Political Concepts Research Articles

An urban political ecology of populism

In this paper we develop a relational understanding of populism informed by urban political ecology. We argue that an urban political ecology of populism is necessary for a popular-democratic denunciation of the environmental claims of the far right. This article thereby aims to further develop a critique of liberal environmentalism and right-wing populism. We do so by first staging a dialogue between literatures in urban political ecology and Gramscian inflected readings of populism. Both have sought to interpret how spatial – and ecological – claim making becomes central to struggles over hegemony. The second half of the paper analyses these tensions in the Dutch farmers movement, which has become one of the most important political forces in the Netherlands since 2019. Abstracting “the local”, “the rural” or “the farm” out of the broader processes of urbanisation is central to struggles over the representation of farmers. Right-wing movements thus seek to further a broader disillusionment with formal politics, while effectively deploying spatial and ecological abstractions that pit the “rural” against the “urban”. We conclude by instead emphasising the crucial connections between populism and ecology, and call for a popular-democratic political ecology.

Cowboy as a Symbol of Individualism: A Pragmatic Analysis of Red Dead Redemption 2

As cultures are mainly divided into collectivistic and individualistic, members tend to emphasize, through communication, either their position as part of their group or their independence from the group. This emphasis is manifested in using the pragmatic concepts of positive politeness and negative politeness. The present study looks into the reflection of these two cultures in Rockstar’s renowned video game, Red Dead Redemption 2 (2018). It aims at identifying the two cultures as present in the game and showing their significance to its narrative. It fills the gap in the studies of language used within video games as well as its cultural reflections. The study addresses the following question: What are the positive and negative politeness strategies used in Red Dead Redemption 2 (2018), and what are the implications of using these strategies in its narrative? By adopting Brown and Levinson’s (1987) politeness theory, the researcher analyzed the positive and negative politeness used in the scripted dialogue of the in-game cutscenes through the mixed methods approach. The researcher hypothesized that the protagonist shows adherence to a collectivistic culture using positive politeness, and he begins transitioning towards an individualistic culture using negative politeness. The results showed that 75% of the protagonist’s interactions contained positive politeness while only 25% contained negative politeness. This transition explains the protagonist’s loss of trust and loyalty to his group as he begins to witness the futility of maintaining such loyalty. It also supports the overall narrative of the game as well as its cultural foundations.

Transformasi dari Politik Jarak Jauh ke Politik Identitas di Gerakan Surah Buku Yogyakarta

This article discusses the transformation of the Aceh diaspora political movement in Yogyakarta. By taking the community of Gerakan Surah Buku, this article strengthens Missbach's (2012) argument that the long-distance politics of the Acehnese diaspora has shifted to identity politics, meaning that the long-distance politics of the diaspora has not completely disappeared, but has undergone changes. The position of this article then tries to show these changes through ethnographic research in one of the literacy communities, Gerakan Surah Buku, Yogyakarta. This article shows that the form of identity politics is not only the effect of the shift of long-distance politics, but has become an alternative and creative articulation of the remnants of the previous Acehnese diaspora long-distance political movement. This research uses auto-ethnography, a research method that allows researchers to be directly involved for a long period of time. The article also shows how ethnic identities that are struggling in the diaspora have formed a hybrid culture in articulating trending issues in youth activism movements, such as human rights, peace, justice and freedom.

Russia’s Other War: Patriarchal culture and domestic violence. The #ЯНеБоюсьСказать (#IAmNotAfraidToSpeak) July 2016 Campaign on Vkontakte

This article is dedicated to a controversial topic for Russian society, namely the campaign #ЯнеБоюсьСказать (#IamNotAfraidToSpeak) that took place in VKontakte’s Russian speaking community in July 2016. First the article is based on a theoretical framework that draws attention to the concept of contentious politics and feminist movement. Second, I analysed the messages associated with #IamNotAfraidToSpeak, and argue that the campaign raised the visibility of the problem of domestic violence and patriarchal culture in the post-Soviet Russia, and this helped increase the significance of women’s linguistic agency and made #IamNotAfraidToSpeak the first large-scale feminist movement in Russia. Moreover, in addition to the theoretical background, the paper focuses on a case study: The #ЯНеБоюсьСказать(#IAmNotAfraidToSpeak) campaign of July 2016 on VKontakte. Keywords: gender-based violence in Russia, feminist movements, former Soviet, flashmob, #IamNotAfraidToSpeak, VKontakte.

