Pulling up the Drawbridge

2020 ◽  
Vol 38 (2) ◽  
pp. 109-136
Author(s):  
Michael A. Hansen ◽  
Jonathan Olsen
Keyword(s):  
Soviet Union ◽  
Political Ideology ◽  
Former Soviet Union ◽  
Vote Choice ◽  
Recent Scholarship ◽  
Political Refugees ◽  
Large Numbers ◽  
The Media ◽  
Russian Germans ◽  
Alternative For Germany

The most recent scholarship on the Alternative for Germany (AfD) indicates that citizens primarily cast a vote for the party based on anti-immigrant or xenophobic attitudes. Nevertheless, prominent figures from the AfD suggest that many Germany citizens with immigrant backgrounds vote for it—an argument that has been picked up by the media. In this article, we investigate the most likely potential constituency of immigrants that might support the AfD: ethnic German migrants from the former Soviet Union, so-called Russian-Germans. Using the 2017 Immigrant German Election Study (imges), we find that these ethnic German migrants from the former Soviet Union indeed voted for the AfD in relatively large numbers when compared to the overall population. Furthermore, when predicting vote choice, we find that the main predictor of voting for the AfD among Russian-Germans is not political ideology but rather a simple hostility towards new refugees. Crucially, migrants with a Soviet background are more likely to vote for the AfD if they hold the position that there should be no economic or political refugees allowed into the country.

Writing the Intifada Collective Action in the Occupied Territories

1993 ◽  
Vol 45 (4) ◽  
pp. 560-594 ◽  
Author(s):  
Ian S. Lustick
Keyword(s):  
Soviet Union ◽  
Collective Action ◽  
Former Soviet Union ◽  
Gaza Strip ◽  
Social Scientists ◽  
Occupied Territories ◽  
West Bank And Gaza ◽  
The Media ◽  
The One ◽  
The Individual

The five-year-old Palestinian uprising, the intifada, was the first of many mass mobilizations against nondemocratic rule to appear in the Middle East, Eastern Europe, East Asia, and the former Soviet Union between 1987 and 1991. Although the Palestinian struggle against Israeli occupation of the West Bank and Gaza Strip is seldom included by the media or by social scientists in their treatments of this putative wave of “democratization,” many studies of the uprising are available. Although largely atheoretic in their construction of the intifada and in their explanations for it, the two general questions posed by most of these authors are familiar to students of collective action and revolution. On the one hand, why did it take twenty years for the Palestinians to launch the uprising? On the other hand, how, in light of the individual costs of participation and the negligible impact of any one person's decision to participate, could it have occurred at all? The work under review provides broad support for recent trends in the analysis of revolution and collection action, while illustrating both the opportunities and the constraints associated with using monographic literature as a data base.

scholarly journals Žiniasklaida užsienio kalbomis Lietuvoje: ką renkasi vartotojai

2009 ◽  
Vol 51 ◽  
pp. 144-159
Author(s):  
Laima Nevinskaitė
Keyword(s):  
Soviet Union ◽  
Former Soviet Union ◽  
Age Groups ◽  
Political Influence ◽  
Foreign Languages ◽  
Printed Media ◽  
The Media ◽  
Foreign Media ◽  
Watching Tv ◽  
Media Choices

