Civic Culture Research Articles

Politics of Memory as a Tool of Civic Culture Formation: The Russian Specifics and Regional Aspects

The purpose of the research is to describe the specifics of the formation of the discourse of politics of memory in Russia and to determine the means of its instrumentalization as applied to the processes of development of civic culture, aimed at unification of people around the common historical heritage. Regarding methodology, the potential of cultural & sociological approach, constructivism, the theory of social and symbolic capital, and inter-disciplinary analysis of monumental policy and its role in consideration of civic culture and creation of significant images of historical past is used. The authors dwell on the key directions in the spheres of studying the politics of memory in Russia as a tool of formation of civic culture in the context of global and regional trends; determine the specifics of politics of memory in Russia and define the state’s role in this process in view of the tendencies of formation of civic nation and unification around the common historical heritage; describe the complexities which might be faced by politics of memory in South of Russia – which are largely predetermined by the ethnocultural differences; consider further perspectives of development of research of politics of memory and civic culture in Russia within the influence of the “Eastern European discourse of memory” and other regional narratives.

Between Rome and Byzantium: The Golden Age of the Grand Duchy of Lithuania’s Political Culture—Second Half of the Fifteenth Century to the First Half of the Seventeenth Century

Between Rome and Byzantium: The Golden Age of the Grand Duchy of Lithuania’s Political Culture—Second Half of the Fifteenth Century to the First Half of the Seventeenth Century

El Quindío necesita un mejor ciudadano

The department of Quindío fell into a political and institutional crisis since the early 90s of the 20th century, electing rulers who came to power using illegal practices, using money from shady businesses, state contracts, vote buying and voting corruption. This has exacerbated the regional crisis, and the economic and social situation of the particular individual.One of the causes of this phenomenon has been the lack of a strong and rooted civic culture, imposed since the school days. Citizen education and training of young people is minimal from educational establishments in the region. For this reason, it is urgent to work so that every teacher in every school, works with their own students in proper citizenship training.Educators in Quindío must understand that their students need a clear and storng citizenship training, which helps them to face corruption and social deterioration as a life project to transform the political practices that dwarf the region. In this paper we propose recommendations to teachers, so them as promoters and main academic actors, can promote skills in their students, that allow them to reflect, see and act according to reality. By this way, those students could recognise their own responsibilities framed into an ethical order, and became actors and historical citizens, and also builders of an equal society

EXCLUSIVITY AND COSMOPOLITANISM: MULTI-ETHNIC CIVIL SOCIETY IN INTERWAR HONG KONG

ABSTRACTWhile recent work has shown that interwar Asian civic associational culture was becoming more plural than previously understood, scholars focus mostly on transnational networks and neglect local associations co-existing in the colonial urban space. We also know little about how internationalist and liberal ideals interacted with notions of racial and national exclusion prevalent in the wider society. To overcome this, this article examines local organizations alongside transnational networks in interwar Hong Kong to understand fully how global trends in the interwar period affected colonial civic culture. Drawing on Freemasonry, Rotary, the League of Fellowship, and the Kowloon Residents’ Association, I discuss the aspirations of multi-racial urbanites in interwar Hong Kong and their limits. I argue that, while internationalism and colonial hierarchies allowed solidarity to be forged amongst multi-racial urbanites and encouraged their civic engagements, racism embedded in the society, rising nationalism, and constitutional constraints put limitations on their aspirations.

“Investigating the factors affecting brain drain in Greece: looking beyond the obvious”

PurposeThe study explores the reasons why talented people leave Greece and go abroad using a qualitative approach to data collection in order to get a deep understanding on the actual reasons of brain drain in Greece, which affects the sustainability of domestic businesses and the overall economic development of the country.Design/methodology/approachA qualitative approach was adopted consisting of 80 interviews with business and IT professionals, healthcare professionals and academics of various disciplines that live and work in the United Kingdom, Germany, United States and Australia. Data were collected over a three-year period (May 2015–May 2018).FindingsThe results showed that the vast majority of respondents decided to leave their home country due to the prevalent cultural mindset of most Greek citizens, government policymakers and employers in Greece. In particular, 65% of respondents decided to live and work abroad due to the deep crisis of social values in the country and the high political corruption, while just 35% pointed to purely financial and other work-related reasons (e.g. low salaries, poor working conditions, no employment prospects, lack of job security) as the key ones for leaving the country. Essentially, the respondents argued that the individualist cultural values that have been predominant in the Greek society for years now have become evident in political action causing several problems such as social injustice and poverty.Research limitations/implicationsThe findings have important implications both for those who hold governmental posts and the remaining citizens of Greece. Both government officials and citizens should re-examine their roles, values and ideals. The blame for the extensive brain drain in the country cannot be put only on the political parties that ruled the country during the last decades; the people who elected them are also responsible. The country seems to remain trapped in a crisis of social values that parents and the formal education system in Greece have cultivated for years now. In that respect, formal education in the country should be transformed radically in order to act as an important agency inculcating the new generations with a sense of duty in shaping a democratic political culture that emphasizes equality and condemns egalitarian practices.Originality/valueThe scant evidence around this topic is based on quantitative research that fails to explore in much depth the reasons of brain drain in the country. Previous studies revealed that the phenomenon of brain drain in Greece has been predominantly caused by the poor financial performance of the country during the last decade. This has been further supported by the claims of several policymakers who argue that the Greek crisis has been a fiscal one. However, the present study sheds new light and unmasks the root cause of brain drain in Greece stressing that the country essentially faces a crisis of values and a corrupted civic culture.

