Political Space Research Articles

Теоретические предпосылки формирования концепта «политическая картина мира»

The rapidly changing political world can hardly be described within the framework of state concepts and strate-gies. The search for new tools capable of explaining and analyzing foreign and domestic political processes reinforces the notion of the political picture of the world. The aim of the study is to fundamentally comprehend this concept. It is analyzed through the theoretical prism of the concepts of leading political philosophers of the XX century and modernity: the phenomenological method of E. Husserl and A. Schütz, the subjective space of politics by M. Heidegger, the political distinction between “friends” and “enemies” by K. Schmitt, the correlation of the categories “world picture” and “life world” by J. Habermas. The author ascertains that the task of forming an independent concept of the political picture of the world in political science has not been raised so far, and the term “political picture of the world” has not been definitively defined. Conclusion dwells upon its plural and dynamic character. Plurality is manifested in the subject-object and communicative reflection of pictures of the world. The dynamic nature can be expressed both in the collision of different political worldviews and in the conflict of their internal elements, which can eventually lead to the transformation of pictures of the world. Based on the analysis of the discourse of a number of scientific studies, the author’s formulation of the concept of “political picture of the world” is proffered.

ЯЗЫКОВОЙ КАТАЛОНСКИЙ НАЦИОНАЛИЗМ В 1870 – 1930-Е ГГ.: ПОЛИТИЧЕСКИЕ ПОКОЛЕНИЯ И СОЦИАЛЬНАЯ МОДЕРНИЗАЦИЯ

The purpose of this study is to analyze the activities of three generations of Catalan philologists and linguists who have made a significant contribution to the development of linguistic Catalan nationalism. The author analyzes the history, directions, forms and features of the activities of several generations of Catalan intellectuals, whose activity contributed to the normalization and standardization of dialect forms of Romance speech in Catalonia, which led to the emergence of the modern Catalan literary language. The novelty of the study lies in the analysis of the historical, political and cultural contribution of nationalist intellectuals to the development of the Catalan language through the prism of the social consequences of modernization processes. The article analyzes 1) the main stages in the history of various generations of Catalan linguistic nationalists, 2) their participation and role in the processes of standardization and normalization of the Catalan language, 3) the contribution of language activists to the consolidation of the Catalan linguistic identity in particular and the national Catalan identity in general, 4) the role nationalist intellectuals, amateurs and professional linguists, in the development of Catalan nationalism, 5) the contribution of linguistic nationalists to raising the status of the Catalan language in the social, political and cultural spaces of Catalonia. It is assumed that Catalan linguistic nationalism significantly complemented political nationalism, contributing to its strengthening and consolidation of the Catalan national identity in contexts of social transformation of the region's society. The generations of linguistic Catalan nationalism are identical to the stages in the history of political and ethnic nationalisms. The results of the study suggest that in the 19th and 20th centuries, the cultural activity of linguistic nationalists contributed to the processes of modernization of Catalonia, which led to the transformation of the region from a peripheral one to a region with complete social and political structures, the functioning of which was impossible without the Catalan language.

Символическое пространство и практики освоения в процессах самоорганизации сообществ

The purpose of this work is to study symbolic space and related practices of space exploration, a complex of tangible and intangible resources in the course of self-organization of modern communities. The main method is a comparative analysis of concepts and theories, which made it possible to analyze current approaches to the conceptualization of the concept of symbolic space and symbolic power. The symbolic dimension, according to the author's position, is the most important, inseparable from the physical and communicative dimensions of the living space of communities and a condition for their self-organization. The author defends the hypothesis of the cementing role of the practices of individual and collective development of space and resources for modern communities. At the same time, the vector of development of material and non-material resources develops from individual human strategies for interacting with reality to group development models and a system of interactions of interested actors and their associations with each other, animate and inanimate objects. The significance of a symbol, myth, ritual in the processes of formation of modern communities, as well as brands as universal units in various functional spheres, including public policy, is demonstrated. The article attempts to analyze individual practices that form the political space of a joint interested being (political co-being). The thesis is put forward regarding the role of the consumer social model in the organization of space and self-organization of communities based on the principles of development. The significance of the work may consist in determining the trends of qualitative processes of self-organization of modern communities, stimulating further conceptualization of the concepts of symbolic space and symbolic power.

