Symbolic Politics Research Articles

The photographers’ gaze: the Mobile Radioisotope Exhibition in Latin America (1960–1965)

ABSTRACT During the IAEA’s Mobile Radioisotope Exhibition (1960–1965) through the eventful roads of five Latin American countries (Mexico, Uruguay, Argentina, Brazil, and Bolivia), a variety of photographs were taken by an unknown Mexican official photographer, and by Josef Obermayer, a staff driver from Vienna. The exhibition carried not only bits of nuclear sciences and technologies, but also the political symbolism of the ‘friendly atom’ as a token of modernization. The photographs embarked on different trajectories, though all of them ended up at the training and exchange official’s desk in charge of the exhibition, Argentinian physicist Arturo Cairo. The ones taken in Mexico also had a local circulation as propaganda intended to promote radioisotope applications. The two sets of images were intended to show the contrast between modernity and traditional society, but they did it from different gazes. Our paper argues that, in the case of Mexico, the photographer reinforced representations of the country which were already popularized by Hollywood for foreign and local audiences. On the other hand, the Viennese photographer’s gaze delivers an autoethnography of his dutiful journey. We also argue that Obermayer’s projection is one of what Roger Bartra has conceptualized as the ‘salvage on the mirror’.

«МЁРТВЫЕ ПРАВЯТ ЖИВЫМИ»: ЛЕНИН КАК АГЕНТ, ОБЪЕКТ И ТЕХНОЛОГИЯ БИОПОЛИТИКИ

Lenin is a unique biopolitical phenomenon. Lenin’s body, on the one hand, turns into a political symbol, and the history of the management of Lenin’s corporeality in the literal and figurative (symbolic) sense has been going on for almost 100 years. On theother hand, Lenin, or rather his cultural simulacra (in literature, painting, cinema, sculpture), turn out to be agents (post-agents) controlling the bodies and time of Soviet/Russian citizens. The purpose of the article: to outline the main directions ofthe analysis of the biopolitical potential of Lenin’s physicality. Results: the main contexts within which it is possible to talk about Lenin’s body as a biopolitical technology are identified. On the one hand, Lenin (or rather his mummy) turns out to be a phenomenon of a single case of biopolitical attention. As Jean Baudrillard wrote, the control of life and death, as well as the division into the living and the dead, the manipulation of death is the basis of any power, and further "here, at this outpostof death, power is formed." On the other hand, the representation of Lenin’s physicality in stories for children can be considered as a biopolitical technology that instills correct bodily techniques in young builders of communism.

The Russian Orthodox Church as an Actor of the Politics of Memory: the Study of Local Theological Discourses (on the Example of the Lipetsk Region)

The article is devoted to the study of local theological discourses of the Russian Orthodox Church in the context of the specifics of the "young regions" of Russia. The application of the methodological ideas of P. Bourdieu, B. Latour and S. Jäger allowed to analyze the specifics of the interaction of the main actors of symbolic politics in the Lipetsk region, as well as to identify the place and role of the Lipetsk Metropolis with each of them. It was revealed that the Lipetsk Metropolis is striving not so much for competition and dominance in the symbolic space of the region, as it is trying to strengthen the religious dimension and interpretation of the history of the region, developing interaction with each of the actors of the politics of memory. This makes it possible to further strengthen the potential of the Metropolis in the rapid mobilization of resources to promote its own memorial projects, which in the region are primarily associated with the restoration of churches and monasteries. The study revealed five main discursive strategies of the Metropolis as an actor in the politics of memory, associated with the desire to present the history of the region as the history of the formation of Orthodoxy, to present the Lipetsk land as the defender of Russia, with active participation in military commemorations, the desire to interpret the important role of the era of Peter I in the development of Russian Orthodoxy, as well as selective criticism of the Soviet historical experience.