Civic Culture and Spatial Politics in Contemporary Iran

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El diálogo político como competencia política a partir de la ENCCIVICA: caso de estudiantes de pregrado de Ciudad Juárez, Chihuahua.

En este estudio se presenta el análisis del diálogo político como competencia política en el entorno universitario del municipio Ciudad Juárez, Chihuahua. Esta competencia deriva de uno de los ejes estratégicos de la Estrategia Nacional de Cultura Cívica 2017-2023 (ENCCIVICA) del INE. Se analiza el diálogo sobre temas políticos en las universidades, la confianza como elemento de ampliación de aquél, y el rol que tiene la universidad en este aspecto, por medio de una estrategia metodológica cuantitativa, mediante la aplicación de una encuesta a 185 estudiantes de pregrado en el año 2018. Se encontró que el diálogo político es bajo, que la confianza está en un nivel medio y que la transmisión de diversos valores, principalmente minimalistas, se relaciona con la confianza hacia los actores universitarios.

Stories Communities Tell: How Deliberative Practitioners Can Work with Community Narratives

How do past experiences of public engagement shape the way communities view the role of public input today? In this article, we examine the case of a community in a mid-Atlantic college town whose civic history is shaped by stories of skepticism and hope regarding past experiences of public decision-making. We use methods of interpretive analysis to surface their stories—the tensions, the plot, the actors, and complicating events—to understand how communities make sense of their roles in civic life, the norms they share, and the values they wish their communities can practice. We argue that being attuned to the storied nature of civic culture provides an invaluable resource for practitioners of dialogue and deliberation to adapt the design of public engagement in a way that speaks to past experiences and brings forth the communities’ shared aspirations.

Этические альтернативы homo economicus (размышление над книгой С. Боулза «Моральная экономика. Почему хорошие стимулы не заменят хороших граждан»)

The study presents the new work of an American interdisciplinary researcher, S. Bowles, “Moral Economics. Why good incentives will not replace good citizens”. An interpretatively opened status of the work is justified, in which the identification of the ethical meanings of the classical philosophy of economics (ancient paradigms, works by N. Machiavelli, A. Smith, D. Hume, etc.) with relevant empirical contexts of economic behavior, being morally free, irreducible to the rationality of material incentives, is productively combined. The symbolic structures of social and humanitarian forms of economic thinking are presented by S. Bowles through the image of homo economicus, the dichotomy of good and evil, the metaphor of living civic culture, etc. It is shown that S. Bowles is reinterpreting the concept of moral economics pointing to both the ethical content of classical political and economic theories and the impact that these theories can have on practically oriented economic thinking.

Locating Disparity in Political Culture in Bangladesh: A Comparative Study between Bangali and Rakhine Communities

This study attempts to explore the disparity in Bangali and ethnic political cultures in Bangladesh. Methodologically, Barishal Sadar and a village under this Upazila and a para of Rakhine community at Kalapara thana in Patuakhali district were taken as a case study to conduct an analysis of the disparity of political cultures between ethnic and Bangali communities in Bangladesh. It is observed from the analysis that there is a huge disparity between Rakhine and Bangali political cultures except in certain cases. In every case, Bangali people behave subjective and participative in communication with political issues, whereas Rakhine people behave parochially except on the question of objectives of the government, political parties and political rights in this regard. It is also observed that no specific political culture exists in Bangali communities, but the Rakhine community behaves parochially in every case. Therefore, in the case of Rakhine community, the concept of civic culture is not applicable but in the Bangali communities, there are no distinct political cultures, but rather a mixed one, which is termed as a civic culture. The causes of the parochial political culture of Rakhines are their dearth of education, backwardness, scarce of mobility as well as apathetic political communication.

