Issues Of Collective Identity Research Articles

Admiral A.V. Kolchak’s “Diary” as History: Memories, Archives, and Issues of Collective Identity

ABSTRACT This paper examines how the “diary” of Admiral Aleksandr Kolchak, containing the letters he wrote to his beloved, Anna Timireva, has been archived. The manuscript chronologically spans the period from the spring of 1917 to the spring of 1918, documenting important events in Kolchak’s life and Russian history. A meticulous content – context analysis of archival documents from collections in Moscow and Prague was conducted to reveal the process of rescuing this invaluable historical source and, specifically, the 1926–1927 transfer of this manuscript by the Supreme Ruler’s former aide-de-camp, Lieutenant Colonel Aleksei Apushkin, to the custody of the Russian Historical Archives Abroad in Prague. The study highlights the characteristics of Russian émigrés’ social life and their activities aimed at preserving the national documentary heritage and maintaining Russian national identity during this epoch.

COSMONYMIC COMPONENT OF UKRAINIAN ONYMIC IDENTITY

The article is dedicated to the study of the cosmic component of the Ukrainian onymic identity. The concept of identity is just as relevant in the movement as one of the central sources of modern Ukrainian scientific thought. The analysis of the mechanisms of proper names in the context of cultural identity is the task of our research. The purpose of the article is to consider the issue of collective identity and how it is reflected in the field of proper names, namely - cosmonyms. Cosmonyms are one of the peripheric proper names. Their functioning and place in the onymic space of the Ukrainian cultural sphere is still understudied. In our opinion, the associative aspect of the cosmonymic sphere needs further studies, where the main segment should be the concept of cosmonymic space and which segments are the main levers of influence on cultural life and onymic identity. Identity can be portrayed as an ‘individual’ sense of self, defined by a) a set of physical, psychological and interpersonal characteristics that are not fully shared with any other person, b) a range of affiliations (eg ethnicity) and social roles. Onymic identity is based on collective identity as an understanding and isolation of a group in the environment. The vision of the similarity between individual and collective identities is based on the understanding that identity is never exclusively individual. Collective identity is rooted in a number of individual identities, which in turn are chosen by the individual. Thus, a person, based on a set of internal traits and social roles, becomes part of the socio-cultural collective identity, defines it and can influence it. Onymic identity is the realization of proper names in the collective discourse, by means of which a certain group separates itself from a number of other social groups, creates its own socio-cultural identity, which is based on a general ethnic paradigm. Free associative onymic experiment is one of the reliable methodological practices of onomastic search. The experiment was conducted with Ukrainianspeaking informants, a total of 200 people (100 informants each time). The peculiarity of our study is that the experiment was conducted in two stages in 2006 and 2021. Two stimuli were chosen for this study: cosmonyms – proper names for cosmic bodies, Uranus and Pluto. The results of the experiment are summarized in quantitative terms: the total number of all reactions/the total number of different non-duplicate reactions/the total number of anonymous reactions/ anonymous non-repetitive reactions/rejections. The number of all reactions together should ideally be 100, but may be greater if some informants provided more than one reaction, or less if there were refusals. Regarding the repertoire of different types of reactions that were proposed by respondents in two stages of the experiment on the stimulus Uranus, it is marked by a certain stereotype. The most common type of reaction is, as expected, hyperonymic, due to the search for the owner of the mental lexicon of denotation, which is denoted by the stimulus. The total number of such reactions is 109 (52 in 2006 and 57 in 2021). In the second place are meronymic reactions - 23 (9 in 2006 and 14 in 2021). The third place is occupied by qualitative reactions with a total of 16 (13 in 2006 and 3 in 2021). Contiguous reactions were not numerous, but almost always present in the experimental materials - 8 reactions (2 and 6, respectively). Causative reactions took place only in 2006 - 4 times. The repertoire of types of reactions to the stimulus Pluto is very similar. Hyperonymic reactions prevail 113 (51 in 2006 and 62 in 2021), which realize the dominant function of cognition. Meronimic reactions totaling 20 (9 in 2006 and 11 in 2021) and contiguous reactions totaling 4 (2 in 2006 and 2 in 2021), as well as isolated cases of qualitative (1 in 2006) and synonymous (1 in 2021) were also identified. Thus, the analysis of the associative field of the studied stimuli cosmonyms made it possible to establish universal memoplexes as the results of collective creativity and collective experience, which is reflected in the collective memory. The obtained results testify the isomorphism of the dominant domains of the structure of associative fields of the stimuli: COSMOS - CHEMICAL ELEMENT - GOD, which occurs contrary to the theonymic origin of the cosmonyms and the cosmonymic origin of the name of the chemical element. We see further prospects for the study in expanding the repertoire of onymyc stimuli in order to investigate the memopletic nature of their associative fields.

