Official Speeches Research Articles

Pandemic patriotism: Official speeches in the face of the global COVID-19 crisis

Faced with the COVID-19 pandemic, authorities have had to announce health, economic, financial, and social measures. The way in which these actors communicate is crucial and points to the collective meanings that are transmitted when dealing with the pandemic. The discourses used are designed with different frameworks and narratives to have broad appeal, so as to convince the public about the government’s performance in managing the crisis and to obtain respect and obedience. Based on a qualitative analysis of 238 official speeches from five continents delivered between March and May 2020, this article contributes to the analysis of the pandemic with regard to two axes that underlie the speeches in other crises of this magnitude: appeals for solidarity and references to a war context. The results show that in this pandemic, the discourses have been deployed through these axes, reinforcing collective memories and national identities as sources to activate patriotic feelings and sustain implemented measures.

Intraregional Geopolitical Imaginaries in Europe: Hungary and Poland Vs. France and Germany

ABSTRACT This article critically describes and compares intraregional geopolitical imaginaries as they appear in the official discourses of two groups of states in EUrope: Soft Eurosceptic discourse of Hungary and Poland vs. Europhile discourse of France and Germany. The analysis is carried out through application of pragmatic analysis and language games analysis of official speeches of the leading politicians of these states delivered in the year 2018 on the theme of ‘Future of Europe’. The theoretical framework of Rule-oriented Constructivism and the analytical framework of Critical Geopolitics guide this research. This research complements existing literature on geopolitical imaginaries highlighting the importance of linguistic practices, spatial understandings and intersubjective spaces in EUropean integration.

Presidents’ discourses: Lags, leads or mere words?

Introduction: This study seeks to investigate the relationship between the words of the speeches of the various presidents of the Portuguese Republic (1976–2019) and the surrounding economic context. Methodology: We filtered all official speeches by Portuguese presidents from July 1976 to December 2019 and constructed a series of each word’s frequency categorized in the group of economic words. Using autoregressive distributed lag regressions and cointegration analysis, complemented with the analysis of structural breaks, we evaluated how those words’ frequencies changed relative to changing inflation and unemployment rates in Portugal. Results and Discussion: Our results show that certain words have tended to coincide with rises in inflation and unemployment in Portugal, which supports the hypothesis that Portuguese presidents’ speeches tend to reflect economic and political events.

From The Editors

The articles in the second section of our double issue focus on art practices from Eastern Europe, the former Soviet Union, and Palestine. Each in their own way, these authors discuss art and film practices that complicate the process by which we establish genealogies, trace histories, and narrate historical developments, intervening in linear trajectories and pointing to possible alternatives.In his article, Branislav Jakovljević reviews the richly illustrated 1926 book Creativity of the Mentally III (Tvorchestvo dushevnobol'nikh) by Russian psychiatrist Pavel Ivanovich Karpov as an outstanding, if largely forgotten, example of the rich collaborative, transdisciplinary research culture that existed in the Soviet Union during the early 1920s for the study of creativity from what we might today refer to as “outsider” positions: from nonacademic folk art to art produced by children and the mentally ill.Mary A. Nicholas devotes her contribution to an alternative genealogy of Moscow Conceptualism as it evolved in the mid-1970s and early 1980s, with a special focus on the performance art group Gnezdo (“The Nest,” active 1974-79). Accounts of Moscow Conceptualism tend to privilege Ilya Kabakov and the group Collective Actions as the phenomenon's progenitors, without considering the contributions—foundational in Nicholas's estimate—made by Sots artists Vitaly Komar and Alexander Melamid and their exploration of the communicative role of official speech. It is to the latter artist duo and their broadened understanding of their audience that the members of Gnezdo turned for their own actions.Adair Rounthwhaite examines in her article performative aspects in photographs by Yugoslav artist Željko Jerman. Specifically, she argues that in his experimental work of the 1970s, Jerman turned the photographic development process into a performative act, with far-ranging ramifications for his self-enactment as a creative subject. According to Rounthwhaite, Jerman viewed photography not as a linear process whose upshot and endpoint was a positive representation, but as a performative space that exploits the photograph's material properties, to varied and broadly unpredictable results.Greg Burris's investigation of contemporary Palestinian cinema focuses on two documentaries, from the 1980s and 2000s, respectively. Burris argues that both films carve out a space in the Palestinian imaginary that is not fully consumed by the logic of resistance, a logic that understandably has tended to dominate Palestinian filmmaking over the decades. Not coincidentally, dreams, in particular, can serve to represent the “unoccupied spaces” that offer themselves to imagining a future in which Palestine and Palestinians can finally be free to determine their own destiny.

