scholarly journals THE REGIONAL ASPECT OF THE STUDY OF THE TRANSFORMATION OF RUSSIAN SOCIETY IN THE 1950-1990S AND THE EVOLUTION OF THE ECONOMIC SYSTEM: REPRESENTATIVENESS AND UNIQUENESS OF THE UPPER VOLGA REGIONS OF THE LATE USSR

Author(s):  
Yuriy S. Nikiforov

The article raises the question of opportunities, prospects and directions in studying the regional aspect of the problem of transformation of Russian society in the 1950-1990s and the evolution of the economic system in the late USSR. The theoretical and methodological basis of the study is connected with the ideas of Mikhail Beznin and Tat’yana Dimoni on the formation of state capitalism in the late USSR; Alexei Yurchak’s, on the last Soviet generation. It is argued that the Upper Volga region (Vladimir, Ivanovo, Kostroma, Kalinin, Yaroslavl) of the late USSR as an object of historical research should be analysed simultaneously from two angles. On the one hand, it is indicated that these regions are suffi ciently typical and representative of the study of the late USSR in the political and socio-economic spheres. On the other hand, the uniqueness of the Upper Volga cluster of regions in terms of socio-cultural and mental characteristics, as well as geographical location, is emphasised. Particular attention is paid to the spatial localisation of the object of study. The role of the Upper Volga regions as large industrial and scientifi c-technical centres of Union-republican signifi cance, their importance in the militaryindustrial complex and the defence system of the USSR are examined. The formation of the infl uential layer of the political, economic and scientifi c-technical elite in the studied regions is noted. The unique characteristics of the status of the Upper Volga regions as centres of Russian statehood and national, cultural identity (the Golden Ring of Russia tourist route), their geographical proximity to Moscow are analysed.

2018 ◽  
Vol 25 (1) ◽  
pp. 186
Author(s):  
Myles Carroll

This article considers the role played by discourses of nature in structuring the cultural politics of anti-GMO activism. It argues that such discourses have been successful rhetorical tools for activists because they mobilize widely resonant nature-culture dualisms that separate the natural and human worlds. However, these discourses hold dubious political implications. In valorizing the natural as a source of essential truth, natural purity discourses fail to challenge how naturalizations have been used to legitimize sexist, racist and colonial systems of injustice and oppression. Rather, they revitalize the discursive purchase of appeals to nature as a justification for the status quo, indirectly reinforcing existing power relations. Moreover, these discourses fail to challenge the critical though contingent reality of GMOs' location within the wider framework of neoliberal social relations. Fortunately, appeals to natural purity have not been the only effective strategy for opposing GMOs. Activist campaigns that directly target the political economic implications of GMOs within the context of neoliberalism have also had successes without resorting to appeals to the purity of nature. The successes of these campaigns suggest that while nature-culture dualisms remain politically effective normative groundings, concerns over equity, farmers' rights, and democracy retain potential as ideological terrains in the struggle for social justice.


1973 ◽  
Vol 14 (2) ◽  
pp. 257-274 ◽  
Author(s):  
M. Tamarkin

From a close analysis of African activities and actions in the Kenyan town of Nakuru from the 19205 to the 1960s, it is argued that living in towns tended to consolidate the identities of tribal groups and to exacerbate their differences. Contrasts between the urban responses of the Kikuyu, on the one hand, and the Western Kenyan tribes, the Luo and the Abaluhya, on the other, are analysed, and are related to differences in the tribal structures and in the political, economic and social changes that were taking place in their rural areas. By the early 1960s, the stage was set for open political competition between tribal groups.


2012 ◽  
Vol 106 (1) ◽  
pp. 188-203 ◽  
Author(s):  
MELVIN L. ROGERS

In recent decades, the concept of “the people” has received sustained theoretical attention. Unfortunately, political theorists have said very little about its explicit or implicit use in thinking about the expansion of the American polity along racial lines. The purpose of this article in taking up this issue is twofold: first, to provide a substantive account of the meaning of “the people”—what I call its descriptive and aspirational dimensions—and second, to use that description as a framework for understanding the rhetorical character of W.E.B. Du Bois's classic work,The Souls of Black Folk, and its relationship to what one might call the cognitive–affective dimension of judgment. In doing so, I argue that as a work of political theory,Soulsdraws a connection between rhetoric, on the one hand, and emotional states such as sympathy and shame, on the other, to enlarge America's political and ethical imagination regarding the status of African-Americans.


Author(s):  
Белоногов Юрий ◽  

The article considers historiographic assessments of the administrative-territorial transformations of the Stalinist period of Soviet history through the prism of relations "Center - Regions." For the supreme government in the period under study, the obvious dilemma was the choice between the economic efficiency of the spatial development of enlarged and self-sufficient regions, on the one hand, and the increase in the political manageability of the Center for regional development, on the other hand. The policy of disengaging the regions and giving the former dis-trict centers the status of regional capitals was connected with the need of the Cen-ter to monitor the processes of industrialization and collectivization, bring man-agement closer to production, as well as weaken the influence of regional leaders to strengthen the regime of personal power of I.V. Stalin. Subsequently, the political struggle for power in the 1950s. contributed to a gradual and irreversible review of the relationship between the central and regional authorities: for political reasons, the Center abandoned the administrative-territorial transformations of the regions.


