A Different Country?

The chapter focuses on Lil Nas X and his record-breaking hit “Old Town Road” (2018), which combines stylistic elements from country and trap music. The song received immense attention in early 2019 after Billboard discreetly removed it from its Hot Country Songs chart, a decision that was interpreted by some as racially motivated. The chapter investigates how Lil Nas X’s musical eclecticism and queer cowboy iconography raises questions pertaining to the boundaries of inclusion and exclusion in the country and hip hop genres. First, it critiques the popular narrative that his widespread success following the Billboard incident is indicative of the declining authority of the music industry in the face of the democratizing effects of digital technologies. Then, it turns its attention to the official movie, Old Town Road, in which Lil Nas X is joined by guest artist Billy Ray Cyrus. Particular focus is devoted to the intersectional aspects of masculinity, which are elucidated through a discussion of how certain sounds and vocal characteristics become constructed and experienced as racially coded. Finally, drawing on perspectives from queer of color critique, the chapter explores the idea that Lil Nas X’s queer tactics both stand as a corrective to accounts of the past that bypass the contributions of black musicians in the development of country music (and black cowboys’ participation in the Old West) and introduces new ways of moving past dominant social constraints.

Dramaturgical, Theoretical, and Musical Associations between Max Brand’s Maschinist Hopkins and Alban Berg’s Operas

In the German-speaking countries during the morally uninhibited years of the Weimar Republic, the opposing cultural epochs of Expressionism and Neue Sachlichkeit dominated the aesthetic landscape. Opera was a central proponent of both movements, as implemented by the Expressionist practitioners and those who favored the subsequent topical and objectifying Zeitoper that sought to move away from representations of psychological distortion to depict social realism that emphasized mechanical technology and lighter, popular narrative themes. Max Brand’s famous Zeitoper, Maschinist Hopkins, will be analyzed to illustrate how it bore fundamental trace elements back to Alban Berg’s Expressionist opera Wozzeck, and likewise, how Hopkins in turn influenced Berg’s second opera Lulu, to constitute a linear association of narrative, music, and theatrical design that simultaneously conformed to and defied the operatic models that all three operas are historically associated with. It will also be suggested that both composers were consequentially influenced by Richard Wagner, promoting vestiges of an even older lineage, which contributed to this association between the three operas at a time when Wagner was less applicable to the trends of innovation and progress.

Culture And COVID-19 Related Mortality- A Cross Sectional Study of 53 Countries

The aim of this paper is to investigate the influence of culture on COVID-19 related mortality relying on Hofstede’s six dimensional concept of culture. Retrieving data from 53 countries a multivariable regression model was fitted that controls for health related, economic and policy related variables that have been found to be associated with mortality. In particular we included the percentage of population above 65 years of age, the prevalence of relevant co-morbidities (i.e. diabetes, hypertension, cancer. obesity), and tobacco usage as health related variables. Economic variables were GDP per capita and the connectedness of a country as measured by the number of international arrivals. As policy variables we included the Oxford stringency index as well as stringency speed, and the Global Health Security index. The results suggests that individualistic societies can navigate well through the pandemic when they are also characterized by low power distance which reflects a low acceptance of inequality within a society. This finding contradicts with previous studies that supported the popular narrative that autocratic societies with an obedient population are better positioned to manage the pandemic.

Do Polarization Narratives Apply to Politics on the Periphery? The Case of Atlantic Canada

Researchers, policymakers, and the public often claim that “extreme” political views have become increasingly commonplace and that polarization on issues of race and immigration has become a central dilemma for contemporary politics. The popular narrative of political polarization captures tensions that many are noticing and experiencing. However, there is also significant confusion around the concept, as well as gaps between popular perceptions and empirical findings on the different forms of polarization and their prevalence across regions. It is unclear to what extent polarization describes a global phenomenon, as its national and subnational manifestations vary considerably, produced from distinct local histories as well as diffuse transnational forces. While the United States is often treated as ground zero for political polarization, nearby Canada does not appear to be experiencing polarization to nearly the same degree. Using data from a 2019 survey on Atlantic Canadians’ political views and perceptions of change, this paper examines whether underlying forms of political polarization are manifesting in the region. We assess whether mass ideological polarization and partisan sorting can be found in Atlantic Canada, looking at socio-cultural and economic dimensions of political values. We also examine perceptions of polarization in the region, using Multiple Correspondence Analysis to observe underlying associations between perceptions, extreme or polarized views, and partisanship. This mapping approach provides insight into latent patterns often missed by more traditional methods.

