Political Center Research Articles

Чинги-тура в истории Тюменского ханства

Purpose: To identify the main evolution stages of the status of the settlement of Chingi-tura as the political center of the Tyumen Khanate. Research materials: The work was carried out on the basis of an analysis of published sources (chronicles, embassy documents, letters, contracts, travelers’ notes, cartography data, and results of archaeological excavations). Results and scientific novelty. In historical research, largely under the influence of various editions of the so-called “Siberian chronicles,” there is a traditional concept about the connection of Chingi-tura, first of all, with the activities of the princes from the Taibugid dynasty. The city practically stopped existing with their departure to Isker-Siberia. However, a more comprehensive approach to sources, including archaeological ones, allows for considering this issue in a different way. The formation of the city (taking into account the specifics of applying this term to Siberian realities), was associated specifically with the Ulus of Jochi, dating back to the last quarter of the 13th century when the population changed there and Chingi-tura became one of the centers on the Transural trade route. The economic and possibly administrative significance of Chingi-tura in the 13th–14th centuries became the basis for its political rise in the first third of the next century. It appeared to be the center that attracted those Shibanids who would fight for uniting all lands of that dynasty’s representatives into a single state. Moreover, until the end of 1420 the city was under the control of representatives of the Burkut tribe whose history is obviously connected with the Siberian Taibugids. Only after 1431, in the time of Abu-l-Khair, did Chingi-tura receive the status of a throne place (Tyumen of Russian sources) which is a reasonable basis to refer to the state as the Tyumen Khanate. For a long time, the specificity of the city was determined by the fact that it was located on the northern border of this steppe state, something which greatly complicated its development. Also, contrary to the established historiographic tradition, it can be said that Chingi-tura was not abandoned after the death or murder of the Tyumen Khan Ibrahim (Ibak) no later than 1495. The collapse of the city is associated with the crisis of the Tyumen Khanate itself in late 1510. Despite the apparent decrease of its importance, the city continued to exist and play a certain role in the political ideology of Khan Kuchum, a grandson of Ibrahim. It was finally abandoned by the Tatars after Yermak’s campaign. Owing to this, by 1586, the time of the construction of Russian Tyumen nearby, it was already called as “an empty settlement”. Further understanding of Chingi-tura role in the history of the Siberian statehood of the Shibanids is impossible without the urgent continuation of archaeological excavations of the settlement remains that have survived to this day.

Memory Entrepreneurship: Armenian Genocide Recognition in Europe

Abstract Scholars have analyzed how political actors appropriate Holocaust-related memory laws to whitewash the past and undermine democratic traditions in various European countries. However, political actors in Europe have debated several other memory laws, which far-right MPs appropriate to serve their own purposes. The recognition of the Armenian Genocide is an understudied example of this phenomenon. Drawing from data collected in four countries—Bulgaria, the Czech Republic, Latvia, and Sweden—this analysis introduces the rhetorical strategies of memory justification and memory extrapolation to examine how far-right MPs, in very distinct geopolitical contexts, appropriate and instrumentalize Armenian Genocide memory to attack pluralism and promote their own versions of Europe. Through an analysis of the instrumentalization of the Armenian Genocide, this article examines a growing crisis at the center of contemporary European politics. This crisis, which involves actors promoting very different goals and values, increasingly threatens the socio-political cohesion of Europe.

«Улан-Баторский диалог» как особая инициатива Монголии в обеспечении безопасности в Северо-Восточной Азии