TERRITORIAL POLICY OF THE EU STATES: TARGETS, TOOLS, ACHIEVEMENTS

The article presents the process of formation and development of the territorial policy of the European Union and its Member States. The author defines the goals and logic of territorial and political transformation of national territorial and political systems in the context of glocalisation – macro-regional integration of national entities in Europe, where regions are proclaimed the main beneficiary of reforms, and place is proclaimed the topos, the basis of the political process. Place-based politics, development of self-government systems, decentralisation reforms, promotion of local and regional autonomy and systemic asymmetry, where status is determined by the scope of functional responsibilities, are considered as processes of de(re)construction of a new model of polycentric governance and political interaction in the context of formation of an effective supranational political space of the EU. The author examines the peculiarities of the transformation of systemic relations in the EU member states, including the relations between metropolises and non-European remote territories (on the example of France and the Netherlands), and the relations between the supranational centre of the EU and these remote territories of the EU states, which have the specifics of asymmetric involvement in the territorial and political processes of the EU. The author notes that the development of the EU political space is ahead of the process of transformation of the territorial morphology, which is manifested in the expansion of political participation rights at the supranational level and the preservation of restrictions at the national level. The paper notes that the EU’s spatial development strategy is formed on the basis of an institutional compromise between different levels of political decision-making in a multi-level and polycentric system of territorial and political relations and is provided by a set of instruments. This complex is formed by: the policy of vertical and horizontal cooperation; multilevel and polycentric governance; practices of regional and autonomy; asymmetry of statuses and functional roles; 4D decentralisation instruments; standardisation and measurement (indexation) of standards; instruments of consociative democracy, which provide for “inclusion policy”, “effective citizenship”, “mobile political participation” in the context of deepening integration, increasing mobility, and changing the functional significance of the institution of citizenship.

Youth Aggressive Communication Behaviour During Elections in Uganda

This study aimed at understanding the aggressive communication behavior of youth on Facebook during elections. The study traced the evolution of communication behavior from public spaces to the rise of mass media and the internet, particularly focusing on Facebook's increasing influence as a political space, to its manifestation in Uganda’s electoral process. Guided by the Communication Affordance Theory and Wolfsfeld's Political Contest Model, the study sought to understand how Facebook's affordances shaped youth engagement in electoral activities. The study followed a cross-sectional design to address the heterogeneity of the respondents in the fields of politics and social endeavors and employed a mixed method approach. Results show that during Uganda's 2021 presidential elections, there was a significant prevalence of aggressive communication behavior among the youth on Facebook. Cyberbullying, intimidation, and criticism were commonly observed. Recommendations were made to promote youth political engagement, discourage violent behavior, and provide opportunities for youth participation in governance. Aggressive communication was defined as a style where individuals violated the rights of others through verbal and non-verbal means.

Countering Local Disaster Capitalism

Disaster capitalism creates political and economic space for neoliberal projects to benefit the wealthy disproportionately while marginalizing Indigenous groups. This paper examines how and the extent to which local disaster capitalism has affected Indigenous communities in Nepal’s Kathmandu Valley, as they recover from the 2015 earthquakes, and how local disaster capitalism ought to be countered. Based on an in-depth analysis of local disaster capitalism in Rudrayani Guthi, Nepal, the findings of this study demonstrate that Indigenous peoples have been negatively affected by state-sponsored disaster recovery schemes, whereas wealthy people and businesses have benefitted from them. Such schemes focus on “physical reconstruction” and “economic development”, dispossessing Indigenous lands to pave the way for housing, motorways, greenfield urban development, and hydropower. Many Indigenous groups are forced to be part of such schemes, while local disaster capitalism continues in the name of “disaster recovery”. The paper highlights the unfortunate reality of the local disaster capitalism taking shape and destroying Indigenous lives and livelihoods. The paper concludes by offering some principles used by Indigenous peoples while countering local disaster capitalism through confrontations with powerful actors and while protecting their land during the process of disaster recovery.

