Ideological Positions Research Articles

The Russia-Ukraine conflict as a discursive continuum: A comparative study of Business Today and New York Times using an extended corpus-based discourse-historical approach

This paper presents a comparative discourse analysis of media representations of the Russia-Ukraine conflict in the American newspaper New York Times and the Indian newspaper Business Today. Using an extended corpus-based discourse-historical approach incorporating tools from critical discourse analysis and corpus linguistics, the study identifies key differences in main themes, discursive strategies, and linguistic means modulated by each nation’s geopolitics. The analysis reveals New York Times constructs the conflict predominantly as a moral and political crisis, employing critical language and ideological framing of Russia as the villain versus Ukraine as the victim. In contrast, Business Today approaches the conflict neutrally as an economic issue with pragmatic implications for India, avoiding explicit judgments and moral evaluations. While reflecting different ideological positions, the divergent framings and discursive strategies demonstrate the traditional “us versus them” dichotomy is an oversimplification. Through nuanced linguistic analysis of modal verbs, metaphors, analogies, hyperboles, and rhetorical questions, the study shows how historical relations, geopolitical interests, economic ties and cultural values create a complex discursive continuum rather than a static binary. By extending discourse-historical analysis, the paper advocates more pluralistic, self-reflexive journalism to enable nuanced policy debates attuned to on-the-ground realities, not just propagandistic binaries.

Understanding cosmopolitanism: a morphological approach

ABSTRACT This article applies a morphological analytical framework to cosmopolitanism, an ideological tradition committed to universal moral equality and global forms of community. While this concept of global citizenship originated in ancient Greece, scholarly interest in the cosmopolitan tradition was in recent decades rekindled. But despite this, cosmopolitanism remains rudimentarily understood as ideology. This article therefore theorizes cosmopolitanism as a thin ideology distinguished by its normative engagement with empirical conditions characterized by ethnic, racial, national and similar forms of diversity. It is demonstrated that the commitment to the equal moral worth of all humans constitutes cosmopolitanism’s decontested core concept, which anchors adjacent concepts focused on society’s political, cultural and economic organization. This conceptual framework finds its embodiment in ideological subject positions, which are theorized as peripheral concepts through which the ideology is linked to socio-demographic identities. In conclusion, it is argued that rather than signalling the realization of this ideal, the recent era of globalization was an age of exceptional cosmopolitan influence that now is in decline.

Inclusive practices among university teaching staff. Confirmation of a model based on personal predictors

ABSTRACT Different personal traits could predict not only prejudice, but also practices aimed at the inclusion of vulnerable minorities in higher education. On the basis of this assumption, the study presented here sets out to confirm a predictive model of inclusive practices among university teaching staff, incorporating variables of personality, ideological attitudes, perceived discrimination, and beliefs and attitudes towards diversity, hypothesising the pre-eminence of the predictive route anticipated by John Duckitt’s Dual-Process Motivational Model in the perception of disadvantaged groups. The research process involved collecting and analysing data from 613 university teachers at eight Spanish public universities, confirming the hypothetical model by means of structural equations. The study showed that personality, through ideological attitudes and, in turn, such attitudes together with perceived discrimination, had significant effects on the inclusive practices of teachers through the mediation of beliefs and attitudes towards diversity, and that agreeableness and social dominance orientation primarily anticipated beliefs, attitudes, and practices. The conclusions establish the relevance of personal competencies in the profile of teachers when addressing diversity, suggesting professional development in such competencies through reflexive, extensive training, and application in the classroom.

Глобальная история религии: назад в будущее?

