Harmoniously Denied: COVID-19 and the Latent Effects of Censorship

While few would doubt that censorship is a form of surveillance, the practice and theory of censorship does not hold as prominent a place within surveillance studies as one might think. In this paper, we demonstrate the constitutive effects of censorship that seep into the collective mentality and, in Foucauldian terms, “conducts the conduct.” We examine the wider socio-political impact of China’s censorship of COVID-19. We argue that censorship is a force “at large.” By this we refer to the pervasive uptake of censorship practices at different levels and how censorship manifests itself as a form of power unchained, making it difficult, if not impossible, to track and contain its impact, even for the authorities. We argue that censorship surveils the expressed and, by extension, regulates the not-yet-expressed. It surveils what can be perceived and, by extension, pre-conditions the not-yet-conceived. We highlight the domestic impact of how China’s censorship regime bends its population into acquiescing to a harmonious denial of its collective prospects and how it curtails the global response.

“Chinese” greenhouses in Russian rural space (case of Chelyabinsk Region)

The focus of this article is the problem of formation and development of “Chinese” greenhouses in 2009–2020. The development of migrant infrastructure in rural areas virtually has not been analysed yet by scientists. The purpose of this study is to trace the formation and evolution of ideas about “Chinese” greenhouses among residents of a large Russian region using the example of Chelyabinsk. The source base of the article includes media materials, interviews and archival documents. The regional press is an important source for the analysis of public opinion regarding the “Chinese” greenhouses and concentration of migrants in rural locations. In the sum-mer of 2019, the author gathered a collection of interviews with residents of areas where the “Chinese” green-houses were operating. Documents from the Chelyabinsk regional archive made it possible to supplement the overall picture of the Chinese migration to the Southern Ural region. The complexity of the study object required the use of a combination of methods. These included free informal interviews, content and discourse press analy-sis, and historical imagology. Our study shows that the formation of temporary economic facilities in rural areas has been perceived by the population as an irreversible ethnicization of space. This caused an increase of anxi-ety. In the media discourse and in collective mentality of the inhabitants, the ideas of “Chinese” greenhouses cre-ated images of “expansion” and numerousness of Chinese migrants. Around the greenhouses, a complex of notions of threats was formed (seizing and “spoiling” of land, tax evasion, low-quality vegetables, etc.). The con-cept of “Chinese” greenhouses has incorporated a large number of meanings that are understandable without further explanation: from the organization of rural space to a set of markers defining closed locations. Today there are practically no “Chinese” greenhouses in Chelyabinsk Region, they remain as a media, but not a spatial object. What was left out of sight of most observers is the temporality of the greenhouse complexes, the lack of any infra-structure for their long-term existence. Therefore, even theoretically, the “Chinese” greenhouses could not de-velop into full-fledged settlements (Chinatowns) in rural areas.

Ideology and Futurology in Early 20th-Century Britain: Wells, Haldane, Bernal, and Their Critics

This chapter studies the response of rationalist writers to the claims of theologians arguing that their ideology lacked any sense of a wider purpose to human life. It is argued that to replace the spiritual dimension of religion, authors such as H. G. Wells, J. B. S. Haldane, and J. D. Bernal appealed to the possibility that the human race could in future develop a collective mentality and spread this awareness throughout the cosmos by space travel. Their ideas thus anticipated themes developed by later science-fiction authors such as Arthur C. Clarke in his 2001: A Space Odyssey.

Liberals Versus Communitarians: Psychosocial Sources of the Conflict Over Democracy in Today’s Poland

This article refers to the concept of collective mentality, which consists of the mental patterns most typical of a given community. The authors show some psychosocial reasons why Poland’s political system may shift from liberal to illiberal forms of democracy in recent years. This process is accompanied by an increasing sociopolitical polarization of the society, gradually becoming an expanded and destructive conflict. Previous research has shown that the Polish sociopolitical polarization’s primary psychosocial reason could be the collision of two competing value systems—purely individualistic and purely collectivist. In this article, the authors argue that both mental patterns determine two different political community visions—liberal and communitarian. In-depth empirical analyses show anti-egalitarian characteristics of the liberal orientation and traditional-conservative characteristics of the communitarian one. Furthermore, the authors show that both orientations’ followers quite differently define the proportions between individual autonomy and social identity and cohesion. These differences are particularly evident in their attitudes toward democracy and patterns of involvement in public life. Finally, the article provides empirical evidence that the division into supporters of the liberal and communitarian political community directly appears in the Polish electorate’s political preferences.

Sustainable development: beyond appearances

Global resilience and stability have produced changes in the collective mentality, aimed at developing the spirit of resource conservation, increasing the quantity of recycled materials with effects in reducing climate change. The interdependence between economic, environmental and social considerations for ensuring sustainable development is obvious, their trend being of real interest in current research, because like those presented in the Brundtland report, only this will ensure “the needs of current generations without compromising the possibility of future generations to satisfy their own needs”. Based on a cascading research, from the global approach to sustainable development, to the practices reported by entities in Romania in the last five years, we aim to take stock of the achievements to identify where we are currently compared to the global target launched through the 17 sustainable development goals set by the UN in the 2030 Agenda.