Introduction. The relevance of the study is determined by the increasing role of North-East Asia as one of the world and political centers, as well as the growth of various challenges and threats in the region, affecting safe and stable development of the world community as a whole. The study of the problem of regional security in Northeast Asia and the participation of Mongolia in its ensuring is important for the formation of theoretical and practical conclusions and assessments regarding its international status. Since the 1980s Mongolia has been consistently pursuing the policy of creating a mechanism for dialogue in Northeastern Asia. The result of these efforts was the Ulaanbaatar Northeast Asia Security Dialogue initiative. Mongolia's active foreign policy and the will to fully participate in regional cooperation in Northeastern Asia and in as many international and multilateral organizations as possible is one of the hallmarks of the phenomenon of modern Mongolia. The purpose of the study is to review the “Ulaanbaatar Dialogue on Security in Northeast Asia” and analyze its role in creating conditions for the interaction of all stakeholders in the interests of maintaining peace in Northeastern Asia. Results. This study presents a brief history of the formation and development of the Ulaanbaatar Dialogue, identifies advantages over similar discussion platforms in the region, and shows the importance of this event in increasing the international status of Mongolia. It is concluded that in the nearest future Mongolia may become an analogue of Asian Switzerland, the main platform for negotiations between countries in Northeast Asia due to the fact that Ulaanbaatar pursues an open, multifaceted foreign policy, and the adherence of this country to the “third neighbor” doctrine makes Mongolia a neutral state that does not participate in military-political blocks.

Międzynarodowa działalność Demokratycznej Białorusi w czasie kryzysu legitymizacji reżimu autorytarnego (2020-2023)

International activities of Democratic Belarus during the legitimacy crisis of the authoritarian regime (2020-2023) The presented publication analyses two interrelated trends in international relations on the example of Belarus. The first trend is the crisis of international legitimacy of the authoritarian regime that blatantly rigged the 2020 presidential election and violently suppressed mass peaceful protests against the lawlessness of the authorities. The second is the aspiration of the democratic forces, led by President‑elect Svetlana Tikhanouskaya, to become a fully‑fledged representative of the Belarusian people in the external arena. While in the first months after the rigged elections the Belarusian issue was present in the centre of world politics, the attention paid to the situation in and around Belarus decreased as protest activity inside the country decreased. This became particularly evident after Russia launched a large‑scale aggression against Ukraine, which was morally and materially supported by the dictatorship in Minsk. The reduced attention of international actors on the eastern European country did not stop the active activities of Democratic Belarus. The main support of the opposition forces became the Belarusian emigration, which after the events of 2020 took on a mass character. Its main centres are concentrated in Lithuania and Poland. The main opposition structures are also active there. Over the past three years, specific formats for the international activities of Democratic Belarus have taken shape, including the creation of foreign representations of the Joint Transitional Cabinet in other countries, support for the activities of so‑called people’s embassies and the accreditation of foreign diplomatic representatives to the Cabinet. Among the obvious diplomatic successes of the Office of Svetlana Tikhanouskaya and the Transitional Cabinet is the creation of the following in September 2022. Council of Europe Contact Group on Cooperation with Belarusian Democratic Forces and Civil Society, and the subsequent adoption by the Council of Europe Parliamentary Assembly of a resolution on support for Belarusians in exile.

Migration debates in the political party arena during the Covid‐19 pandemic in Austria

AbstractThe Covid‐19 pandemic highlighted the economic contribution of migrant workers in maintaining essential services and access to goods. This new perspective on migrants as essential workers raised expectations in migration studies that it could reinvigorate an inclusive setting in terms of migration debates and policies. Building on this potential, we examine migration debates in the political party arena with a focus on centrist parties. The analysis focuses on Austria, a country with a high dependence on migrant labor in key sectors and a long‐standing contestation of migration across the political party spectrum. Drawing on an analysis of parliamentary contributions and press releases by the Austrian People's Party (ÖVP) and the Social Democratic Party of Austria (SPÖ) during the pandemic, the study finds that the debates did not change fundamentally. Whilst external shocks such as the Covid‐19 pandemic have a limited potential to reverse the focus on unwanted migration in European party politics, crises can lead the political center to reemphasize bifurcation strategies in response to shifts in public discourse, as this study of the Austrian case during the pandemic suggests.

