This article is based on my presentation at a symposium organised by Binghamton University (SUNY) on the occasion of my retirement. The purpose of the article is to pay tribute to three great ...scholars, Antonín Svoboda, W. Ross Ashby and Lotfi A. Zadeh, who have decisively influenced my ideas and research work pertaining to the emergence of systems science and to the study of the key role of uncertainty-based information in dealing with systems problems.
This article investigates voters and sympathizers of Ukraine's radical right party, Svoboda. Using an original survey conducted in 2010, it shows that support for Svoboda was rooted less in extreme ...levels of xenophobia vis-à-vis Russians, and more in concerns about the support that the Russian minority receives from the state, fear of losing Ukrainian sovereignty, and economic anxiety. In contrast to the conventional view, the analysis suggests that support for Svoboda was not a function of inter-group ethnic hostilities; instead, it originated in perceived threats and anxieties about the character of the Ukrainian state.
An adaptation from Anything That Burns You: A Portrait of Lola Ridge, Radical Poet (2016) by Terese Svoboda is presented. Here, Svoboda discusses the life and works of the poet and committed activist ...Ridge.
Civil protests of Ukrainian citizens during winter 2013–2014 were accompanied by an intense informational campaign, which had not always corresponded to the reality. In the course of this campaign, ...Maidan's activists, the political opposition – and, correspondingly, the new government that was formed after the revolution ended in victory – were depicted as ultra-nationalistic, extremist, and xenophobic. Under these circumstances, it is extremely important for both Ukrainian citizens and foreign observers to understand the real role of national-radicals in the Maidan protests and the events that followed. What were the reasons for the Ukrainian people to begin the protests? Is it true that the “banderovtsy” 1 made up the bulk of the protesters? Is the victory of the Maidan also the victory of the political ultra-right? Does the Ukrainian ultra-nationalism have a strong support in the society, according to the results of the elections? What kind of future does the far right have in the new Ukrainian political reality?
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