Behind the Popular Narrative: Negotiating Life and Political Engagement in Conflicted Kashmir

The article focuses on the subaltern system of micro appropriations or Jugaads used by young Kashmiris to survive within precarious situations inflicted due to armed conflict. More particularly, it argues that such Jugaads are invoked by the subaltern consciousness of Tehreeq-e-Azadi, which offers space for not just the negotiation with the state but also the creative improvisation of daily political actions. It is illustrated that young people’s political participation is entangled with the attempts to overcome the uncertainty around their lives, thereby offering them pragmatic solutions in advancing their interests. It is further elaborated that the existing polarization between separatism and mainstream is obscure at the experiential level, living within precarious situations has taught young people to silently craft possibilities of a good life without looking confrontational to either side. The article argues that localized forms of engagement are crucial for a comprehensive understanding of how modern states operate.

Czy na pewno „bestsellery staropolskie”?

The subject of the review is a text of Andrzej Tadeusz Staniszewki entitled Cracow Histories. The Functioning of Popular Narrative Texts in an Early Modern Cracow, which addresses the topic of presence, place, and role of old stories in an Early Modern Cracow. The reviewer pays attention to a well though-out and well-structured analysis, and makes an attempt to organise an important area of research. Moreover, she highlights an open nature of the work, which suggests that the research of Andrzej Tadeusz Staniszewski should be continued.

Quest of Data Colonialism and Cyber Sovereignty: India’s Strategic Position in Cyberspace

The dawn of the neocolonial project has seen the emergence of a new space: data. Data is a raw material that can be stitched, processed and marketed in the same way as the East India Company (EIC) used to do with India’s cotton. EIC, which started as one of the world’s first joint-stock companies, turned into a wild beast, building a corporate lobby with the help of lawyers and MP shareholders to amend legislation in its favor. The EIC became a particularly atrocious and innovative colonial project that directly or indirectly controlled continents, thanks to an army larger than the army of any nation-state at the time. The Drain Theory of Dadabhai Naroji have opened India’s eyes to how the EIC was taking raw material from the country and converting it into a finished product that was marketed in India again in the same way as raw data is being processed outside India and then marketed here today. In today’s digital era, big corporations need not own big armies, as companies are protected by nation-states and bailed out when required. Today, one does not need to travel overseas to explore and conquer Gold, God and Glory; instead, they are a click away. The neocolonial project runs on digital platforms, while the popular narrative of bridging the digital divide and giving internet access to millions of people resembles the idea of the “white savior” liberating the “noble savage” through modern Western education. Facebook’s grand plan of providing free internet to all can be best understood as a neocolonial strategy to mine the data of billions by equating it with water and land. Similarly, the Cambridge Analytica scandal provides an example of how neocolonial forces can influence the fundamental democratic process of electing a government. Therefore, nations endorsing democratic values should be especially wary of the trap of neocolonialist forces, as such nations are particularly vulnerable to their project. This paper critically study the cyber security infrastructure and policies in India and analyze the India’s approach towards cyber sovereignty and data colonialism and thereafter examine the India’s strategic position in cyberspace and suggest policy recommendations.

Authoritarianism and the Evolution of Voting Behaviour

This chapter analyses the evolution of the relationship between authoritarianism and party support from 1990 to 2017. The chapter presents the analyses of eight different countries, and two conclusions emerge. First, high authoritarians have shifted towards radical right parties over the past three decades though there was no prior cross-national relationship between authoritarianism and party support in each country. As a result, different mainstream parties in each country have lost support as high authoritarians increasingly vote for PRR parties. This finding challenges the popular narrative that PRR parties have gained at the expense of social democratic parties, which only holds true in certain countries. The analysis also shows that low authoritarians have shifted towards left-liberal parties such as the greens, further contributing to the worldview evolution. As high authoritarians move towards radical right parties and low authoritarians towards left-liberal parties, traditional centre-left and centre-right parties that were based on twentieth-century class and religious conflicts struggle for support, particularly as generational replacement results in the depletion of their traditional voters.