Confronting the climate crisis in Africa: just transitions and Extinction Rebellion in Nigeria and South Africa

ABSTRACT Climate change is having increasing impacts on the social, economic and political space across the African continent. The compounding character of such impacts reinforces existing inequalities, raising important considerations around climate justice. Growing awareness has seen the emergence of activists working for solutions and promoting alternative futures, working across scales and sectors to address the complexity of the threats. This article examines environmental activism in Nigeria and South Africa, exploring strategies and claims, and how these are rooted in questions of justice. While environmental movements in Nigeria have generally worked to encourage reform and adaption within the existing political economic system, a more systemic critique and need for fundamental change is observable in South Africa. Drawing on a comparison of Extinction Rebellion in both countries, we argue that understandings of just transitions should take into consideration the unequal abilities of social movements to call for radically transformative and just decarbonisation.

From national capital to provincial capital: Transformation of Hangzhou’s political spaces in the Early Yuan Dynasty

After achieving the unification of all under Heaven, the early Yuan rulers began to reform the political space of the Southern Song capital. The evolution of their policies was closely related to the ruling situation in Jiangnan. After the Yuan army captured Lin’an, ritualistic buildings with strong overtones of imperial power within and outside the city were gradually abandoned or transformed; out of consideration for the political impact, certain protective measures were taken. Due to Kublai Khan’s apprehensions that the situation in Jiangnan would worsen, as well as Sangha’s administration, the transformation tended to be radical: The imperial palace, imperial Daoist temples, Circular Mound Altar of the southern suburbs, the mausoleums of the emperors and empresses, and so on were forcibly transformed into Buddhist temples, sparking violent unrest in Jiangnan society. The Yuan court later adjusted the relevant measures, assigning to Hangzhou the status of a provincial capital, respecting local cultural traditions, and building government offices, ancestral shrines, gate towers, and so on in accord with the Confucian code of etiquette. At the turn of the Yuan and Ming dynasties, the historical facts associated with the transformation of Hangzhou in the early Yuan Dynasty had gradually become obscured, and many mystical legends were later derived therefrom, becoming an important historical reference for governance of Jiangnan by the rulers of later generations.

Social Justice in Nigeria: A Dialectical Discourse

This paper examined the nexus between social justice, national development, and nation-building in Nigeria. It adopted the qualitative and historical descriptive method of analysis because, by its nature, the topic was not amenable to quantitative analysis. One of the important findings of the paper is that though Nigerian citizens have remained together within the same political space in spite of many challenges, there are obvious cases of inequality and glaring examples of the negation of the principles of social justice by the leadership class. The result of the breaches of the constitutional provision for social justice is Nigeria’s inability to consolidate its diversity to achieve national development and nation-building, as is the case in other heterogenous federations like the United States. The paper concluded that a possible way out of this quagmire is for the federal government to adopt concrete official measures to encourage attitudinal and behavioural changes among both the leaders and ordinary Nigerians in order to ensure faithful adherence to social justice, which is considered a panacea for the challenges of national development and nation-building.

The future of the centre–right in Europe and the 7 Ds

The party-political structure in Europe is in full transition, with a slow, but consistent strengthening of the right and extreme right on the continent. This poses important questions, not only about the political dividing lines that separate these spaces, but also about what constitutes the dividing line that sets the European People’s Party apart from both. The key argument is that the European People’s Party can be understood as the political space that defends European integration, the transatlantic partnership and the democratic order that was established after 1945, and is the political project for reconciliation in society, reconciling the seemingly irreconcilable through concepts such as the social market economy, subsidiarity, personalism and federalism. Sustainability across policy areas, reconciling the present and the future, is thus the necessary complement.