Industrialization of Election Infringement in Simultaneous Elections: Lessons from Sweden

Election violations are increasingly occurring on a massive scale. In Indonesia, by early 2024, 1,032 violations had been handled only for the simultaneous general elections for president, vice president, and members of national and regional legislatures. Meanwhile, the results of handling violations in the 2019 simultaneous elections increased sharply to 21,169 cases, or an increase of 58.3% from 2014. This was due to the material on Indonesia's general election regulations, which overlapped and were not in harmony with the Constitution and judges' decisions. This research aims to analyze the issues surrounding simultaneous general elections in Indonesia and outline alternative progressive policies for achieving democratic governance with dignity and integrity during the next general election. This research focuses on normative law, utilizing statutory and conceptual approaches that pertain to democracy, elections, and various types of violations. To get an overview of the new policy, this research compares the handling of election violations in Indonesia with that in Sweden. The research results show violations of the general election administration, the code of ethics for election organizers, election crimes, and other legal violations in Indonesia and Sweden. However, Sweden still maintains its democratic stability. Several election manipulation factors that become fraud or violations are the manipulation of election rules, the manipulation of vote conditioning in the form of money politics, the updating of voter lists, and the conditioning of candidate requirements to cyberattacks. Therefore, it is crucial for regulations, participants, and the voting public to reevaluate the integrity of elections.

Ageing, Poverty and Agency: Reconceptualising Resistance to Poverty among Older Adults

Abstract The experiences and daily lives of older adults living in poverty are underexplored topics in the literature. Specifically, the question of agency and how older people cope with poverty and resist it requires further investigation. Ruth Lister’s model is the theoretical foundation of this study, which emphasises individuals’ ability to be active agents in shaping their life stories. Lister’s renowned model of agency in poverty focuses on working-age people and is widely used by scholars. The current qualitative study expands on Lister’s theoretical articulation of agency by presenting the stories of twenty-seven older people living in poverty in Israel. The findings demonstrate how, under the social constraints of ageing, people tend to focus on the personal and local agency of survival because strategic and more political forms of agency are structurally inaccessible. These findings have practical implications. Social workers can play a crucial role in recognising older adults’ agency, standing with them in their struggles, advocating for them by addressing structural barriers and facilitating their access to resources. We also employ these findings to develop an expanded theoretical articulation of agency that incorporates agents and their respective social circles.

Power and competition in the transitions toward postrentierism: The cases of Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates

AbstractThe imperatives of economic diversification mean that Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates (UAE) are scrambling to secure international markets and investments amid a series of domestic changes taking place, including centralized decision making, the marginalization of other traditional modes of governance, and rising nationalism. While there is some evidence of formal security‐related cooperation in the Gulf Cooperation Council as well as an informal security alliance operationalized by Saudi Arabia and the UAE at the onset of the Arab uprisings, these two states have gone on to pursue competing economic policies. This article assesses the economic and political interactions of Saudi Arabia and the UAE, arguing that contrary to Rosecrance's concept of “virtual states” with an emphasis on services, expertise, and creativity, connected to visions strategies in these cases, their primary power remains rooted in territorial aspects. It also finds that there are other factors such as leadership style, political and economic role conceptions, the regional and international balance of power, threat perception, and alliance formation that will continue to determine the shape and form of their cooperation or competition.