Covid-19 Issues in the Official Speech Text of Malaysian Prime Minister on the Movement Control Order (MCO): Semantic Field Analysis

Covid-19 Issues in the Official Speech Text of Malaysian Prime Minister on the Movement Control Order (MCO): Semantic Field Analysis

К вопросу о творческом и механическом видах официального толкования норм права

Introduction: the official interpretation of the norms of law occupies an important place in the mechanism of legal regulation. Despite this, its system is not fully understood today. One of the elements of the system of the official interpretation of the norms of law is its individual varieties, the ideas of which can be developed and improved today. Purpose: to establish the truth in the issue of distinguishing creative and mechanical types as independent varieties of the official interpretation of the norms of law. Methods: the methodological framework for the research is a set of methods of scientific cognition, among which are consistency, analysis, and comparativelegal, formal legal, historical. Results: the author’s position justified in the work is based on the need to develop ideas about the specific types of the official interpretation of the norms of law. This fact is confirmed by the conducted historical analysis, the high rate of development of public relations, speeches of state officials, as well as individual interpretative acts. Conclusions: as a result of the conducted research, it was found that depending on the possibility of semantic adaptation of the norms of law to the current legal situation in society, it is advisable to distinguish creative and mechanical varieties of the official interpretation of the norms of law. The motive for such a classification is the extremely rapid pace of development of public relations and the failure of the legislator to keep up with these changes. However, an essential condition for the viability of such a concept is the prohibition of the subject going beyond the semantic meaning of the specific legal norms.

Educational transformations and the social subject: some aspects of positive dynamics

Introduction. Consideration of the prospects for positive transformations in modern Russian education, even at the level of problem formulation, remains relevant from the point of view of assessing possible further constructive transformations. It is important to analyze the possibilities of using traditional and innovative foreign and domestic experience in the face of new challenges.Problem statement. The article actualizes the problem of the correlation between the use of foreign cultural educational samples and domestic unique experience, taking into account the specifics of regional Siberian universities. A special place is occupied by the problems of practical application of the competence-oriented educational model, the use of IT technologies in the educational process, new trends in education, such as digital pedagogy, reverse learning, a variety of interactive and distance forms that constructively affect the subjectivity of the teaching community and students.Methodology of the study. The paper uses traditional methods of humanitarian research, in particular, systemic and structural-functional approaches, comparative and retrospective analysis, elements of sociological research (questionnaires, interviews, content analysis, etc.), as well as some methods of post-non-classical (synergetic) methodological approach. The published data of a sociological survey of teachers of humanities of four Novosibirsk and Altai universities and three educational institutions of additional education, as well as the results of interviewing teachers of higher education in the Siberian region, were used as an empirical basis for the study.Results. The article clarifies forecasts of further changes in the structure and trends in education, current problems of improving the competence-oriented educational model, taking into account foreign experience, based on the latest expert sources and official speeches of Russian educational methodologists and strategists. It is shown that in the form that it exists now, this model is opportunistic, overly formalized, methodologically vulnerable and therefore toxic to the modern qualitative educational process. In this sense, the necessary understanding has been reached at the level of the “regulator”, which is considering ways to reformat some of the Bologna Principles, for example, changing the structure of bachelor’s and master’s degrees. Attention is again focused on the problem of wages and other forms of material incentives for ordinary teachers of provincial universities, which, against the background of an increase in the academic load, as a rule, does not reach the average for the economy in the regions. At the level of the problem statement, the emerging difficulties of grant support for research work in educational organizations are considered.Conclusions. The article actualizes the problem of the correlation between the use of international and domestic unique experience, taking into account the specifics of regional Siberian universities. It is shown that in this direction, educational subjects have reached an understanding of the need for differentiated use of foreign cultural achievements and the active introduction of their own innovations, especially in the field of IT technologies and digital pedagogy. At the level of the problem statement, there is a tendency to tighten and formalize publication and other criteria for obtaining grants even by leading scientists and professors of higher education, not to mention dubious transformations in the system of the former RFH, RFBR and RSF. Obtaining grants is becoming a problem for provincial universities, and the corruption component and elements of scientific protectionism are also not excluded.