Picking up the pieces: Transitional justice responses to destruction of tangible cultural heritage

The intentional destruction of tangible cultural heritage is commonplace in contemporary conflict. Heritage has immense social, symbolic, and spiritual value and its destruction reveals a broader attack on cultural identity and coexistence. Transitional justice (TJ) efforts have largely neglected cultural destruction as part of a wider marginalisation of cultural rights. This article considers why this is the case and argues that TJ has a meaningful role to play in engaging with issues of collective identity by countering harmful narratives of difference and recognising the legitimacy of cultural variance. It explores the ways TJ can incorporate cultural destruction within the remit of truth commissions, shape educational curricula and influence physical reconstruction of destroyed heritage. In so doing, it can give effect to the indivisibility and interdependence of civil and political, socio-economic, and cultural rights.

Bosna i Hercegovina kao činilac zapadnobalkanskog bezbjednosnog potkompleksa

Relying on the basic theoretical assumptions of the Copenhagen School, especially the sectoral understanding of security and Regional Security Complex Theory, the paper analyzes the security situation in Bosnia and Herzegovina (BiH), its implications for the wider Western Balkan security environment, including the situation in BiH realized in the context of differentiating the Western Balkan security subcomplex in relation to the wider European security identity which has an impact on the region. The aim of this paper is to point out the key factors that determine the security situation in BiH and its surrounding region, including the specificities of the security context in BiH, which is reflected in the essential inseparability of its political and societal dimension, because the issue of collective identity in BiH, which is exclusively grounded on the ethno-political premises manifested through its Dayton constitutional structure and the consociative character of its political system. Therefore, the paper concludes, among other things, that the causes of the unfavorable security situation in BiH and its negative implications for the region must primarily be sought in the permanent conflict between the three ethno-political identities and the dysfunctionality of political mechanisms for conflict resolutions, including inadequate policies which have been applied to Dayton BiH by key representatives of the European security identity, such as the European Union and NATO, almost since its establishment.

Discourses on Judicial Formalism in Central and Eastern Europe: Symptom of an Inferiority Complex?

Post-communist Central and Eastern European legal cultures in general, and judicial style in particular, are often characterized as formalistic. This article reconstructs two ideological narratives about the formalist heritage of CEE judiciary, variants of which have dominated academic and policy debates about rule of law, judicial reforms and European integration in the last three decades. As the debate becomes linked to deeply rooted and long-term, sometimes traumatic issues of national and political identity, patterns of ideological thinking resurface easily. While it is symptomatic of CEE political cultures that the debate on judicial method has become a battleground for fierce controversies about collective (political) identity, arguably this exemplifies a broader phenomenon. Other weak or peripheral national cultures also face and struggle with issues of collective identity and inferiority complexes which may resurface in professional discourses and seemingly unpolitical domains.