Straipsnyje pateikiama žiniasklaidos užsienio kalbomis pasirinkimo tarp Lietuvos didmiesčių gyventojų lietuvių analizė, atlikta remiantis reprezentatyvios šių miestų gyventojų apklausos duomenimis. Daugiausiai dėmesio skiriama žiniasklaidos rusų ir anglų kalbomis pasirinkimo analizei: kaip dažnai mokantys rusų ir (ar) anglų kalbas renkasi žiniasklaidą šiomis kalbomis, kaip šie pasirinkimai yra pasiskirstę tarp amžiaus grupių, koks žiniasklaidos užsienio kalbomis vartojimo dažnumas, palyginti su kitomis kalbų vartojimo sritimis. Remiantis skirtingais teoriniais požiūriais į kalbos ir tapatybės santykį, žiniasklaidos užsienio kalbomis vartojimą galima vertinti dvejopai: kaip kultūrinės, lingvistinės ir politinės įtakos šaltinį arba tiesiog vartotojo galimybių rinktis jo poreikius tenkinantį žiniasklaidos turinį išplėtimą.Pagrindiniai žodžiai: žiniasklaidos vartojimas, žiniasklaida užsienio kalbomis, globalizacija.Media in Foreign Languages in Lithuania: Consumer ChoicesLaima Nevinskaitė SummaryThe author analyses the use of media in foreign languages, mostly Russian and English, among Lithuanians living in the main cities of Lithuania (Vilnius, Kaunas and Klaipeda). The analysis is based on data of a representative survey on the knowledge of languages and their use in these cities, performed within the research project “Cities and Languages” by Vilnius Universit).The use of media in foreign languages is important in several respects, which are discussed in the article. First, it can be regarded as a source of cultural and linguistic influence within the context of cultural and linguistic globalisation. In Lithuania and in other former Soviet Union states, media in Russian are also treated as a potential source of political influence. Second, it is important in respect of media market, since foreign media can be regarded as a source of a wider content choice for media consumer.Results of the analysis have shown that a significant part of Lithuanians (up to 40 per cent) frequently use media in foreign languages, although the number of frequent users still lags behind the amount of those who use the media in Lithuanian. The data show a wider knowledge of Russian and generally a wider use of mass media in Russian. Russian is used more often than English as a language for listening radio and watching TV; the use of printed media (books and periodicals) in Russian is higher, but close to that in English; English is much wider used as a language of the internet use. The trends are clearly more positive for English, since it is more popular among young people, even among those who know Russian as well. The article includes a further analysis of media choices among those who know the languages in question, these choices among the age groups, and the frequency of media use in foreign languages in comparison to the use of those languages in other domains.

Mass Exoduses: The Response of the United States

1996 ◽  
Vol 30 (1) ◽  
pp. 310-324 ◽  
Author(s):  
Michael J. Churgin
Keyword(s):  
United States ◽  
Soviet Union ◽  
Latin American ◽  
Former Soviet Union ◽  
The United States ◽  
Historical Background ◽  
Government Action ◽  
Large Numbers ◽  
Civil War Era ◽  
Latin American Countries

The focus of this article is on mass immigration to the United States and the country's response to various groups of immigrants. After presenting historical background dating back to the pre-Civil War era, attention is given to the Cuban and Haitian mass movements of recent years and to the refugees coming from Vietnam, the former Soviet Union, and Latin American countries. The article concludes that the United States has utilized international agreements regarding the settlement of large numbers of people only when they facilitate government action.

Runic Written Monuments in Kazakhstan

2020 ◽  
Vol 4 (118) ◽  
pp. 229-245
Author(s):  
O. Bekjan ◽  
Keyword(s):  
Soviet Union ◽  
Former Soviet Union ◽  
Human Life ◽  
Extreme Caution ◽  
Large Numbers ◽  
Turkic Languages ◽  
Bronze Mirrors ◽  
Xix Century ◽  
Academy Of Sciences ◽  
Archaeological Excavations