The evolution of political power legitimacy conceptions

The concept of the power legitimacy as one of the problems in the field of public administration was first mentioned by the German jurist G. Jellinek of the late 19th - early 20th century, then it was deeply developed in the theory of political domination by M. Weber. Realizing the importance of this issue, scientists from different countries one way or another turned to it and refined its various aspects. This article provides a critical analysis of the basic concepts of the legitimacy of power, based on the contribution to the development of this issue by M. Weber, D. Easton, I. Cerovac, J. Rawls, D. Estlund and J. Habermas. Since the problem of the legitimacy of power is directly related to the maintenance of a democratic regime, the declared concepts are considered in the context of the varieties of democracies for which they were created. The purpose of this study is not only to analyze successive concepts of the legitimacy of political power, but also to identify their relationship with the prevailing ideas about democracy in science and society at the time the concept appeared. The study was carried out within the framework of a systematic approach using general theoretical methods of analysis and synthesis, systematization and classification, as well as the case study method for country analysis.

“Mental map” in “Letters of a Russian Traveler” by Nikolay Karamzin and the problem of the national myth representation

The article analyzes “Letters of a Russian Traveler” by Nikolay Karamzin in terms of the symbolic-mythological perception of space, suggesting a view of the countries, depicted in the travelogue, as symbolic-mythological units of the “mental map” in the book. A “mental map” is understood as a holistic image of a geographical space, value-restructured in accordance with the author’s vision of European cultural and the historical situation. The purpose of the work is to reveal the hidden additional plot of Karamzin’s book, which determines the logic of the perception of geographical space and its comprehension, taking into account the historical and political situation witnessed by Karamzin’s hero-traveler. Using the methodology of the structural-semiotic, historical-genetic and comparative-typological reading of the text, as well as the methodology of human geography, the article shows how Karamzin generalizes ideas about the logic of the Western European history and culture development at the end of the 18th century. We also characterize the writer’s symbolic and mythological view of the cultural dialogue between Russia and Europe, the place and role of the “Letters...” of France, Switzerland, England and the countries of the German world on the “mental map”. Conclusions are drawn about the significance of the spatial image of “Letters...” for the design of Karamzin’s historical and political concept of the late 18th century, in which the key role was played by the ideas of the dialogue, the ability to evaluate the achievements of European culture and to develop the potential of Russian culture.

From Civil Society Organisations to Pirate Parties to Digital Democracy

Reshaping our political and social systems for a sustainable future requires a multifaceted approach that addresses several key areas, such as: political reform, social change, economic development, environmental preservation, or technological innovation. In order to achieve a sustainable future, we need to implement its ideals in every societal sector. When dealing with the political system, we cannot ignore the antidemocratic tendencies arising or taking over our everyday life even in the Western World. Under these circumstances, political reform is a must and we have to admit that one of its most important tasks is strengthening democracy. The actual political discourse is full of ideas like proportional representation, direct democracy, sustainability-focused governance, transparency, accountability, and equity. Among the many actors that try to solve these problems there is a group that proposes some new solutions, based on the means of Information Society, Pirate Parties. Emerging from the digital world, they are a fresh wave of political movements with deep roots in online activism. These parties, some born from anti-establishment protests, have rapidly spread across the globe in just two decades. Their journey is one of transformation, from grassroots movements to established political players. Pirate Parties have a clear digital agenda, focusing on issues like copyright reform, open access to information, and online privacy. They champion net neutrality and the free flow of knowledge. However, most of them have recognized the importance of broader democratic values for political success. Beyond their digital focus, Pirate Parties also advocate for traditional democratic ideals, including civil rights, transparency, and combating corruption. They promote free speech, direct democracy, and exploring alternative forms of citizen participation in government, often leveraging technology (e-democracy). The future impact of Pirate Parties remains uncertain, but their influence is undeniable. They’ve challenged traditional political norms and brought issues of the digital age to the forefront. Pirate Parties have reshaped the European political landscape and inspired similar movements around the world. My paper aims to briefly present these political formations, with special regard to their origins in and their relations with civil society. After outlining the broad framework, I present some of the most notorious of these formations.