2017 ◽  
Vol 4 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Gar Alperovitz

New developments at various level of the political-economic system suggest possible institutional trajectories supportive of community, and a longer term systemic design more supportive of strong democracy and a caring culture. An integration of institutional elements also offers possibilities more productive of equality and ecologically sustainable outcomes. The “Pluralist Commonwealth” is both pluralist in its institutional characteristics and supportive of such “commonwealth” institutions as co-operatives, neighborhood land trusts and community corporations, municipal utilities and a range of other larger scale ownership forms. An “evolutionary reconstructive” institutional, political, and cultural path is projected as a longer term transformative process different from both traditional reform and traditional ideas of revolution. Such a path inherently seeks to maximize the development of a caring community as it builds.


2018 ◽  
pp. 28-41
Author(s):  
Vasily Filippov

This research explores the political crisis in the Togolese Republic that has been going since the fall of 2017. The problems under investigation: the confrontation between the power personified in the President Faure Gnassinbé, and the opposition led by Jean-Pierre Fabre; the background of the conflict; a role of France in the murder of the First Togolese President Sylvanus Olympio, and the establishment of the half century dictatorship of the Gnassinbé clan. The special attention is paid to the tactic of the French President of the Fifth Republic Emmanuel Macron and the President of Ghana Nana Akufo-Addo, in the settlement of the Togolese crisis. The principle of historicism and the historical reconstruction served as the methods to determine multiple factors of the political instability in Togo. These methods allowed us to conclude that at the core of the situation is the determination of the Elysee Palace to preserve the political, economic and strategical interests of France in this African country. The confrontation between the Togolese President whose legitimacy is questioned by many, and the opposition that has already shifted to the violent resistance to the odious country leader, make French President face a difficult choice. On the one hand, the removal from power of the Gnassingbé clan could seriously politically, economically and strategically hurt the Fifth Republic and become sign of the erosion of the whole “Franceafrique” system. On the other hand, an open support of F. Gnassingbé is fraught with serious reputational damage both, for E. Macron personally and for the entire French diplomacy on the Black continent. This, in turn, could Illy affect the relations of France with its African clientele, the former colonies of the French Empire. All of the above stipulate Paris’ wait-and-see attitude. Apparently, the optimal solution of the problem, according to Macron, is the preservation of the presidential rule of F. Gnassingbé until the 2020 elections. In his opinion, the elections would either confirm the legitimacy of the acting president or would provide a democratic power succession. The time left until the elections he expects to use to secure guarantees from the leaders of the opposition for all the preferences the Fifth Republic enjoys in its relations with the Togolese Republic. In the event of the crisis escalation France is ready to play a political gambit to gain sympathy of the opposition leaders at the cost of removal from power of its former favorite F. Gnassingbé. The novelty and importance of the research is conditioned by the current events in Togo: the political crisis has not yet become a subject of analysis of the Russian and Western scholars.


2020 ◽  
pp. 70-86
Author(s):  
Gennady Estraikh

In the fall of 1956, a group of British Communists visited the Soviet Union. As did a number of other delegations and individual visitors of the time, they sought to examine the extent of progress of de-Stalinization in the political system and, in particular, to understand the status of Jews in post-Stalinist society. In their report, the delegation noted that among Jews of the older generation, including the one or two thousand who came to the Leningrad Synagogue to celebrate the festival of Simchat Torah, “the non-existence of a Yiddish paper was regarded as a deprivation and an injustice.”...


Asian Survey ◽  
2005 ◽  
Vol 45 (6) ◽  
pp. 970-991 ◽  
Author(s):  
Phillip C. Saunders

Long-term political, economic, and military trends are reshaping the security environment in the Taiwan Strait in potentially destabilizing ways and undermining the ““one China”” framework. The United States has become more deeply involved in cross-strait relations to maintain stability and preserve the status quo, but this approach may not be sustainable.


2013 ◽  
Vol 357-360 ◽  
pp. 219-223
Author(s):  
Xin Ke Zhang

On the one hand, the opening up of the trading ports in the late 19th century has blocked the way of independent development of national capitalism, but on the other hand, it also exploited a vast market for the development of national capitalism, and promoted its own development. Zhejiang silk traders took this opportunity to go abroad for accepting foreign cultures and new ideas which were also reflected on the architectures. Their residences have broken the styles of the Chinese traditional architectures which are made of wood, stone, pantile, etc. and blended the western architectural culture elements in the roof form and facade material of the buildings. With Chinese style outside and western style inside, with elegance outside and dominance inside, the residences mainly make a perfect combination of Chinese pattern and western pattern. Based on the political, economic and social climate of the time, this article seeks the design features and aesthetic taste of Chinese and Western architectures.


1990 ◽  
Vol 52 (4) ◽  
pp. 524-552
Author(s):  
Fred Dallmayr

Recent literature on Heidegger concentrates heavily on his (temporary) involvement in or collusion with Nazi ideology and policies. Without belittling the gravity of the issue, this article shifts the focus somewhat by invoking a distinction which recently has emerged (or reemerged) in political thought: namely, the distinction between “politics” and “the political” or between politics viewed as partisan ideology or policy making, on the one hand, and politics seen as regime or paradigmatic framework, on the other. The main thesis of the article is that Heidegger's promising contributions to political theory are located on the level of ontology or paradigmatic framework rather than that of ideological partisanship. While not neglecting the dismal intrusions of the latter plane, the article probes Heideggerian cues for a “rethinking of the political” by placing the accent on four topical areas: first, the status of the subject or individual as political agent; second, the character of the political community, that is, of the polity or (in modern terms) the “state”; thirdly, the issue of cultural and political development or modernization; and finally, the problem of an emerging cosmopolis or world order beyond the confines of Western culture. In discussing these topics, an effort is made to disentangle Heidegger from possible misinterpretations and to indicate how, in each area, his thought pointed in the direction of an “overcoming” of Western political metaphysics.


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