The Catholic Church Sex Abuse Crisis The Rhetoric of Pope John Paul II, Benedict XVI and Francis

Recent developments in the field of sexual abuses perpetrated by Catholic clergymen have heightened the need to address and analyze the issue from different points of view. The concept of modernity is key to understand the internal but also the external debates on child sexual abuses within the Church. While the roots of the problem are old, the issue represents a new social challenge that generates a firestorm both inside and outside the ecclesiastical world. The purpose of this article is to analyze and comprehend the rhetoric and approach adopted by John Paul II, Benedict XVI and Francis toward clergy abuse around the world. Therefore, this article explores some of the official speeches delivered by them on various occasions, paying attention to the context and the terminology used to talk about abuses. The final goal is to understand the position of the three pontiffs mentioned on the issue and to figure out if there is a common thread between the appearance (public speeches) and the concrete measures taken (e.g., reforms of canon law, summits on abuse, removal of guilty priests).

To Trust or Not to Trust? COVID-19 Facemasks in China–Europe Relations: Lessons from France and the United Kingdom

At the crossroads of sociology and international relations, this interdisciplinary and comparative research article explores how the COVID-19 outbreak has impacted China–Europe relations. Unfolding the critical moments of the COVID-19 outbreak, this article characterizes the evolution of China–Europe relations with regard to the facemask. This simple object of self-protection against the coronavirus strikingly became a source of contention between peoples and states. In the face of this situation, we argue that the facemask is the prism through which to illustrate (1) the transnational links between China and its overseas population, (2) the changing social perceptions of China and Chinese-looking people in European societies, and (3) the advent of China’s health diplomacy and its reception in Europe. Comparing two European settings—France and the United Kingdom (UK)—the common denominator appears to be the reduced trust, if not outright distrust, between individuals and communities in the French and British contexts, and in Sino–French and Sino–British relations at the transnational level. Combining critical juncture theory and (dis)trust in international relations as our analytical framework, this article examines how the facemask became a politicized object, both between states and between Mainland China and its overseas population, as the epidemic unfolded throughout Europe. Adopting a qualitative approach, our dataset comprises the analysis of official speeches and statements; press releases; traditional and social media content (especially through hashtags such as #JeNeSuisPasUnVirus, #IAmNotAVirus, #CoronaRacism, etc.); and interviews with Chinese, French, and British community members.

The United States Policy Towards un Peacekeeping Operations Under the Trump Administration