On the Problem of Dian Settlements

This article presents data on the search and study of settlement complexes of the Dian Kingdom in the areas around Lake Dianchi in the Yunnan Province. Several relatively large settlements were identified, with small satellite villages adjacent to them. Their inhabitants were used as a labour resource for growing grain, collecting freshwater shellfish, processing metals and other economic activities to serve the elite, which indicate the existence of a social hierarchy in the Dian Kingdom. However, the problem of finding political and cultural centres (capitals) remains, since powerful defensive structures, monumental religious and palace buildings, market areas, and craft districts have not yet been discovered in any of the studied settlements. The Hebosuo site, located only 750 m from the richest necropolis of Shizhaishan with the graves of the wang-rulers, is supposed to be the most likely capital centre, since seals’ clay impressions of major officials of the Dian state were found on its territory. Among the unique discoveries is a cemetery of ossuaries with infant burials, which seems to be a special section of the Shizhaishan necropolis. Another candidate for capital status is the Shangxihe site, also located just 1.5 km from the Shizhaishan necropolis. There, during preliminary excavations, 42 house foundations, several hundred utility pits, among other things, as well as a defensive ditch were discovered. Undoubtedly, this is quite a large urban-type settlement, but it also lacks the characteristics of a political and economic centre listed above. There is also no exact information about its planography and chronology. Therefore, the final question of the capital status of this or that settlement can only be resolved in the course of further large-scale excavations

LGBT+ digital activism. Notes for a communication conceptualization

Incorporating Information and Communication Technologies (ICT) and the Internet into the structures and repertoires of contemporary social movements has developed concepts that aim to account for this techno-communicative assemblage. However, most of these proposals stem from an approach that reduces the use of ICT and the Internet to an instrumental dimension, thus minimizing the reconfigurations they entail when practicing and investigating current forms of activism. Therefore, this article seeks to develop a coherent concept of digital activism from a communicational perspective to identify its characteristics and the analytical implications that arise from the subject-technology-communication relationship. To accomplish this task, the analysis of the Mexican LGBT+ movement provides for this task because its experience empirically demonstrates the diversity of uses and meanings that ICT and the Internet can acquire for a contemporary social movement. This work concludes that digital activism promotes asynchronous, deterritorialized, disembodied, and reticular forms of action by the individuals who comprise a social movement; analytically, digital activism is not limited to the political arena but centers its impact on the symbolic dispute present in everyday life. Finally, from the communicational perspective, digital activism invites us to make visible the uses and meanings of those actors who, through the Internet, recalibrate their position in the hybrid public space and redefine their profiles to embody new forms of struggle.

EVOLUŢIA POLITICĂ ŞI ECONOMICĂ A OLTENIEI ÎN A DOUA JUMĂTATE A SECOLULUI AL XIX-LEA

In the second half of the 19th century, Oltenia experienced important political and economic developments. The cities of Oltenia grew from a demographic point of view, under the influence of economic factors, becoming real political, administrative, military and cultural centers. The modernization process was slow, because the great nobility, which represented a decision-making factor in the political and economic life of the region, argued that agriculture should remain the basic economic branch of Oltenia. During the reign of Alexandru Ioan Cuza (1859-1866), Oltenia asserted itself as an important political and economic nucleus, joining the program of modernization of society proposed by the ruler. Later, Oltenia was in the middle of the military events of 1877-1878, the soldiers from Oltenia constituting a dynamic presence during the entire period of the war, in the struggle of the Romanian nation to conquer independence. Towards the end of the 19th century, the cities of Oltenia turned to the forms of commercial capitalism, while the peasantry went through an extensive process of impoverishment.

Zła baletnica czy dobry krawiec? O kondycji nauk o polityce i administracji w perspektywie III kryterium ewaluacji jakości działalności naukowej

The article concerns the analysis of the impact of the discipline of political science and administration on the functioning of society and the economy in the perspective of third criterion of the evaluation of scientific disciplines. 75 impact descriptions for the years 2017–2021, submitted by 34 universities, were analysed. The author’s intention is: to discuss the results of the evaluation, to systematise the areas of influence of political science centres, to determine the scope and significance of the declared impact, to discuss the role of research units in creating the impact. In order to achieve the set goals, secondary data from the RAD-on system and the Ministry of Education and Science (MEiN) were used, as well as primary data, including information from representatives of the discipline and participant observation while preparing of evaluation at the home university and performing an expert work.

