Regimes of Resonance: Cosmos, Empire, and Changing Technologies of CCP Rule

This analysis aims to place certain key elements of Chinese Communist Party (CCP) rule observed under Xi Jinping today into longer and fuller historical perspective. It highlights trademark CCP practices of ordering space, marking time, potent political messaging, and vigorous propaganda diffusion as these have evolved over many years up to the present, reconsidering these in light of early Chinese cosmological thought and later symbolic practices of empire.

Heritage and the Post-Socialist City: Social and Cultural Perspectives

Heritage and the Post-Socialist City: Social and Cultural PerspectivesThe paper is a presentation of the latest volume of Colloquia Humanistica. The leading subject of heritage in the post-socialist city is largely commented on with reference to three major questions: the interplay of city planning and identity issues; symbolic practices and semiotic shifts in urban space; social practices and the functioning of local social networks. Concluding remarks draw attention to the intersection of memory studies and politics, as well as the issue of (dis)continuity, which is crucial for the stability and security of societies on the one hand, and for efficient change on the other.Dědictví a postsocialistické město: sociologická a kulturní perspektivaPříspěvek je prezentací nejnovějšího čísla Colloquia Humanistica. Jeho hlavní téma dědictví v postsocialistických městech je z velké části komentováno s odkazem na tři hlavní otázky týkající se podoby: vztahu mezi městským plánováním a otázkami identity; symbolických praktik a sémiotických posunů v městském prostoru; a sociálních praktik a fungování místních sociálních sítí. Závěrečné poznámky poukazují na průnik studia paměti a politiky, stejně jako na otázku (dis)kontinuity, klíčové na jedné straně pro stabilitu a bezpečnost společnosti, a na straně druhé pro její efektivní změnu.Dziedzictwo i miasto postsocjalistyczne w perspektywie socjologicznej i kulturowejArtykuł jest prezentacją najnowszego numeru „Colloquia Humanistica”. Główny temat dziedzictwa w miastach postsocjalistycznych został przedstawiony w odniesieniu do trzech zasadniczych pól tematycznych: relacji między planowaniem miejskim a kwestiami tożsamościowymi, praktyk symbolicznych i zachowań semiotycznych w przestrzeni miejskiej oraz praktyk w kontekście tworzenia się lokalnych sieci społecznych. Wnioski wskazują na wpływ pamięci oraz polityki, jak też kwestii (nie) ciągłości, na stabilność i bezpieczeństwo wspólnot miejskich z jednej strony, jak też na ich skuteczne przemiany z drugiej.

Symbolic Power for Beginners: The Very First Social Efforts to Control Others’ Actions and Perceptions

Becoming a social agent requires the ability to gain some power over others’ actions and perceptions. For that purpose, symbolic practices and language matter, especially when physical means of control are unavailable, ineffective, or illegitimate. Based on an in-depth ethnographic study, I analyze such a process of symbolic empowerment from the viewpoint of very young practitioners: children age 2 to 3 years. I explore the symbolic means through which toddlers seek control over adults, from simple signals, naming, and politeness to basic fictionalization. Children’s social backgrounds, not just age and development, inform their tendency to affect adults through words. The content of symbolic practices is determined by preexisting social hierarchies between persons, groups, and institutions. In fact, the crucial challenge for young children is to take advantage of these hierarchies by publicly putting them in line with their own emerging interests.

Xunzi’s Ritual Model and Modern Moral Education

While the early Confucians were largely content to maintain the rituals of ancient kings as the core of moral education in their time, it is not obvious that contemporary humans could, or should, draw from the particulars of such a tradition. Indeed, even if one takes ritual seriously as a tool for cultivation, there remains a question of how to design moral education programs incorporating ritual. This essay examines impediments faced by a ritualized approach to moral education, how they might be overcome, and how a ritual method could be developed in modernity. I contend that a Confucian notion of ritual, particularly as elaborated in the Xunzi, is both compatible with modern moral education and capable of making a distinct contribution to moral education in terms of how rituals can be used to structure and inculcate a shared climate of respect and humaneness both in- and outside the classroom. Specifically, the ritual education method includes emphases on inculcating moral fluency via symbolic practices and distinctions, training and appropriately associating promoral dispositions, enhancing moral imagination, and developing awareness of other minds. The model is thus a multifaceted approach to moral education through (meta)cognitive development.

Reconsidering edgework theory: Practices, experiences, and structures

This article clarifies and revises the sociological theory of voluntary risk taking known as edgework. The concept has three distinct aspects: material practices, embodied experiences, and supporting structures. I first provide a critical summary of these aspects as they exist in the current literature. Second, I advocate for an approach to edgework through the analysis of symbolic practices. I argue that researchers can best understand the meaning of voluntary risk taking by studying how individuals discursively frame their actions. Given the ascendency of neoliberal ideology in contemporary Western societies, there is an increasing importance for research into risk (especially as it relates to the study of sports), and a cogent sociology of edgework can be an important component to such an intellectual endeavor.

