Silent Resistance Research Articles

Silent Dissent: Exploring Russian Civic Activism as a Form of Opposition to the War in Ukraine

ABSTRACT This paper examines how Russian citizens use nonpolitical civic activities to dissent against the war in Ukraine, based on James Scott’s idea of silent resistance. By studying a Telegram group helping Ukrainian war refugees, it explores the motivations and reasons for individuals’ involvement. The paper shows that loyal civic activism can be a form of opposition when protest or emigration is not possible. It highlights new trends in Russian civil society’s anti-war initiatives since the war began, emphasizing the rise of grassroots non-formalized activism amid increasing political repression and the decline of democracy under Putin.

ВІДЧУТТЯ МІСЦЯ ЯК ЧИННИК СТІЙКОСТІ ГРОМАДИ МІСТА (ДОСЛІДЖЕННЯ НА ПРИКЛАДІ МІСТА СЛАВУТИЧ, УКРАЇНА)

The importance of the sense of place issue lies in its ability to enhance the community's resilience in addressing current situational and strategic tasks related to the cohesion of residents in the face of natural, social, or military challenges. To achieve a sense of place on a collective level, it is necessary to appeal to the unique and important characteristics of a place for its residents. This includes an authentic spirit and character of place that can influence the cognitive, behavioral, and emotional dimensions of the relationship between people and places. The research goal is to investigate the influence of a sense of place on the development of a cohesive and resilient community, using the city of Slavutych as an example. Despite facing various challenges, the city has consistently demonstrated a strong sense of unity and local patriotism based on past experiences. The community of Slavutych experienced the most recent challenge during the blockade and temporary occupation in March 2022, when the city was able to drive out the russian invaders as a result of a peaceful rally, self-organization of residents, and silent resistance by Chornobyl nuclear power plant workers. This reactive participation led to an active rethinking of local meanings and contexts of sense of place. Using the example of Slavutych city, we demonstrate how two groups of factors of a sense of place (physical features and cognitive and perceptual factors) determine the infrastructural, economic, ecological, institutional, social and competence dimensions of community resilience. Based on the results of a long-term study of the city using methods of observation, surveys, in-depth interviews, and expert analysis, the article emphasizes that community cohesion manifests itself differently in peacetime and during wartime challenges. However, in both cases, it is based on a strong sense of place, solidarity, and the establishment of informal social networks. Clearly understanding the uniqueness and exclusivity of Slavutych as an ideal satellite city of a nuclear power plant, the youngest and most comfortable city in Ukraine, we believe that community cohesion during the war is a typical phenomenon of national scale for all Ukrainian communities.

The silent resistance: An ethnographic study of the use of silence to resist accounting and managerialization

This paper introduces silence as a form of resistance. Critical accounting studies portrayed resistance in terms of visibility and voice, and silence as a passive reaction from marginalized groups unable to speak, deprived of ‘voice’. Instead, we draw on an ethnographic study to follow various resisting strategies drawing on silence to actively undermine accounting technologies and practices. We draw on Scott’s infrapolitics and introduce silence as a strategic act, constitutive of power relations yet with multiple and situated meanings. We argue that silence acts both to forge a form of contestation that dares not speak its name and to constitute a space for the development of an alternative conduct to reclaim independence. Specifically, we identify four tactics using silence as a form of resistance – silence to escape accountability and control; silence to negotiate an alternative; silence to reclaim independence; and silence to retain power and authority. We then discuss the potential and limits of such silent resistance to support the emergence of alternative conducts.

University student voters’ resistance to money politics

The practice of money politics damages the essence of fairness in democracy. It can encourage abnormalities in democracy if its practice is seen as acceptable by young voters. The perceptions and reactions of young voters about money politics can influence the implementation of democracy and fair state politics. This study aimed to examine the practice of money politics among young student voters in Surabaya and their resistance to it. This study also attempted to respond to a gap in the literature regarding resistance to money politics among young voters. The research method consisted of two stages; first, exploring the responses of young voters about money politics through focus group discussions, and second, specifically using the phenomenological method with various empirical experiences and individual awareness regarding various actions and responses to the practice of money politics. This study found that young student voters carried out acts of resistance to money politics but not with real resistance. Instead, they showed silent resistance. The resistance was shown through taking the act of not voting in the election as a form of distrust toward the candidates, and other actions such as taking counter-adaptive actions by accepting the money given but not choosing candidates who carried out money politics. The rationality of novice voters in rejecting money politics was driven by good political values but their lack of ability to put up a fight encouraged silent resistance.