Conspicuously Concealed: Federal Funding, Knowledge Production, and the Criminalization of Gun Research

A popular narrative in the U.S. gun debate concerns federal funding of gun research: Because of a right-wing backlash against gun-related public health research (centered on the controversial Kellermann et al. study), federal funding of gun research has been frozen since the mid-1990s. How accurate is this popular “funding freeze” narrative—or is the federal funding of gun research better described as a “chill”? If the latter, what kinds of funding have persisted within this “chill”? Drawing on public data on funded project abstracts from 1996 to 2016 from three major federal institutes (the National Institute of Justice, the National Science Foundation, and the National Institutes of Health), this paper shows that despite funding cuts to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), federal funding for gun research has continued, especially for studies that construct the focus of their study as gun crime. Specifically, we find that a criminal justice approach to the study of guns and gun-related topics dominates the project abstracts analyzed and that this approach also casts a shadow on other approaches—especially public health and social justice approaches—to the research of guns. Examining federally funded gun research from a social constructionist lens provides insight not just into federal funding of gun research but also into the dominant framings of gun policy within the United States: criminal justice approaches to gun research may reinforce an understanding of gun violence as a problem of crime and justify criminalizing strategies in gun policy.

Stone Zoya: From Orthodox Legend to City Brand

Сюжет об окаменевшем святотатце-плясуне, известный в России как минимум с конца XIX в., актуализируется в 1956 г. «Зоино стояние» оказывается наиболее устойчивой текстуализацией этого сюжета, поддерживающегося в 1960-1990-х гг. популярной нарративной схемой о наказании святотатцев за осквернение святынь. На текстовое и сюжетное оформление, популярность и тиражирование этого сюжета в фольклорной среде оказывают влияние религиозные фольклорные нарративы; грешница получает конкретное имя: Зоя. В околоцерковной литературе и СМИ чудо начинает рассматриваться как реальное событие. В Самаре в мае 2012 г. открывается памятник Николаю Чудотворцу. Бронзовая фигура святого под золоченым куполом поставлена в память о чудесном событии, получившем название «стояние Зои». В самарском храме во имя Иоанна Воина находится большая житийная икона Николая Чудотворца с клеймами, нижний ряд которых посвящен чуду стояния Зои в Куйбышеве. Многочисленные упоминания в СМИ, тиражирование истории в религиозных текстах и медийном официальном и неофициальном дискурсах, паломнические поездки в Самару к памятнику св. Николаю сделали из локальной легенды не только похожий на исторический нарратив, но и своего рода фольклорный бренд, благодаря которому Самара получает место на туристической карте России. Дом, где якобы произошло известное событие, хотят музеефицировать. Именно этим процессам - как фольклорный текст превращается в бренд, используемый разными акторами, - посвящена данная работа. The story about a girl who was turned to stone after she blasphemed by dancing with an icon, known in Russia at least since the late 19th century, reappeared in the text of “Zoya’s Standing” of 1956 (the protagonist allegedly stood petrified for 128 days until freed by a holy man). This version proved to be the most stable textualization of the story, which was reinforced in the 1960s-1990s by a popular narrative scheme about the punishment of blasphemers for desecration of the sacred. Regional folklore narratives influenced its textual presentation and plot, as well as its popularity in the folk milieu; in addition, the sinner was given a concrete name - Zoya. New details were added to the plot and it entered the catalogue of St. Nicholas’ deeds. Moreover, oral versions came to be influenced by the written text, by the movies on the topic (2004 and 2009), and by popular TV programs. As a result, the miracle described in the story began to be seen as a real event. A monument to Nicholas the Wonderworker was unveiled in Samara in May 2012 and the bronze figure of the saint under a gilded dome was erected in memory of the miracle of Zoya’s Standing. In the Church of John the Warrior in Samara there is a large hagiographic icon of Nicholas the Wonderworker with scenes (kleimy), the bottom row of which is dedicated to the miracle of Zoya’s Standing in Kuibyshev. Numerous mentions in the media; repetition of the story in religious texts and in official and unofficial media discourses; and pilgrimages to Samara to the monument of St. Nicholas not only made this local legend appear to be a historical narrative, but also turned it into a kind of folklore “brand” thanks to which Samara could earn a place on Russia’s tourist map. Locals want to turn the house where the famous event allegedly took place into a museum. It is to these processes - how a folklore text turned into a brand used by various players - that this article is dedicated.