History of Shoushan Stone Culture Neolithic Period

Fuzhous cultural roots can be traced back over 6000 years to the Neolithic period. It evolved from a barbarian land to a prominent political, economic, and cultural center over 2000 years. The region witnessed the development of various prehistoric cultures like the Keqiutou, Tanshishan, and Huangguashan cultures. These cultures left behind archaeological sites with stone tools, pottery, and other artifacts, reflecting the lives of ancient Fuzhou inhabitants and the significant influences on other regions. The Fucun site in Fuzhou, as it featured the use of stone tools made from Shoushan stone, provided valuable insights into the Neolithic Age. These tools played a crucial role in the daily lives and production activities of the ancient Fuzhou inhabitants, brought the advancement of labor tools and productivity during that era and potentially influenced the later art and culture of the region.

Awake at the wheel: how auto technology innovations present ongoing sleep challenges and new safety opportunities.

Individuals and society are dependent on transportation. Individuals move about their world for work, school, healthcare, social activities, religious and athletic events, and so much more. Society requires the movement of goods, food, medicine, etc. for basic needs, commerce, cultural and political exchanges, and all of its dynamic, complex elements. To meet these critical daily demands, the transportation system operates globally and around the clock. Regardless of their role, a basic requirement for the individuals operating the transportation system is that they are awake and at optimal alertness. This applies to individuals driving their own cars, riding a bike or motorcycle, as well as pilots of commercial aircraft, train engineers, long-haul truck drivers, and air traffic controllers. Alert operators are a basic requirement for a safe and effective transportation system. Decades of scientific and operational research have demonstrated that the 24/7 scheduling demands on operators and passengers of our transportation system create sleep and circadian disruptions that reduce alertness and performance and cause serious safety problems. These challenges underly the longstanding interest in transportation safety by the sleep and circadian scientific community. An area currently offering perhaps the most significant opportunities and challenges in transportation safety involves vehicle technology innovations. This paper provides an overview of these latest innovations with a focus on sleep-relevant issues and opportunities. Drowsy driving is discussed, along with fatigue management in round-the-clock transportation operations. Examples of cases where technology innovations could improve or complicate sleep issues are discussed, and ongoing sleep challenges and new safety opportunities are considered.

Mrs. Talfj's salon and her methods of mediating Serbian culture in Germany

Creation of cultural and poetic conditions in German cultural and political centers suitable for the reception of folk poetry in general, and thus also of a Serbian poetry; conceptualization and textualization of the image of Serbs, especially on the basis of Talfja's translations of Serbian folk poetry in German literature and nonfiction in the 20s and 30s of 19th century. Formation of literature circles in Berlin led by Goethe, Brothers Grimm, Kopitar, Stieglitz and Varnhagen. Description of the trip in the book Visit to Montenegro, with Stieglitz's special interest in folklore, legends and epic folk poetry in Njegos's Grlica. Stieglitz's importance as a cultural mediator and one of Talfja's best followers is also mentioned.

Monetary issues of the south of Russia during the Civil war: historiographical aspect

The article examines the complex economic and political situation that developed during the Civil War in the South of Russia. Analysis of existing works on the monetary issue of this territory is carried out, the completeness of these studies is determined. Source studies and comparative methods of analysis of factual material are used. The conclusion is made about the instability of the existing monetary system due to the lack of a unified command among the white movement and the presence of numerous political and emission centers.