EUROPEAN LAW AS A LEGAL SYSTEM

The article considers the main stages of European law-making, traces the historical development of the law of the European Union. European law is considered as a set of legal norms that regulate the relationships which develop within the framework of European integration associations. An attempt was made to reveal the role of the EU legal system in creating a political and legal space in which European legal and administrative norms operate; the structure and functions of the EU institutions are outlined in terms of assessing the degree of their supranationality. The main scientific and practical significance of this study lies, in particular, in the possibility of using its provisions to enrich the concept of the legal standing of international organizations.

The African National Congress and South Africa’s Public Service: A Crisis of Dominance and Accountability

This article explores the impact of African National Congress-led government’s dominance on South Africa’s public service. On onehand, the African National Congress since the 1994 democratic elections had many achievements in advancing South Africa’s democracy and responding to the citizens’ needs through countless development and policy initiatives that were designed to cater to the basic needs of the citizens. On the other hand, it has become less responsive to citizen needs and this is evident as citizens have taken to the streets to protest for service provisions throughout the country. Citizens’ discontent can be seen in the rapid decline of the African National Congress’ political dominance and the formation of political coalitions. South African public service delivery has been marked by a lack of public accountability, corruption, cadre deployment, state capture, and procurement system manipulation as a result of the African National Congress’s dominance since the country’s first democratic elections. It is important to note that most South African citizens depend on the public sector and the African National Congress’s dominance in the public sector has damaged its ability to be responsive to citizens’ needs. This article relied on secondary sources, by reviewing current literature on the ramifications of having one political party dominating the country’s political space for decades.

Theoretical Aspect of Studying the Phenomenon of «Soft Power» as a Political Strategy

The authors explored the phenomenon of «soft power» as a political strategy through the prism of modern political theory and practice of international relations. The article considers the emergence and formation of the problem of «soft power» in the history of political thought, its current state, identifies the main approaches, resources, goals and results of the use of «soft power» by states in the foreign policy arena. The results of the study of this phenomenon are the theoretical basis for making political decisions. The basis for this study was the theory of the influence of soft power in the global and geopolitical space, its positive and negative sides were highlighted.For modern states, the need to ensure security and stable development is still an urgent task. States in the international arena are in a state of fierce competition for influence and resources. At the same time, the role of the so-called «soft» ways of interaction between states in the global political space has recently increased significantly, new views and theories devoted to this issue are emerging. The authors come to the conclusion that the phenomenon of «soft power» has acquired the greatest significance for political practice due to the correspondence of this concept to modern ideas about how to regulate international relations and maintain world order. The analysis performed by the authors makes it possible to evaluate the effectiveness of «soft power» as an influential political strategy.

Mearsheimer, John J. 2018. Great Delusion: Liberal Dreams and International Realities. New Haven and London: Yale University Press. xiv, 313 pp. https://doi.org/10.12987/9780300240535

The book comparatively analyzes the features of liberal hegemony, when the liberal international order strengthened after the collapse of the Soviet Union, when the United States and Western European countries took the position of hegemony in world politics. While the economic dimensions of the liberal world order may be acceptable to all, its political component, as an instrument of the democratic world, is trying to serve the purpose of consolidating the world. It is important that the discourse about the liberal world order takes place during times of conflict, crisis and war, influencing the transformation of the modern world order.
 The political elites of the liberal world order in the era of liberal hegemony must keep in mind that for the diverse authoritarian and democratic blocs of countries, it is necessary to protect the resilience of the international order and law. In accordance with the author’s concept of political liberalism, it is interpreted broadly and as a unity of the spiritual, social and political forms of its being. Therefore, its essence unfolds through a consistent analysis of the ideological, social and political space, which makes it possible to form an adequate idea of the role of liberal ideology and liberal international politics in the social and political process.