The article reconstructs the concept of J. Strube, a leading representative of the younger generation of esotericism researchers. In the first part of the article, his critical program is analyzed, it is established that he systematically deconstructed the existing ideas about Western esotericism with the help of a large source base. Starting with the demythologization of the story of the occult energy of Vril, he turned to the origins of the French esoteric community, finding them in the first generation of socialists. The second part examines the positive research program of Strube: having criticized global ideological attitudes (poststructuralism, postcolonialism, cultural relativism), he proceeded to substantiate a new religious studies program – global religious studies. To reveal its heuristic potential, Strube conducted a systematic reconstruction of the Western reception of Tantrism, including the identification of the esoteric background of Indian culture of the XIX century, the specifics of the activities of the theosophical society in India and the "Arthur Avalon project", which combined the efforts of the Shivachandra tantric school. Strube's research shows that the colonial process of appropriation of Indian doctrines by the West did not exist, in fact, esoteric discourse was a global form of constructing ideologies and identities around the world. Indians at the beginning of the XIX century used it to modernize the language of ancient religious doctrines, and later Bengalis with its help made a successful attempt to legitimize Tantra. In conclusion it is shown that the program of global religious studies is a revival of religious comparativism, but on a solid foundation based on new empirical material.

Social preferences, support for redistribution, and attitudes towards vulnerable groups

In this work, I explore the explanatory power of experimentally-elicited social preferences over self-reported support for redistribution. Social preferences are obtained by means of a simplified dictator game embedded in an online survey that also includes a questionnaire on preferences for redistribution, beliefs, inequality perceptions, and ideological positioning. I find that social preferences covary strongly with self-reported support for increased taxation. Besides, more generous social preference types are more likely to have favourable views towards specific welfare beneficiaries, especially those usually regarded as less deserving, such as migrants, the unemployed, or the poor. Some elements that correlate negatively with preferences for redistribution are being older than 65, having a right-wing ideology, believing that personal effort is the main driver of one’s economic position, and distrusting others; while being a parent or perceiving high inequality have the opposite effect. Social preferences help thus further understand public support for redistribution and the political feasibility of redistributive policies.

The Silk Road as One of the Phenomena of Chinese Music: Past and Present

The article presents two collective art projects for the fi rst time: the multimedia symphony “In Pursuit of the Dream of the Silk Road” and the large-scale macrocycle “The Silk Road”. Both of them consider the theme of the Silk Road in different genre-stylistic and dramatic planes. The concept of the interaction of the Silk Road with the artistic culture of China opens up broad and versatile perspectives for researchers of modern Chinese music. The point is not only that over the past twenty years dozens of quite original works have appeared, one way or another interpreting its cultural and even “economic” motives. A look at these experiences allows us to imagine a whole range of compositional and artistic trends that characterise the work of musicians of different generations, religious schools and ideological positions, as well as new searches in modern performance and music education. Two large collective projects presented in this article are inspired by the general artistic idea of the Silk Road. However, this concept is implemented in them with completely different genre-stylistic and technical means.

Build the "Firewall" of University Network Ideology Security under the 5G Trend

With the rapid development and wide application of 5G technology, the security position of network ideology in universities is facing unprecedented challenges and opportunities. Using the literature analysis method, taking the network ideology security of universities under the background of 5G technology as the research object, the new opportunities and challenges brought by 5G technology for the network ideology security of universities are analyzed, and the new ideas and new measures for the network ideology security in universities and universities are put forward. The research shows that the network ideology position of colleges and universities is faced with the hidden dangers of technology monopoly, media integration and the influence of the network public opinion, so the theoretical foundation should be consolidated, the cohesion of the field should be enhanced, and the management leadership should be strengthened to guarantee the security of the network ideology in colleges and universities. The influence of 5G on network ideology work in colleges and universities is systematically analyzed to provide some theoretical and practical references for building the "firewall" of ideological security in colleges and universities.

Russia and Turkey: A Roller Coaster Relationship between Securitization and Cooperation

Understanding perceptions of Russian and Turkish foreign policy from their imperial past up to the present day constitutes a continuing puzzle for historians and policy practitioners alike. Now, because of their ambitious ideological posturing and power projections, the need to examine some of the most-discussed features of Moscow’s and Ankara’s respective approaches to foreign policy has arisen anew. What is novel and significant is to address how the emergence of the individual efforts of Russia and Turkey to secure a greater global role for themselves reflects a new modus vivendi whereby they continue cooperating, despite serious conflictual areas between them.

