National-Cultural Identity in the Horizon of Values: Civil Society Institutions as a Site of the Meaning-Making of Belonging

Abstract

The purpose of the article is to provide a theoretical substantiation of national-cultural identity as a process of the meaning-making of belonging under conditions of axiological instability and to determine the role of civil society institutions as an environment for restoring the symbolic coherence of society in situations involving the destruction of traditional mechanisms of cultural integration. The research methodology integrates phenomenological, hermeneutic, and social constructivist approaches, enabling the conceptualisation of identity as a process of meaning production rather than a fixed set of attributes. Within this perspective, values are analysed as lived structures of experience that define the horizons of the possible and the permissible, while mechanisms of interpretation and reinterpretation of values are examined in the context of institutional practices. The social constructivist approach provides an understanding of institutions as processual formations that emerge and are reproduced through recurrent practices and the intersubjective confirmation of meanings. The study employs axiological analysis, which allows values to be treated not as abstract normative declarations but as regulative structures that acquire force through experience, social validation, and institutional legitimation. Elements of critical theory are further applied to reveal tensions between different levels of value organisation as manifested in institutional practices. The scientific novelty of the study consists in substantiating a processual understanding of national-cultural identity as the outcome of meaning-making of belonging under conditions of axiological tension. Institutions of civil society are conceptualised not as mechanisms of value transmission but as spaces of intersubjective coordination in which values compete, are hierarchised, and undergo symbolic stabilisation. The concept of values is refined through their interpretation as regulative structures that derive their force from experience and practice rather than from declarative articulation. The role of institutions is further elaborated as structures that do not eliminate axiological tensions but organise them, thereby enabling the functioning of identity under conditions of instability. Conclusions. National-cultural identity cannot be reduced to a stable system of values. It emerges within a field of axiological tension, where heterogeneous value orientations interact, conflict, and are continuously redefined. Institutions of civil society play a constitutive role in this process not as direct constructors of identity but as conditions of its formation. Identity takes shape through mechanisms of visibility, repetition, and social validation of values ensured by institutional structures. Axiological tension functions not as an obstacle but as an internal resource of identity formation, providing its dynamism and openness to transformation. Institutions of civil society perform symbolic, normative-regulative, and mediative functions that structure this tension, creating a space in which contradictions can be coordinated and shared meanings can emerge without their final closure. Thus, national-cultural identity is not directly constructed by institutions but is formed within a field of axiological tension that institutions render visible, structured, and socially legitimate.