Holy Rus: (Re)construction of Russia’s Civilizational Identity

ABSTRACT

Originally connected with the idea of Moscow as the Third Rome and the universal Christian idea of an Empire of Faith, Holy Rus (literally ‘Holy Russia’) has developed today into a transcendental concept of a unifying national force and inter-confessional dialogue based on common moral and spiritual values. The discourse of Russia’s civilizational identity has emerged with new vigor against a background of national and social disintegration. The idea promoted by the state and the Russian Orthodox Church is that Orthodoxy as a quintessence of fundamental moral values is destined to unite the peoples separated by state borders under the auspices of Holy Rus. The core of the civilizational perception is constituted by the supranational nature of Russkiy Mir (literally ‘Russian World’) based on the idea of sobornost. The research is based on the analysis of speeches delivered by President Putin and Patriarch Cyril dedicated to identity issues. The author argues that this official rhetoric is aimed at redefining the place of the Russian Orthodox Church vis-à-vis both Western modernity and domestic secularism within the context of its recovery as an institution after decades of oppression.     

The Formality of Informal Civil Society: Ukraine’s EuroMaidan

Over a period of three months, starting in late 2013, Ukraine experienced a remarkable civic transformation. What started as peaceful protests largely consisting of young idealists, grew quickly into an organized yet decentralized social movement, a conglomeration of semi-formal initiatives, and a loosely defined network of related formal and informal organizations—a process that ultimately prompted significant political and social changes in Ukraine. This paper offers three case studies related to EuroMaidan to provide insight into the formal and informal dimensions of civil society, contrasting those with official designations. The discussion contributes to the long-debated question of the strength or weakness of civil society in the context of Eastern Europe and suggests directions for future research with regard to the conceptualization of civil society and our understanding of formality.     

Social Mobilization and Political Representation: The Women’s Movement’s Struggle for Legal Abortion in Uruguay

This article analyzes the political process leading to the recent legalization of abortion in Uruguay, underlying the multiple strategies resorted to by the women’s movement to create a social consensus around women’s rights—and, more generally, around sexual and reproductive rights—as belonging to the realm of human rights. It seeks to identify the main reasons accounting for the movement’s success, which appear to be connected to the breadth of its repertoire of actions, progressively expanded to include various (and sometimes innovative) strategies operating in both the realm of civil society and public opinion and the sphere of political institutions and political representation. Focusing on the dyad speech action, the article examines the movement’s broadened repertoire of actions as well as its discourse setting human rights as a horizon of legitimacy in the context of a cultural war against a countermovement organized in defense of the status quo. Last but not least, it analyzes the issues pertaining to political representation brought to the forefront by the clashes, discrepancies, and disconnections between social movement and political institutions.     

Polarization and the Limits of Politicization: Cordoba’s Mosque-Cathedral and the Politics of Cultural Heritage

Qualitative Sociology - This article examines a recent controversy over the Catholic Church’s registration of Cordoba’s iconic Mosque-Cathedral as official Church property in 2006. In...     

Russia: What’s Next?

This paper analyses the assumption that in the actual globalized system, both the role of the state and of the economy have completely changed. In this context it is necessary to highlight that there are some new growth theories, which are going to introduce in the classical economical theory the human capital variable and policy variable as important factors to explain an economic growth as fully as possible. The paper focuses on the case of the Russian Federation and its attempts to modernize the country. Is it correct to adequate the Russian political system to some parameters which can be defined as merely Western? What will be the future of the Russian Federation if the political and the economic élite won’t change their way of conceiving the economic growth and the political system? In fact, at this stage no other options are left to Russia if not to modernize and quickly recover the lost time of the last 30 years, from Gorbaciov to the until now seen Putin leadership.     

Children’s Nonverbal Displays of Winning and Losing: Effects of Social and Cultural Contexts on Smiles

We examined the effects of social and cultural contexts on smiles displayed by children during gameplay. Eight-year-old Dutch and Chinese children either played a game alone or teamed up to play in pairs. Activation and intensity of facial muscles corresponding to Action Unit (AU) 6 and AU 12 were coded according to Facial Action Coding System. Co-occurrence of activation of AU 6 and AU 12, suggesting the presence of a Duchenne smile, was more frequent among children who teamed up than among children who played alone. Analyses of the intensity of smiles revealed an interaction between social and cultural contexts. Whereas smiles, both Duchenne and non-Duchenne, displayed by Chinese children who teamed up were more intense than those displayed by Chinese children who played alone, the effect of sociality on smile intensity was not observed for Dutch children. These findings suggest that the production of smiles by children in a competitive context is susceptible to both social and cultural factors.     