Ideological orientations and left-right self-identifications of young Polish men and women: an image of the political gender-generation gap

The subject of the author’s interest is the diversity of ideological orientations due to gender and age. The theoretical findings so far indicate that in developed democracies already at the end of the 1990s there was a reversal of the ideological positions of women and men. Recent social research shows that also in Poland women identify with the left to a greater extent than men, and in the younger generation these differences are even greater. The aim of the article is to show in detail the ideological differences between young men and women in Poland. The author poses two types of research questions: (1) descriptive and explanatory, which concern the characteristics of similarities and differences in the ideological orientations of young women and men; (2) methodological, which concern how to measure this phenomenon. The author assumes that the measurement of left-right self-identification used in many studies brings an overly simplified picture of the respondents’ real views, beliefs and values, which can be described as ideological orientations. Therefore, he proposes the use of multidimensional tools (issue-based scale) that allow to better describe complex political attitudes. In search of answers, the author analyzes data from his own survey conducted among a large group of Polish students.

Does it pay to think about the future? Future orientation, ideology, age and vote earning among political candidates

Solving societal problems often requires elected politicians to make uncertain investments, which only provide benefits in the future. However, research on future-oriented democratic policymaking has primarily focused on structural explanations and voter behaviour, paying less attention to politicians’ attitudes. In this study, we examine politicians’ future orientation and its potential link to electoral success. Using the latest Finnish data from the Comparative Candidate Survey, combined with voting-advice application data and register-level candidate information, we analyse how candidates’ future orientation correlates with their personal vote shares and ideological positions in the 2019 parliamentary elections. Our findings indicate that future-oriented political candidates, willing to invest in the future despite costs to present wellbeing, tend to be younger, more leftist and green-alternative-liberal. However, the relationship between future orientation and vote-winning is weak, suggesting that office-seeking politicians face neither punishment nor reward for their future-regarding stances.

Critical Discourse Analysis of News Reports on TikTok

Critical discourse analysis, as a discourse analysis method, is of great significance in revealing the relationship between power, ideology, and discourse hidden behind the language. As an essential way of disseminating information, news is always accepted by people without any bias, but the ideology contained in it is often overlooked by readers. Therefore, based on Fairclough’s three-dimensional analysis model, this paper makes a critical analysis of six news reports on TikTok by CNN for the sake of exploring the ideology and political position hidden behind the text. The results show that the selected reports basically follow the principles of objectivity and truthfulness, but the truthfulness is limited and inevitably influenced by national ideology, with doubts and negative evaluations hidden between the lines.

Social innovation and global citizenship: Guiding principles for sustainable, just and democratic energy transition in cities

In this paper, we examine the relationship of global citizenship to social innovation and propose a set of guiding principles to facilitate sustainable, just and democratic energy transitions in cities. We applied a participatory research approach beginning with interviews with stakeholders with expertise in citizenship, participation, or energy research and policy to develop search criteria, which were used to create a shortlist of 20 European citizen-driven energy projects. The criteria were: 1) democratic governance; 2) civil empowerment and capacity building; 3) human rights approach; 4) diversity of actors; and 5) sustainability. Key informants with relevant expertise were asked to score the 20 cases based on the search criteria, leading to a final selection of six exemplar cases from across Europe. Highlights from these initiatives included: empowerment of young community members in making decisions about the city's climate change response (Manchester), including citizen board members as regulators of energy partnerships (Viladecans), democratising activities through open voting (Leuven), and enabling community members to decide how to spend the surplus from collective energy purchases (Brixton). We argue that the integrated application of the global citizenship and social innovation concepts reveals a “sweet spot” at the interface between them that aids practical application. Social innovation perspectives can help depoliticise ideological positions around energy by bringing together “communities of makers”, while global citizenship concepts help to orient innovative proposals more clearly around social justice and environmental objectives. The five criteria are proposed as guiding principles to aid city authorities in energy transition contexts.

