Skazana na imperium? Lęki i dyskurs imperialny w procesie samoidentyfikacji Rosji poradzieckiej

2021 ◽  
Vol 19 (2) ◽  
pp. 43-65
Author(s):  
Alicja Curanović
Keyword(s):  
Social Relations ◽  
Significant Other ◽  
Ontological Security ◽  
Critical Situation ◽  
Imperial Identity ◽  
Geographical Association ◽  
Russian Identity

The goal of the article is to indicate the reasons why formulating a new Russian non-imperial identity has failed. Applying the Ontological Security Theory shows the fall of the USSR as a critical situation that undermined the so-called fundamental questions of the Russian identity. The return of the imperial discourse was triggered by ontological anxiety connected to two fundamental questions: social relations with the significant Other and the finitude. The article discusses in detail the latter. Pending anxiety has activated imperial habitus, which is illustrated by the case of the Russian Geographical Association.

Of Hats and Trains: Cultural Traffic in Leskov‘s and Dostoevski‘s Westward Journeys

Slavic Review ◽  
2011 ◽  
Vol 70 (1) ◽  
pp. 67-93
Author(s):  
Anne Dwyer
Keyword(s):  
Western Europe ◽  
Human Experience ◽  
Modern Age ◽  
Imperial Identity ◽  
Travel Diary ◽  
Identity Based ◽  
Russian Identity

The first train line connecting St. Petersburg with western Europe opened in 1862, providing the occasion for Fedor Dostoevskii and Nikolai Leskov to take positions in regard to train travel, cultural traffic, and Russia's insertion into modernity. Anne Dwyer's analysis of Dostoevskii'sWinterNotes on Summer Impressionsand Leskov's “From a Travel Diary” reveals an essential paradox. While Leskov is eager to foster the railroad, he switches hats with ease and offers pragmatic performances of an imperial identity based on his competency in the languages of the borderlands. In contrast, the nationalist Dostoevskii fulminates against train travel yet explores the ways in which modernity's onset changes human experience and literary possibilities. Their bifurcated yet equally ambivalent responses to modernity as emblematized by the railroad illuminate the diversity of attempts to articulate a Russian identity in relationship both to Russia's own people(s) and to western Europe in the modern age.

scholarly journals Recognition through dialogue: How transatlantic relations anchor the EU’s identity

2021 ◽  
pp. 136914812110580
Author(s):  
Emmanuelle Blanc
Keyword(s):  
European Union ◽  
International Relations ◽  
Qualitative Analysis ◽  
Technological Innovations ◽  
Significant Other ◽  
The European Union ◽  
Institutional Identity ◽  
Ontological Security ◽  
Face To Face ◽  
Psychological Need

In spite of being criticised as ‘talking shops’ and easily replaced by technological innovations, dialogues – defined as face-to-face interactions in an institutionalised framework – remain a staple of international politics. While prevailing accounts have shown that dialogues help states advance their quest for security and profit, the key role dialogues play in the quest for recognition has been overlooked and remains undertheorised. Emphasising the socio-psychological need for ontological security, this article argues that institutions relentlessly engage in dialogues because it allows them to seek, gain and anchor the recognition of their identity. The significance for international relations is illustrated through the emblematic case of the European Union–US dialogues, specifically the Transatlantic Legislators’ Dialogue. The multi-method qualitative analysis based on original interviews, participant observations, visuals and official documents demonstrates how the European Union exploits these dialogues with its ‘Significant Other’ to seek, gain and anchor the recognition of its complex institutional identity.

scholarly journals CONTEMPORARY RUSSIAN IDENTITY BETWEEN EAST AND WEST

2005 ◽  
Vol 48 (1) ◽  
pp. 277-294 ◽  
Author(s):  
PETER J. S. DUNCAN
Keyword(s):  
Soviet Union ◽  
Russian Federation ◽  
English Language ◽  
Weak Sense ◽  
Civic Identity ◽  
The West ◽  
Muslim Population ◽  
Imperial Identity ◽  
Chechen Wars ◽  
Russian Identity

This is a review of recent English-language scholarship on the development of Russian identity since the collapse of the USSR in 1991. The first part examines literature on the economic and political changes in the Russian Federation, revealing how scholars became more sceptical about the possibility of Russia building a Western-type liberal democracy. The second part investigates approaches to the study of Russian national identity. The experience of empire, in both the tsarist and Soviet periods, gave Russians a weak sense of nationhood; ethnic Russians identified with the multi-national Soviet Union. Seeking legitimacy for the new state, President El'tsin sought to create a civic identity focused on the multi-national Russian Federation. The Communist and nationalist opposition continued to promote an imperial identity, focused on restoring the USSR or creating some other formation including the Russian-speaking population in the former Soviet republics. The final section discusses accounts of the two Chechen wars, which scholars see as continuing Russia's imperial policy and harming relations with Russia's Muslim population. President Putin's co-operation with the West against ‘terrorism’ has not led the West to accept Russia as one of its own, due to increasing domestic repression and authoritarianism.

scholarly journals POSTMODERN SOCIETY AND COVID-19 PANDEMIC: OLD, NEW AND SCARY

2020 ◽  
Vol 4 (2) ◽  
pp. 7-18 ◽  
Author(s):  
HANNA MAMZER
Keyword(s):  
Social Relations ◽  
Research Methodology ◽  
Participant Observation ◽  
Turning Points ◽  
Ontological Security ◽  
Critical Events ◽  
Group Functioning ◽  
The Future ◽  
Desk Research ◽  
Time Type

Critical events of a dangerous progression, such as the COVID-19 pandemic, may become the turning points in the functioning of entire societies. Such events obviously foster changes. They disrupt the sense of ontological security, generate fears and enforce change in the organization of social relations, also in a creative and positive manner. In addition to these effects, they also induce many others. They are a magnifier enabling you to see how modern societies are functioning. Therefore, a pandemic allows to see and describe more clearly the characteristics of postmodern human communities. Some of these characteristics (e.g. group functioning) are essentially constant and unchangeable for humans as a species. In turn, some features are very specific, characteristic for a given time, type of events and nature of participating communities. In this text, based on the desk-research methodology and non-systematic participant observation, I indicate the unchanging characteristics of human communities that emerge in the moments of crisis. I also present the specific features of postmodern communities that have been highlighted by the pandemic. I try to indicate the effects of the pandemic on social relations in the future.

