scholarly journals Myths about the past in media environment: theoretical grounds and Russian political practice

2022 ◽  
pp. 1-17
Author(s):  
Andrei Aleksandrovich Linchenko
Keyword(s):  
Detailed Analysis ◽  
Theoretical Models ◽  
Information Warfare ◽  
Politics Of Memory ◽  
Media Environment ◽  
The Past ◽  
Modern Media ◽  
The Social ◽  
Russian Politics ◽  
Russian Research

This article is examines the issues of constructive use of the myths about the past in media environment. The goal lies in the attempt to align several most significant theoretical models of interpretation of the social myth in order to comprehend constructive use of myths about the past in modern Russian politics of memory. This required referring to the peculiarities of the ontology of the past in media myth, as well as to the trends characteristic to modern foreign and Russian research of the politics of memory. The scientific novelty lies in the detailed analysis of the key categories that reveal the peculiarities of creating ontology of the past in modern media myth, as well as allow analyzing the constructive potential of myths about the past in media environment in the context of the Russian politics of memory (the function of cultural-historical orientation, motivating function, functions of conflict settlement). The author explores myths about the past, which in recent decades have become a crucial instrument for conducting a peculiar type of information warfare – the so-called “memorial” wars.

scholarly journals The Battle for Truth: Mapping the Network of Information War Experts in the Czech Republic

2018 ◽  
Vol 26 (3) ◽  
pp. 57-87 ◽  
Author(s):  
Dagmar Rychnovská ◽  
Martin Kohút
Keyword(s):  
Czech Republic ◽  
New Media ◽  
Social Relations ◽  
Security Studies ◽  
Information Warfare ◽  
Media Environment ◽  
The Czech Republic ◽  
Russian Politics ◽  
Sociological Approaches ◽  
Political Principles

The rise of ‘information disorder’ that undermines Western political principles has become one of the key political concerns in today's Europe and United States and led to searching for new solutions to the problem of how to fight the spread of mis- and dis-information. The challenges of information disorder, however, are increasingly perceived as a part of the information war – which involves the intentional Russian propaganda using new media. Yet who gets to help our societies build resilience against the information war? This research looks at how this novel problematization of security affects the politics of security expertise. Or, who gains power in this ‘battle for truth'? Building on sociological approaches in security studies, this paper focuses on the Czech Republic as a country that has become very active in the fight against disinformation and analyses the network of actors recognized as providing security expertise on information warfare. Based on social network analysis, the research maps the structure of social relations among actors recognized as experts and points out the empowerment of think tanks and journalists, who are able to build social capital, mobilize their knowledge of Russian politics and the new media environment, and design new practices to make the society resilient towards information warfare.

Yugonostalgia and Yugoslav Cultural Memory: Lexicon of Yu Mythology

Slavic Review ◽  
2013 ◽  
Vol 72 (1) ◽  
pp. 54-78 ◽  
Author(s):  
Aleksandar Bošković
Keyword(s):  
Everyday Life ◽  
Cultural Memory ◽  
Virtual Museum ◽  
Social Imagination ◽  
Politics Of Memory ◽  
The Past ◽  
The Social ◽  
Critical Intervention

Aleksandar Bošković argues that the Yugonostalgia in the Lexicon of Yu Mythology should be taken, not as a regressive idealization of the Yugoslav socialist past, but as a critical intervention in both the contemporary postsocialist politics of memory and the politics of emancipation. Bošković identifies the Lexicon as an exhibition catalogue of the virtual museum of all “things Yugoslav,” a self-reflective postmodern hybrid emerging from the semantic overlapping of different genres and threaded with various memories, per-Slavic Review 72, no. 1 (Spring 2013) sonal and collective, nostalgic and ironic, of everyday life in Yugoslav socialism. Bošković contends that by evoking visual and textual reflections on the meaning of the past for the present, the Lexicon appears to have a materiality akin to that of a ruin: it exhibits a blend of affectionate and ironic nostalgia for the Yugoslav past, while simultaneously performing and reaffirming the socialist modernity's prospective perspective as its emancipating impact on the social imagination.

scholarly journals Trudne rozliczenie z radziecką przeszłością (na przykładzie opisu zbrodni katyńskiej w rosyjskich podręcznikach do historii)