Отношение к чаепитию как маркер профессионализации сообщества третьего сектора в Санкт-Петербурге

На основе исследования «профессионализации» НКО – процесса бюрократизации, возникновения «экспертного знания» и сообщества третьего сектора – статья рассматривает распространение культуры чаепитий в России с точки зрения ее значения для деятельности НКО. Ставится вопрос о том, как культура потребления чая рассматривается в дискуссиях об активном долголетии (active ageing) и построении идентичности сообщества третьего сектора. Данные об отношении к чаепитиям получены в результате качественного социологического исследования 16 НКО, занимающихся оказанием негосударственной заботы и социальных услуг людям старшего возраста в Санкт-Петербурге. На основе полуструктурированных интервью, включенных наблюдений и анализа документов приводятся аргументы, свидетельствующие, что профессионализированные НКО – небольшое и относительно закрытое сообщество, связанное общими проектами, идеологией («активного старения») и представлениями об организационной деятельности, рассматривают чаепития через призму «бесполезности» для развития третьего сектора и «гражданской культуры» в России. Чаепития воспринимаются своеобразной оппозицией такой культуре, выступая в роли примера крайней степени «неэффективности», «неустойчивости», т. е. всего того, против чего выступают профессионализированные НКО. Основной темой статьи является место чаепития как социальной услуги в дискурсе о «хорошей заботе» среди НКО, оказывающих социальные услуги пожилым людям (на примере Санкт-Петербурга). Чаепитие в данном случае выступает характерной и распространенной формой социальных услуг, отношение к которой существенно отличается среди представителей НКО в зависимости от степени их вовлеченности в профессиональное сообщество. Cделан вывод о том, что использование чаепитий (как социальных услуг для людей старшего возраста) в деятельности НКО является своеобразным водоразделом, по которому профессиональное сообщество третьего сектора судит о принадлежности или непринадлежности организаций третьего сектора к «профессиональному» сообществу. В заключении предлагаются несколько направлений для потенциальных исследований практик чаепития с точки зрения изучения гражданского общества и трансформации политической культуры.

Deliberative Civic Culture: Assessing the Prevalence of Deliberative Conversational Norms

Citizens’ adherence to deliberative civic values fulfils a vital function in deliberative democratic systems. We propose a way to measure the prevalence and variations of such values as a first step to better understanding how this works. Based on survey data, we demonstrate that, in Sweden, adherence to the values of reasoning and listening is stronger than adherence to the strategic rhetorical, non-deliberative values. This may have important implications for our understanding of how deliberation and democracy work in this particular context. There are also, however, important individual-level variations of adherence to deliberative civic values related to age, education, gender and Swedish background. Taken together, this opens up for a new research agenda where comparative analyses of deliberative civic values and how it relates to political behaviour are particularly encouraged.

On the Mediality of Two Towers: Calgary—Toronto

This article uses the CN Tower and Calgary Tower to explore how the architectural form of the tower possesses a number of characteristics we typically associate with media technologies. To appreciate what we call “tower-mediality,” we start first with a brief discussion of the scholarly literature on towers, highlighting that while much is said about towers’ symbolic value, little attention has been devoted to thinking of these forms in material and infrastructural terms. Then we turn to the Canadian towers themselves, asking, first, why they have received so little scholarly attention, before suggesting some points of intersection between architecture and communication research. Finally, we offer three registers—ritual, perspective, and spectacle—by which to explore the mediality of the CN and Calgary Towers. In undertaking this analysis, we attempt to expand the vocabulary available for understanding how towers are platforms that mediate the temporal and spatial elements of civic culture and to invite further considerations of the mediating and communicative work that occurs along the vertical axis.

Conceptualising critical data literacies for civil society organisations: agency, care, and social responsibility

ABSTRACT This article develops a sociotechnical conceptualisation of data literacies in relation to citizens’ data practices: highlighting the agentic, contextual, critical, and social aspects of data skills and competencies, it frames data literacies as both discursive and material. In order for civil society organisations to make sense of big, small, open and other data they need multiple skills, beyond the technical; it is, therefore, unhelpful to talk about a single form of data literacy. It is more helpful to consider how such literacies in the plural develop within the material social contexts of civic cultures, and how they can progress in tandem with critical awareness about the power aspects of data, so they can become central tenets of data advocacy. The primary purpose of the article is to move forward the debate around how to conceptualise data literacy – and to question how far the concept is useful in the first place. The article draws on empirical research and starts from the premise that it is imperative to develop frameworks and training schemes that enable civil society actors and publics more generally to use open data, to make data more relevant to stakeholders, and to support their engagement in policy debates around datafication.