СИМВОЛИЧЕСКИЕ РЕСУРСЫ ПОЛИТИЧЕСКОГО ЛИДЕРСТВА ТУРКМЕНИСТАНА

The research article aims to explore the role that symbols of Turkmenistan play in the process of constructing national identity. National symbols, such as flags, official emblems, historical monuments, and cultural symbols, serve as potent instruments in the construction of collective identity and the fostering of a sense of belonging among a country’s citizens. In the case of Turkmenistan, symbols have played a pivotal role since the country’s independence in 1991, as it sought to establish its distinct identity amidst the rapidly evolving socio-political landscape. This research article employs an analytical approach to examine the role of historical and contemporary symbols in the formation of a unified national identity in Turkmenistan. The article examines the various forms of national symbols, including state symbols, traditional national symbols, state events, and propaganda, in order to ascertain the methods employed by the regime to legitimate itself and to enhance its control over society. The author examines the relationship between symbolism and political power in Turkmenistan, noting the direct dependence of the symbolic tools used on the political figure of the leader of Turkmenistan in the post-Soviet period. This is particularly evident in Turkmenistan’s efforts to assert its uniqueness in the context of ongoing political and social change. The symbolic resources analyzed in the article are employed to demonstrate the cultural and national consolidation of the population in the context of foreign policy representation. The symbolic resources utilized also facilitate the domestic political process of legitimizing the regime and consolidating control over the titular nation of the state. The study integrates historical research, cultural analysis, and conclusions derived from Murray Edelman’s theory of symbolic politics.

Decolonial Architecture and Urbanism: Symbolic Formation of Regions in Post-Soviet Russia

Abstract: My research examines post-Soviet architecture in Russia through a postcolonial lens, focusing on decentralization processes from 1990 to 2010. I analyze the role of architecture in the construction of regional and ethnic identities, using classic post- and decolonial theories and concepts on identity and regionalism. In this paper I identify and describe decolonial architectural practices in regions of Russia and their relationship with decentralization and regional autonomous subjectivity. I claim that post-Soviet architecture was a tool in regional symbolic politics that was used by local elites to establish regions as unique and rightful territorial social groups or to challenge the established order. I show, however, the hybridity of such regional architectural practices, which were both empowering and suppressive, decolonial and orientalist. Finally, I propose the new perspective to describe the architecture in regions as "symbolic regimes," linking the local political, economic, and cultural disposition with architectural practice.

ФУТУРИСТИЧНИЙ ЦИФРОВИЙ ЗОБРАЖУВАЛЬНИЙ КОНТЕНТ ЯК ЗАСІБ РОСІЙСЬКОЇ ПРОПАГАНДИ НА ПОЧАТКУ ХХІ СТ.

At the beginning of the XXI century, a noticeable segment of the digital environment of the Russian Federation became a mass representation of visual images advertising its armed expansion with the aim of establishing itself within the borders of the USSR and seizing the territories of other states. Among such digital images, illustrations in the genre of alternative history attract attention. Their purpose is to exert propaganda influence in the youth environment. The authors of these works identify Russia and the Soviet Union and suggest the public users to dream about the topic: "How would the course of world history change if the USSR existed in the 21st century?". Source criticism of these visual sources indicates that they belong to the means of informationpsychological influence, which are an integral part of the Russian-Ukrainian hybrid war. The viewer's subconscious feels the aggressive influence of a visual series of Soviet political symbols in the plot, which uses motifs from wellknown works of mass culture, as well as scenes of violence. As a result, in a viewer is formed a psychological setting for a positive assessment of the historical experience of the USSR and a tolerant attitude towards the heroization of the Soviet totalitarian past. One of the most popular plots of propaganda content is the revival of the Soviet Union as a neo-imperial communist project using advanced military-space technologies and the war of the Russian Federation with NATO. The communities "USSR-2061" and "Russian Space Society" are points of crystallization of supporters of such ideas on the Internet. These communities spread their visual messages on Telegram, Facebook, Twitter, VKontakte, LiveJournal and YouTube. As a carrier of ideological allusions are used digital paintings, made by techniques of concept and promo art. Both types of visual art are widely applied in the process of gamification of the digital space. Therefore, they correspond to the aesthetic tastes of modern youth, turning them into the main object of a visual information attack. The conceptual charge of these arts attaches to the use of historical pictorial symbols: the coat of arms and flag of the USSR, details of the landscape, interior, clothing, weapons, and transport. In the paintings depicting the metropolises of the second half of the 21st century, the viewer sees architectural monuments in the style of the Stalinist Empire. Colorful scenes of battle painting «promise» the viewer the complete destruction by Soviet soldiers of the future world of the «collective West». So, according to the authors of the article, the futuristic visual political message for the Russian regime in the course of the hybrid war turned into one of the means of informationpsychological influence, capable of performing manipulative and campaigning functions both in the Russian Federation and in other countries, that belong to the orbit of its desired political influence. The potential possibilities of using futuristic political messages as an informational weapon necessitate further scientific study of this phenomenon.