Research and Analysis of Modern Consulate Complexes --Taking Yantai Hill in Fuzhou City as an Example

Since the First Opium War, foreign forces have flooded into China, building a great variety of public buildings across China, and importing Western culture. As one of the representatives of the recent Western culture, the consulate building plays an important role in history. As the political, economic, and cultural center of Fujian Province, Fujian was introduced to many Western cultures as one of the five port cities after the signing of the Treaty of Nanjing. Foreigners set up all kinds of buildings and municipal facilities here, such as consulate buildings, customs, foreign firms, churches, hospitals, workshops, clubs, etc. Western architectural techniques and forms have collided and fused with the traditional architectural culture of Fuzhou, together constituting a diverse modern architectural history of Fuzhou. Taking the modern consulate building complex in Yantai Mountain of Fuzhou City as an example, through field research and literature arrangement and induction, we analyze the buildings of modern consulates, understand the historical evolution of consulate buildings in Fuzhou, the architectural form and the existing situation, excavate their characteristics and summarize them, to provide basic information for the study of modern architectural history in Fuzhou. The article concluded that the Western consulate architecture is characterized by the central axis symmetry, the characteristics of each country are obvious, while retaining part of the local characteristics, to achieve the fusion of Chinese and foreign.

Chronological Hygiene and Bayesian Modeling of Poverty Point Sites in the Lower Mississippi Valley, circa 4200 to 3200 cal BP

AbstractDevelopments in radiocarbon dating and analysis provide new opportunities to develop high-resolution chronologies to explore changes through time. We explore the temporality of what has been called the Poverty Point culture of the lower Mississippi Valley circa 4200 to 3200 cal BP, especially the chronology of the type site, Poverty Point. Because of its complicated material culture elaboration without evidence of agriculture, Poverty Point has been identified as the political and economic center of a complex archaeological culture. The duration of site occupation and the historical relationship between the type site and those assumed to be contemporary are critical variables for explaining the emergence of complexity at this time. Most interpretations require political or evolutionary processes that accumulate gradually over hundreds of years. Our data show, however, that there is no temporal coherence among so-called Poverty Point culture sites; among such sites, Poverty Point was occupied for a relatively short period, and it is younger than many sites thought to be derived from it. Using explicit radiometric hygiene and Bayesian analyses of dates, we reject the idea of a unified Poverty Point culture and argue instead that the Poverty Point site earthworks developed through rapid, punctuated events occurring circa 3300 to 3200 cal BP.

Animals in Mortuary Practices of Bronze-Age Pastoral Societies: Caprine Use at the Site of Dunping in Northwestern China.

The late second and first millennium BC witnessed extensive economic, cultural, and political exchanges between pastoralists and sedentary farming states in East Asia. Decades of archaeological fieldwork across northern China have revealed a large number of burial sites associated with pastoralists during the first millennium BC. These sites were characterized by the inhumation of specific animal parts in burials, predominantly the skulls and hooves of sheep, goats, cattle, and horses. However, the selection preference for these animals and how they were integrated into the mortuary contexts of these pastoral societies remain poorly investigated. Here, we report a preliminary analysis of caprine remains from 70 burials at the site of Dunping in the southern Gansu region of northwestern China, dated to approximately the seventh to fourth centuries BC. Based on an examination of species composition, post-depositional effects, traces of human alteration, skeletal element representation, and age at death, we discussed the selection, slaughtering, and inhumation of caprines concerning the mortuary practices at the site. Comparisons between Dunping and several other contemporaneous burial sites in neighboring regions, specifically in terms of the mortality profiles, further highlight distinct patterns in the selection of caprines for mortuary purposes among pastoral societies. These differences suggest varying degrees of emphasis placed on the economic and social significance attributed to caprines. Our findings provide new insights into the roles that caprines played in both ritual performances and subsistence practices among pastoralists in East Asia during the first millennium BC.

