Adaptive archetypal governance of territorial communities: The Ukrainian experience in the context of regional post-conflict transformations

Abstract

This article examines adaptive archetypal governance configurations in Ukrainian territorial communities under conditions of full-scale war and prospective post-conflict transformation. It develops an adaptive archetypal governance model that explains how foundational governance orientations may be recombined under the pressure of wartime crisis, recovery needs, digital transformation, and social-institutional instability. The methodology combines conceptual analysis with an illustrative comparative case study of six territorial communities: Irpin, Dnipro, Chernihiv, Ivano-Frankivsk, Mykolaiv, and Lviv. The proposed model distinguishes six hybrid configurations—Rebuilder, Mobilizer, Coordinator, Innovator, Modernizer, and Protector—and uses the selected cases to demonstrate how these configurations can be operationalised in the analysis of local governance practices. The cases are not treated as a statistically representative sample or as a validation of fixed archetypal types; rather, they illustrate different combinations of mobilisation, coordination, innovation, social protection, and reconstruction functions. The study argues that community resilience is better understood through context-sensitive combinations of governance functions than through reliance on a single archetypal model. The framework therefore offers a basis for further comparative research on territorial governance in conflict-affected and post-conflict regions.