A Monument Made of Words? How the Metaphor of “Fortress Europe” Became a Collective Memory (1992-2008)

“Fortress Europe is a polysemic metaphor that was used as a synonym for the protectionist European Single Market from the 1980s. Since 1992, it has increasingly been associated with the European migration regime. Inside the European parliament, “Fortress Europe” was used by pro-European Members of the European Parliament (MEP)s to criticise the restrictive migration policies pushed by the Commission and the Council and turned into a political symbol for the failure to establish a common migration policy. Therefore, the topos was regularly used to provoke emotions, as part of the political game as well as in the press. This emotional connotation made the metaphor particularly suited for visual representations and it became a recurring motive in contemporary art in the early 2000s. Those works were politically charged and blurred the lines between art and activism. Many of them claimed to contribute to the collective memory of the victims of the European migration policies and turned the metaphor into a monument. Finally, the blog “Fortress Europe” shows how the events at the European borders were remembered online in the early 2000s.

作為政治符號的阿克薩清真寺——符號學視角中的清真寺功能嬗變

The Al-Aqsa Mosque in the Old City of Jerusalem was originally an Islamic building. Later in the 20th century, as the Palestinian-Israeli conflict intensified, the religious function of the Al-Aqsa Mosque gradually gave way to a political one, becoming a political symbol of the Palestinian-Israeli conflict, which the Palestinians saw as a symbol of statehood and Israel administered as part of its national territory. The transformation of the Al-Aqsa Mosque from a religious to a political function is not only an expression of its transformation from a religious building to a political symbol, but also a manifestation of the tension between religious culture and the presence of the Al-Aqsa Mosque in the city of Jerusalem as an important reason for its transformation into a political symbol.

A NATIONAL ANTHEM AS A CONSTRUCT OF THE MENTAL SPACE OF NATIONAL IDENTITY

The purpose of the article is to determine the mental space of national identity by analyzing the semantic component of the national anthem. The national anthem can be considered as a social code that forms a citizen and as an ordinary text with its semantic structured levels. The national anthem is a political symbol and therefore forms two meanings: intent and influence. In the study, we combine the theory of mental spaces by G.Fauconnier and Ch.Fillmor’s frames semantics to visualize the conceptual model of Ukrainian national identity. Research results: Designating the national anthem as a patriotic work that describes and symbolizes the history and traditions of the country, we articulate the generation and manifestation of social values by the anthem. Based on this position, the article proposes a conceptual model of the mental space of the Ukrainian national identity, which was initiated by the anthem of Ukraine. The basis of the scheme is a figurative fusion of three macro-worlds: Glory-Ukraine-Freedom, which symbolizes the value component that holds around itself the basic concepts of national identity.The article compares the text of the national anthem «Shche ne vmerla Ukraina…» written by P.Chubinsky and the text edited by M.Verbitsky. The symbolic construction of the text of Chubinsky’s anthem, published in 1963, broadcasts a conceptual model of future actions. The names Zalizniak, Nalyvaiko, Triasylo embody the ideal of Cossack chivalry, past times, which are the basis for future generations to follow. The concept of “national identification borders” includes not only geographical names, the Black Sea, the Carpathians, the Dnipro (in the text «from the Syan to the Don»), but also indexical categories – «inviolability», «integrity of the state», «integrity of the territory», «unitaryness», and as well as symbols embodied in names, for example, Crimea, Odesa, Lviv, Kharkiv. In the context of the semantic analysis of the text of the national anthem, its influence on the mental state of the state is recognized, which is reflected in the global peace index and the global terrorism index. A nation can be presented with ethnic, territorial, cultural, and political components. But there must also be abstract ideas, a mental space that makes it visible.