“Letra inglesa”: educators, teachers, and the quest for identity in the Hispanic world (1820–1860)

ABSTRACTCalligraphic culture in education had a long tradition in the Hispanic World. This entailed the cultivation of specific forms of script to the detriment of others. Since the late eighteenth century, discussions about the shape of letters and the differences between different alphabets were associated with national characters. The letra inglesa (English script) represented a wave of modernization of script and, at the same time, a challenge to the specific Spanish calligraphic tradition in the first half of the nineteenth century. The disputes over the suitability of this font for educational purposes are the focus of this contribution. It explores the spread of the letra inglesa and the resistance it encountered in the Hispanic world, particularly among educators. On the Spanish side of the Atlantic, the contribution focuses on the decade-long disputes in Madrid that had national resonance and became increasingly nationalistic. In some republics of South and Central America, republican order and modernization became strongly associated with English script; in others, the attachment to inherited scripts retained the upper hand. Issues of collective identity, professionalization and cultural awareness against British influence concurred in shaping extensive discussion about the chances and challenges of education and cultural transformation.

ТРАДИЦІЇ ПОЗИТИВІЗМУ В КОНТЕКСТІ ПОЛЬСЬКО-УКРАЇНСЬКОГО ПОГРАНИЧЧЯ

The article examines the traditions of Polish literary of positivism in the context of the Polish-Ukrainian bor- derland. The issues of collective identity in the context of literary models of images and concepts of both Own and Strange, as artistic markers of the polyethnic society of the Ukrainian and Polish peoples of this epoch are also considered. Draws attention to the processes of changing the image of a Ukrainian as another in the Polish literary text. Beginning with the first written references to the cultural and historical dialogue between the two ethnic groups, the Ukrainian- Polish ties have changed. These are the influences of the Ukrainian language in Polish literary texts as far back as the XVI century. The Cossacks’ interest in this period, especially in the context of wars with Cossacks and Turks, is intensifying during this period. The Ukrainian-Polish cultural discourse is considered in the context of the communicative relations of His-Other, while changing the cognitive completeness of both terms during the history of relations and coexistence of both peoples in the his- torical retrospection. Understanding the cultural Polish-Ukrainian frontier as a result of the joint efforts of the participants in the cul- tural process, which created a separate world picture of specific codes of intercultural communication, current research on these phenomena is being conducted by modern scholars, in particular, in the context of artistic markers of the polyethnic society of this epoch of Own– Strange – Another at the end of the nineteenth century. are obviously funda- mentally different from their interpretation in the era of romanticism and in the works of Polish romantic writers of the “Ukrainian school”. In comparative aspect of the research work compares the dynamics of the processes in Polish and Ukrainian lit- erature of the ХІХ century, their typology taking into account the absorption positivist ideas of systematic features of the phenomenological paradigm of ethnic and cultural artistic patterns in both literatures, defined the aesthetic specificity of interethnic positivism, given the special condition of the ХІХ century society, ethnicity and culture of both peoples.

Building from the ground up: Reconstructing visions of community in Cambridge Bay, Nunavut

The Inuit qalgiq, or gathering house, once served as a forum for bringing communities together through acts of storytelling, drum dancing, shamanism, and the intergenerational transfer of knowledge. While the specific traditions associated with these structures have varied over time and space, they have remained of central importance to the affirmation of group identity and communal decision-making. In 2008, the excavation of an early Thule qalgiq near the Nunavut hamlet of Cambridge Bay provided a team of local participants and University of Toronto archaeologists with an opportunity to interpret the social position of the qalgiq in the context of a contemporary Inuit population currently struggling with issues of collective identity. This article presents a project originally designed to reconstruct a qalgiq as a museum exhibit with a structure drawn primarily from archaeological findings. By embedding the project in local understandings of history as a source for community wellness and revival, however, a different course was taken. While combining archaeological blueprints with contemporary realities and beliefs, the qalgiq was ultimately re-imagined as a venue in which ideas about community, both past and present, can be voiced.