Social well-being and social success of Russian youth

Based on research data from the Institute of Sociology of the Federal Scientific Research Center of the Russian Academy of Sciences, the article examines the dynamics and specifics of the social well-being of young people through the prism of comparing objective indicators of income and its subjective assessments. The specifics of young people's perception of their social success in combination with ideological attitudes towards self-sufficiency are also considered. It is shown that today's youth have significantly reduced the chances of achieving relatively high incomes in the early stages of life, but the chances of youth groups sliding towards the poverty line have not increased either. Even though since 2003 the number of the most well-to-do among young people has decreased, the share of the least well-to-do youth has remained stable. Against this background, the general standards of life for young people have risen, and the boundaries of trouble have become more blurred. The category of social well-being has expanded, and the role of income as one of its key markers has decreased. Nevertheless, for Russian youth, a relatively long cycle of reaching the maximum level of social well-being remains. It is demonstrated that the Russian youth has high expectations regarding their own achievements in the future. At the same time, it is distinguished by a characteristic youth vision of the criteria for success in life, associated with the problems and expectations of a particular stage of the life cycle. It is also shown that the degree of self-realization of both young people and Russians is significantly associated with many objective characteristics of the individual. Thus, the higher the position occupied by an individual in various status hierarchies, the better he evaluates the degree of realization of his own plans. In turn, the feeling of social outsider ship stimulates the formation of attitudes towards extreme individualism, the readiness to achieve what is desired at any cost. A healthy understanding of social success correlates with the priority setting of moral norms and regulations.

International Order as a Category of International Studies: Theoretical Foundations

This article is devoted to the study of world order in modern political theory. The author shows that modern Anglo-American and Russian political science share common problems related to its study. First, modern internationalists often unjustifiably take the modern world order out of the context of historical development, contrasting it with the entire world history. Second, modern theories of world order are characterized by a high degree of normativity: political processes are assessed from moral and ethical or openly ideological (usually liberal) positions. Third, researchers today often exaggerate the originality, or uniqueness, of the modern world order, although many of its problems existed in the past. Also, in modern political literature the concepts of "order" and "system" are often confused. Moreover, the mechanism of change of world orders, their qualitative difference from each other, even their number and names have not been revealed. In this regard, the author focuses on two interrelated tasks: 1) to define the relationship between the terms "system" and "order of international relations"; 2) to designate the systemic characteristics of world orders, which will make it possible to identify their number, the mechanism of their change and their qualitative difference. The article aims at clarifying the terminology on the subject of world orders and suggests considering them as completed political systems, which have covered their development cycle – from inception to disintegration. The basic concept of the order is that of balance of power between the great powers and the values and rules of interaction established on its basis. The world order emerges as the result of a total war and is terminated by a total war. Some limited wars regulate relations within the world order. The two types of world orders, namely, the hegemonic order and the balance of power order, acted as two equal types of order. Their disintegration is due to objective reasons, namely, the change in the balance of power and degradation of legal norms, which leads to the emergence of extra-systemic revisionists. The author believes that today’s Yalta-Potsdam order is likely to follow the entire cycle of the development of its predecessors.

What works in advocating for food advertising policy change across an english region – a realist evaluation

BackgroundWith increasing recognition of the role of commercial determinants of health, local areas in England have sought to restrict the advertising of products high in fat, salt and sugar (HFSS) on council-owned spaces, as part of wider strategies to reduce obesity. While there is some evidence of the impact of such policy change on behaviour, little is known about what works in the process of implementing this policy change.MethodsGuided by a realist evaluation framework that explores the interaction between context, mechanism and outcomes, this study aims to investigate the factors that influence the restriction of outdoor advertising of HFSS products in one region in England. It refines a programme theory co-produced with stakeholders from 14 local authorities within a region and uses multiple data sources from each area with an in-depth examination of four case study sites. Data sources include longitudinal realist interviews, focus groups and surveys with policy advocates and policy stakeholders. Data were analysed retroductively to understand the causal link between context, mechanism and outcomes.ResultsOutcomes were driven by five dominant mechanisms: a strategic and staggered approach to stakeholder engagement, gathering intelligence, identifying policy champions, building relationships, reframing the issue; and two secondary mechanisms of amplifying the issue and increasing public will. These led to varied outcomes with no changes in formal policy position within the evaluation period but draft policy guidance in place and changes in political will demonstrated. Dominant context factors influencing change included having a named and resourced policy advocate in place supported by an external Community of Improvement and having existing aligned local objectives. Organisational complexity and change, financial concerns, lack of local examples, ideological positions and the pandemic were also influencing contextual factors.ConclusionEffecting policy change in this area requires the commitment of an extended period and the valuing of short-term policy outcomes, such as increasing political will. The importance of a resourced and well-supported policy advocate to lead this work is fundamental and the commercially sensitive nature of this policy change means that a complex interplay of mechanisms is required which may be dominated by a strategically staggered approach to stakeholder engagement.