Propaganda and Political Memes on Social Media in the 2019 Indonesian Presidential Election

Political memes colored the 2019 Indonesian presidential election campaign on social media. Political memes have become one of the propaganda strategies to influence public opinion to gain political support from the public before the presidential election. This study aims to analyze and understand political memes as a medium of political propaganda in the 2019 Indonesian presidential election. This study uses critical discourse analysis to uncover the meaning behind the text. The data collection technique uses documentation in the form of political memes of the two presidential candidates, both in images and political symbols scattered on social media in the January – March 2019 period. Furthermore, the data will be analyzed using Fairclough's critical discourse analysis model to find out the meaning of the text. This study indicates that social media plays an essential role in political communication in the 2019 presidential election campaign. Social media is a cheap and fast means of spreading political memes that reach potential voters widely and massively. Through political memes, Joko Widodo often talks about having links with the Indonesian Communist Party. Meanwhile, Prabowo Subianto is often spoken of by his political opponents as a supporter of the caliphate in Indonesia. These political memes are used as political propaganda to construct or deconstruct political presidential candidates' discourse and build or damage the reputation of presidential candidates to influence public opinion.

Obedience to the symbol of authority: Experimental evidence on the symbolic source of legitimate authority

The performance of government activities, including law enforcement and regulation, depends on whether citizens perceive them as legitimate. Although substantial studies have explored the institutional sources of legitimacy, how non-institutional factors affect perceived legitimacy remains unclear. Human societies have a long history of employing symbolic icons to enhance the legitimacy of a given authority. This study reports a laboratory experiment of public goods that investigates whether (and to what extent) symbolic factors enhance perceived legitimacy. In the contexts of various incentive schemes and transparency levels, an “authority” in each group decides whether to target a “citizen” for punishment after observing the contributions of “citizens,” and untargeted citizens then choose to support or hinder the authority. A symbolic scepter is issued to the authority in the treated group, whereas this symbol is absent in the control group. The experimental results suggest that the political symbol significantly enhances the authority's legitimacy regardless of the payment scheme and information transparency. A further analysis shows that the political symbol is not associated with the authority's choices regarding enforcement. Rather, the symbol's effect on perceived legitimacy is primarily driven by the citizens' side—that is, the increasing intrinsic tendency to support authority.

THE IMAGE OF GAREGIN NZHDEH IN ARMENIAN AND RUSSIAN COLLECTIVE MEMORY: SYMBOLIC CONFLICT IN URBAN SPACE (BASED ON RESEARCH IN ARMAVIR AND KRASNODAR)

This article analyzes the symbolic aspects of the protracted conflict in Armavir between the city authorities and the leadership of Armavir branch of the Union of Armenians of Russia (from 2012 to 2019) in connection with the installation of a memorial plaque near the Armenian church in honor of the political figure Garegin Nzhdeh. The analysis of the conflict from the perspective of the concept of "symbolic politics" allowed us to identify some specifics of the policy of remembrance carried out by the Armenian diaspora in Russia. The conflict was caused by the different perception of Garegin Nzhdeh's image in the Russian and Armenian cultural memory. For the collective memory of the Russian Armenians Nzhdeh is primarily a national hero, who fought for the independence of Armenia. In the Russian collective memory Nzhdeh is only a politician, who collaborated with the Nazi Germany during the Second World War. As the study showed, during the conflict Armenian and Russian activists used different kinds of memory policy strategies ("symbolic erasure", "symbolic camouflage" and "reformatting" of the previously created memorial space). The study also revealed some structural peculiarities of the collective, cultural and functional memory of Russian Armenians. In particular, the study showed that the collective memory of Russian Armenians has the character of an amalgam, which combines uncomplementary elements of Russian and Armenian collective, cultural memory.