Politeja ◽  
2018 ◽  
Vol 15 (53) ◽  
pp. 359-374
Author(s):  
Anna Kadykało
Keyword(s):  
Civic Education ◽  
Sense Of Belonging ◽  
Historical Memory ◽  
History Textbooks ◽  
Russian History ◽  
Politics Of Memory ◽  
The Past ◽  
Patriotic Education ◽  
Historical Education ◽  
Russian Politics

Difficult Settlement with the Soviet Past (on the Example of the Description of the Katyn Massacre in Russian History Textbooks)The aim of the article is to show how in contemporary Russian history textbooks the Katyn Massacre (1940) is presented and compare its interpretation with different approaches to this tragedy that are actively discussed in scientific circles and among ordinary Russians. This approach should answer the question of the place occupied by this sensitive issue in Russian politics of memory and show how the process of forming historical memory related to the Katyn Massacre, based on historical education in schools, and public policy, looks like. Civic education in Russia is based on patriotic values and shapes the pride of power of the motherland. By emphasizing the importance of war victories, strong leaders, the formation of the students’ sense of belonging to the Russian nation and loyalty to the state takes place. The Katyn case continues to be a painful theme in Russian interpretation of the past, which explains why attempts are made to justify the crimes of the Stalinist regime. It is also not useful for patriotic education, as evidenced by the lack of mention of it in some history textbooks, or attempts to justify it partially.

scholarly journals Structuri sociale și identități etnice în epoca metalelor în sud-estul Europei

2021 ◽  
Vol 4 (1) ◽  
pp. 126-140
Author(s):  
Simona Lazăr
Keyword(s):  
Cultural Context ◽  
Cultural Influences ◽  
Theoretical Models ◽  
Anglo Saxon ◽  
Archaeological Data ◽  
The Past ◽  
The People ◽  
The Social ◽  
Different Types ◽  
Cultural Features

In the last decades there had been proposed several theoretical models for different types of exchanges, from those that took place among the neighboring communities to the long distances ones, through the help of the intermediaries. The mechanisms of the goods circulation, essentially different from what we understand today through this process, were based on the principles of reciprocity and redistribution. In order to understand them, and also other aspects related to the complex system of the social and power relations, an important role had the ethno-anthropological studies that offered different interpretation models. It was debated a lot in the Anglo-Saxon literature and not only, on the fact that the contemporary archaeologist judges, inevitably, the objects and the concrete situations from the digs, according to some criteria completely different from the studied cultural context, because he belongs to another “world”, with other psych-socio-cultural features than the people from the near past, this socio-social distance that comes between the archaeologist and the artifact, along with the temporal one, determining the opacity of the last one.   The archaeological data mustn’t permanently inter-relate with the theories. It isn’t always sure that these “stylistic” or “aesthetic” criteria that we consider to be significant were considered the same by the potter from the past. The “style” changes had been many times forcedly associated with the replacement of an archaeological culture with another or changes in the ethnic structure of a community. The changes that appeared in certain types of artifacts can be explained only through economic or symbolic mutations, not necessarily through cultural influences understood linearly (as the representation of some chronological relations between the human groups or through the ethnic relation).

scholarly journals Truth Revelation Procedures as a Rights-based Alternative to the Politics of (Non-)Memory

2020 ◽  
pp. 51-66
Author(s):  
Emilia Kowalewska
Keyword(s):  
Transitional Justice ◽  
Research Problem ◽  
Fundamental Rights ◽  
Justice Theory ◽  
Politics Of Memory ◽  
Authoritative Knowledge ◽  
Legal Norms ◽  
The Past ◽  
The Social ◽  
The Right

This article offers a socio-legal reflection on the relation between law, state obligation, and attempts to institutionalize collective memory. As the question of memory institutionalization becomes most pertinent in the context of regime change that imposes on an incumbent government certain expectations for addressing the past, the article considers this research problem from the perspective of transitional justice theory. The transitional justice paradigm allows for an interdisciplinary consideration of the topic. Special attention is paid to legal norms and mechanisms directed towards establishing authoritative knowledge about the past. The emerging principle of the right to truth is presented as an integrating and rights-based perspective from which to approach societal demands for acknowledging injustices of the past. Measured against the fundamental rights that lie at the heart of transitional justice theory, three types of truth revelation procedures are presented. The article shows that the relationship between law and memory – which is often reduced to one of political instrumentalization – should, in accordance with the values of a liberal democracy, be reframed from the perspective of individual and collective rights. The article seeks to contribute to the field of memory studies in the social sciences by exposing functions of legal norms and mechanisms that are often overlooked when discussed from the perspective of the politics of memory.

