Ideological Instrument Research Articles

Narrating the Nation: Language and the Landscape of Time in Scego’s Adua

In Adua (2015), Igiaba Scego illuminates the legacy of Italian colonialism by chronicling the intergenerational trauma passed from Zoppe, a Somali translator working for Italians during the fascist ventennio, to his daughter Adua, an actress exploited by the Italian film industry. This study analyzes Scego’s use of perspective to represent fundamentally different experiences of time in Adua, emphasizing Scego’s unique contribution to a postcolonial aesthetics that combats colonial temporality as defined by Johannes Fabian. In Time and the Other, Fabian asserts that time has not yet been decolonized, and thus has not been deconstructed as an ideological instrument of power. Scego unflinchingly documents the effects of colonial chronopolitics through her third-person narration of Zoppe’s perspective, which deteriorates into a series of invectives that portray his complete arrest in time. Adua endures similar traumas, but she embraces narration as a means of refashioning her voice and restoring community. In depicting Adua’s story as a triumph over colonial temporality, Scego champions first-person narration as a tool for the construction of a postcolonial chronopolitics that decolonizes time in order to work towards a more ethical geopolitical order.

Polish projects of moral disarmament in the interwar period: J. Pilsudski and J. Beck’s tactics

The article examines cooperation between Poland and the League of Nations in the interwar period. Specific attention is given to the role of Polish diplomacy in the development of the moral disarmament project. By “moral disarmament”, as opposed to material disarmament, implied the use of psychological, ethical, and ideological instruments to reduce aggression, create a favorable environment for peace, and encourage the resolution of conflicts through negotiation and diplomacy. Warsaw regularly emphasized the priority of moral disarmament over military disarmament, arguing that disarmament alone would not automatically end military conflicts if the will to fight persisted. These ideas fell on the fertile soil of diplomacy of the time and were perceived as an effective mechanism in the struggle for peace, as they organically fitted into the system of the Briand-Kellogg Pact and the Locarno agreements, representing a logical continuation and development of these ideas. However, despite their potential effectiveness, these projects were not destined to be implemented. This was partly due to the fact that already in the early 1930s, the actual head of Polish foreign policy, J. Piłsudski, came to the conclusion that the League of Nations as such, as well as the system of collective agreements, were ineffective. In that respect he preferred to build relations with neighbors bilaterally.

The Restoration and Refunctionalisation of Medieval Fortified Manor Houses by the Portuguese Dictatorial Regime (1926–1974)


 
 
 In the Modern Age, most fortified manor houses in Portugal fell into ruin, due to the lack of dignified living conditions, the obsolescence of defensive structures, and the decline decay of aristocratic families. However, between 1933 and 1974, many ruined fortified manor houses were restored by the Portuguese dictatorial regime. The nationalist dictatorship of Estado Novo used heritage as an ideological instrument of propaganda. This proposal aims to analyse the context of the ideological restoration of medieval fortified manor houses by the dictatorial regime, addressing symbolisms, restoration actions, and the contextualisation of fortified manor houses in Portugal by focusing on particular case studies.
 
 

When pedagogies pathologize: theorizing and critiquing the therapeutic turn in education

This conceptual and theoretical paper seeks to analyze the dynamics and consequences of psychologization and therapization, key mechanisms of the therapeutic turn in education. In particular, it focuses, on how the pathologization of social problems occasions individualization and the production of self-reliant and inward-looking subjects trained to maximize human capital according to the tenets of neoliberalism. Second, it explains the principles of a critical approach to education that is informed by the concept of intersectionality. It shows how this concept might be helpful in interrogating and addressing structurally embedded inequalities and injustices. Informed by the insights of Kimberlé Williams Crenshaw, this approach engenders a contextualized and nuanced analysis of social forces, social identities, and ideological instruments through which power and disadvantage are expressed and legitimized. To further illustrate its importance, insurgent citizenship education, a concept drawn from the experiences of a Philippine school for displaced indigenous groups will be discussed.

