The Class Composition of Russia’s Anti-Putin Movement
About: This article is published in South Atlantic Quarterly.The article was published on 2014-12-21. It has received 7 citations till now.
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TL;DR: This paper explored the twenty-first century potential of irony and cynicism to disrupt and subvert through parody, be it in the form of political satire or ironic protest, examining how similar paradigms are expressed across different geographical contexts.
Abstract: When cynical distance and ironic posturing have become the prevalent means of relating to public life, political humour is no longer considered subversive. It has been argued that both in Russia and the United States, ideology has co-opted satire, meaning that citizens can consume outrage passively through various satirical media products, thereby displacing outrage and abstaining from more active forms of resistance. This articles explores the twenty-first century potential of irony and cynicism to disrupt and subvert through parody, be it in the form of political satire or ironic protest, examining how similar paradigms are expressed across different geographical contexts.
18 citations
Cites background from "The Class Composition of Russia’s A..."
...It is in this sense that post-Soviet Russia can also be seen to have arrived at a postmodernist relativism which sees any political language as pure ideological jargon (Chehonadskih 2014)....
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...In consequence, the language of political communication came to be perceived as hollow, as political forces from the Left to the Right, in the words of philosopher and activist Maria Chehonadskih, ‘became formal operators without meaning’ (Chehonadskih 2014: 201)....
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Dissertation•
01 Jan 2015
TL;DR: In this paper, the authors investigated national identification by applying psychosocial methodology to discourse produced in Russia during the era of "Putinism" (2000-2010) using interviews, surveys and media representations.
Abstract: This thesis investigates national identification by applying psychosocial methodology to
discourses produced in Russia during the era of ‘Putinism’ (2000- ). Existing literature on
post-Soviet Russia frequently claims that at the heart of the nation lies an absence of
symbolic functions or subjective formations with which Russians could identify. At the
same time, there has been relatively little empirical work that seeks to examine national
identification using a psychosocial approach. The study fills this lacuna by looking for
moments of identification across different texts, such as interviews, surveys and media
representations. Using as its starting point the conditions of possibility of post-2000
Russia, the study pays attention to societal shifts and disjunctures, examining how they
are reflected in discursive patterns and formations.
The dissertation’s empirical element consists of two parts. Through the analysis of
interviews and open-ended surveys, the first part documents respondents’ ambivalent
relationship with Russia and Russianness, which is characterized by splitting and
disavowal. In the second part, the study deploys a case study approach. The first case
study focuses on discourses of rejection and (dis)identification as featured in the Russian
public’s responses to Pussy Riot. It concludes that in their policing of Russianness and
the demarcation of features deemed undesirable as embodied by the group, participants
in the debate have found ways of both shifting the threat Pussy Riot represents, and also
of once again ‘enjoying the nation’. The second case study examines discourses that seek
to elicit identification in the populace via representational mechanisms around the figure
of Vladimir Putin. It is argued that the various strategies employed to activate leader love,
ranging from hypermasculinity to hyperrealism, seem to indicate a void at the heart of
the Russian president’s persona and, by extension, his national project, making them
profoundly unstable.
Overall, the thesis provides a rare empirical contribution to the psychosocial study of
national identification. It addresses the interrelation between imaginary and symbolic
identification and the pivotal role of fantasmatic processes therein. The identifications I
locate in the thesis are precarious and fleeting, speaking of the loss of a fantasy of
national greatness, and of an internalization of images and scenes borrowed from
literature and history. The study also offers a consideration of the implications of such
attachments for Russian society, thus providing further illustration of the
interdependence of the psychic and the social.
13 citations
Cites background from "The Class Composition of Russia’s A..."
...Instead it makes subjects more suspicious of any vision of change: “In this sense, postSoviet society shares the notorious "postmodernist" relativism of the 1980s and tends to understand any political language as purely ideological" (Chehonadskih, 2014: 201)....
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...(Chehonadskih, 2014: 203)....
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...This absence of a language with which one could meaningfully speak of the body politic is exemplified by empirical examples of representatives of this class being unable to locate, or make sense of themselves in the societal matrix (Chehonadskih, 2014)....
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...The previous chapter, along with the work of scholars such as Matveev (2014), Chehonadskih (2014) and Oushakine (2001) provide evidence that supports this claim....
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...…hold true: while “evidently, in post-Soviet society, “middle” (or any) class is often interpreted as a moral category and mark of character” (Chehonadskih, 2014: 206), the Russian intelligentsia has overall not been able to translate their intellectual credentials into financial…...
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TL;DR: In this article, the role of resources in Russian LGBT activism is explored and developed after the fall of the Soviet Union with activists engaging in various activities such as political, social, and religious.
Abstract: The paper explores the role of resources in LGBT activism in Russia. Russian LGBT activism emerged and developed after the fall of the Soviet Union with activists engaging in various activities suc...
11 citations
TL;DR: In this article, a psychosocial analysis of Russian media debates surrounding Pussy Riot's performance in the cathedral of Christ the Saviour in 2012 indicated that a collective nerve had been hit.