Since the middle of the XIX century, ancient inscriptions written on silver bowls, bracelets, and bronze mirrors have been found in large numbers on the territory of Kazakhstan from the surface of the earth and archaeological excavations. Currently, the number of such Turkic runic inscriptions is increasing every year. The first Kazakh scientist who found and tried to reveal their meanings was A. Amanzholov. He named such inscriptions found from Kazakhstan, summarizing them by local values as Irtysh, ili, Syrdarya and Ural. The most valuable was the inscription on the silver bowl, found as a result of archaeological excavations from the Issyk mound. Linguists who came from the Academy of Sciences of the former Soviet Union made a categorical conclusion, without presenting any arguments, that the Issyk inscription is in the Iranian language, and cannot be read in the Turkic languages. But Kazakh researchers, not agreeing with this conclusion, began to read this inscription in the ancient Turkic language. Comparing and analyzing these studies, we published our reading in 1993. After that, until 2009, we updated and supplemented our readings three times. One of the Irtysh inscriptions tells about the danger of vodka and wine for human life. And the second tells about the coolness inside the mountain gorge. In the inscriptions found in the Zhetysu area, special attention was paid to hunting. They describe the sensitivity and extreme caution of the mountain goat. The Talgar inscription speaks of yarn and the spinning profession. In one of the aulieatinsky inscriptions, on the seal is written the phrase «my word», and on a large stone about the immensity of the country of the Karakhanids. And the Syrdarya inscription mentions the greatness of the Syrdarya river.

scholarly journals The Ebb and Flow of Copper and Iron Smelting in the South Caucasus

Radiocarbon ◽  
2017 ◽  
Vol 60 (1) ◽  
pp. 159-180 ◽  
Author(s):  
Nathaniel L Erb-Satullo ◽  
Brian J J Gilmour ◽  
Nana Khakhutaishvili
Keyword(s):  
Soviet Union ◽  
Former Soviet Union ◽  
Large Scale ◽  
Copper Smelting ◽  
Soviet Period ◽  
The South ◽  
South Caucasus ◽  
Black Sea Region ◽  
Iron Smelting ◽  
Large Numbers

AbstractThe Eastern Black Sea region of the South Caucasus contains an extremely rich record of metallurgical remains that is poorly known outside of the former Soviet Union. Large numbers of relatively small smelting sites dot the foothill regions, forming a dispersed, yet large-scale metallurgical landscape. New fieldwork in the region has followed up on earlier Soviet period research, relocating and reanalyzing previously known sites and identifying new ones. This paper presents a series of 33 radiocarbon (14C) dates from copper and iron smelting sites in this region. Dates from copper smelting sites suggest that copper smelting occurred over a shorter and more intense period than previously thought, between about 1300 and 800 BC. Dates from newly discovered iron smelting sites place these activities in two episodes during the Classical-Hellenistic period (ca. 500–200 BC) and the High Medieval period (ca. AD 1050–1400). The dramatic expansion in bronze production immediately prior to the adoption of iron mirrors patterns in other regions of Europe and the Near East, and has implications for understanding the economic contexts in which iron emerged. While the new dates from iron smelting sites provide only an initial outline of the iron production chronology in the region, they represent an important step for resolving outstanding issues from previous investigations.

Fukushima Fixation – The Media Focus on Radiation Risk in Tsunami-Stricken Japan

2011 ◽  
Vol 2 (2) ◽  
pp. 209-212
Author(s):  
Adam Burgess
Keyword(s):  
Soviet Union ◽  
Former Soviet Union ◽  
Radiation Risk ◽  
Nuclear Accident ◽  
Risk Society ◽  
Nuclear Threat ◽  
New Era ◽  
The Media ◽  
German Sociologist ◽  
Society Perspective

Twenty five years on from Chernobyl, the tragic events in Japan of March 2011 seem to reaffirm the ‘risk society’ perspective which the 1986 nuclear accident in the former Soviet Union did so much to popularise. It was amidst widespread predictions of mass harm – projected both across Europe and into the future – that German sociologist Ulrich Beck’s book of the same name found such a receptive audience. Beck wrote of a new era defined by the greater risk posed by ‘manufactured’, technological risk than natural, ‘external’ ones. The way in which the possible, nuclear threat from the damaged Fukushima nuclear plant looms larger than the devastation and the thousands actually killed by the ‘natural’ earthquake and tsunami reminds us of Beck's distinction.