Punk music and cinnamon buns. From everyday resistance to contentious politics in a 1980s Swedish autonomous center

ABSTRACT During the 1980s, a number of new protest movements emerged that protested against the welfare state and right-wing politics. Influenced by punk, anarchism and the libertarian left, activists often met in so-called autonomous social centers. In many European countries, resistance became contentious, but resistance also took the form of everyday practices. The aim of this article is to study political resistance in the 1980s Sweden, carried out by the cultural association Ultra between 1980 and 1988. Based on theories of everyday resistance, contentious politics and prefigurative politics, ideas, and practices in Ultrahuset (the Ultra house) are examined. I study how the everyday resistance developed toward a more contentious resistance, as the relationship with the local authorities changed, and how the concept of prefigurative politics contributes to an understanding of the relationship between everyday practices and resistance. Source material consists of texts and illustrations produced in Ultrahuset, media material and interviews with former members. The result show that the activism in Ultrahuset can be understood as a way of doing prefigurative politics through everyday resistance, but also that during the 1980s, when the relation between Ultra and the surrounding society changed, the resistance also changed, becoming more outward-looking and contentious.

Introduction: escaping the politics trap? EU integration pathways beyond the polycrisis

ABSTRACT Since 2016, the EU has widely been considered to be in a state of ‘polycrisis’, where simultaneous, mutually reinforcing challenges threaten the Union’s cohesion and legitimacy. Such polycrises may fracture Europe’s political space, creating cross-cutting ‘polycleavages’ that polarise member states and their citizens asymmetrically, thereby constraining the EU’s capacity to forge effective compromises on key policy issues. In so doing, they exacerbate the risk of the EU’s falling into a multi-level ‘politics trap’, where negative politicisation of European issues inhibits national leaders from agreeing ambitious solutions in intergovernmental negotiations, while the ensuing deadlock in turn saps the Union’s output-based legitimacy and fuels a Eurosceptic ‘constraining dissensus’. In this introductory article, we develop an analytical framework elaborating the concepts of polycrises, polycleavages, and politics traps, which we then use to present and interpret the main findings of the contributions to this collection, focused on the Covid-19 pandemic and the Russian invasion of Ukraine. The most important takeaway from the contributions to this collection is that – consistent with our framework – the EU has clearly proved more resilient to the potential negative consequences of politicisation than many commentators had expected at the beginning of this long polycrisis decade.

Engaging the later Rawls on legitimacy

Frank Michelman’s recent book Constitutional Essentials. On the Constitutional Theory of Political Liberalism is discussed from a specific angle, related to how Rawls’s ‘deflection procedure’ – called by Michelman ‘justification by constitution’ – is affected by two recent innovations in the paradigm of political liberalism: first, the extension of reasonable pluralism to a family of liberal political conceptions of justice that coexist in a liberal-democratic society; second, the idea of legitimation based on the criterion of reciprocity, aimed at supplementing the liberal principle of legitimacy. In the attempt to probe Michelman’s assessment of the impact of these two innovations, three critical points are mentioned, for each of them, that suggest a somewhat more sceptical attitude than Michelman’s about the capacity of ‘justification by constitution’ to remain substantially unaltered, once these innovations are in place.

Affective Turn, or Return?