Elites, Participation, and the Democratic Creed

1979 ◽  
Vol 27 (1) ◽  
pp. 1-20 ◽  
Author(s):  
Joseph V. Femia
Keyword(s):  
United States ◽  
Public Opinion ◽  
Detailed Analysis ◽  
The United States ◽  
Political Elites ◽  
Popular Participation ◽  
The Past ◽  
The Social ◽  
Cast Doubt ◽  
Democratic Norms

The primary purpose of this paper is to cast doubt on the theoretical and empirical soundness of two well-known survey studies of public opinion, ‘Consensus and Ideology in American Politics' by McClosky, and ‘Fundamental Principles of Democracy, Bases of Agreement and Disagreement’ by Prothro and Grigg. That these articles contributed to the pluralist orthodoxy of the fifties and early sixties is evident from their data and conclusions, which can be summarized as follows: (1) it cannot be claimed that the United States enjoys a wide democratic consensus; the majority of citizens exhibit only a superficial commitment to democratic norms and ideas; (2) rather, it is the social and political elites who are the main repositories of democratic virtue; therefore (3) any attempt greatly to increase popular participation would needlessly expose present institutions to authoritarian pressures. Although the past decade or so has witnessed a rehabilitation of radical democratic theory, these articles have enjoyed remarkable freedom from serious criticism. Indeed, their findings have become conventional academic wisdom. Through a detailed analysis, I attempt to demonstrate that the questionnaires used in the two investigations are both carelessly constructed and arbitrarily tied to a narrow, a historical conception of democracy. It is also argued that both studies are marred by a fundamental contradiction common (though hitherto undetected) in pluralist writing.

scholarly journals Formation of the youth’s social memory in the Eurasian integration states-participants

2021 ◽  
Vol 21 (3) ◽  
pp. 482-496
Author(s):  
G. I. Osadchaya ◽  
E. Yu. Kireev ◽  
M. L. Vartanova ◽  
A. A. Chernikova
Keyword(s):  
Generation Y ◽  
Public Discourse ◽  
Social Memory ◽  
Social Institutions ◽  
Economic Transformation ◽  
Politics Of Memory ◽  
The Public ◽  
The Past ◽  
The Social ◽  
The Common

In the past thirty years, social memory of the Eurasian youth has been influenced by many actors of the commerative space, who often pursue their own goals in the struggle to legitimize the new political order and their policies of the radical economic transformation. The results of their efforts should be taken into account in the implementation of one of the most important joint projects of the post-Soviet countries - Eurasian integration, because social memory of the youth is the most important resource for its success. The study aims at clarifying and evaluating the mechanisms for preserving information about the past, the peculiarities of the generation Y ideas about the common history and the current stage of the EAEU construction, which are present in the public discourse, and at revealing the relationship between attitudes to the past and to the Eurasian integration, the influence of social memory on the personal worldview, the forms and methods of its reconstruction in the interests of the post-Soviet countries interaction and efficiency of the politics of memory. The formation of social memory is defined as the activity of actors (individuals, groups, organizations, social institutions, communities) aimed at the interpretation of the collective past and common present by the youth of the countries participating in the Eurasian integration. The empirical object of the study - young citizens of the member states and candidates for joining the EAEU (18-38 years old), who live, study or work in Moscow. The article considers the respondents assessments of the contribution of each of the actors to the social memory formation and describes social memory of the generation Y as a set of views, feelings and moods reflecting the perception of the Soviet past and the common present. The authors insist on the purposeful policy of the leaders of the countries, participating in the Eurasian integration, to ensure the reconstruction of the youths social memory and the consolidation of societies.