Ontological Security, Civilian Power, and German Foreign Policy Toward Russia1

2018 ◽  
Vol 16 (1) ◽  
pp. 41-58 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jakub Eberle ◽  
Vladimír Handl
Keyword(s):  
Foreign Policy ◽  
Policy Change ◽  
International System ◽  
International Order ◽  
The Self ◽  
German Foreign Policy ◽  
Significant Other ◽  
Ontological Security ◽  
Layered Model ◽  
Changing World

Abstract The article analyzes Germany's policies toward Russia from an ontological security perspective. We argue that foreign policy should be seen as a tool that allows states to maintain a sense of a reasonably stable self, which enables them to cope in the changing world. We develop a three-layered model conceptualizing ontological security through narratives about the self, a significant other, and the international system and show its particular relevance for explicating policy change. When threatened by a crisis, states respond by narrative adjustment that highlights continuity on some levels, while enabling change on other levels. Developing the argument that Germany's ontological security is based in the “civilian power” narrative, we use our model to reconstruct Germany's response to Russia's wars in Georgia and Ukraine. In both cases, the discourse highlighted the ongoing validity of civilian power on the level of the international order, while challenges were accommodated by adjustments on the level of the self and the significant other. Ontological security was restored vis-à-vis the changing world by reinforcing the civilian power as a norm, while shifting blame to either both Germany and Russia (2008), or Russia exclusively (2014), for not adhering to it at a given time.

scholarly journals Slavophiles on the Relationship between “Internal” and “External” in the Construction of the Boundaries of Russian Identity

2022 ◽  
Vol 19 (3) ◽  
pp. 102-114
Author(s):  
M. A. Shirokova
Keyword(s):  
National Identity ◽  
Significant Other ◽  
The West ◽  
The One ◽  
The Relationship ◽  
Russian Identity ◽  
European Researcher

The article is devoted to the philosophy of classical Slavophilism, which the author considers as the first conception of Russian national identity, which reached the generalizations of the philosophical level. Self-identification of a people, as well as person, presupposes an understanding of their own characteristics in relation to “others”. The Slavophilеs viewed the West as the “Significant Other”. For the Slavophiles, one of the most important markers allowing to define the boundaries of the Russian identity was the antithesis of “internal” and “external”. Comparing her position with the one of the modern European researcher K. J. Mier, the author analyzes the use of this antithesis in Slavophil anthropology.

No Place like Home: Rooming Houses in Contemporary Urban Context

2005 ◽  
Vol 37 (3) ◽  
pp. 403-421 ◽  
Author(s):  
Erin Mifflin ◽  
Robert Wilton
Keyword(s):  
Social Relations ◽  
Low Income ◽  
Security Analysis ◽  
Well Being ◽  
Policy Implications ◽  
Ontological Security ◽  
Urban Context ◽  
Southern Ontario ◽  
Social Lives ◽  
Depth Interviews

In this paper we connect existing work on rooming houses to literature dealing with the meaningful nature of ‘home’ and its impact on individuals' health and social well-being. We then examine the extent to which rooming houses provide low-income tenants with ‘homes’, drawing from in-depth interviews with rooming-house tenants living in Hamilton, a city of 450 000 people in southern Ontario, Canada. Our analysis raises concerns about the capacity of rooming houses to provide affordable and stable accommodation. Poor living conditions and poor relations with rooming-house landlords worked directly against the capacity of rooms to offer private, controllable spaces and a degree of ontological security. Analysis also raised concerns about rooming houses as sites for social relations. Many respondents saw rooming houses as unpredictable and sometimes unhealthy social spaces, forcing them to seek other environments to cultivate and sustain relationships with friends and family. In general, respondents' experiences point to the shortcomings of rooming houses as ‘home’ environments, with implications for the health and social lives of the tenant population. Conceptual and policy implications are discussed in conclusion.

The SRM Approach to Family Assessment

2005 ◽  
Vol 21 (4) ◽  
pp. 216-225 ◽  
Author(s):  
William L. Cook
Keyword(s):  
High Risk ◽  
Risk Behaviors ◽  
Social Relations ◽  
Family Relationships ◽  
Family Dynamics ◽  
Family Assessment ◽  
High Risk Behaviors ◽  
Analysis Group ◽  
The Social ◽  
Direction Of Effects

Abstract. In family systems, it is possible for one to put oneself at risk by eliciting aversive, high-risk behaviors from others ( Cook, Kenny, & Goldstein, 1991 ). Consequently, it is desirable that family assessments should clarify the direction of effects when evaluating family dynamics. In this paper a new method of family assessment will be presented that identifies bidirectional influence processes in family relationships. Based on the Social Relations Model (SRM: Kenny & La Voie, 1984 ), the SRM Family Assessment provides information about the give and take of family dynamics at three levels of analysis: group, individual, and dyad. The method will be briefly illustrated by the assessment of a family from the PIER Program, a randomized clinical trial of an intervention to prevent the onset of psychosis in high-risk young people.

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