The ‘affective turn’ suggests that we pay attention to how affects create subjectivities, build communities, and shape new forms of politics in the making. It invites us to move beyond established humanities and social science paradigms and toward richer forms of contextual analysis by studying how bodies – human and otherwise – ‘act and are acted upon’ (Gregg and Seigworth 2010, 1). The ‘affective turn’ requires sensitive attention to a host of cognate terms and concepts – sentiment, emotion, reverberation, resonance, atmosphere, and far beyond, including the more specific trans-category of ‘affective politics’ as well as affective reinterpretations of the social. Music has long been recognized as a site where affective politics play out. However, existing scholarship often view Baruch Spinoza, Silvan Tomkins, Gilles Deleuze, and Brian Massumi as the founding fathers of affective thinking at the expense of related work in the broader tradition of music philosophy. We address this lacuna by discussing the relationship between music, affect, and politics in the work of Plato, Aristotle, Al-Farabi, Qian Sima, Johannes Tinctoris, René Descartes, Johann Gottfried von Herder, Jean-Jacques Rousseau, Theodor Adorno, Antoine Hennion, and Tia DeNora, as we aim to broaden, nuance, sharpen, and situate contemporary understandings of affective politics in music studies. In doing so, we discuss whether the affective turn is, perhaps, better understood as a ‘return’ to cross-disciplinary music research that situates the understandings of affective politics, relational agency, and political emotions within a longer history of music philosophy that, taken together, provide a more robust theoretical argument for the social and political force of musical sounds.

Siyasi elitanin mahiyyətinə konseptual yanaşmalar

The concept of political elite has been the subject of discussion by many researchers in different periods of history. Various theories and concepts have been put forward about this phenomenon. Today, we cannot imagine any society without a political elite. In both democratic and non-democratic states, power is concentrated in the hands of an organized minority-the political elite. The article basically tries to clarify questions that interest many scientists, such as the essence and content of the political elite, as well as the role of elite groups forming the political elite in the management of the community and decision-making. The political elite theories and concepts of thinkers such as G. Mosca, V. Pareto, R. Michels were investigated, and an extensive comparative analysis was conducted between these concepts. In-depth study of different approaches plays an exceptional role in understanding the basic nature of the political elite.

Multiculturalism as the Main Philosophical Doctrine of Political and Cultural Development of Modern Society

The article entitled "Multiculturalism is the main philosophical concept of social and political development in modern society" is devoted to the analysis of cultural and political problems occurring in modern societies in the context of globalization from a socio-philosophical aspect. The necessity of approaching the issue from the point of view of the current needs of the time and era, respect for other cultural identities, non-actualization of acts of radicalism, terrorism, extremism, religious fundamentalism, and racism, which may cause imbalance in the system of ethnic-political relations of polyethnic societies in the era of globalization, and taking complex measures calculated for a safe future in relation to ethnic-political subjects is reflected in the article. In a philosophical sense, the term multiculturalism is a generalized expression of the cultures to which social subjects belong, having a broad meaning and incorporating different values.. It is known that culture and spirituality are historical philosophical systems, and depending on the rules of time and the form of the social structure at each stage of historical development, the culture and spirituality change and renew. Multiculturalism is a form of tolerance in which representatives of different national cultures coexist in conditions of equal rights and self-affirmation within a single country. The philosophical-theoretical basis of the multiculturalism paradigm is precisely the mutual understanding of parallel cultures in global society, joint activity, and even their equal dialogue. The article analyzes the concept of multiculturalism from a philosophical perspective and primarily explains it as a synthesis of communitarianism and liberalism. It was especially noted that multiculturalism, as a humanist ideology, reflects the equality promoted by communitarianism and respect for individuality and other cultures and religions, as liberals say. The article draws attention to the transformation of the multiculturalism paradigm into the main philosophical and political concept of modern societies against the background of globalization and the formation of the political doctrine of many developed countries, including the Republic of Azerbaijan, in the context of state policy.