Slovanství a jeho kult v československém prostředí 40. let 20. století

The role of Slavism in the history of Czech and Slovak nations has often been underestimated in past years. Any contemporary research focuses primarily on the 19th century, where the role of Slavism is recognised as a part of the formation of the modern Czech and Slovak nations. Alternately, it is also mentioned in the context of so-called Neo-Slavism that gained popularity at the brink of the 20th century, before the First World War. For the time of interwar Czechoslovakia and the years prior, the role of Slavism is largely overlooked. The aim of this paper is to introduce Slavism as a collection of ideas and opinions that played an important part and, regarding the years prior, had a specific position amongst the ideas and ideology of the Czechoslovak state, re-establishing after the Second World War. In this article, Slavism is described in the context of both wartime and post-war political implications. The role of Slavism is traced mainly through the statements of figures of influence in the political and ideological matters of the state. However, the interpretation also implies certain reflections of Slavism in the opinions of intellectuals aiming to establish Slavonic studies as the science of Slavic mutuality. The paper emphasizes the concept of so-called “cultural Slavism” that served to back the Czechoslovak “national way towards Socialism” during the Second World War and shortly after. The article illustrates how for some of the figures, this idea grew into a cult, also serving as an ideological instrument of peace or defence against the threat of Germanism. In this context, post-war Slavism is portrayed as a part of the political programme and strategic orientation. Methodologically, the paper primarily strives for a critical analysis of how figures like Edvard Beneš, Vladimír Clementis or Zdeněk Nejedlý approached Slavism and how some of the ideological imaginations carried Russophile (Sovietologic) patterns into the Czechoslovak social environment. Paradigmatically, the paper leans towards the traditional definition of Slavism as an important part of Czech (Czechoslovak) national identity. However, in the context of the time, it pinpoints its utilisation or even abuse, building of a cult and transition towards utilitarianism that included explicitly political Russophilia and Great Russian nationalism. In the late 1940’s, the cult of post-war Slavism dissipated, leaving Slavism exclusively to academic research.

Against Gender: The Anti-Gender Movements and the Socio-Cultural and Moral Deconstructions in Europe

Abstract Gender ideology has quickly developed as a response to fostering human rights, especially in the case of gender equality. Gender policy thus became a political and ideological instrument that subjects human rights to another contest – a new form of crusade pursued by anti-gender movements which advocate traditional and conservative ideologies against gender equality and gender theories. In this paper, we seek to track and map the recent development of anti-gender movements and their mobilisation. We apply critical discourse analysis to several doctrines of antigenderism in order to understand the global popularity and mass appeal of these movements.

The Basque Language (Euskera) As an Ideological Instrument in the Historical Construction of Basque Ethnic Identity

Abstract This paper analyzes how studies of a language and the language itself can be used as symbolic instruments to construct or support a differential ideological identity. The analyses of these studies have allowed us to undertake a sort of “archaeology” of the process of Basque ethnogenesis. All the authors instrumentalized philological studies as a way of expressing and claiming their ethnic identity, building their arguments on the basis of previous works (the “archaeological” layer being immediately underneath) at the same time that they reformulated them in order to better suit their specific conception of Basque identity as well as their particular sociopolitical interests. As if we were looking at a stratigraphic cut of an uninterrupted human settlement, the research unravels the existence of a narrative thread that, stratum upon stratum (that is, author upon author) connects the Basque chroniclers of the 16th to 18th centuries with the romantic fuerista writers of the 19th century, as well as Sabino de Arana-Goiri, the founder of the contemporary Basque Nationalist Party.

Discursive Constructions of Power in Selected Nigerian Media Reports of Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU) Strikes