Globalist potential of the territorial community: current issues of definition, understanding and possible implementation

The article is devoted to the study of topical issues of definition, understanding and possible realization of the globalist potentialof the territorial community.It is argued that local self-government and territorial community, firstly, are the direct subject of globalization, because they areinfluenced by its factors and species blocks (economic, political, legal, etc.), and secondly, they act as the final consumer of its benefits– the beneficiaries, and the direct or indirect object of its negative phenomena (global, regional and domestic economic crisis dueto the pandemic COVID-19, and related unemployment, closure of enterprises, delays in payment of wages salaries, pensions and othersocial benefits, sequestration of social articles of the state and local budgets, etc.); in addition, thirdly, when applied directly to locallife, they are the relevant user, producer and reproducer of its achievements, actively using them to organize their life cycle or relyingon the influence of global factors on their daily lives.It is proved that the definition of a complex system-complex phenomenology of the globalist potential of the territorial communityis due to the fact that, firstly, it is simultaneously related to domestic – municipal and constitutional law, as well as systems of generalinternational law and international relations; secondly, it has not yet been properly reflected in the science of municipal and internationallaw, although some domestic and foreign scholars and international experts have touched on this issue in an attempt to focuson this phenomenon (phenomenon), which is mostly evaluative. nature.It is established that determining the global potential of the territorial community, it should be understood that it is based on theknowledge, skills and abilities of its members, as well as formed by local governments (representative and executive), including allother bodies and subjects of the local system. self-government – to protect the existential guidelines for the existence, functioning anddevelopment of territorial community in the face of global influences and changes, taking into account its own individual and groupand collective cooperation opportunities both at the level of its own state and abroad, historical and geographical identity, guidelinesfor individual and collective mentality, appropriate sustainable forms of social life and social practice, based on the relevant moral andethical values of community.

Povești despre strigoi

"Stories about ghosts/undeads The present text brings into discussion the supernatural beings that still haunt the collective mentality of the inhabitants of the land of Zarand. Ghosts, because it’s them we are talking about, are still part of the stories of the elderly who remember their encounters with them. Unwanted in the village world and blaming them for the various misfortunes facing the community, people have developed practices to help them identify these beings, but also to remove them. Thus, since the birth of certain children who have a malformation of the spine, it is believed that they are undead. Sometimes, during life, because of curses or pacts with the devil, people lose their souls, so that, after death, they do not find their peace and continue to come to haunt those who are alive. People told us about these meetings, presenting the practices by which undeads are removed: through witchcraft, with the help of priests or through divine intervention. People do not want these returns of dead people, even if they are their beloved ones. Once dead, man loses his human status, these returns disturbing the peace of the village, and can cause strong imbalances: disease, famine, death of people and animals. Only after these beings are defeated, the life of the villagers’ returns to normal, keeping only the memory of the events that disturbed the peace. Keywords: Undeads, supernatural beings, dead alive, witchcraft, pact with the devil "

Family, Community, and Mental Wellbeing

The Japanese demographic changed rapidly after 1945. There was rapid ageing, a sharp decline in three-generation households, and a rise in solo households. Still, the Japanese family-based collective culture continues to shape individuals’ overall beliefs and attitudes within society. The demographic shift has become a significant constraint on the Japanese social care system, manifesting as ro-ro kaigo (the old caring for the older), kaigo-rishoku (leaving employment to become a carer), and ‘8050’ (parents in their eighties caring for socially withdrawn children in their fifties). The national tendency towards social detachment makes such problems difficult to address. Today, Japan is finding a way to overcome these social challenges and establish an inclusive society by re-connecting people, including the mentally ill, within communities by tapping into the culturally inherited collective mentality of its people.

On the perpetuation and contestation of racial stigma: Urban Roma in a disadvantaged neighbourhood of Szeged

Stigmatisation of Roma people has long received attention in the academic literature but the internalisation of stigma among segregated urban Roma has been little researched. By adopting a theoretical perspective on collective identity and (urban Roma) racial stigmatisation, this paper aims to 1) understand the broader nature of urban Roma stigmatisation maintained by the non-Roma people and among the Roma, and 2) better position the internalisation of stigma and the burden of Roma stigmatisation. The paper uses Participatory Action Research (PAR) as a research methodology, taking a disadvantaged neighbourhood of the city of Szeged, Hungary as a case study. The findings suggest that stigmatisation against urban Roma is a process which has deeply rooted historical backgrounds, and current efforts which strive for desegregation and integration of urban Roma will be difficult to implement , as stigmatisation remains in the collective mentality. The importance of this study rests on bringing all major dimensions of stigma together, highlighting what policymakers should consider when addressing them in the longer term. We argue that the existing urban policies towards the Roma people need to be readdressed, with clear power given to the voices of the Roma, particularly from institutions which aim to protect them.