Problems of trade and provision in the daily life of rural regions residents of Central Kazakhstan during 1964-1985

The article discusses the place of trade and supply in the Soviet system, based on a planned economy, and the impact of changes in the daily life of rural regions. The research paper used archival documents and interview materials that were first introduced into scientific circulation. Since the Soviet trade and supply system, which did not take into account demand, could not fully provide the common population with types of goods, the qualities of the “Soviet man” in everyday life always helped to find a way out of the difficult, and the solution of the problem was carried out in the system of institutional and beyond structures. The article takes into account the disadvantages and advantages of providing local differences between districts and types of goods, reflects changes in taste and innovations in human needs. Nomenclature with low interest and zeal for the cause in Soviet institutions, as in other fields of activity of the Soviet era, the most important thing is an ordinary “Soviet man” with the desire to satisfy his basic needs in a rigid state and ideological system are given by examples of rural areas. The primary sources of the habits formation, which in most life situations first give importance to informal contacts, are indicated by clear evidence. In conclusion, it was concluded that the supply of the rural population with consumer goods was completely subordinated to the state, the place of shortages was covered by informal contacts and relations on the local ground, and the common people fought the deficit through the methods of “silent resistance”

The catastrophe of blazing forests, hills in flame and the failing British during 1916-1921

One of the fair, straightforward and challenging task before the present academicians is to resurrect for posterity the hidden accounts of injustices done, mass-destruction of resources both natural and human, crimes committed by the colonial masters under the pretext of rules and regulations that were framed only for continued exploitation and the element of protest amongst the colonized people for protection of men and environment. “Acts” of protest lesser known; that may be individual or autonomous have hidden repercussions. The growing control of the colonials over resources and territories affected living traditions and life-styles thereby imposing upon the natives; be it masses or the rulers, a repressive process of acceptance and submission either coercively or persuasively. Denial to conform had its own dangers yet the living consciousness of natives opposed restrictions and absurd demands at every step. During 1916-1921, the hills of Kumaon saw incessant fire that would continue for days informed to be caught by accident to the British administration which in reality would be set ablaze by the village people of the hilly regions of Kumaon. The same men/women, who had post-independence, started the Chipko Movement for the protection of forest-wealth used to burn their forests overnight to protest against the Forest Regulation Act imposed by the British. The village women who in the Chipko movement would cling to trees to oppose their vehement destruction would silently watch the whole region burn. This form of silent resistance added to the increasing administrative failures, enormous anxiety, discomfiture and apprehensions amidst the Britons. In this paper, I propose a re-engagement into the Forest Regulations Act as imposed and the active resistance of the hill people who were stereotyped as “simple and law-abiding hillman” as there was an absence of protest in the first century of British rule. A revisionist remaking of the past and re-invention of a new tradition becomes an act of creation. History, as retained in the memories of the people, contains symbolic power. They become the symbolic projections of peoples’ hope, values, fears and aspirations.

Black Ecological Vibrations

Black Ecological Vibrations

«КУЛЬТУРА МОВЧАННЯ» ЯК ІНСТРУМЕНТ «ПОЛІТИКИ ГОЛОСУ»

The «culture of silence», as well as the «politics of the voice», are interpreted differently in the Eastern and Western traditions. For example, in Japanese culture, silence acts as a spiritual practice and is evidence of a person's level of education. In archaic cultures, silence was also part of a person's spiritual path, his formation, and his search for himself. It is characteristic of a Western person to consider silence in a slightly different way. For her, silence, first of all, is a sign of inability to express oneself, one's position, etc. That is why in Western culture preference is given to the voice as a confirmation of one's will. The key opposition underlying European culture is the binary of sound and its absence. European culture attached great importance to the word. Speaking for a European means, first of all, self-defense and self-affirmation, defending oneself and one's place in the social structure, and accordingly silence is perceived, as a rule, in three modes: or as something abnormal; or as a sign of surrender; or as an attack on another person expressed in a certain way. For Europeans, a person who does not give voice, a will that is not expressed by voice, in the social sense is equal to zero. Precisely because of this, power structures that operate only by voice, on the one hand, do not perceive gestures of silence, or if they do, it is only as a sign of consent, and on the other hand, they are the voice they fear, bow to and which admit. That is precisely why, based on the analyzed material, we come to the conclusion that silence is not always golden. For a government that only pursues the «politics of the voice» a person's silence indicates nothing but consent and submission. Silent resistance means absolutely nothing to the power structures. And in a person who gradually gets used to only perceiving the voice of the conditionally stronger, the experience of resistance, the experience of expressing personal will gradually atrophies, he is drawn into a paranoid tendency and fear of being revealed or visible.