Power, dominance, and control are not exclusive and are always constructed, exercised, and sustained through overt acts/mechanisms of coercion. The subtle yet manipulative subtexts of language in discourse are, at times, more effective vehicles (modes) utilized by more powerful groups to build and ratify institutional dominance over less powerful ones. Based on the foregoing, this study examines discursive constructions of power in ASUU strike discourses between the FGN and ASUU, as reported in major Nigerian newspapers – The Punch, Vanguard, and The Nation – as well as on other credible media platforms. The research sought to unearth, among other things, the various discursive structures deployed in discourses by the parties for the ventilation of dominance and demonstration of resistance, as well as the group ideologies that underlie such language choices. The qualitative research approach and content analysis, based on a purposive sampling of discourse texts in the newspapers and other media sources, were adopted for the study. Twenty-two discourse texts from 2001-2009, 2013, and 2020 ASUU strikes were analyzed based on the analytical tools found within Van Dijk's (2001) Socio-cognitive model of Critical Discourse Analysis (CDA). Van Dijk's Socio-cognitive frame, over and above other models of CDA, contains a checklist of actual discursive cum ideological instruments of dominance and resistance relevant to this study. Our analysis revealed, among other things, that the FGN consistently focused on and deployed ideological strategies which tended toward legitimizing its control over ASUU, winning positive public perception, sympathy, and support for itself and away from the Union (a less powerful group). This was achieved through various forms of discursive propaganda and appeals to patriotism, ventilated through ideological instruments such as number games, vagueness, apparent empathy, and blame transfer, as well as through the FGN's strategically-more-pronounced media visibility. ASUU, on the other hand, instinctively and perpetually struggled, through the use of appropriate discursive mechanisms too, to detach from itself the government-ascribed negative public image. These ideological wrangling, incidentally, delayed and even stalled the resolution of the FGN/ASUU conflicts in each case. The study thus recommends, among other things, focusing on language that is truthful in public discourse instead of advancing a specific group's ideology over the public interest.

Art Deco Standard Schools in Rio Grande do Sul: the relationship between architecture, education, and politics

The project of schools built following the Art Deco architectural style, which were built between the 1930s and 1940s in the state of Rio Grande do Sul, Brazil, intended, starting from the characteristics of the built environment, to transmit the ideals of the authoritarian government of Getúlio Vargas, during the New State (Estado Novo) period. Given architectural, political, and educational requirements, the formal and functional aspects of these establishments focused on controlling student behavior and exalting State power, as a symbol of progress and order. The purpose of this work is to identify how the schools built following the Art Deco style acted as an ideological instrument of the State, through bibliographical and document analysis, and an observation of the built environment, together with a case study made at the Assis State Education Institute, Brazil, located in the south of the country in the city of Pelotas/RS. Through this analysis, it was seen that the integrated school construction, political practices, and teaching methods, grouped and guided students towards a State-proposed ideal model.

Fascist Italy as the Heir of the Imperium Romanum Celebration of Romanism as an ideological instrument of legitimation

Fascist Italy as the Heir of the Imperium Romanum Celebration of Romanism as an ideological instrument of legitimation

Fascist Italy as the Heir of the Imperium Romanum Celebration of Romanism as an ideological instrument of legitimation

Fascist Italy as the Heir of the Imperium Romanum Celebration of Romanism as an ideological instrument of legitimation

ОБОРОННАЯ ТЕМАТИКА В СОВЕТСКИХ КИНОКАРТИНАХ И МУЛЬТИПЛИКАЦИИ 1930-Х ГГ.

The article deals with Soviet defense films of the 1930s as part of a general ideological trend. On the example of defense films, the author traces the importance of mobilization themes in Soviet propaganda in the second half of the 1930s. The role of defense themes in Soviet art of the 1930s is clearly traced. In the 1930s, in the Soviet Union, attempts were made to turn cinema into the main instrument of ideology and propaganda. Defense films emphasize the methods of Soviet propaganda. The author analyzes the quantitative indicators of produced films, in particular, the percentage of defense films in the total production of films in the 1930s. This article proves the paramount importance of the defense theme and agenda in the Soviet propaganda of the 1930s. In addition, the author considers historical films of the second half of the 1930s, as well as anti-fascist films of the same period, as films that perform defense functions. On the basis of the reviewed material, the author concludes that military and defense themes and moods dominated the Soviet ideology and propaganda of the period under study. Thus, all the most important ideological trends can be traced in cinematography. On the example of defense and historical films, key elements of Soviet ideology and propaganda of the 1930s are traced.