Dance Therapy Models: An Anthropological Perspective

Dance therapy is a new discipline, a product of the twentieth century. Its recent methodological and theoretical development has led to the proliferation of various dance therapy models. This study focuses on the founding and development of dance therapy as an applied discipline. Particular emphasis is given to dance therapy from an anthropological perspective. A critical analysis of two prevailing models, Dance/Movement Therapy and Expression Primitive, is articulated. Such analysis indicates that their development closely relates to issues of collective identity of the group in relation to their dancing cultures. From an anthropological point of view, then, issues of identity are paramount for an effective practice of dance/movement therapy.

Representations of the past in the Estonian Russian-language press: “own” or diaspora memory?

The article discusses the much-debated issue of collective identity among the Estonian Russian-speaking population from a different prism – based on representations of the past in the local Russian-language press in 2009. Assuming that representations of the past offer references for present-day identity construction, the study is aimed at revealing which identity patterns were supported and which were rejected by journalists and other speakers in the press. The analysis suggests that the “memory divide” is not only connected with WWII, as is widely believed in Estonia, but runs further down at the imaginary time-scale. Although the analysis revealed a strong prevalence of local-scale events, the mode of representations could not help to develop “own” local identities, either in a civic or emancipatory form. By the evaluation of events, actors and the stylistic means, the Russian-language press rather constructed the identity of the imperial diaspora. The existing State Integration Program aims at strengthening civic identity and activity, but it does not have a say in history politics. However, the latter is needed in order to give more space for private memories, critical reflection and the search for ways to (re)define the group in relation to space, time and other groups.

Spain: Identity Boundaries and Political Reconstruction

The aim of this article is to look at the political implications of identity patterns in one case that is of exceptional interest, that of Spain. It begins by looking at the nature of identity, and the challenges it poses in the contemporary world. This is followed by a section examining the issue of collective identity in the Spanish context, exploring variation in forms of regional identity and relating this to new political structures in the regions. The two last sections look respectively at the manner in which the regional party systems reflect diverse patterns of identity and the challenges posed by these patterns for the system of government.

The Politics of Memory: History, Biography, and the (Re)-Emergence of Generational Literature in Germany

The existentialist philosopher Karl Jaspers is the father of a discourse on the spiritual consequences of the Holocaust. First addressed as the Schuldfrage (the question of guilt) by Jaspers immediately after the Second World War in his famous Heidelberg lecture, it has reappeared in various forms in German life and letters. Post-unification Germany has witnessed the valorization of the German experience of the Second World War. This ongoing re-evaluation has its antecedents in the generational literature of the 1970s and 1980s. Whereas the Vaterliteratur of the 1970s (by authors such as Christoph Meckel, Uwe Timm, and Peter Henisch) was often embedded in a left-wing critique of the establishment, recent contributions to this growing genre (by Marcel Beyer, Stephan Wackwitz, Wibke Bruhns, and Ulla Hahn among others) speak to the issue of collective identity and transgenerational family trauma outside distinct left- and right-wing interpretations of National Socialism. The current writings on the life during the Third Reich (filtered through the experiences of discrete generations) are a confluence of historical writing, memorial literature, biography, and fiction. They are closely related to the discussions that W. G. Sebald initiated in his 1997 lecture series on the silence of German postwar literature with respect to German suffering. The subsequent debate on how to bring closure to this “German suffering” was intensified by Günter Grass's widening of the concept of German victimization beyond the air war controversy in his book Crabwalk (2002). As Grass distinguishes clearly between the various post-World War II generations (and their different perspectives on historical events), the question becomes whether these recent writings will bring about a final so-called “zero hour” in German postwar history.

