This book provides a fresh methodological approach to the study of discourses and discursive strategies, especially within post-Soviet contexts. What makes this project distinctive from a number of ...other studies of discourse is that it is concerned with the temporally contingent nature of discourses. As such, it outlines a coherent methodology to study the evolution of discourses over time, rather than a single de-contextualised and static time period.
In this article, I adopt a structural approach to Russian soft power, switching focus from the supposed agent of power (Russia), towards the subjects of power (Ukrainians). I outline the ...applicability of this approach to empirical studies into soft power, demonstrating how soft power can be examined from bottom-up, discursively-focused perspectives.
The empirical analysis then traces how Ukrainians (do not) link their self-identities to discursive understanding of “Russia”. Reviewing recent insights into the relationship between soft power and affect, I argue that Ukrainians' cultural, historical and linguistic ties with Russia often lack necessary emotional force to generate meaningful soft power.
In recent years, there has been sustained academic and political scrutiny of externally located 'kinsfolk': that is, groups of individuals located outside of a nominally national 'kin-state', and ...over whom the state in question lays claim to various forms of symbolic and/or legal jurisdiction (Duvold 2015; Pogonyi 2017). Academically, this literature is often nestled within broader, critical discussion of contemporary nations and nationalisms (Agarin & Karolewski 2015), with scholars noting 'the increasingly transnational character of global migration flows, cultural networks and socio-political practices' (Smith & Bakker 2008, p. 3). Often premised on the assumption that globalisation has the capacity to erode traditional borders, these transnational developments have spurred significant research interest into kin-state policies across the globe. These policies are typically enacted by states to construct diasporic identities that create strong bonds of identity between co-ethnics and their supposedly external homeland (Stjepanović 2015, p. 144). The kinsfolk question is consequently salient for the foreign policy actions of self-designating external homelands, but can also be heavily securitised by states that house groups of individuals who have the potential to be 'diasporised'.
Following a review of current scholarship on identity and integration patterns of Russian speakers in the Baltic states, this article proposes an analytical framework to help understand current ...trends. Rogers Brubaker's widely employed triadic nexus is expanded to demonstrate why a form of Russian-speaking identity has been emerging, but has failed to become fully consolidated, and why significant integration has occurred structurally but not identificationally. By enumerating the subfields of political, economic, and cultural 'stances' and 'representations' the model helps to understand the complicated integration processes of minority groups that possess complex relationships with 'external homelands', 'nationalizing states' and 'international organizations'. Ultimately, it is argued that socio-economic factors largely reduce the capacity for a consolidated identity; political factors have a moderate tendency to reduce this capacity, whereas cultural factors generally increase the potential for a consolidated group identity.
Much existing analysis of Russian state-society relations focuses on public, active forms of contention such as the "opposition" and protest movements. There is need for a more holistic perspective ...which adds study of a range of overt, "co-opted", and hidden forms of interaction to this focus on public contention. A theoretical and empirical basis for understanding state-society relations in today's Russia involves broadening the concept of "contentious politics" to include models of "consentful" as well as "dissentful" contention. A diffused model of contentious politics can situate claim-making along the axes of consentful and dissentful motivations, and compliant and contentious behaviours.
Recent research on the acculturation strategies of Russian speakers in Latvia has demonstrated that there is a high level of support for integration (identifying with both Latvian and Russian ...cultures) compared to marginalization, separation, or assimilation. However, a number of researchers have also highlighted the negative impact of top-down narratives and discourses produced by the country's politicians and journalists. These discourses, it is argued, hamper the integration process by creating incompatible identity positions between 'Russian-speakers' and 'Latvians'. Accordingly, this research turns to focus group interviews with Russian speakers in Latvia in order to uncover the nuances of their identity-forming processes, their relations with the respective Russian and Latvian states, and their acculturation strategies, which are commonly overlooked in top-down accounts. Based on the analysis of the qualitative data it will be argued that there is great potential for an integrated, yet culturally distinct Latvian-Russian identity in Latvia.
Based on media discourse analysis, this article addresses the construction of Russian-speaking identity in Latvia from a discourse-theoretical approach. Through a focus on the discursive elements of ...identity formation it will be argued that public projections of Russian-speaking identity are both a counter-reaction to, and a synthesis with, constructed 'Latvian', 'Russian' and 'European' identities and discourses. It will be shown that although Latvia's Russian-speaking identity is often constructed negatively, in opposition to the Latvian state and the Latvian 'Other', it is now increasingly premised upon an acceptance of various Latvian narratives and discourses which are enabling the emergence of amore positive Latvian-Russian identity.
The literature on collective memories in the Baltic states often stresses the irreconcilable division between Russian and Baltic official interpretations of the Second World War. This paper seeks to ...challenge this popular notion of two polemic collective memories – “Latvian” and “Russian”. While there is evidence that Latvia's Russian-speakers are heavily influenced by Russian cultural and political discourses, I will argue that the actual positions taken up by Russian-speakers are more nuanced than a crude Latvian–Russian dichotomy would suggest.Based on survey data collected at the site of the 2011 Victory Day celebrations in Riga, this paper points to the germane existence of a partial “democratization of history” among Latvia's Russian-speakers, typified by an increasing willingness to countenance and take stock of alternative views of history. Through an examination of the data it will be argued that such tentative steps towards a democratization of history are most visible among the younger cohort of Russian-speakers, whose collective memory-myths have been tempered by their dual habitation of the Latvian, as well as Russian, mythscapes. In order to more fully understand this process both bottom-up and top-down pressures will be examined.
Political debates on the Baltics, and in particular Estonia, have often pointed to “nationalisting” and exclusive narratives constructed at the institutional level. Accordingly, emphasis has been put ...on the lack of opportunities for Russians to integrate into an Estonian context. While acknowledging the shortfalls of the Estonian political project, this article contrasts these views in two ways. By emphasizing people’s agency and their capacity to question, contrast, or even reject the identity markers proposed by Estonian official narratives, we maintain that the integration of Russians might be more advanced than insofar claimed by other studies. We then look at the way identities are lived in an everyday context by inhabitants of Estonia to counterpose national narratives proposed by the state and its political institutions, with the way people live and whether they accept these narratives. By doing this, we explore the role of the everyday in the reconstruction of national identity narratives, in which citizens actively participate in their individual capacity. We suggest that, from a James Scott “infrapolitics” perspective, these micro-actions have a fundamental role in the reshaping of a national identity and its acceptance among citizens.
PDF