Women’s Political Firsts and Symbolic Representation

ABSTRACT

The extent to which politics is still a “man’s game” is made evident every time a top political office has a female holder for the first time. These incredibly revealing moments may give a new social meaning to women in politics—women’s political presence—and women and politics—gendered social constructions about women’s capacity to rule. This article explores the types of gendered mediation underpinning the representation of first-ever women serving in historically male-dominated political offices in Spain. It shows that gender media frames are pervasive, which may lead to an effective annihilation of women’s symbolic representation.     

D’Augelli’s Model of LGB Identity Development: A Critical Analysis

The authors critically analyzed D’Augelli’s model of LGB identity development, a common identity development model used in counselor and higher education as well as multicultural training, using a postmodern lens. An anecdotal review will be supported by empirical evidence to identify controversies encompassing D’Augelli’s theory. Additionally, this evaluation offers an interpretation of studies surrounding D’Augelli’s model in hopes of uncovering strengths and challenges to this identity development model. Findings of this critical analysis indicate that D’Augelli’s model can be a useful tool for counselors and counselor educators in their practice and teaching as long as clients are provided space for a more fluid, nonlinear identity development process.     

At the intersection of globalization and ‘civilizational originality’: cultural production in Putin’s Russia

ABSTRACT

This special issue originates from a transnational collaboration of scholars in philology, comparative literature, social theory, sociology, anthropology, ethnography, and media studies. The collection strives to advance a research agenda built on the nexus of three intellectual and academic domains: post-Soviet ‘Russian cultural studies’, the research paradigm put forward by Cultural Studies, as well as empirical methods developed in sociology. The collection illustrates the importance of expanding the experience of Cultural Studies beyond its established spheres of national investigation, while it also speaks to the necessity to re-evaluate the hegemony of the English-language academic and cultural production on the global scale. The collection offers insights into the gamut of cultural practices and institutional environments in which Russian cultural production happens today. It shows how cultural industries and institutions in Russia are integrated into the global marketplace and transnational communities, while they also draw on and contribute to local lives and experiences by trying to create an autonomous space for symbolic production at personal and collective levels. Through diverse topics, the issue sheds light on the agency, i.e. practitioners and participants, creators and consumers, of Russian cultural production and the neoliberal practices implemented on creative work and cultural administration in Russia today. The Introduction outlines the development of academic studies on Russian cultural practices since 1991; describes main political developments shaping the cultural field in Putin’s Russia; and, finally, identifies the Cultural Studies debates the editors of the collection find most productive for investigations of Russia, i.e. the instrumentalization of culture and culture as resource. Relocated in an analysis of a post-socialist society, these conceptualisations seem increasingly problematic in a situation where local and federal policies governing cultural and creative work focus simultaneously on marketization and on nationalism as the main tools of legitimizing the federal government.     

International and Domestic Dimensions of Russia’s G8 Presidency in 2006

In 2006, as president of the Group of Eight (G8), Russia intended to increase its global status, respond to foreign criticism about its democratic credentials, and advance key policy positions. In determining whether these goals were met, the author examines six important issues that Russia’s G8 presidency covered, including its agenda items (global energy security, infectious diseases, and education), nuclear nonproliferation, counter-terrorism, and the crisis in the Middle East. Informed by international socialization theory, the author finds that the G8 presidency gave Russia a high-profile platform on which to assert its national interests and sovereignty. President Vladimir Putin showcased Russia’s strengths in various ways, ranging from symbolic images of its renewed grandeur to demonstrations of its independent policy line on energy security and rhetoric about its democratizing the G8 decision-making process. He also benefited from the fact that other G8 leaders did not publicly press him on issues related to Russia’s authoritarian backsliding. However, Russia’s achievements as G8 president were soon overshadowed by worsening relations with the United States and the European Union; by further restrictions on civil society; and by high-profile assassinations. The behaviour of Russian officials during 2006 indicates that international socialization was not taking place in any meaningful way beyond a display of diplomatic code (e.g., rhetoric on consensus-building).