Silent resistance against social pressures in China

For over half a year now, Du Min has grown into her new semi-routine: in the mornings, she sets up her artifacts shop—a rug spread on the sidewalk with some handmade wallets she only recently learned how to make—on the streets of Dali in Yunnan, China. Depending on her mood, she might roll up the rug at any time and just chill in this picturesque town. “I quit my job as a fabrics factory worker a few months ago and have been roaming around the country doing random things or sometimes nothing,” Du told The Lancet Child & Adolescent Health. “I like this—being free.”

New Media and Revolution: Resistance and Dissent in Pre-Uprising Syria

New Media and Revolution: Resistance and Dissent in Pre-Uprising Syria

Taktik Bertahan Pemuda Minoritas: Perlawanan Diam dan Mimikri Pemuda Aboge di Lembaga Pendidikan

Artikel ini mengungkap bahwa dalam merespons diskriminasi beragama yang menimpanya selama belajar di lembaga pendidikan, pemuda Aboge tak menerimanya dengan pasrah. Alih-alih diam dan menerima menjadi sasaran labeling heresy di lembaga pendidikan, pemuda Aboge mengembangkan beragam survival tactics dan meresponsnya dengan melakukan mimikri dan perlawanan diam. Bentuknya, pertama, melakukan mimikri dalam multiple identity, antara NU dan Aboge. Kedua, berpura-pura sedang menstruasi sebagai bentuk kamuflase di pesantren namun diam-diam salat dan baru memulai puasa Ramadan ala Aboge keesokan harinya. Ketiga, berpura-pura melakukan ibadah sunah untuk mengesankan keesokan harinya dirinya telah mulai “puasa wajib” Ramadan bersama mayoritas. Artikel ini adalah hasil penelitian kualitatif dengan teknik wawancara mendalam yang menempatkan mimikri Homi K. Bhabha dan perlawanan diam James C. Scott sebagai teori, dan pos kolonial sebagai pendekatan. Hasil studi ini mengungkap bahwa meski salah seorang pemuda Aboge belajar di tengah lanskap komunitas ordinat kampus Muhammadiyah, ia tak menjadi obyek subordinat. Mereka melakukan kamuflase dengan mimikri menggunakan identitas ordinat Muhammadiyah serta memanfaatkan in-between space untuk dapat survive. Nampaknya, pemuda Aboge justru menciptakan ruang baru dengan mengkonstruksi identitas lain secara artifisial, yakni mimikri dengan identitas NU sebagai taktik bertahan. Kertas kerja ini menghasilkan sebuah implikasi penting dalam studi poskolonial, yakni ruang ketiga yang berbeda dengan in-between space yang ditawarkan Homi K. Bhabha. Ruang ketiga yang diciptakan pemuda Aboge adalah ruang identitas baru yang tak mengadopsi identitas kultural penjajah dan terjajah, karena pemuda Aboge meminjam identitas NU untuk melakukan mimikri saat menghadapi sang ordinat.

Counter-hegemony of the East Java Biennale art community against the domination of hoax content reproduction

This research analyses and describes in detail how the digital biennale activities that are a part of the Indonesian Digital art community has become a form of criticism and silent resistance to the social hegemony. It refers to the ideology, norms, rules, and myths that exist in modern society in Indonesia, especially the reproduction of hoax content. Hoax refers to the logic people who live in a world of cyber media with all of its social implications. This phenomenon is a problem, and it is at the heart of the exploration of the art community in East Java Biennale. The critical social theory perspective of Gramsci’s theory forms the basis of this research analysis. The qualitative research approach used a digital ethnomethodology research method focused on the online and offline social movements in the Biennale Art Community. The data collection techniques used were observation and non-active participation in the process of reproduction-related to the exhibition of Indonesian Biennale digital artworks. It was then analyzed using Gramsci’s hegemony theory. The purpose of this study was to describe the process of social movements in a digital format conducted by the Indonesian Biennale when reproducing works of art to counteract the dominance and hegemony of the Hoax phenomenon in Indonesia. The benefit of this research was that it obtained a preposition of Gramsci’s hegemony theory in the world of digital art as created by contemporary Indonesian Biennale artists. Digital technology has had a tremendous effect on the media industry, government, trade, informal industry sector, human resources, urban planning, services, disaster relief, health, education, religion, artistic and cultural expression, in addition to various other fields. The conclusion obtained from this research is that there is a formation of a new hegemony, a digital hegemony. This new hegemony is of particular concern for the digital artists in East Java Biennale. Through the digital format works, the artists also try to communicate their art as a form of silent resistance, protest, and criticism of the hegemony that occurs in society, referring to the ideology, norms, and myths. It can be called a digital counter-hegemony.s