Introduction. The United States has always been one of the five permanent members of the United Nations Security Council and the largest financial donor to the UN System and peacekeeping operations. American policy towards the organization and peacekeeping operations has varied from harsh critique to active support. While in the office, President Trump criticized UN PKO missions for their inefficiency and pointed out the need for reforms both in the field of peacekeeping and the entire UN system. This led some American scholars to conclude that the Trump administration was an entirely special phenomenon in American policy towards the United Nations. This article analyzes United States policy towards UN peacekeeping under the Trump administration and attempts to respond to the question: does President Trump’s policy regarding UN peacekeeping operations represent a fundamentally new phenomenon, or is it a continuation of trends that emerged during previous administrations? Methods and materials. The article analyses U.S. State Budgets, State Department Congressional Budget Justifications, official speeches by President Trump, Trump Administration foreign policy doctrine ‘America First’, official UN documents related to funding issues and troop contributions. The authors also conducted expert interviews. Analysis. President Trump administration policy towards UN peacekeeping is analyzed to identify its main trends and determine their similarities with the policies of previous presidents towards UN peace operations. Results. The article concludes that, although President Trump’s policy on UN peacekeeping operations was more critical than that of many of his predecessors, it is essentially a continuation of long-standing trends in U.S. politics. Authors’ contributions. D. Pushkina defined research focus of the article, examined academic literature on USA administrations’ policies towards the United Nations, selected research methods, defined the main vectors of the research, organized interviews with experts and made general conclusions. A. Khazanova researched and analyzed official U.S. documents with special focus on U.S. policy towards United Nations and UN peacekeeping, examined relevant UN documents, gathered budgetary data, conducted interviews with experts, made conclusions.

Mapping and Analysis of Standard Indonesian Pronunciation Errors by Using the Bigram Method

Indonesian language is increasingly being ignored, even the mass media often find the use of non-standard language, so there is a uniformity in the use of words that often appear in scientific articles, especially those Indonesian. The uniformity of Indonesian pronunciation certainly confuses the general public, for example: television news viewers and radio listeners, to distinguish between standard and non-standard forms. The non-uniformity of Indonesian pronunciation often occurs in official situations such as official speeches or presentations. Based on this phenomenon, this study aims to conduct an analysis and mapping study of standard pronunciation errors that arise in several public services and develops application tools as automatically tool that can detect errors from the use of standard words obtained from voice recording results in the form of vowel errors, diphthongs and consonants by implementing the bigram method. This research was conducted by collecting voice recordings of conversations, speeches, public speaking and other recordings deemed necessary, then continued with standard pronunciation errors analysis and mapping of these errors using a tool that applied the Bigram technique. Based on statistical information obtained from the detection and correction process that has been carried out, it can be obtained a mapping of the error types in the use of Indonesian standard that often occur in public service environment. The results of the mapping and statistical information obtained are used as the basis for developing programs that aim to improve the quality of the use Indonesian standard in the form of FGDs, socialization and counseling. The study result indicate the standard of pronunciation errors that occur in various circles including presenters and lecturers, then the results of data analysis are described in the form of tables and diagrams so it is seen the percentage of errors that occur

Narodowe w formie, autorytarne w treści. Budowanie państwa w Azji Centralnej

National in Form, Authoritarian in Content: State Building in Central AsiaAfter the collapse of the Soviet Union the new states of Central Asia faced a challenging task of building a new country, its symbols, relations between institutional power and the sovereign and imaginary geopolitical landscape. The grassroots processes of national awakening were coupled with deliberate activities of the dominant political actors striving to shape them in a way conducive to their power claims. Thus the monuments of great ancestors and the billboards presenting the image of incumbent presidents became a very common element of the symbolic landscape of Central Asia's new republics. The official speeches of the governing presidents have frequently referred to great historical figures, constructed historical analogies, praised the thousand years old traditions of the fatherland and adduced historical evidence testifying ancient roots of the countries.This article is focused on the mechanisms of ethnocentric reinterpretation of the past. For the newly constituted republics of Central Asia, the evidence of the past power status and glorious moments or, conversely, the past tragedies has been an equally strong legitimizing factor both internally and externally. No matter whether invented or constructed, the propagated national values have played a key role in justifying the power claims and international position of the new countries. Additionally, the paper’s objective is to analyze how state structures and institutions implement national solutions and how the authoritarian logic of the state institutions performed its power under the guise of national forms.