Between Ethnic-Nationalism, Civic-Nationalism and Cosmopolitanism: Discourses on the Identity of the EU and the Debates on Turkey's Accession

This paper seeks to contribute to our understanding of the issue of collective identity in the EU, and its relation to the process of enlargement. Through an analysis of the European Parliament's (EP) debates on the accession of Turkey, I will show that the issue of European collective identity is essential for understanding the EP's position towards Turkey. I will explicate the view on inclusion and diversity in the EU, implicit in speeches made in the EP. My analysis will show that there is a complex, two-way relation between the members of the European parliament's (MEP) views on inclusion and diversity in the EU, and their position towards Turkey. Another conclusion has to do with the relation between state nationalism and European integration. My findings suggest that the EP is quite indifferent towards state-national identities and cultures, and does not see them as assets to be preserved.

Identity: The Case of the European Union

Large processes such as globalization, migration and the expansion and further integration of the European Union have led to an increased awareness of issues of collective identity in contemporary Europe. In the literature several competing claims can be found. Some observers discern a trend towards the emergence of a quasi-national European identity and an eclipse of national identities; others see a revival of nationalist sentiments such as ethnocentrism and xenophobia, whereas still others emphasize the growing importance of local and regional affiliations. Using data from the European Values Study and the Eurobarometer, this article attempts to test these competing claims. Our descriptive results show that the current claims are too uniform (there are considerable cross-national differences within Europe) and rectilinear (there are no clear over-time patterns discernible). To gain an understanding of why the somewhat confusing results are as they are, we look, with the assistance of ethnic competition theory, at the underlying causal mechanism at work at both the country and the individual level. Within-country differences in people's geographic identity and their nationalist attitudes appear to be much larger than between country differences, i.e. differences between countries are much more determined by the composition (in terms of gender, age, income, education and religion) of their population, than in terms of context (ethnic, language and religious fractionalization, prosperity and economic growth and immigration). Men, the young, those with higher income, higher education, and the non-religious identify with a broader geographical unit. The older people are and the less educated they are, the prouder they are of their country. The higher the language and religious fractionalization of a country, the lower the level of patriotism. The higher the prosperity of a country, the lower the chauvinism (ethnocentrism and xenophobia); young countries, those with higher incomes and higher education are less chauvinistic.

Sweet memories of the future: a personal history of the World Futures Studies Federation

Taking an autobiographical approach, this essay traces the history of the World Futures Studies Federation. This personal story is juxtaposed with issues of collective identity—what is the federation, and what can it be in the future?

Feeling at Home at Work: Life in Academic Departments

As long-time residents of academic departments, we're familiar with the routines of office hours, chatting in the hallway, attending committee meetings, picking up mail, and using the xerox machine in the main office. Every department we've experienced has been laced with gossip and occasional intrigue, and sometimes disrupted by heated conflict and smoldering feuds. Why, we got to wondering one day, do tempers flare so easily in faculty meetings? Why do we "regress" just where you'd think we would be the most "grown up"—at work? Departments are set inside the infrastructure of a bureaucracy and profession and would thus seem to invite an attitude of mild, appropriate concern. Why, then, do matters of recruitment, course scheduling, and xerox paper sometimes evoke strong, and apparently infantile emotions? Using an analogy (one of sociology's finest tools), we've come up with a clue to the emotional and relational mysteries of department life: departments are like families. Like families, departments are small, face-to-face groups sharing space, material resources, and everyday life. The members did not, by and large, choose one another, and (given the sorry state of the job market) they anticipate being stuck with one another for the long haul. Periods of adoption or marriage (faculty hiring) tend to be especially contentious, raising issues of collective identity and fears that the existing balance of power may become realigned. Department members sometimes leave home, having been "courted away" as happens to eligible young people under the rule of exogeny. Indeed, departments don't like to hire from among their own graduate stu-

“THE TIME OF CHAOS WAS THE BEST”

The women's movement in East Germany went through three phases—emergence, white-hot mobilization, and demobilization—in rapid succession. These stages are analyzed with regard to the resources, political opportunities, and personal meanings of feminism that activists had available. The postunification crisis of the movement is used to examine issues of collective identity between East and West, and to highlight challenges to dichotomies between public and private, capitalism and socialism posed by the movement.