Seeing Like a Market: to the Question of the Ethical Assessment of the Privatization of East German Companies in 1990–1994

The article deals with the problem of ethical assessment of the liquidation of the GDR as a state structure and its integration into the political and economic space of the FRG. According to a number of historical and sociological sources, “reunification” was not the reason for the search and finding of a common language between West and East Germans, but, on the contrary, the reasons for discord and deep mutual distrust and rejection. On this basis, the work analyzes the views of both sides, and also conducts a philosophical reflection on the value bases (ethical axioms) of the key evaluative positions of both East and West Germans regarding the actions of the West German government, the conditions for concluding a monetary union of the two Germanys, as well as in relation to privatizations East German companies.

The paradox of civic education in Malawi's education system: regaining the missed opportunities

There is a common assumption that the removal of civics from the curriculum between 1995 and 2002, when Malawi became a democracy might have deformed citizenship and civic education (CE). This narrative assumes that civics, as a discipline, was critical for instilling democratic and civic values among Malawians. This then prompted the Tonse Alliance Government (TAG) to change the Ministry of Civic Education and Culture (MoCC) to the Ministry of Civic Education and National Unity (MoCENU) as the first step. Additionally, the then Minister of MoCENU proposed a policy change to reintroduce civics in schools arguing that, it is only through this subject that democratic citizenship can be realized. Accordingly, this paper sought to argue that mere changing of MoCC to MoCENU, and reintroducing civics in schools may add nothing toward the creation of democratic citizenship when we consider global trends. This paper therefore utilized qualitative research design especially Critical Hermeneutics to analyze available literature on citizenship and CE trends, its conceptions and common issues around the globe. In doing so, the paper sought to explain whether Malawi's CE projects have been on the right trajectory or not, and how power-relations and political interests have shaped its development. Mainly, we ascribed to the epigram that, straightening a tree is better done in its sapling. In other words, the best spaces for behavior change and habit formation remain the schools because they are naturally designed to prepare children for such roles and functions. While our arguments might not be final, we still understand that many researches have held a fragmented view of citizenship and CE. We thus sought to analyze these two concepts in the lenses of Critical Pedagogy as suggested by Paulo Freire and Henry Giroux who understood schools as political spaces where the hegemony captures the curriculum to oppress society while protecting their interests. By advocating for a democratic model of education anchored in humanization, problem-posing, and critical conscientization, Critical Pedagogy molds students into future citizens who values critical thinking, transparency and democratic values.

The Concept of Musical Nationalism in Compositional Creativity: A Theoretical Aspect

The aim of the article is to reveal the essence of the concept of musical nationalism and the principles of its manifestations in professional compositional creative work. Results. The need for national identity, the desire to express oneself, and the focus on uniqueness drive humanity towards creating certain products of activity in the scientific, research, and creative spheres, collectively shaping the patriotic mentality of the entire nation. Every conscious artist who aims to lobby for national content in the socio-cultural and even political space through his creative work appeals to factors that are reproduced in the audience’s imagination as a symbol, code of the nation. The search for means and forms of expressing originality based on national characteristics, and the desire for cultural autonomy via the reproduction and artistic reinterpretation of typical features, mythology, mentality, folklore, etc. create traditions of the national style. The way this paradigm is expressed depends on the depth of experience of national issues by the author of an art work. Musical nationalism becomes the highest degree of realisation of the national idea in creative work, forms a unique concept, a content of which consists in conscious and purposeful reproduction by artists by means of music of bright national-mental attributes, values, ideas, thinking patterns and philosophising, psycho-emotional characteristics, temperament, world perception, and worldview, etc. Scientific novelty. For the first time in the history of Ukrainian art studies, the term “concept of musical nationalism” is introduced into scholarly discourse, and its meaning and the expediency of its use are explained. Conclusions. The professional musical art of any country becomes a reflection of the cultural heritage of the nation, and is based on the synthesis of the artistic content of the art sample, its emotional message, and those specific means of expression that are most capable of revealing the context of the work. One of the most distinctive identifiers of compositional creativity is the national factor, manifested by the artist in presenting characteristic features of the local society, certain archetypes, and traditions, which are originally interpreted in his heritage. A conscious, purposeful approach to the ideological content of music is the result of the author's creative reflection, a reflection through the prism of his own stylistic preferences and priorities of a number of national ideals, national dreams, centuries-old aspirations of his native people influenced by specific historical and political factors. All this forms the concept of musical nationalism.

