Fabian Heffermehl, researcher at the University of Oslo, reviews The Post-Soviet Politics of Utopia: Language, Fiction and Fantasy in Modern Russia edited by Mikhail Suslov and Per Arne Bodin.
Abstract in English: Crossing the Boundary into the Russian "Imagined Community". "Language", "Culture" and "Religion" in Russian Media Discourse on the Integration of ImmigrantsJussi Lassila reviews Christine Myrdahl Lukash' doctoral dissertation Crossing the Boundary into the Russian "Imagined Community". "Language", "Culture" and "Religion" in Russian Media Discourse on the Integration of Immigrants. The dissertation analyses how the Russian 'imagined community' is represented in the 2000–2015 Russian media discourse on the integration of immigrants, and the role of 'language', 'culture' and 'identity' in this respect. Also, it compares this media discourse with the presidential discourse of the same period.
Abstract: Language policy in Slovakia and the Czech Republic after 1993The establishment of the Czech Republic and the Slovak Republic in 1993 sparked challenges for language policy in the two new states. From a linguistic point of view, the Czech and Slovak languages are very similar but the language situations in the two countries differ: Slovakia is home to two sizable linguistic minorities (Hungarian and Romani), whereas Czechia houses several small minority languages. Applying Robert L. Cooper's and Joshua A. Fishman's analytical categories and focusing on the activities of national politicians and prominent linguists, this article examines status and corpus planning in the two countries. In Slovakia, politicians have engaged intensely in status planning, focused on legislating Slovak as a state language. The establishment of a state language opened for political interference in corpus planning. In Czechia, status planning started out from a liberal platform in the 1990s, and interest mainly focused on corpus planning. Hotly debated questions of corpus planning put Czech linguistic authorities on the defensive. Increasingly, adaptations to the charters and conventions of the European Council have co-shaped both countries' language policy. During the period analyzed here, Slovakia has seen the linguistic standardization of Rusyn and Romani, and linguists in both countries have advanced their theoretical understanding of corpus planning.
Boken Nationalism as an Argument in Contemporary Russia: Four Perspectives on Language in Action er Veera Laines ph.d.-avhandling som hun forsvarte ved Universitetet i Helsingfors i 2021. Den består av tre artikler, et bokkapittel og en lang og grundig innledningstekst. Alt i alt har Laine skrevet en solid, veldokumentert og teoretisk velfundert avhandling. The book Nationalism as an Argument in Contemporary Russia: Four Perspectives on Language in Action is Vera Laine's PhD dissertation which she defended at the University of Helsinki in 2021. It contains three research articles, one book chapter and a long and thorough introductory part. All things considered, Laine has written a solid, well-documented and theoretically well-founded dissertation.
Abstract: Russia as Civilization: Ideological Discourses in Politics, Media, and AcademiaPål Kolstø (University of Oslo, Department of Literature, Area Studies and European Languages) reviews Russia as Civilization: Ideological Discourses in Politics, Media, and Academia, edited by Kåre Johan Mjør and Sanna Turoma (Routledge, 2020).
The Accommodation of Regional and Ethno-cultural Diversity in Ukraine är sprungen ur ett högaktuellt norskt-ukrainskt forskningsprojekt som innehåller mycket matnyttigt material för den som forskar om de senaste årens ukrainska språk- och regionpolitik.
The Accommodation of Regional and Ethno-cultural Diversity in Ukraine is the product of a timely Ukrainian–Norwegian research project. It presents materials and analyses very useful for researchers of Ukraine's language and regional policies of recent years.
Denna festskrift innehåller tio informativa artiklar, mest om Georgien, dess språk, historia och samhälle, men också om tjerkesserna och Tjetjenien i det ryska Nordkaukasus, samt om det armeniska folkmordet. De flesta artiklarna är skrivna av georgiska och svenska forskare som är eller varit knutna till forskningsplattformen The Russia and Caucasus Regional Research (RUCARR) vid Malmö universitet.
This Festschrift contains ten informative chapters, mainly about Georgia, its language, history and society, but also about the Circassians and Chechnya in the Russian North Caucasus, as well as the Armenian genocide. Most of the contributions are written by Georgian and Swedish scholars associated with the Russia and the Caucasus Regional Research (RUCARR) platform at Malmö University.
In 2019, the Swedish government officially switched terminology from using the traditional endogenous term Vitryssland to the exogenous Belarus. Vitryssland (lit: White Russia) had been in use in the Swedish language since the 17th century, and the decision was neither easy nor swift. There was no consensus about the utility of the change, and significant opposition from linguists and editors against abandoning a term which had emerged and become established over centuries of contact. The debate preceding the switch was often shrill, led by activists and steeped in identity politics. In fact, controversies regarding what to call the country were nothing new, highlighting diverging visions of its geopolitical and cultural position between East and West. Discussions mirrored the far more emotional and polarized discussions among Belarusian nationalists in the 20th century, which at times became violent. Kryvia, Byelorussia, Greatlitva were but some of contenders. This article is an attempt to place discussions about the Swedish terminology in the larger context of history, memory, geopolitics and identity politics.
The article explores how the Russo–Norwegian espionage debacle involving former border inspector Frode Berg was collectively and fragmentarily narrated by Russian online commenters. Through a digital ethnographic case study of user-driven segments on the Russian-language Internet (RuNet) – notably Live Journal and RT comment sections – this article shows how online narratives about the case involved participatory production by heterogeneous, polyphonous constellations of users. Analysing Russian online comments as network narratives, the article examines how Norway (as well as NATO and the West more broadly) has been construed on RuNet, where propaganda is ubiquitous, and where trolls, bots, vatniki and 'everyone else' continuously clash. Commenters' discussions of the Berg case reflect Kremlin-controlled narratives of Norway as an ambiguous actor associated with a high degree of ambivalence, but network narratives also reveal tensions, inconsistencies and contestation of the Russian antagonist discourse on Norway. More broadly, the study highlights how interactive digital narrative can serve to expand our understanding not only of Russia's relationship with Norway, but also of Russian informational activities as such.
This scientific article analyzes the importance of the conceptual ideas put forward in the address of the President of the Republic of Uzbekistan to the Parliament of December 28, 2018. Special attention is paid to their importance in raising large-scale reforms in the country to a new level, carried out on the basis of an Action strategy. In particular, the issues of deepening globalization processes occurring in the world and difficult international situation under its influence, the need to take into account the international situation in the process of independent political development, the main tasks of further improving the effectiveness of the political system, democratizing society at the current stage of our country are illuminated in it. The President's address paid special attention to improving the practice of strengthening parliamentary oversight over decisions, passing laws and applying democratic mechanisms in the activities of parliament. The article also deals with the optimization of the executive system, justified in the address of the President, about topical issues of increasing the efficiency of the activities of the Cabinet of Ministers. The author of the article talks about the most advanced models of modern democracy being implemented in our country. In particular, he sets forth his analytical thoughts on such concepts as "Democracy of monitoring", "Deliberative democracy", "E-democracy", "Mobile democracy" and on other new models of democracy. The article analyzes the great goals and objectives related to the achievement of great results, based on modern mechanisms and principles of democracy in the context of the implementation of innovative state policy containing the actual needs of our country's renewal and development based on the most advanced requirements of our time, which were set forth in the address of the President. At the same time, it is shown that the leading principles, the philosophy of the implementation of innovation policy express the expectations and aspirations of our people. In this regard, the article presents the conclusions about the importance of the implementation of modern innovative democratic development in society.