‘To the Future Turned, We Stand’: Progress and the Temporal Politics of Citizenship in the German Democratic Republic

In both parts of post-war Germany, the promise of progress played a central role in imagining and implementing new frameworks of social belonging and their formalization in the institution of citizenship. This article investigates how ideologies of progress were employed by various political and cultural actors in East Germany to support processes of citizenship formation and the consolidation of an independent statehood. I open with a brief historical discussion to argue that discourses of progress and futurity have played a significant role for all modern nation states independently of their ideological positioning. I will then proceed to show that the GDR, together with other socialist states, stands out in this regard due to the extent that its temporal politics were both modelled by and predicated on the particularity of its economic paradigm: the centrally planned economy. Following an analysis of the realm of formalized politics I will discuss how ideologies of progress manifested and were critically reviewed in the realm of literary production.

The life and work of an artist-teacher in the Southern Urals as a manifestation of Social and Professional Heroism (based on biographical data about Victoria Mukhametovna Pitirimova)

The relevance of this study is due to the fact that the images of heroes reflect the values of society and realize the function of transmitting these values from generation to generation. The images contribute to the formation of ideological attitudes of society, and are a of spiritual support for both an individual and entire multiethnic nation. Outstanding artists are not only masters, but also teachers, mentors who convey not only knowledge, but also a worldview, national consciousness and ideals, the position of a citizen, educate spiritual and moral principles. The purpose of the study is the life and creative path of V. M. Pitirimova as a manifestation of the professional and social heroism of the artist-teacher in the difficult socio-economic conditions of life in Russia at the end of the XX-beginning of the XXI century. The object of research is the biography, the path of creative and professional development of Victoria Mukhametovna Pitirimova. The subject of the research is artistic and pedagogical techniques and methods used by Pitirimova Victoria Mukhametovna, her moral guidelines. The research is based on an interview with the main character of the study – V. M. Pitirimova, in which she gives an interpretation of her key creative and pedagogical achievements. In the course of the study, historical-systemic, historical-genetic, historical-biographical and diachronic methods were applied. Based on the materials obtained in the course of the study, an attempt is made to present the main milestones of the life and work of the artist and teacher Pitirimova Victoria Mukhametovna in the most complete and consistent way.The scientific novelty of the research lies in the introduction into scientific circulation of previously unexplored and unpublished information about the creative and professional achievements of Victoria Mukhametovna.

CIVIL AND REGIONAL IDENTITY OF CHUVASHIA STUDENTS: ETHNIC ASPECTS

The relevance of the research is determined by the importance of strengthening the general civil Russian identity in new historical conditions.
 
 The purpose of the study is to examine the features of general civil and regional identity of Chuvashia students depending on their ethnicity, to identify common and special in the choice of the Chuvash, the Russians and people with complex ethnic identity.
 
 Materials and methods. The authors rely on the method of studying identity developed in relation to the Russian practice by V.A. Tishkov, L.M. Drobizheva, M.K. Gorshkov, M.N. Guboglo and other researchers. The study is based on the constructivist approach. The empirical material is composed by data from a survey involving 517 students of the Chuvash State University, the Chuvash State Pedagogical University and the Chuvash State Agrarian University conducted in March 2023. The processing was carried out using the SPSS Statistics program.
 