Corruption and pensosity

Corruption is a complex system. Corruptors operate on the material and cognitive levels to insert corruption into the shared ethos.The aim is to reflect on corruption in Western democracy, through an ethical, philosophical-political and anthropological understanding, with regard to subjectification, linked to identity and belonging that psychoanalysis and political symbolism investigate.The methodology will be multidisciplinary.The fertile ground for corruption is the lack of development of “thoughtfulness”, an interior and relational space in which, starting from the caregiver’s relationship with the infant, the conscious and responsible subject is built. For Mary Douglas it is necessary to study identity and belonging of a family or individualistic type.

Archaic archetypes and symbols of the Ukrainian and Russian peoples: to debunk the myth of a single people

The article models the protocultural fields of the archetypal-mythological memory of Ukrainians and Russians as consisting of divergent elements. The core of the fields are archaic cultural archetypes and archetypal motifs “mother”, “field”, “plowman”, “labor”, “individualism”, and “equality” for Ukrainians, and “father”, “distance”, “vastness”, “inertia”, “collectivism”, and “submission” for Russians. The сore archetypes determine the differences in the ethnic mentality of two peoples and can enter the subsequent semiospheres and political mythology without significant adaptation, transforming into symbols of national identity. The periphery is formed by archetypes common, but re-articulated in subsequent semiospheres to be adapted to national narratives of different periods. The general archetype Sacred space was associated in the archaic consciousness of Ukrainians with the “House”, symbolizing the maternal principle and the Motherland, while the Russians embodied this archetype in the symbols of the Holy Mountain, metonymically expanded to the symbols of “Holy Rus”, Heartland, Rimland, defining the motif of messianism in symbolic politics of Russia. The archetype of the Hero is manifested in Ukrainian folklore by the images of the legendary plowmen, who conquer the steppe elements from the nomads, while in the Russian ethnic consciousness it is interpreted as the Messiah-Savior of the world.

The counter-boomerang effect of transnational revisionist activism on the memory of ‘comfort women’

This article focuses on the mechanism of the global memory politics revolving around the issue of ‘comfort women’, who were sexually exploited and abused by the Japanese military during the Asia-Pacific War (1931–1945). Informed by the ‘boomerang effect’ of transnational advocacy networks, this article analyses how the counter-boomerang effect of transnational denialist networks, both from above and below, has challenged the concerted efforts of moral memory activists in solidarity to disseminate the issue of ‘comfort women’ as one of universal human rights. It concludes that the revisionist network has adopted four tactics similar to those exercised by transnational advocacy networks – ‘information politics’ ‘symbolic politics’, ‘leverage politics’ and ‘accountability politics’ – however, their manoeuvres are totally different from those in the original boomerang effect.

Disasters in the Anthropocene: a storm in a teacup?

Dramatic alterations to the natural environment due to human activity have produced a permanent rupture in the Earth system; the relative stable epoch of the Holocene has given way to a volatile Anthropocene. Acceptance of these claims means that we now live in this altered physical reality, inviting us to rethink how we conceptualise disasters. Yet, disaster scholars have been hesitant to apply the Anthropocene label and to acknowledge the profound changes that it can bring to the study of disasters. This paper queries whether this label is a necessary adage or unnecessary baggage for disaster studies by examining the possibilities and the challenges associated with engaging with the Anthropocene. An analysis of the concepts, causes, and consequences of disasters reveals how the Anthropocene provides, as the very least, a theoretical heuristic for challenging linear temporal assumptions, the epistemological status of uncertainty, and the location of agency in disaster studies.