The Secret of Faith or Language in the Shackles of Politics

The introductory part of the article deals with discussing and exploring the term “mystery of faith” from a theological point of view. The lexicographic definition of the word “mystery” is followed by a description of the Christianization processes in the history of Europe and the Balkans. In the second part of the article, some wellknown and lesserknown facts related to the linguistic and confessional issue are discussed, which in connection with the terms “mystery of faith” and “mystery” to a certain degree, shaped the historical events in Slovakia and Bulgaria. The circumstances of the adoption of Christianity in the territory of both countries are mentioned, with a special emphasis on the interpretation of the Great Moravian mission and the perception of the tradition of Cyril and Methodius. The author points out cases where the confessional orientation and the linguistic question have become an instrument of ideology in the hands of secular or ecclesiastical power.The introductory part of the article deals with discussing and exploring the term “mystery of faith” from a theological point of view. The lexicographic definition of the word “mystery” is followed by a description of the Christianization processes in the history of Europe and the Balkans. In the second part of the article, some well-known and lesser-known facts related to the linguistic and confessional issue are discussed, which in connection with the terms “mystery of faith” and “mystery” to a certain degree, shaped the historical events in Slovakia and Bulgaria. The circumstances of the adoption of Christianity in the territory of both countries are mentioned, with a special emphasis on the interpretation of the Great Moravian mission and the perception of the tradition of Cyril and Methodius. The author points out cases where the confessional orientation and the linguistic question have become an instrument of ideology in the hands of secular or ecclesiastical power.

The Transition from Yorùbá Metaphysics to Islamic Aesthetics in Ọláńrewájú Adépọ̀jù’s Poetry

This paper explores the poetry of Ọlánrewájú Ade ́ ṕ ọ̀jù, a major contemporary Yorùbá poet, based in Ibadan, southwestern Nigeria. Much of the scholarship on the poet focuses purely on his sociopolitical interest, but the development of his craft has been largely ignored. This paper examines peculiar features of Adépọ̀jù’s poetry based on its fusion of Yorùbá cultural and Islamic religious values with the view to theoretically characterizing his practice. It draws on purposefully selected, recorded audio poetic compositions of Adeṕ ọ̀jù produced between 1974 and 2012 in order to yield a comprehensive view of his poetics. It employs hybridity, an aspect of postcolonial theory advanced by Homi Bhabha, as a theoretical framework to analyze the texts. The essay reveals that Adépọ̀jù’s poetry grows from the simple narration of the Yorùba traditional worldview, identity, and ́ òri ̀ṣa pantheon to become an instrument of radical Islamic ideology. It concludes that the integration of the indigenous and the Islamic cultural values in the work of Adeṕ ọ̀jù results in a unique poetic idiom in Yorùbá poetry.

The Process of Westernization of the Balkans after WWII: The Cases of Greece and Bulgaria

The high significance of the Balkan geopolitical knot was clearly expressed in the bipolar era when the main frontier between the two warring blocks passed through the Balkans. Due to the secret ‘Percentages Agreement’ between Great Britain and the USSR in 1944, the Balkans were divided into spheres of influence of the two great powers. Subsequently, London ceded the role of the main source of Western influence in the region to Washington.Of particular interest are the cases of Greece and Bulgaria as border countries that found themselves in different ‘worlds’ and, given the geostrategic importance of their territories, which were the main ideological instruments and conductors of ideas in the Cold war of the hegemons that stood behind. The Truman Doctrine in 1947 and NATO membership in 1952 strengthened and institutionalized Western influence in Greece. Westernization of Greek society in the form of liberalization and democratiza-tion of social relations and consequently its political system proceeded rapidly with a relatively short interval of the military dictatorship.Greece was assigned the role of a model for the rapid and successful develop-ment of a western country, a bridgehead for the dissemination of anti–communist ide-as in other countries of the Balkan region, primarily Bulgaria. Besides, due to the establishment of a strict pro–Soviet regime in Sofia, the westernization of Bulgarian society was carried out including through intelligence agencies, and after a certain thaw in relations through economic cooperation.