Deaf Republic: Poemas traduzidos

Deaf Republic, de 2019, é uma obra que desafia gêneros; os poemas sobre os moradores da cidade de Vasenka e sua resistência silenciosa à repressão tecem um épico moderno, teatral e distópico. Através deste trabalho, são traduzidos pela primeira vez poemas do autor Ilya Kaminsky para o português. Buscando representar o caráter completo da narrativa, mas trazer também trechos que se sustentam por si só, foram escolhidos os poemas de abertura e fechamento, além de poemas sobre os principais personagens de Vasenka. Além disso, foram selecionados tanto os temas de horror, estupor e culpa diante da brutalidade, quanto da estranha e contínua beleza das relações humanas, um difícil balanço alcançado com maestria no trabalho de Kaminsky.

The Gendered Networking of Diplomats

Summary The aim of this study is to contribute to a deeper understanding of the gendered condi- tions under which diplomats network. We still have limited knowledge of how female diplomats network when serving abroad in strongly male-dominated contexts. To what extent do they experience token tendencies (visibility, assimilation and contrast) and how are these tendencies perceived to affect their access to important contacts? Based on 28 interviews with diplomats and civil servants from the Swedish Ministry for Foreign Affairs (MFA), this study compares how female and male diplomats are expected and perceived to network. The results indicate that the greater visibility of female diplomats makes them assimilate to a stereotypical gender role that closely resembles that of diplomatic wives. Women thus legitimise their presence in the MFA and make it less intrusive. Still, they experience contrast in silent resistance and con- stant reminders of their presence in a gender-inappropriate profession.

Soybean Resistance to Soybean Mosaic Virus.

Soybean mosaic virus (SMV) occurs in all soybean-growing areas in the world and causes huge losses in soybean yields and seed quality. During early viral infection, molecular interactions between SMV effector proteins and the soybean resistance (R) protein, if present, determine the development of resistance/disease in soybean plants. Depending on the interacting strain and cultivar, R-protein in resistant soybean perceives a specific SMV effector, which triggers either the extreme silent resistance or the typical resistance manifested by hypersensitive responses and induction of salicylic acid and reactive oxygen species. In this review, we consider the major advances that have been made in understanding the soybean–SMV arms race. We also focus on dissecting mechanisms SMV employs to establish infection and how soybean perceives and then responds to SMV attack. In addition, progress on soybean R-genes studies, as well as those addressing independent resistance genes, are also addressed.

CHARACTER IS A SACRED BOND

Law clings to rules to stabilize a preferred normative reality. But rules never suffice. Character is the dark matter of law. Ethos anthropos daimon. “Character is fate.” This paradoxically reversible saying by the ancient Greek philosopher Heraclitus asserts that we are defined by the daimon – the god or messenger angel – with which we identify most. As Plato queried in the Phaedrus: which god do you follow, whose love claims you? In contemporary terms we might say, what character type, what emotional ideal, what deep story do you hold most sacred? Out of the maelstrom that is the state of exception, choices must be made. What emotional field shall we occupy when we do politics and law? Bound by what sovereign values or ideals, embodied within what sort of character, emplotted in what sort of political or legal narrative? In synergy with culture, character plays out the emotional conflicts and aspirations of the time. Whether we witness this in the mostly silent resistance of unassimilable characters like Barnardine in Shakespeare’s Measure for Measure or in the silent prayer of nineteen-year-old Emma Gonzalez, in public protest against uncontrolled gun violence in American schools, we are all called upon, as citizens in public life, to occupy an emotional space that attains centrality within deep narratives that vie for political dominance. Reverse engineering liberal society, we might ask: what emotional and character ideals are optimal in order for a particular kind of political society to arise and be sustained? There is a reciprocal (perhaps paradoxically fungible) relationship between the sovereign authority of law and the character ideals that express a capacity and willingness to accept that authority. What will the configuration be? Addressing this question constitutes the ethical, esthetic, and epistemological calling of our time.