The Civic Political Culture: Social Barriers and Educational Resource of Modernization

The article analyzes and characterizes the content, empirics of scientific research and the practice of implementing the methodological foundations of the political culture of students, as the basis for the formation of a civic national identity and ultimately the formation of the unity of the Russian nation. The relevance of the article is due to the aggravation of the socio-political situation in the Russian Federation in recent years, which is associated with an increase in the need for peaceful resolution of conflicts, the need for preparation for civic participation in the life of society and the state, and the insufficient level of political culture of all participants in the events. It is shown that at present, the educational system of Russia contains a large-scale error of violating ideological continuity between basic general / secondary / education and higher professional education. In particular, the Federal State Standard for Basic General Education dated 2010.12.10 indicates the orientation of education in the Russian Federation “to ensure the formation of the Russian civic identity of students”, but the Federal State Educational Standard on humanitarian directions of training do not have the ideological principles contained in the standards of general and secondary education and including in the Constitution of the Russian Federation. The research problem is connected with the search for methodological foundations for the implementation of the requirements of educational standards and the continuity in higher education of the formation of the Russian civiс identity of students, their testing and dissemination of the progressive experience available in our country.

Barbara A. Hanawalt, Ceremony and Civility. Civic Culture in Late Medieval London. Oxford, Oxford University Press 2017

Barbara A. Hanawalt, Ceremony and Civility. Civic Culture in Late Medieval London. Oxford, Oxford University Press 2017

Democratic Culture and the Challenges of Good Governance in Nigeria

The extant political culture in any given social formation to some extent, conditions largely the nature of government and subsequently the behaviour of citizenry and survival of the state. Consequently, in a democratic system, the political culture supportive and sustainable to stable democracy is the civic culture which emphasizes citizen's active participation in the political process. This paper, therefore, argues that the extent to which political culture in Nigeria is bankrupt and parochial will be solved from revisiting the demographic cultural ethics of the nation. The paper adopts structural functionalism by Almond & Powell (1966), as popularized by Donald Struck (1968), and Defleur, (1977). as the theoretical framework of analysis. The theory perceives governance within the context of society as a system that is made up of interdependent parts tending towards stability. That an understanding of any part of the society requires an analysis of its relationship to other parts and the contributions to the maintenance and development of society. It assumes that good governance is a consequence of a functional relationship between the arms of government midwife by a good democratic culture. The paper adopts qualitative analysis and generated data only from secondary sources like published and unpublished articles, thesis, and textbooks. Analysis of data reveals that the hurries arising therefrom, stunts sustainable political engineering and constraints good governance in the country even as the paper recommends amongst other things, a review of the 1999 constitution as amended to address issues such as revenue allocation based on resource control/derivation principle, to ensure the practice of true federalism.

The Distortion of Public Perception towards the Quick Count Results in 2019 Elections

This article discusses public beliefs in results of quick count in 2019 elections. There was a problem of differences in public perception of the quick count results which caused various polemics in the community. The phenomenon occurs when people disagree to accuse fraud and conspiracy by one of the candidates with the pollsters and the media. The theory explained that there are still people who have not been able to distinguish between original news or facts and hoax. Through a media framing analysis approach, this study explains the impact of divisions among the people who perceive very different quick count results. Based on the facts or data, voter distortion in the election against the quick count results is caused by the lack of political education and civic culture for election participants in Indonesia.

Dante’s Notion of ‘discrezione’ in Convivio I. xi

ABSTRACT This essay explores Dante’s notion of ‘discrezione’ in Convivio I. xi, with the aim of highlighting the syncretic nature of the concept. It argues that Dante’s discretion (from Latin discretio) relies upon both Aristotle and Cicero’s ethical thought, thus reflecting the fluidity and the harmonising potential of the intellectual and civic culture in which Dante was immersed. This reading is thus situated within current discussion of Dante’s intellectual formation within Florence, and beyond. It especially focuses on the mediating role played by Brunetto Latini’s Tresor in relation to Dante’s encounter with Aristotle’s Nicomachean Ethics alongside Stoic traditions. This study also brings to light the ambivalence, and even rivalry, that seems to characterise Dante’s relationship to his older master, after the poet’s exile from Florence.

Collecting, colonisation and civic culture in southern New Zealand

ABSTRACT Colonial collections played an important dual role: they were key sites from which ideas about cultural difference were theorised and they were also the foundations of public institutions that were central in shaping civic culture. This article explores these dynamics through the history of the Otago Museum and, in particular, the very different types of collecting engaged in by the colonial bookman T. M. Hocken, the anthropologist H. D. Skinner, and the historian J. H. Beattie.