Three Shades of Red: Power of Symbols or Soviet Legacy in Contemporary Inner Asian Capitals

The paper focuses on Soviet symbols in Inner Asian capitals and the conflicts around socialist legacy. We analyze Ulaanbaatar, Kyzyl, and Ulan-Ude as three different models of transformation of political symbols in urban space. All three capitals in their names contain the word “red” semiotically associated with communist ideology. Correspondingly, we see three different models of symbolic struggle for urban space. Theoretically, the paper is based upon the model of symbolic politics. Empirically, the research is based on materials of our own observations, discourse analysis of media, and official municipal documents. In general, the research is an analysis of symbolic practices of power in the conditions of a number of complex changes in Inner Asia.

Insignia Summorum Principum. Using symbols of power in pursuit of higher rank and status by German prince-electors and Polish-Lithuanian princes

In 1680 an anonymous Polonus Borussus composed a treatise suggesting the equal status between the German imperial princes and the Polish-Lithuanian princely families in terms of their symbolism. Using it as a starting point, the article investigates the way in which these elites expressed their real power and political ambitions in a similar manner. By comparing the Electors of Brandenburg and the houses of Radziwiłł, Wis´niowiecki and Sanguszko it shows that, first, Polonus Borussus did not exaggerate too much when he hinted at the ‘symbolic’ equality of the German electors and the Polish-Lithuanian princes; and second, that these elites differed from each other in two aspects: the primary audiences of their symbolic practices (peers in the case of the German princes as opposed to the middling nobility, the antagonist of the Polish-Lithuanian princes) as well as the potential to exploit symbols (the ‘symbolic audacity’ of the Polish-Lithuanian princes contrasting with the ‘confirmative’ use of the German princes).

Symbolic practices and power asymmetries in ICT4D projects: The case of an Indian Agricultural Marketing Board

Information and communications technology can be used to improve the social and economic situation in developing countries. However, a broad range of challenges has been identified, and one of these relates to the power asymmetries in developing countries. These power asymmetries are often deeply entrenched. We conducted an in-depth critical case study of an information and communication technology for development project in India. We looked at the historical and cultural context, the roles of the actors, and the use of symbolic practices. Using Bourdieu’s theory of practice and, in particular, his concept of habitus, our findings reveal how symbolic practices can work against ICT projects in developing countries. These symbolic practices, rooted in a particular culture, are tied to and constitutive of power asymmetries. We offer a framework for studying habitus in information systems research on information and communication technology for development that may be useful for others who wish to explore similar questions in their case study research.

Symbolic Characteristics of the Image of “Cold” in the Traditional Culture of Northern Communities (Using the Example of Evens and Evenks)

The paper considers the calendar traditions, rites and customs of the northern Tungus – Evens and Evenks. The sources were the author's expeditionary materials collected in the northern regions of Yaku-tia. The main rituals of calendar holidays are ana-lyzed: cleansing rites, as well as the rite of admis-sion to the birth fire. These traditions are considered in the context of the representation of the image of cold as a multidimensional category, thanks to which the spiritual practices of the northern Tungus were formed. The image of cold and the reception of its experience have become important concepts of the cultural heritage of northern communities, unit-ed into a complex multifunctional system, including symbolic practices and life and natural scenarios. In this study, from the standpoint of cognitive semiot-ics, the author analyzed the value attitudes and the sign-symbolic program of the Tungus’ communica-tive and behavioral strategies, which acted as an ethnic component of the image of a northern person and a cold world. It is revealed that it is the concepts associated with cold that formulated the basic ten-ets of the culture of hospitality. Thus, it has been established that the antipode of the cold world is warm hospitality, the main constants of which are the rituals of meeting and honoring the guest.

Symbolic Politics and Contention in the Turkish Republic

This chapter examines how different state actors in Turkey have used symbolic practices to govern and transform society. Based on examples largely drawn from the single party era (1923–1950) and the Justice and Development Party (AKP) government, it discusses three separate functions that symbolic practices serve. First, it analyzes the relationship between symbolic politics and legitimation of state authority and ideology. Second, it focuses on how symbolic politics can be used for coercive purposes, signaling state power and omnipresence. Finally, it examines the state’s efforts to use symbolism for cooptation purposes, communicating the material benefits that it provides to citizens in exchange for political support. Calling attention to unintended consequences, the chapter underlines how symbols usually generate contention and become a means of struggle between the state and dissident political movements. In the Turkish context, extensive use of symbolic politics has created hardened political identities, curtailing meaningful deliberation and undermining common norms. The Turkish example shows that symbolic politics can exacerbate political polarization by sharpening cultural contestation and invoking strong emotions in society.