scholarly journals Nostalgia for the soviet in the modern media scene

2021 ◽  
Vol 2 (119) ◽  
pp. 133-143
Author(s):  
Tanjana S. Zlotnikova ◽  
◽  
Vladislava M. Kuimova ◽  
Keyword(s):  
Research Methodology ◽  
Personal Experience ◽  
Social Inclusion ◽  
Early Adulthood ◽  
Social Processes ◽  
The Past ◽  
Modern Media ◽  
Cultural Life ◽  
The Social ◽  
The Subject

The article sets out the current and paradoxical problem of nostalgia, the object of which is the Soviet past, Soviet being, the idea of soviet life as a source of stability and moral and psychological certainty. Nostalgia is considered as a cultural philosophical metaphor and as an academically conceived subject of study in the interdisciplinary paradigm. The definition correlates with psychological discomfort and with the need to return the past, perceived as a harmonically arranged life. The concept of nostalgia and the phenomenon it denotes correlate with several problematic discourses, being at the intersection of socio-cultural, philosophical and worldview, historical, symbolic and psychological aspects. Nostalgia turns out to be a way of mythologizing the Soviet past, actualizing the personal experience of representatives of different generations as experiencing negative and requiring overcoming psychological conflicts. The research methodology is related to the deep traditions of socio-philosophical and philosophical-anthropological issues, consists in ideas about the cyclical nature of social processes and phenomena of cultural life. Based on the judgments of N. Berdyaev, S. Bulgakov, other philosophers and publicists, the significance of the aspect of nostalgia associated with longing for lost Russia and for lost spaces, emotions, links is affirmed. For the noble environment, the subject of nostalgia is pre-revolutionary Russia, the image of which is being idealized, and the social problems of the monarchist state go into oblivion. Soviet existence is permeated by longing for the past. Living generations see psychoemotional reactions in the Soviet past, which are broadcast as present there and absent in the current society – the value of friendship, the duration of love, interest in life, social inclusion, willingness to make decisions and lack of infantility, early adulthood; collectivism, stability, camaraderie are being updated as an alternative to the loss of socially significant ideals. The dynamics of nostalgic manifestations in several generations of Soviet and post-Soviet people is noted. We analyze media, in particular, presented in television and cinematic products, manifestations of nostalgia for strength and harmony, fidelity to the chosen path and masculine certainty (sports issues, appeal to the discourse of power).

Dowagers, Debs, Nuns and Babies: The Politics of Nostalgia and the Older Woman in the British Sunday Night Television Serial

2013 ◽  
Vol 10 (4) ◽  
pp. 769-784 ◽  
Author(s):  
Estella Tincknell
Keyword(s):  
Older Women ◽  
Social Role ◽  
Mature Female ◽  
Older Woman ◽  
Distinctive Features ◽  
The Past ◽  
Political Position ◽  
The Social ◽  
The Uk ◽  
Popular Television

The extensive commercial success of two well-made popular television drama serials screened in the UK at prime time on Sunday evenings during the winter of 2011–12, Downton Abbey (ITV, 2010–) and Call the Midwife (BBC, 2012–), has appeared to consolidate the recent resurgence of the period drama during the 1990s and 2000s, as well as reassembling something like a mass audience for woman-centred realist narratives at a time when the fracturing and disassembling of such audiences seemed axiomatic. While ostensibly different in content, style and focus, the two programmes share a number of distinctive features, including a range of mature female characters who are sufficiently well drawn and socially diverse as to offer a profoundly pleasurable experience for the female viewer seeking representations of aging femininity that go beyond the sexualised body of the ‘successful ager’. Equally importantly, these two programmes present compelling examples of the ‘conjunctural text’, which appears at a moment of intense political polarisation, marking struggles over consent to a contemporary political position by re-presenting the past. Because both programmes foreground older women as crucial figures in their respective communities, but offer very different versions of the social role and ideological positioning that this entails, the underlying politics of such nostalgia becomes apparent. A critical analysis of these two versions of Britain's past thus highlights the ideological investments involved in period drama and the extent to which this ‘cosy’ genre may legitimate or challenge contemporary political claims.

Sign in / Sign up

Export Citation Format

Share Document