In Memory of Peacekeepers: Belgian Blue Helmets and Belgian Politics

ABSTRACT This article explores the interactions between the memories of Belgian peacekeepers killed in the 1994 genocide in Rwanda, the weight of the colonial past, and the Belgian foreign policy. Using interviews with Belgian politicians and diplomats, families of peacekeepers, former blue helmets, as well as a corpus of official speeches, this article finds that the memorialization of blue helmets has influenced Belgian political choices on three levels, namely: domestic politics, its bilateral relationship with Rwanda, and more broadly its position in international peacekeeping. In doing so, this article contributes to interdisciplinary debates on the role of collective memory in domestic and international politics.

Now and Forever: Creating Knowledge to Honor People

After the restoration of democracy in Spain, the victims of the dictatorship were never recognized and the murderers were never judged. Silence was the norm in reference to the Civil War, the dictatorship, and the people who fought for democracy. Only a few civil society organizations and other similar groups tried to reclaim the memory of the victims by looking for their remains in mass graves and ditches and telling a different history than the official one presented in the textbooks. One of these groups is adult learners in the adult education school M. R. in Seville, Spain. They try, from the stories of common people, to create new knowledge and to restore the memory of and honor the victims. They are doing this by recovering oral testimonies and biographies and publishing them as a collective history. In the article, I will present the research conducted by these adult learners. It can be considered participatory research because it enables individuals to restore their memories, to create new knowledge confronting the official narrative, and, through publications and public speeches, to disseminate this knowledge and organize community practices honoring the victims.

Why During the Polish-Bolshevik War Did Soviet Propaganda Discourse Dominate European Public Opinion?

In 1919–20, a war took place between two states that had emerged at the end of the Great War: Soviet Russia and the reborn Republic of Poland. It was a clash of widely different legal, political, and ideological systems. The conflict took place not only on the military and diplomatic planes but also within propaganda. Upon taking power in Russia, the Bolsheviks, in their official speeches, presented themselves to the world as the defenders of peace and the sovereignty of all nations; the imperial aspirations of Soviet Russia were hidden under the slogans of a world revolution that would liberate oppressed peoples. The military and ideological conquest began with a concentrated focus on neighbouring countries, including Poland. At the same time, a suggestive propaganda message was sent to the West, setting out the course of events from Moscow’s point of view.

Towards a Common Public Culture? Boundaries to Belonging in Catalonia

The tension between the will to build a collective national identity and the increasing diversity of today’s societies is one of the main challenges facing nation‐states today. Catalan society, being no exception, also faces many challenges as diasporic identities and transnational loyalties proliferate, weakening both citizens’ roots and their need to belong. The present article aims to identify situations and social spaces of discrimination and explicit/implicit racism, existing mechanisms and responses aimed at avoiding and dealing with these situations, and the groups they affect most in Catalan society. Through a participatory research, 23 focus groups were carried out—of between six and 12 participants—in eight territories (Pàmies et al., 2020). Results reveal diverse areas of discrimination, ranging from the violation of civil and political rights to that of economic, social, and cultural rights. The situations described and named by some as examples of micro‐racism complicate the sense of belonging for many citizens, challenging the real possibility of achieving a pluricultural collective identity. Thus, to promote belonging and build a common public culture with which everyone feels identified, as promoted by official speeches, it is necessary to recognize plurality and diversity and promote citizen participation—and representation—in devising public actions, as well as encourage interactions that emphasize all common and shared aspects in a context conditioned by the reactive fragmentation of identity politics.

