EXPLICATION OF THE CONCEPTOSPHERE OF SCIENTIFIC DISCOURSE ON THE EDUCATIONAL SPHERE DEVELOPMENT ADMINISTRATION AT THE COMMUNITY LEVEL

Abstract

Introduction. The transformation of the public power architecture in Ukraine, driven by decentralization reforms and European integration commitments, demands a fundamental rethinking of the theoretical and methodological foundations of socio-humanitarian sphere management, particularly education as a primary factor in replicating and expanding human capital. The study of the educational sphere development administration at the community level lies at the intersection of several autonomous scientific discourses: the theory of public power, municipal management, sociology of education, regional economics, and law. Such interdisciplinarity carries an inherent risk of conceptual syncretism and terminological dilution of core categories, which contextualizes the necessity for their comprehensive philosophical and administrative explication and the delimitation of the scientific field.

Aim. The study aims to execute a comprehensive theoretical and methodological explication and delimitation of the conceptosphere of the educational sphere development administration at the community level to overcome the conceptual syncretism of basic abstractions, alongside the logical derivation of an integrated author’s definition and the substantiation of its essential characteristics.

Materials and Methods. The information base of the study comprises scientific works of domestic and foreign scholars at the intersection of public administration theories, decentralization, as well as innovative and crisis management. The methodological foundation of the paper is formed by the systemic-structural approach, the method of dialectical synthesis, and categorical analysis. The application of the comparative analysis method for synonymic series enabled the juxtaposition of related concepts and the identification of their functional limitations within the field of «Public Management and Administration».

Results. The scientific field has been delimited and the terminology system purified through the analysis of a tetrad of basic concepts. The methodological validity of utilizing the generic category «administration» has been proven, as it dialectically synthesizes the advantages of the concepts of «leadership», «governance», «management», and «regulation». The category «development» is explicated as a proactive target function of deep internal qualitative transformations, as opposed to inertial «functioning». The ecosystemic boundaries of the «educational sphere» have been defined within the socio-humanitarian plane, allowing for a clear separation from the rigidly institutional «educational system» and the commercialized «market of educational services». The category «community level» is conceptualized as an autonomous politico-legal and institutional space for the vital activities of communities under multilevel governance. Based on this synthesis, an integrated author’s definition of the educational sphere development administration at the community level has been formulated, and its six essential characteristics have been substantiated (spanning from human-centered value orientation and networked co-production of public goods to an instrumental tetrad, structural-functional transformation, principles of good governance, and capitalization of human potential under crisis conditions). The executed derivation transforms the concept into a complete conceptual matrix that serves as a reliable methodological foundation and prevents analytical fragmentation during the subsequent stages of empirical analysis.

Prospects. Promising directions for further scientific research include developing integrated indicators and criteria to assess the capacity of local self-government bodies to build a secure educational space amidst the crisis challenges of martial law, analyzing the effectiveness of mechanisms for financial and personnel autonomy of municipal institutions, as well as substantiating practical recommendations for the regulatory improvement of public-private partnerships at the level of local communities in Ukraine.