This article contributes to the research on diasporic and migrant communities' engagement the democratisation of their home countries. It focuses on the case of the most recent wave of political ...emigration from Russia that has taken place during President Putin's third term. It confirms the thesis that emigration, particularly forced emigration, whereby political dissidents are squeezed out from their country by the authorities in hopes of calming simmering political protest, has stopped being the safety valve it once was. Drawing on Levitt's seminal work on social remittances, it analyses the content and channels of political remittances by recent Russian emigrants. In terms of the democratic remittances' content, six main broadly defined thematic areas of mobilisation can be distinguished: free and fair elections; human rights and civil freedoms; fighting corruption; environmental protection; anti-war activities; counteracting Russian propaganda and the 'hybrid war'. The channels of these democratic remittances are divided into direct (activities targeted at the Russian society) and indirect ones (targeted at Russian diaspora and political elites and society in the receiving countries). It draws the attention to immeasurable political remittances, those which cannot be easily assessed, yet undeniably impact the country of origin and its society.
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2.
Populism and Protest in Poland Fomina, Joanna; Kucharczyk, Jacek
Journal of democracy,
10/2016, Volume:
27, Issue:
4
Journal Article
Peer reviewed
The recent rise to power of Poland's Law and Justice party (PiS) began when it won the country's presidency in a May 2015 runoff and then secured a parliamentary majority in general elections five ...months later. Since then, the PiS government has sought to impose its will in a ruthlessly majoritarian fashion, taking on the high court, the prosecutor's office, the public media, and the civil service in a campaign meant to dismantle existing checks and balances while leaving the opposition and the general public little say. The PiS belongs to the global phenomenon that Pippa Norris calls "contemporary authoritarian populism." This form of populism, she adds, is mostly "a cultural backlash against long-term ongoing social change." Authoritarian-populist parties such as Law and Justice are not above playing on economic grievances in order to gain support, but economics is not what drives them. Populism may be broadly defined as "a general protest against the checks and balances introduced to prevent 'the people's' direct rule."
It has been over a year after Russia's full-scale aggression against Ukraine at the end of February 2022, which caused massive internal displacement in Ukraine and forced outmigration to neighboring ...countries on an unprecedented scale. From the beginning of the war, Poland has been the main host country, providing temporary protection to more than 1.5 million persons. The initial support for forced migrants was based on spontaneous actions and grassroots social initiatives. This article analyses the Polish society's engagement in humanitarian and reception assistance to people fleeing Ukraine in the first months of the crisis, including various societal actors, from informal initiatives and volunteering by everyday people of different nationalities to more formalized civil society organizations. The paper is based on the analysis of quantitative data, the subject literature and official documents, and extensive participant observation by the authors of the public engagement in Poland in 2022.
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Lived diversities: Space, place and identities in the multi-ethnic city is a timely and important book, which focuses on multi-ethnic interaction in an inner city area. Addressing difficult issues ...that are often simplistically and negatively portrayed it challenges the stereotypical denigration of inner city life, and Muslim communities in particular. Using well-crafted historical, political and contextual explanations the book provides a nuanced account of contemporary multi-ethnic coexistence. This invaluable contribution to our understanding of the politics and practice of multicultural coexistence is a must-read for students and practitioners interested in ethnic diversity, urban policy and the politics of place and space.Lived diversities: Space, place and identities in the multi-ethnic city is a timely and important book, which focuses on multi-ethnic interaction in an inner city area. Addressing difficult issues that are often simplistically and negatively portrayed it challenges the stereotypical denigration of inner city life, and Muslim communities in particular. Using well-crafted historical, political and contextual explanations the book provides a nuanced account of contemporary multi-ethnic coexistence. This invaluable contribution to our understanding of the politics and practice of multicultural coexistence is a must-read for students and practitioners interested in ethnic diversity, urban policy and the politics of place and space.
The first generation of Poles whose political horizons have been limited by their country's membership in the EU by a popular assumption should also be the most pro-European section of the society. ...However, empirical evidence demonstrates that despite the broad support for Poland's membership that we see on the surface, young people's perceptions of the EU are characterised by undercurrent euroscepticism. This undercurrent euroscepticism is less about a pragmatic assessment of benefits and losses, and more about concerns about emotive-symbolic issues, such as authority, self-determination, sovereignty, national identity and values. While the benefits of the EU membership are often taken for granted, the concerns about sovereignty understood in an old-fashioned way are brought to the fore in young people's perceptions of the EU. The article focuses on the role of the domestic political context and how the real and perceived generation gap plays into it. The paper calls for comprehensive education about European integration and critical thinking and media consumption literacy in order to diminish the susceptibility of young people to anti-European cues by political entrepreneurs.
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The first generation of Poles whose political horizons have been limited by their country's membership in the EU by a popular assumption should also be the most pro-European section of the society. ...However, empirical evidence demonstrates that despite the broad support for Poland's membership that we see on the surface, young people's perceptions of the EU are characterised by undercurrent euroscepticism. This undercurrent euroscepticism is less about a pragmatic assessment of benefits and losses, and more about concerns about emotive-symbolic issues, such as authority, self-determination, sovereignty, national identity and values. While the benefits of the EU membership are often taken for granted, the concerns about sovereignty understood in an old-fashioned way are brought to the fore in young people's perceptions of the EU. The article focuses on the role of the domestic political context and how the real and perceived generation gap plays into it. The paper calls for comprehensive education about European integration and critical thinking and media consumption literacy in order to diminish the susceptibility of young people to anti-European cues by political entrepreneurs.
Full text
Available for:
BFBNIB, NMLJ, NUK, ODKLJ, PNG, UL, UM, UPUK
Lived diversities: Space, place and identities in the multi-ethnic city is a timely and important book, which focuses on multi-ethnic interaction in an inner city area. Addressing difficult issues ...that are often simplistically and negatively portrayed it challenges the stereotypical denigration of inner city life, and Muslim communities in particular. Using well-crafted historical, political and contextual explanations the book provides a nuanced account of contemporary multi-ethnic coexistence. This invaluable contribution to our understanding of the politics and practice of multicultural coexistence is a must-read for students and practitioners interested in ethnic diversity, urban policy and the politics of place and space.
The paper analyses public opinion on the Russo-Ukrainian conflict in Germany and Poland in the context of the EU policy responses to it, utilising the concept of “strategic culture”. Seeing Russia as ...a military threat and attributing the main blame for the conflict to it makes people in both countries more likely to support Ukraine. However, it does not explain all the differences between the supporters and opponents of aiding Ukraine.