World Governance In Selected Writings By Bertrand Russell:, Utopia Or Ideology

This article studies the idea of “World Government” as envisioned in a series of essays published by Bertrand Russell in the period of the Cold War. It draws upon the theoretical categories introduced by Karl Mannheim in Ideology and Utopia (1936) to account for the nature of the reconstruction schemes the author advances to spare human society a possible apocalyptic nuclear confrontation. The study has shown that Russell’s liberal outlook is utopian insofar as it has shown advanced positions regarding self-determination, the dissemination of progress and cooperation toward the reconstruction of a peaceful and prosperous world. However, given the technological abyss separating the industrial West in the 1950s from the rest, an open “World State” would be another form of imperialism in disguise. The risk involved is that this “global utopia” whose rulers monopolize military, legislative as well as economic power, would turn into an institutional and ideological instrument of control in the hands of the technologically powerful few.

Представление национализма: структура, содержание, критика

Nationalism determines modernity — L. Grinfeld’s thesis at the very beginning of the 90s of the twentieth century (repeating the judgment of E. Keduri in the early 60s), unexpectedly for liberal social science, immediately acquired political relevance. The purpose of the article is to identify the reasons for this «surprise»: the representation of the nation in the economic paradigm of the political (D. Agamben’s term) as a civic association of freely self-determining autonomous individuals-citizens excludes the possibility of national conflicts, the reality of which is obvious. Objective scientific research within the disciplinary structure of modern science has as a given object of research in the representation: thus, a philosophical interpretation becomes necessary as a method of criticizing the representation of the nation and the national in the economic paradigm. It has been established that the representation of a nation is normatively and value-wise conditioned by the foundations of «liberal metaphysics»; it is necessary to distinguish between «civil» and «ethnic» nationalisms, which does not have «empirical foundations» (R. Brubaker); attribution to value as a way of constructing an ideal-typical concept of nationalism presupposes the need for an assessment conditioned by the way nationalism is presented; the moral and political disqualification of «ethnic nationalism» as an invalid «remnant» (V. Pareto) is thus «built in» into scientific research, which is at the same time an ideological instrument and a political program. The philosophical interpretation of the meaning of the representation of nationalism in liberal social science, external in relation to the dominant paradigm of the political, provides scientific novelty and leads to the conclusion: a «civil nation» is valid as a political project that presupposes a «historiographic recalculation of the past» (M. Heidegger), retrospectively placing the beginning of nationalism in past. In the course of the presentation, the practical significance of the conclusion is clarified: the theory of the «civilized nation» presupposes drawing a border between «civilized» and — «cultural» and «natural» nationalisms as political enemies that must be removed: drawing the line between «civil» and «ethnic» nationalisms has both scientific and political significance; These circumstances contribute to the understanding of the meaning and the assigned goal of the nation-building process and the practice of national politics.

ON THE REVIVAL OF RELIGIOUS INSTITUTIONS: ALL-RUSSIAN TRENDS AND REGIONAL ASPECTS (late 20th – beginning of 21st century)

On the basis of the latest research and data of sociological sources, the article examines the revival of religious institutions in Russia in the late 20th – early 21th century. The relevance of scientific research is due to the important role of religious institutions in the process of development of civilization, culture, ideological education and social consciousness. Religion has been and remains the basis of an ideological instrument in any state since its inception. The evolvement and development of a rule-of-law state largely depends on the level of civil society development and on the ideological orientation of the population, which, in turn, is an objective social basis of a democratic state. In the last few decades, the issues of religion have been very actively covered in the media, religious programs have been appearing on TV, clerics are invited to talk shows, and the internet is filled with religious sites. The relationship between the existence of religious associations and changes in the socio-political situation in the country in individual confessions, including by changing the dynamics of their number is shown. Like any social institution, religion has its own special cultural symbols, which in an extremely concentrated form create a religious picture of the world in public consciousness. The level of civil society development is largely determined by the existence of autonomous public associations that unite the society and ensure its effective interaction with the state. The conclusion about the development of a certain system of institutional norms in the change of ideological standards in the modern Russian Federation is formed. Special attention is paid to the regional aspect of the problem on the materials of the Mari El Republic.