Nursing student activism 1972–1973 in Chile, relating to a case

Unveiling the political and union formalization of the Chilean nursing student movement in the socio political space of 1972-1973 contributes to the historical knowledge of nursing. The situations of need for nursing students in 1972 were formalized through the Federation of Nursing Students, which culminated with the military coup of 1970, where its members dissolved the Federation and were persecuted and expelled from their study centres. Despite reinsertion, the marks of this episode stripped them of their union ideals.

The credit they deserve: contesting predictive practices and the afterlives of red-lining

Racial capitalism depends on the reproduction of an existing racialized economic order. In this article, I argue that the disavowal of past injustice is a central way in which this reproduction is ensured and that market-based forms of knowledge production, such as for-profit predictive practices, play a crucial role in facilitating this disavowal. Recent debates about the fairness of algorithms, data justice, and predictive policing have intensified long-standing controversies, both popular and academic, about the way in which statistical and financial modes of accounting and predicting articulate, represent and produce ascriptive categories of hierarchically ordered social difference, and reproduce unjust social hierarchies and inequalities. These debates have productively problematized the racial lives of seemingly apolitical predictive technologies and demanded the re-politicization of predictive practices. What has been missing from these debates so far, however, is a more explicit engagement with ways in which anti-racist movements and activists themselves have contested the entanglements of prediction and race making. I turn to a recent prominent example, namely the contestation over racial discrepancies in subprime lending to examine how fair lending activists have conceptualized and troubled the reproduction of a racialized economic order through for-profit predictive practices in the decade before the Great Financial Crisis. I situate this particular example in the broader historical and political context of politicizing prediction that first emerged with the ascendancy of a liberal, individualist-proprietary conception of risk, and the political problem space to which this has given rise. My analysis shows that actuarial conceptions of fairness continue to reverberate in anti-racist contestations of for-profit predictive practices, and that they tend to marginalize and undercut more radical strands of critique of the racialization of financial markets. Insofar as these modalities of contestation implicitly reproduce a liberal, proprietary-individualist conception of risk, I argue, they fail to effectively challenge the quasi-alchemical transformation of injustice into personal responsibility, and thus contribute to the disavowal of past injustice.

Regional features of the demographic processes in the Russian-Kazakh cross-border regions

Formation of new borders has transformed the adjacent territories of Russia and Kazakhstan into a new political and socio-economic space. The purpose of the work is to analyze demographic processes with the account of the territorial features of the Russian-Kazakh border area in the conditions of modern political, economic and social integrations. The use of methods of economic and statistical analysis made it possible to identify the vector and dynamics of the demographic processes in the adjacent border territories. Based on the analysis of spatial differentiation of population changes by administrative entities of the Russian-Kazakh cross–border area in the period 1989–2021, there were identified six regional groups with different character of the demographic situation — from critical to most favorable. As a result of the analysis of demographic indicators, significant differences were revealed depending on the level of the studied territories. At the macro level, on both sides of the Russian-Kazakh border, there is generally a similar demographic situation both in its orientation and in the relative values of the main demographic indicators. At the meso level, there is a multidirectional dynamics of regional indicators. The leaders of population growth are mainly resource-producing regions. The regions, in which the population has decreased most of all, are adjacent border territories, between which there is a low asymmetry of indicators and almost complete synchronicity of the ongoing processes. At the micro level, comparing cities and districts, there are significant contrasts in almost all demographic indicators. Moreover, in the Kazakh part of the border area, these differences are more significant. In general, there is the same trend throughout the border regions — the population is moving to more developed areas — from depressed rural areas to district centers and small towns, from small and medium-sized cities to large regional centers and big cities.