 Study results. The data obtained indicate a significant commitment of the student youth to the all-Russian self-determination, which is typical for respondents of different nationalities. At the same time, differences were recorded, for example, the Russians more often choose general civil identity, and the Chuvash – the regional one. The position of students with a complex ethnic identity occupies the place between the Chuvash and the Russians.
 
 Conclusions. It should be noted that an important element of the student youth’s self-consciousness is a high level of commitment to the general civil Russian identity. The difference between representatives of different nationalities is determined not by ideological positions, but by the peculiarities of ethno-cultural development. At this, it should be borne in mind that identities are characterized by active dynamics, they are not contradictory, but complementary to each other.

Social Tradition: Theoretical Problems and Practical Implementation

The article examines the historical, logico-conceptual and politico-pragmatic content of an ideological trend, such as “social traditionalism”. The idea of combining socialism with the core tradition of Orthodoxy can be traced back in our history to the last quarter of the nineteenth century. In Konstantin Leontiev’s statements, in particular. Later on, it appeared among the members of the “Christian Brotherhood of Struggle”: Valentin Sventsitsky, Vladimir Ern, and the Priest Pavel Florensky. Nikolai Berdyaev upgraded this idea to its logical fi nish, by describing the phenomenon of “Russian communism” as the metamorphosis of Russian religiosity: they created the Third Rome, but got the Third International instead. Alexander Shchipkov’s thesis, according to which the traditional ideological paradigm of modernity (“liberalism — conservatism — socialism”) is undergoing the reformatting stage and is being replaced by the “nationalism — socialism — traditionalism” paradigm, implies that “liberalism” is being driven out by “nationalism” as its alternative. However, in the fi eld of international relations, “nationalism” can be interpreted as a projection of liberal individualism justifying the right of a national state to freedom, that is, sovereignty. Against the background of evaluating the outcome of the Cold War, the USSR breakup can be understood as the victory of liberalism over socialism. Today, China embodies the idea of socialism, while the liberal West faces inner culture wars: liberalism is being attacked by supporters of multiculturalism and the “cancel culture”. In the course of evaluating the prospects of “social traditionalism” as a Russian state ideology, one should take into account that both the United Russia party and President Vladimir Putin defi ne their ideological position as “conservatism”. At the same time, the latest edition defi nes presidential conservatism as a political management technology. In this regard, the defi nition of traditionalism as a “set of methods” and “procedures for ethicization” proposed by Alexander Shchipkov can also be considered technological rather than ideological. But in this case, a contradiction emerges: social traditionalism claims to replace conservatism precisely as an ideology, striving to synthesize socialism and Christianity. Socialism becomes the result of an arbitrary choice procedure, while Christianity remains a tradition, but not in the sense of the basic defi nition of traditionalism.

DECONSTRUCTING HISTORICIST TIME, OR TIME'S SCRIBE

ABSTRACTThis article investigates the enduring chronopolitics of Historicism. To do so, I work through two dominant understandings of Historicism: the view that “historicism” is a means to account for the historian's own standpoint or historical situation as the place from which they take up and interpret the past, which I call Historicism A, and the separate (though now more popular) understanding of “historicism” that is derived from Karl Popper's The Poverty of Historicism, which I call Historicism B. I am less interested in what draws these varying definitions of Historicism apart and instead investigate a point of intersection in their understanding of time and temporality. Both strains serve politics via a concept of time as a neutral, uniform, and apolitical scale upon which any political or ideological agenda is enacted. Time here serves as the basis for historical explanation, but its neutrality, homogeneity, and extra‐historicality are a trick. I employ Gérard Genette's analytic of the palimpsest, with the help of Nancy Partner, to expose the ways that Historicism allows the past to be rewritten and overwritten to political and ideological ends that the temporal construct conceals. This then enables me to work through the politics of Historicism and ultimately deconstruct Historicist time, demonstrating how the universal or eternal claims of Enlightenment or pre‐Historicist thought are actually maintained in Historicism as the mechanism to advance political and ideological positions under the cloak of neutrality. In what follows, I make the temporal mechanism of Historicism explicit in order to expose the ethical failings that this mechanism conceals.