The Guerrilla Gallery: A Rapid Ethnography about a Collaborative Public Art Installation in East Harlem

In the heart of East Harlem, New York City, a collective of artists called the Harlem Art Collective created the “Guerrilla Gallery”: A collaborative public art installation on a construction fence, to give residents a place to express themselves through art and messages. While East Harlem is characterized by murals depicting Puerto Rican flags and political causes, these symbols were absent in the Guerrilla Gallery, which instead exhibited predominantly Mexican cultural and political symbols. Was a territorial contestation taking place through art, a sort of identity negotiation to determine who “belongs” in the neighborhood? (Zukin, 1995) This article presents an ethnographic and photographic narrative of the Guerrilla Gallery and what it means to the people who live in the neighborhood. Using rapid ethnographic assessment procedures (Low et al., 2005), coupled with photographic cartography (Ulmer, 2017), this study presents the findings of interviews and the Guerrilla Gallery. The analysis revealed that, although there were instances of aesthetic conflict occurring in the gallery, these were not exclusively related to national cultures; gender and racial conflicts were also observed. Strong expressions of aesthetic empathy were also identified in the artwork. The Guerrilla Gallery became a meaningful space for the community in East Harlem, who not only appreciated it because of its aesthetic value and the possibility of expression it offers, but also because residents were able to connect with their roots, strengthen their local identity and pride, express empathy and solidarity with other social groups in the neighborhood or in faraway places, and resist changes or policies that affected their everyday lives.

THE IMAGE OF THE VAMPIRE IN WORLD AND LATVIAN LITERATURE

The theme of the article is evolution of the popular folklore image of the vampire in world literature. From the monster of folk narrative the image of the vampire entered literary culture at the beginning of the 19th century when writers of the age of Romanticism sought material for their work in folk tales. The novel “Dracula” written by the Irish writer Bram Stoker set a large part of attributes for the image of the vampire in readers’ consciousness. It became a turning point in the evolution of the vampire. In the following years the vampire was a popular symbol in the 20th century literary experiments; however, it gained a considerable fame with a more rapid spreading of the cinema. Later, until the second half of the 20th century the image of the vampire was degraded to the level of a cheap horror monster. In the 1970s it was revived by the American writer Anne Rice in her series of novels “The Vampire Chronicles”. For the time being the latest tendency in the evolution of the vampire is represented by the novels of paranormal romance subgenre intended for young adults. In these novels the vampire has assumed the aura of a romantic character. In comparison with world literature vampire has not won a massive popularity in the novels of Latvian writers; however, some authors have occasionally used this image in their works. The image of the vampire appears in Latvian literature as a classical blood sucking monster, as a political symbol and also as a romantic hero in fantasy and adventure novels for young people. As we can see, the presence of the image of the vampire in Latvian writing reflects the same tendencies that have dominated world literature on a smaller scale. For this reason Latvian literature can be considered to be an interesting testimony of literary connections in the world.

La configuración del populismo en México mediante la comunicación presidencial. Un análisis del discurso político de AMLO

Since his arrival to the presidency, Andrés Manuel López Obrador (AMLO) has maintained a particular communication strategy never seen before in those who preceded him in power, marking a before and after in terms of presidential communication in Mexico. A preponderant place in said strategy has been occupied by his political discourse, which has significantly permeated those who support his project of the Fourth Transformation, by virtue of the fact that his rhetoric is direct and uses simple words with a vanguard political symbolism, taking up the problems that have damaged the Mexican people for decades, among which the corruption in public institutions, the control of power by the elites and the inequality between social classes stand out. Derived from the above, this research is approached through a qualitative approach, based on the political analysis of Ernesto Laclau's speech.

Of acknowledgement, manners and multicultural democratic society

ABSTRACT Clayton Chin and Geoffrey Brahm Levey’s article “Recognition as acknowledgment” offers a timely proposal to address a dimension of multicultural democracy – symbolic politics – that they take to have been neglected by liberal theorists of multicultural rights as well as theorists of recognition. I approach this argument, first, by taking up Chin and Levey’s argument in relation to an argument advanced by Jacob Levy in his essay “Multicultural manners” which also aims to address issues that are not well-captured by the rights or recognition approaches in order to bring into focus the issue of social belonging. This discussion will serve to provide a basis for a second focus on the salience of the politics of the border and of citizenship for symbolic politics in order to raise some questions about how a concern with forms of symbolic exclusion necessarily engages issues of territorial and civic inclusion and exclusion.