Hidden Voices and Gothic Undertones: Slavery and Folklore of the American South

African American folklore embodies themes of the Tropical Gothic. It has an air of mystery as it has a deeper meaning underneath the different layers of plot. Folklore of the American South represents the darkness of the slavery period and its implications for African Americans. This article discusses two folklore collections: Uncle Remus, His Songs and His Sayings: The Folk lore of the Old Plantation by Joel Chandler Harris, and From My People: 400 Years of Folklore by Daryl Cumber Dance. Both collections illuminate the ways in which West African oral tradition became a source of empowerment, courage and wisdom for the enslaved African Americans. Folk stories served as a means of silent resistance and preserved the cultural heritage of African Americans.

Neoliberalism at work: Corporate reforms, subjectivity, and post-Toyotist affect in Japan

This article analyzes how the Japanese state and corporations promoted neoliberal restructuring and how employees responded to and reflected upon such changes. I show how neoliberal reforms have aimed to produce greater flexibility for corporations and promote a specific mode of control—“self-management”—among employees. However, rather than rationalizing and legitimizing risk and becoming self-regulating “enterprising selves,” many employees displayed a reflexive and reactive subjectivity that eschewed such neoliberal values. The reaction of many individuals to reforms in Japan can best be understood as “silent resistance” through a combination of discrete competition, turning inward, and stronger desires for stability and security. Economic restructuring thus produced a new kind of “alienation” characterized by narrowing corporate welfare and the breakdown of corporate community. At the same time, employees’ critical reflections reveal a post-Toyotist affect marked by retrenched desires for security and control under the changing national and global economy. Rather than a new, unprecedented subjectivation, the Japanese case of risk-aversive reflexive reaction reveals how existing cultural complexes produce different forms of subjectivity in response to reforms. Further, this nuances our understandings of how the kinds of subjectivities that emerge via the diverse processes of neoliberalization are always contingent upon the multiscalar historical and cultural contexts of work, responsibility, and risk.

Plasmid-mediated fluoroquinolone resistance associated with extra-intestinal Escherichia coli isolates from hospital samples.

Background & objectives:Infection from fluoroquinolone-resistant extra-intestinal Escherichia coli is a global concern. In this study, isolation and characterization of fluoroquinolone-resistant extra-intestinal E. coli isolates obtained from hospital samples were undertaken to detect plasmid-mediated quinolone resistance (PMQR) genes.Methods:Forty three isolates of E. coli obtained from patients with extra-intestinal infections were subjected to antibiogram to detect fluoroquinolone resistance. The mechanism of fluoroquinolone resistance was determined by the detection of PMQR genes and mutations in quinolone resistance determining region (QRDR).Results:Of the 43 isolates, 36 were resistant to nalidixic acid (83.72%) and 28 to ciprofloxacin (65.11%). Eight E. coli isolates showed total resistance to both the antimicrobials without any minimum inhibitory concentration. The detection of PMQR genes with qnr primers showed the presence of qnrA in two, qnrB in six and qnrS in 21 isolates. The gene coding for quinolone efflux pump (qepA) was not detected in any of the isolates tested. The presence of some unexpressed PMQR genes in fluoroquinolone sensitive isolates was also observed.Interpretation & conclusions:The detection of silent PMQR genes as observed in the present study presents a risk of the transfer of the silent resistance genes to other microorganisms if present in conjugative plasmids, thus posing a therapeutic challenge to the physicians. Hence, frequent monitoring is to be done for all resistance determinants.

Silent Resistance in Malaysia: Changing Mindsets as a Form of New Radical Politics

본고는 ‘이슬람화(化)’가 저항을 마비시킨 양극화된 말레이시아 사회의 급진 정치의 미래를 탐구한다. 무력화된 공적 영역에서 저항이 새로운 공간과 전략을 찾아야만 한다는 것이 본고의 요지다. ‘아시아 간 패러다임(inter Asia paradigm)’을 통한 이론적 혁신과 말레이시아 도시 지역의 대중 종교 및 미술 실천 사례를 원용하여 수면 아래의 일상적 · 개인적 차원에서 일어나고 있는 조용한 저항이 (동남) 아시아 지역에서 오랜 기간 통용된 윤리 전통을 재구성하면서 급진 정치의 새로운 기반을 위한 사고방식이 부활할 잠재력이 있다고 주장한다. 이는 그러한 윤리 전통을 통해 횡민족적 · 횡문화적이며 활기찬 과거를 복원하고 자아와 공동체에 가해지는 패권의 압력을 비판적으로 검토할 수 있는 역량을 되찾을 수 있기 때문이다. 이러한 조용한 실천은 급진 정치가 의식적인 자기 변환에서부터 시작해야 함을 보여준다.