РОЗВИТОК ЛЮДИНИ В ЇЇ СОЦІАЛЬНОМУ ЖИТТІ

Автор розглядає питання буття людини в соціальному житті. Важливим питанням є розвиток самої людини, це залежить від правової політики держави, розвитку економіки, освіти, від того, який політичний напрям веде держава тощо. Усе це створює певну систему соціальних відносин. Поняття людської природи є основою формування суспільного життя, його структури та діяльності людей у соціумі.Порушену проблему розглядають такі науки, як педагогіка, психологія, соціологія, історія, антропологія та інші. Найглибше це питання розглядає філософія, яка має на меті пізнати людину в її соціальному житті, пізнати відносин, які пов’язують природу людини із соціальним життям.Автор розглядає філософські знання, набуті західною культурою, а саме: «персональне бачення людини», в основі якого людина постає як щось найдосконаліше в усій природі, самоіснуючий суб’єкт, який керується своїм розумом та волею. Людина, яка живе в суспільстві, є вільною, має честь та гідність, які повинні постійно стверджуватись в її благо у сфері соціального життя.Ця теорія, за думкою автора, стверджує, що кожна людина, яка живе у світі товарів (матеріального), повинна прагнути до мети свого життя, що є Нескінченним і Нематеріальним Благом. Цим добром є Бог, який постає не лише причиною та джерелом усього того, що існує, але й кінцевою метою і кінцем людського життя, до якого людина схильна за своєю природою. Бог є також безпосередньою причиною існування людської душі, тобто принципом життя, ідентичності та існування людської особистості. Отже, на основі персоналізму кожна людина сприймається як прямий«плід» втручання Абсолюта у світ, це визнається як особливий доказ Його творчої сили та любові. Автор розглядає ідеї та концепції провідних філософів минулого та сучасності. У цьому контексті істотне завдання реалістичної філософії представлено не лише як засіб подолання ідеологізації та утопізації суспільного життя, але передовсім як тип пізнання, що розкриває правду про людину, необхідну для створення та функціонування соціального життя відповідно до природи людини та її долі.

Ideological Interpellations in the Films about the Ukrainian People’s Republic in the Ukrainian Cultural Context (based on “Symon Petliura’s Secret Diary” (2018) and “Kruty 1918” (2019))

In 2014–2019, funding of the Ukrainian State Film Agency (Derzhkino) increased annually, which led to a revival of film production in Ukraine. Pylyp Illienko, who was the Head of the Agency at the time, openly said that cinematography for him was a means of shaping the national consciousness and the weapon “more effective than Kalashnikov”. Using Louis Althusser’s theory of ideology, we came to the conclusion that together with the Ukrainian Institute of National Remembrance, Derzhkino as a state ideological apparatus was strongly engaged in the affirmation of the “national/nationalist narrative of history” (the term of historian Heorhiy Kasianov) which was the central element of the conservative ideology of Petro Poroshenko’s presidency.Specifically, we analyzed a number of questions that often arise when dealing with the historical film: whether it constitutes a valid mode of historical representation, whether it serves as a source of historical knowledge and why it is used as an instrument of politics of history. Although research approaches differ in regard of the first question, they share a similar view of the ideological function of such films and an important role, which they play in shaping the notion of the past. In addition, historical films appear to be a convenient way to assert certain events in the repertoire of politically usable past or to help the construction of a national identity. As ideological instruments films “Symon Petliura’s secret diary” by Oles Yanchuk and “Kruty 1918” by Oleksiy Shaparyev promote the logic of the “reversed history” (Kasianov’s term) which is central for the “national/nationalist narrative of history”. Moreover, these films represent events of the Ukrainian Revolution of 1917–1921 and the Ukrainian People’s Republic in order to use them as a resource of legitimation as well as a means of protection against narratives of the Kremlin propaganda, which tend to undermine Ukrainian statehood. Both films hail or “interpellate” viewers in order to mobilize them and to assert the “eternal” nature of Russian aggression against Ukraine.Manuscript received 11.05.2020