Ternate Sultanate Palace: A Multifaceted Hub at the Crossroads of Culture and Politics

Historically, sultans have always had living space (lebenschraum habitus). In the Sultanate of Ternate, the living space of the sultans was the kadaton (palace) which since its birth was organized according to the philosophical cosmology constructed in a person’s customs. The palace (kadaton) as the basis of political legitimacy means that the palace is not merely the residence of the king and his relatives, but it is also seen as the state itself (exemplary state), so that in the history of its development, the palace has become an institution of power that politically has the same weight as the institution nobility itself. This research aims to 1) to reveal the Myth of the Seven Princesses: Source of Legitimacy, and 2) to reveal how the Sultan’s palace strengthened the Cultural and Political Center. This research used descriptive qualitative method. The result of this research revealed that the Sultanate of Ternate attempted to build and maintain its power base based on three factors. First, geopolitics, which causes the palace to have a traditional identity position that is closely related to the source of magical beliefs. Second, the doctrine of power, the palace has a central doctrine which makes the king the representative of God’s power (micro cosmos). Third, the basis of aristocratic power centered on cultural hegemony.

A VIEW FROM THE COUNTRYSIDE: RADIOCARBON CHRONOLOGY FOR ZAOLINHETAN OF THE PRE-ZHOU CULTURE IN EARLY DYNASTIC CHINA

ABSTRACTThe conquest of the Shang Dynasty at Anyang around 1046 BCE by the Zhou is one of the major events for not only Chinese Bronze Age but also early interaction between the pastoralist groups from the Eurasian Steppes and agriculture ones in the Central Plains of China. It is well-known from historical texts that the pre-Zhou people lived in the ancient Bin region (豳), the exact location of which is unclear, but most likely in the Jing River valley. At some point the leader Gugong Danfu (古公亶父) moved from Bin to the capital Qi (Zhouyuan), which preceded the Zhou invasion of Anyang. We have produced a new high resolution radiocarbon chronology for Zaolinhetan, a small settlement in the pre-Zhou heartland. This shows not only an exceptionally long chronological span for the site, but also a different phasing compared to the traditional pottery typology, which raises new questions regarding the regional variation of pottery typologies. Intriguingly, the analysis also reveals a rapid abandonment of Zaolinhetan around 1100 BCE, at the same time many larger sites, such as Zhouyuan, which later became the capital of the Western Zhou dynasty, were significantly expanding. We argue that the drastic decline of Zaolinhetan as revealed by the substantial number of radiocarbon dates and probably also the movement of pre-Zhou political center from Bin to Qin, was part of bigger picture that involved a range of social and environmental factors.

Electoral Integrity and Quality of Democracy in Sub-Saharan Africa: The Case of Mozambique

This article comes about with the objective of analyzing the electoral integrity and the quality of democracy in sub-Saharan Africa, considering the case of Mozambique. The main argument that guides this article is that, in the case of Mozambique, electoral cycles are characterized by problems of electoral integrity, more due to the political centralism adopted by the ruling party, Frelimo. To support this argument, can be advanced a premise according to which the political centralism adopted by Frelimo was inherited from the colony, from the militarism of the struggles for independence and perfected in the socialist period. From a qualitative and multidisciplinary approach centered on African history and political science, this article concludes that, although Mozambique is formally a democratic country, its political practices denote that it is a country with problems of electoral integrity.

The Rise of Public Sector Unions in the Twenty-First Century: A Theoretical, Mixed-Methods Approach with Evidence from Argentina

Public sector unions are increasingly becoming the hegemonic contemporary labor actor in terms of membership and militancy in both advanced and emerging economies. However, political economy lacks a unified theoretical approach to study mobilization by state unions. The analysis of public sector union politics has been largely separated by regional (United States vs. Europe vs. Global South) and disciplinary (American politics vs. comparative politics/political sociology) divides. We contend that though both public and private workers belong to the subaltern classes, public sector union politics and mobilization have different foundations than in the private sector. Unlike private unions, state labor mobilization is essentially driven by what we call the “reverse economic cycle” (militancy increases in bad—rather than good—economic times), by the legal enforcement of bargaining rights (which in contrast to the private sector substantially varies across and within democracies), and by the likelihood of a political exchange between labor and the government. Argentine teachers between 2006 and 2019 provide an ideal laboratory to test this argument through a multilevel (i.e., national and subnational), mixed-methods strategy, which includes comparative and statistical assessments.