Issue Voting: Modern and Classic Accounts

2019 ◽  
Author(s):  
Steven Weldon ◽  
Denver McNeney
Keyword(s):  
Political Ideology ◽  
Vote Choice ◽  
Future Research ◽  
Issue Voting ◽  
The Public ◽  
Social Divisions ◽  
Affective Processes ◽  
The Media ◽  
Innovative Work ◽  
Basic Facts

Political scientists have long assumed that issues were at the heart of vote choice and a causal determinant of it—that is, citizens came to politics with clear issue preferences and they voted for the party or candidate that best represented those interests. Many would say democracy demands this kind of link between issue preferences and vote choice. And yet, studies have consistently shown that surprisingly few voters measure up. Many voters know remarkably little about politics, including even basic facts about their own political system. They have little conception of issues, party, and candidate positions on those issues or how issues relate to one another as part of a coherent political ideology. As a result, they often have unstable and ephemeral preferences. Worse, among the fraction of voters who are engaged and well-informed, many appear susceptible to persuasion and possibly manipulation of their issue opinions from the media and their partisan leaders. This raises questions about the viability of representative democracy and, at its most pessimistic, the possibility that elites are largely free to pursue personal goals unchecked and independent of the public good. Some of the most innovative work on issue voting is focusing on partisan bias, including its limitations and how it relates to other social divisions. When mapped onto existing social divisions in society, such as those arising from race, religion, and immigration, issues can indeed matter for elections because they tap into and stimulate the same psychological and affective processes that make partisanship so powerful in the first place—in-group and out-group bias. Cross-national research has also increasingly pointed to the role of such issues as part of an emerging political cleavage related to globalization that is transforming elections and party systems across Europe and other postindustrial democracies. The causal determinants of issue voting is a promising avenue for future research.

scholarly journals THE ROLE OF NON-GOVERNMENTAL ORGANIZATIONS IN “COLORFUL REVOLUTIONS

2020 ◽  
Vol 64 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
B. A. Eserkepova ◽  
◽  
U. K. Organova ◽  
Keyword(s):  
Soviet Union ◽  
Former Soviet Union ◽  
Political Elite ◽  
Political Systems ◽  
Governmental Organizations ◽  
Non Governmental Organizations ◽  
Color Revolutions ◽  
The Media ◽  
Global Influence

This article discusses the emergence of new challenges and threats associated with the forcible transformation of political systems as a result of the use of the technology of “color revolutions”. In the current conditions, competition for resources, territories, and global influence has sharply intensified. The beginning of the XXI century demonstrated the appearance of the phenomenon of “color revolutions” in political practice which led to a change in the political elite in a number of post-Soviet countries. Colorful revolutions were communicative in nature, many events took place in the information space, and then in reality, so the main means of counteraction were the media. Many non-governmental organizations in the former Soviet Union received informational support from their own print or electronic media, as well as from periodicals owned or controlled by some representatives of the oligarchic capital.

Subversive identity and cultural production by the Russian-Israeli Generation 1.5

2018 ◽  
Vol 22 (5-6) ◽  
pp. 925-941 ◽  
Author(s):  
Larissa Remennick ◽  
Anna Prashizky
Keyword(s):  
Soviet Union ◽  
Cultural Production ◽  
Former Soviet Union ◽  
Female Leadership ◽  
Generation 1.5 ◽  
Older Children ◽  
Hebrew Poetry ◽  
Avant Garde ◽  
Cultural Public Sphere ◽  
The Media

This article belongs to the series presenting our ongoing ethnographic project on the Russian-Israeli Generation 1.5. It discusses the nexus between immigrant identity, civic activism and cultural production among young adults born in the (former) Soviet Union, who migrated to Israel as older children or adolescents. We examine the new, protest-driven activism among young Russian Israelis while drawing on the concepts of reactive ethnicity and cultural public sphere. This identity quest occurs at the intersection of their Russian, Jewish and Israeli identities that often clash with each other. Moreover, the ethnic awakening among these young immigrant adults has been clearly gendered, with mostly female leadership emerging out of its cultural avant-garde. We present and discuss examples of the media discourse, artistic and creative events organized by Generation 1.5 leaders, focusing on the recent Russian–Hebrew poetry festival in Jerusalem.

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