Negotiating politics on campus: dynamic (de-)politicization among student activists in post-2011 Egypt

ABSTRACT This article examines processes of (de-) politicization among Egyptian student activists in the post-2011 context. Based on ethnographic observation, interviews and focus groups, I argue that the rapid and successive political changes – with the revolution in 2011 then the coup d’état in 2013 – made the boundaries separating institutional, contentious and prefigurative politics fluid. As student activists debated if their claims and activities were ‘student-related’ or ‘political’, several conceptions of politics and political action coexisted among them and their understanding of politics fluctuated. These evolving conceptions created gaps and contradictions allowing for the negotiation of the meaning of their various activities. The negotiation of politics is a collective pattern but was also reflected in, and reflective of evolving individual subjectivities. As young students lived through the revolution, entered university and joined or left a group, their perceptions of their roles and of the political meaning of their present and past activities changed. The rising repression in 2013/14 shaped the activists’ tactics, as well as their perceived priorities and the meaning of activities, thus amplifying the negotiation of politics.

Case Study: Language Politeness in Preschool Children at Ar-Rahman School

Purpose of the study: This research aims to investigate how preschool children use language politeness. The method used is a pragmatic approach with a qualitative approach. Language politeness is usually part of adult human abilities. Adults will be better able to judge whether an utterance is considered polite or not, depending on various factors such as social distance, culture, and power relations. Methodology: The data that has been copied and grouped is then analyzed using the politeness theory of language developed by Brown and Levinson. In qualitative research, data analysis begins with reducing data, categorizing data, presenting data, drawing conclusions from findings, and verifying. Main Findings: The research results show that language politeness can be divided into four main strategies. However, the results show that preschool children, especially those aged 3-5 years, do not fully understand the concept of politeness. The data obtained showed considerable variation in children's understanding of politeness strategies, without any clear consistency. Novelty/Originality of this study: The novelty of this research is the methodological approach that uses direct observation in various activity situations at school as well as in-depth interviews with teachers and parents, which provides a comprehensive picture of language politeness practices. This makes a significant contribution to academic literature and educational practitioners in understanding and developing language politeness from an early age.

Exploration of the Integration of Curriculum Ideology and Politics into the Educational Pathway of Standardized Training for General Practice Residents

In recent years, the national higher education reform has proposed the concept of curriculum ideological and political education as a major element. This integration into the standardized training of general practice residents (commonly referred to as general resident training) is an unavoidable trend in the teaching field. Based on the actual situation of our unit at The First Affiliated Hospital of Xi’an Medical University, this paper emphasizes the necessity of incorporating ideological and political education into the general resident training curriculum, despite the absence of pertinent practical experience in how to effectively incorporate such courses into comprehensive residential training. In our hospital, we must assess the ideological and political education in the curriculum of general resident training, proposing a scientific, reasonable ideological and political education concept system for general practice courses, integrating ideological and political education with general practice resident training, and strengthening the team of ideological and political education physicians to teach them to carry out such education, this would foster enthusiasm and initiative. Strengthening admission education and training for general practice resident training, as well as regularly hosting symposiums to share ideas and understand the mission of doctors can provide effective experience for ideological and political education in general resident training courses.

Research on the Application of Red Songs in Music Education in Colleges and Universities under the Concept of Curriculum Thinking and Politics

Red classic songs have irreplaceable research value in the field of vocal music teaching in colleges and universities in China. Under the environment of the development of curriculum ideology, integrating red songs into the process of vocal music teaching in colleges and universities, seeking for the fit between red songs and vocal music teaching in colleges and universities, and carrying out the teaching in a better way are the problems that must be paid attention to and researched for the vocal music teaching in colleges and universities at present, and the organic combination of the two is able to The organic combination of the two can further implement the fundamental teaching task of vocal music teaching and effectively improve the quality of teaching. This paper discusses the current situation of teaching vocal music in colleges and universities. Under the concept of course ideology, the importance of red songs into the process of vocal music teaching has been studied and analysed to effectively establish the vocal music classroom under the concept of course ideology, and combined with the specific status quo of vocal music teaching in colleges and universities in China, it analyses the specific use of red songs in the process of vocal music teaching in colleges and universities under the concept of course ideology to effectively improve the quality and level of vocal music teaching in colleges and universities in China.