A Vision of Modernity: Narratives of Historical (Dis)continuity in Oman

Be it in academic publications, official speeches or ordinary narratives, the history of Oman and the foundations of its modern nation-state usually appear as a continuous teleological process. The dichotomies such as tradition vis-à-vis modernity and darkness versus enlightenment (or nahḍa) are articulated into a narrative of progression and transformation. This article aims to understand the conception and experience of these notions by looking at how the construction of history and its temporality follows an ethos of continuity. It examines if the vision of modernity selected and incorporated in the national narrative of building a peaceful Oman and creating an Omani identity anchored on Ibadi values is sustainable in the long term. In this process, the Omani citizen emerged, part of the modern citizenship process that requires creating bonds of aggregation through national identity and the relationship between people and state. Finally, the article focuses on the tensions that arise from the way modernisation is framed in the historical trajectory of the state-building, nowadays going through leadership changes and transitioning to a post-oil era.

От политической либерализации к геополитическому повороту (Эволюция дискурса Евросоюза и связь нормативного и материального)

The article explores the geopolitical turn in the European Union’s policy, realized through two new and synonymous concepts in the EU’s official discourse – those of strategic sovereignty and strategic autonomy. The author demonstrates that these concepts do not imply a radical turn to pragmatism and materiality. Rather it is exposed that Brussels’ neoliberal paradigm has always presupposed the link between neoliberal normativity (liberal democracy of the Western type) and materiality (which incorporates prosperity through market economy, and security). The article defines several periods in the EU reconfiguring this link, each associated with a new concept (first democratization, then modernization, then resilience and, finally, strategic sovereignty/autonomy). Empirically, the study is based on speeches of the top EU officials, as well as on debates and documents of the European Parliament. Discourse analysis is used to define the link between normativity and materiality that evolves yet preserving its structure. It is demonstrated how the concepts of strategic sovereignty/autonomy incorporate virtually everything from peace, security and democracy to climate and innovation. The research most particularly focuses on the place that Brussels’ discourse allocates to Russia, which vividly reflects the specificity of the link between normativity and materiality in each period. More specifically, Russia evolves in the European Union’s discourse from being a country of modernization and democratic transition to a threat to the EU’s resilience and then strategic sovereignty, thus turning from an insider to the outsider in the symbolic space that the European Union establishes through the link between normativity and materiality.

Prospects for Russian-Belarusian bilingualism: the sociolinguistic aspect

This article is devoted to the topical issue of Russian‑Belarusian bilingualism in the post‑Soviet environment. Belarus is of particular interest not only because of the high level of russification at the time of the collapse of the USSR but also because of its close relations with Russia afterwards. Belarus is the only country in the post‑Soviet space that has legally secured the equal status of the Belarusian and Russian languages as official languages, which results in legally fixed bilingualism. However, the actual position of the two languages is not equal at all and the functional scope of the Belarusian language is still limited. The purpose of this work was to determine the current state of the language situation and to determine the prospects for bilingualism based on the language‑governing rules and the analysis of the education sector since it reacts most sensitively to to any changes in legislation pertaining to language policy and most effectively influences the formation of multilingual society. In addition, research hypotheseswere presented through the prism of political discourse, namely the rhetoric about bilingualism present in the official speeches of the President of the Republic of Belarus, A. Lukashenko).

Концепт «родная земля» в публицистике военных лет

Main purpose of the article is to examine the concept of “native land,” the content of which was formulated by Yu.S. Stepanov (“pain” for one’s land, “natural wealth,” the land itself, a dear person, nature crowned with a native word). The range of texts under study includes publications from the period of the Great Patriotic War. The author of the article uses the USSR leaders’ official speeches of the first war days, namely V.M. Molotov and I.V. Stalin. They served as a starting point for the development of key directions in the newspaper correspondence of other authors. The article raises question about the growth of the semantics of homeland defense, the concept of which goes back to the motifs of pain, suffering, sorrow. Writers of the war years built a multilevel structure of the concept of “native land,” which consists in a spatial association, a figurative unity, traditionally including natural, cultural, mythological images and specific people and participants in real events. The article concludes that the concept of “homeland” transforms and accumulates not only the functions of the guardian and protection in the subsequent periods of the war. The core of the concept includes connotations of “native land,” that is our land / our country, Soviet land / our land, etc. The periphery of the concept is the military experience of the defender of the country.