Abstract: Russian reactions to Pussy Riot’s performance in Moscow’s Cathedral of Christ the Saviour in 2012 indicated that a collective nerve had been hit. This article seeks to explain the surge of public outrage following Pussy Riot’s ‘punk prayer’ through a psychosocial analysis of Russian media debates surrounding the case. By focusing on the negative responses, the following discussion investigates what such a ‘resistance to resistance’ might signify, and how it can point to latent forms of identification. It examines the public’s fixation with the group’s name, as well as the prevalence of fantasmatic enactments of violence in media discussions. Results suggest that in their rejection of the group’s performance, participants in the debate found ways of both shifting the threat Pussy Riot represents, and of once again ‘enjoying the nation’.
2 citations
Cites background from "The Class Composition of Russia’s A..."
...However, while the protests soon died down – due to the government’s brutal response, but in part also because of the ‘Occupy Arbai’ – movement’s inability to attract long-term support from the wider public (Chehonadskih, 2014; Matveev, 2014), there were clearly facets to the Pussy Riot case that inspired the prolonged emotive responses that other arrests of opposition members had failed to encourage....
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01 Jan 2016
TL;DR: In this paper, a psychosocial analysis of Russian media debates surrounding Pussy Riot's "punk prayer" is presented. But the analysis focuses on the negative responses, and not on the positive responses.
Abstract: Russian reactions to Pussy Riot's performance in Moscow's Cathedral of Christ the Saviour in 2012 indicated that a collective nerve had been hit. This article seeks to explain the surge of public outrage following Pussy Riot's 'punk prayer' through a psychosocial analysis of Russian media debates surrounding the case. By focusing on the negative responses, the following discussion investigates what such a 'resistance to resistance' might signify, and how it can point to latent forms of identification. It examines the public's fixation with the group's name, as well as the prevalence of fan- tasmatic enactments of violence in media discussions. Results suggest that in their rejection of the group's performance, participants in the debate found ways of both shifting the threat Pussy Riot represents, and of once again 'enjoying the nation'. Subjectivity (2016) 9, 126-144. doi:10.1057/sub.2016.5; published online 7 April 2016
2 citations
References
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Book•
01 Jan 1951
TL;DR: Essai philosophique en trois parties, the premiere sur lantisemitisme, the deuxieme sur l'imperialisme a la fin du XIXe s, the troisieme sur le totalitarisme stalinien et nazi as discussed by the authors.
Abstract: Essai philosophique en trois parties, la premiere sur l'antisemitisme, la deuxieme sur l'imperialisme a la fin du XIXe s., la troisieme sur le totalitarisme stalinien et nazi
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01 Jan 1998TL;DR: Workplace flexibility is the topic of Richard Sennett's new book, "The Corrosion of Character: The Personal Consequences of Work in the New Capitalism,” his latest analysis of class, work, and social relations as mentioned in this paper.
Abstract: Workplace flexibility is the topic of Richard Sennett's new book, “The Corrosion of Character: The Personal Consequences of Work in the New Capitalism,” his latest analysis of class, work, and social relations. Sennett seeks to remind us that stability—currently so maligned by business writers and consultants--has distinct benefits for individuals and society. More important, he raises a warning flag about the costs of flexibility and the toll it can take on our energy, our relationships, and our very characters.
3,106 citations
Book•
20 Feb 2002
TL;DR: In this paper, Quaderni Rossi and the workers' enquiry are investigated in the context of the collapse of workerism in the early 20th century, and the history of the Mass Worker is discussed.
Abstract: Introduction 1 Weathering the Fifties 2 Quaderni Rossi and the Workers' Enquiry 3 Classe Operaia 4 New Subjects 5 The Creeping May 6 Potere Operaio 7 Toni Negri and the Operaio Sociale 8 The Historiography of the Mass Worker 9 The Collapse of Workerism 10 Conclusion Bibliography Index
283 citations
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[...]
01 Jan 2006
TL;DR: In this article, Against the Day moves from the labour troubles in Colorado to turn-of-the-century New York; from London to Venice, to Siberia, to Mexico during the revolution; silent-era Hollywood, and one or two places not strictly speaking on the map at all.
Abstract: Spanning the period between the Chicago World's Fair of 1893 and the years just after World War I, Against the Day moves from the labour troubles in Colorado to turn-of-the-century New York; from London to Venice, to Siberia, to Mexico during the revolution; silent-era Hollywood, and one or two places not strictly speaking on the map at all. It is a time of unrestrained corporate greed, false religiosity, moronic fecklessness, and evil intent in high places. Maybe it's not the world, but with a minor adjustment or two it's what the world might be.
121 citations
Book•
11 Jun 2009
TL;DR: In this paper, the authors present a deep focus on Putin's Russia in Deep Focus: From Gorbachev to Yeltsin, Power and Money: the economic foundations 4. Power and money: the state, oligarchs and oil 5. People: parties, unions and NGOs 6. Power, money and people: human development dilemmas 7. People, grass-roots movements Conclusions Chronology Glossary of Russian words and abbreviations
Abstract: List of figures and tables Preface Acknowledgements Introduction: Putin's Russia in Deep Focus 1. From Gorbachev to Yeltsin 2. From Yeltsin to Putin 3. Power and money: the economic foundations 4. Power and money: the state, oligarchs and oil 5. Power and money: from oil boom to bust 6. Power and people: how Russia is ruled 7. People and money: human development dilemmas 8. People: parties, unions and NGOs 9. People: grass-roots movements Conclusions Chronology Glossary of Russian words and abbreviations Further reading Index
33 citations