
We will consider how the critical thinking revealed by the groups of
respondents is realized in the practice of positive narratives on the examples
of interaction and solidarity of the Melitopol city community.
Consideration of the rumor that contains signs of a dismissive attitude
towards the Ukrainian nation, “Ukrainians are cheap Western European
labor,” if we understand the content of the positive arguments given by
Ukrainian specialists who have worked abroad for a long time: “people
are valued everywhere for their moral qualities, life principles, culture
and professionalism”; “in Europe, Ukrainians have salaries at the level
of indigenous citizens and their work is valued”; “good specialists earn
good money abroad,” the importance of the socio-psychological contexts
of Ukrainians’ self-esteem in their own communities as talented and
hardworking people becomes apparent, which, in our opinion, is primarily
a consequence of current and unresolved social issues in Ukraine, such as
economic security, employment, political trends, etc.
Taking into account the problem becomes an important element of the
integration theme of the Lift Business Incubator project under the Diversity
Connectors for Start-ups: The Art of Mixing program, which has been
implemented in Melitopol for a long time by the NGO Committee of the
Future. Solidarity and Responsibility”.
An example of refuting the rumors about “Ukrainians as cheap labor” is
the community’s attention to the need of young people for quality vocational
education and the involvement of graduates of Melitopol secondary schools,
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Rethinking destructive rumors as a legal means of solving the problems of intercultural interactions
colleges and universities of Melitopol region - successful professionals in
various elds with experience in many European countries. An example of
this practice is the recently opened School of Ambassadors in Melitopol,
where those who intend to popularize traditional and newest city brands
through various communication channels, who voluntarily undertake to
conduct promotional activities and promote the values of the Melitopol
brand, receive the necessary information and get acquainted with the long-
term development plans for various industries in our region.
The emphasis of this School on the promotion of Melitopol region as a
diversied regional professional and educational center known in dierent
parts of the world will serve the good cause of introducing our region to
the Europe where we are integrating, and will help young people to realize
the value of their own professional culture, based on the continuity and
continuity of the educational traditions of Melitopol region in many modern
industries.
A fairly widespread negative stereotype is reected in the position in
the ranking of rumors about internally displaced persons (“living o state
aid”). The analysis of the problem shows that one of the main reasons for
this rumor is the signicant problems of employment in Ukraine in their
specialty in the context of high regional unemployment rates. An example
of active counteraction to such rumors is the welcoming policy of Melitopol
towards newcomers, which combines the joint eorts of the community,
city authorities and active personal and public participation of internally
displaced persons in the daily life of the city.
The real phenomenon of this movement, which encouraged IDPs from
Crimea and Donbas to Melitopol to avoid the dry abbreviation “internally
displaced persons” in everyday life, was the initiative of a group of IDPs to
create the Alliance of New Melitopolians, a public organization that largely
refuted the opinion of many that IDPs are mere freeloaders who want to work
and live at the expense of the state on behalf of a quantitatively signicant
group of people displaced from the temporarily occupied territories.
A new level of contact with the city’s residents and local authorities is
evidenced by the participation of members of the New Melitopolians NGO,
whose membership is now open to all newly displaced persons, migrants,
and foreign students who do not want to be positioned as passive, temporary
members of the city’s community in many city events and roundtables in
the format of a contact studio: “Are Melitopol’s IDPs a Visitor or a Home?”,
“Unity as a Guarantee of Ukraine’s Unity”.
These eorts have borne fruit, many barriers and misunderstandings
have been successfully overcome, and newcomers can always count on
understanding and assistance in dicult circumstances. At the same time,
as we can see, thanks to their active work, members of this social group
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are now writing a new bright page in the life of intercultural Melitopol in
opposition to rumors.
We consider the rumor that “Muslims are terrorists and we should
stay away from them” to be a latent source of interethnic tension, since
despite its relative personalized blurring (only 48% have heard the phrase
“Muslims are terrorists”), only 18% of Ukrainians are ready to oppose it,
which indicates a serious underestimation of the negative consequences of
its spread.
Melitopol demonstrates public resistance to this phenomenon by the
fact that one of the central streets, named Intercultural, is home to the
Center for National Cultures, the Melitopol City Jewish Community, a
Muslim Mosque, and the New Generation Christian Charismatic Church,
demonstrating the religious tolerance of the city’s residents as the basis for
the harmonious existence of a multicultural community. This is not about a
city where joint celebrations of the Tatar Sabantu and Hederlez, the Muslim
Nowruz, the Moldovan Martishor, and the Bulgarian Martenitsa have long
been a tradition of the city community.
The sincerity of the feelings of citizens of all ethnicities in condemning
the arbitrary and criminal actions of the Russian authorities against
Ukraine and the Crimean Tatar people is also evidenced by the invariably
crowded annual Melitopol citywide peaceful rallies of Unity and car rallies
to Chongar, held annually on May 18, the anniversary of the deportation of
Crimean Tatars from their homeland, as a sign of historical memory and
solidarity with them.
The most striking examples of the goodwill of the city’s Muslims for
understanding and unity are demonstrated by the confessional leaders and
ministers of the Melitopol region through their participation in traditional
meetings with representatives of the city authorities and the public in the
form of regular prayer breakfasts, as a means of interfaith dialogue on
pressing issues of the region and the city.
The women of the Melitopol Committee for the Return of Crimean
Tatars to their Historical Homeland “Azat”, as part of the protests against
the annexation of Crimea, initiated the action “Women for Peace!”,
dedicated to the International Day of Peace. The Crimean Tatar community
of Melitopol initiated a peaceful march to show that Crimean Tatars stand
for the unity of Ukraine, for peace, spreading compassion, kindness and
hope for a peaceful future. This atmosphere of mutual support is perhaps
the most signicant example of interculturalism in action.
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Lyudmila Afanasieva, Natalia Hlebova, Iryna Bukrieieva, Lyudmila Glyns’ka y Ihor Chychanovskyi
Rethinking destructive rumors as a legal means of solving the problems of intercultural interactions
Conclusions
Thus, the above practices of creating positive narratives on the examples
of interaction and solidarity of the Melitopol city community, identied by
the groups of respondents, allow us to conclude that legal critical thinking
is a safeguard against the thoughtless spread of destructive rumors. Only
such an approach allows us to learn, create a friendly atmosphere in a
multicultural community and develop a culture of interaction through
dialogic communication, which requires a high level of social awareness,
communicative legal competence, and developed communication skills
from all participants.
It can also be argued that in today’s dicult conditions, sociological
methods of supporting intercultural dialogue are becoming an important
and eective factor in identifying ways to encourage each individual to
engage in constructive interaction, to develop a positive attitude towards
representatives of other nationalities, to develop knowledge about the
cultures that surround them, and to ourish a modern multicultural
community.
Since the culture of social groups in relation to the rumor factor is
determined by the close interconnection of various forms of behavior
of individuals and groups with dierent values and their hierarchical
congurations in the social consciousness of social actors, further
systematic sociological support is required for the practical development of
legal counteraction tools in each case.
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Esta revista fue editada en formato digital y publicada
en julio de 2023, por el Fondo Editorial Serbiluz,
Universidad del Zulia. Maracaibo-Venezuela
Vol.41 Nº 78
