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Der Autoritarismus wird als politisches System des eingeschränkten Pluralismus verstanden. Herausragende Länderkenner beschäftigen sich in diesem Buch mit der Entstehung und den Eigenschaften jener Autoritarismen, die aus dem Kommunismus hervorgegangen sind. Es wird zudem auf die Demokratisierung dieser Systeme eingegangen. Ausgerechnet die postkommunistischen Autoritarismen werden manchmal als "unvollkomene Demokratien" verklärt. Die auf dem Umschlag abgebildeten Fotos einer Straße in einem Moskauer Außenbezirk belegen, dass ausschließlich die sorgfältige Betrachtung der Wirklichkeit vor solchen Fehleinschätzungen schützt.
This is the first major study of the enigmatic religious society. By examining the Jehovah's Witnesses' dramatic recent expansion, Andrew Holden reveals the dependency of their quasi-totalitarian movement on the physical and cultural resources have brought about the privatization of religion, the erosion of community, and the separation of 'fact' from faith.
Generates new concepts of economic, military and environmental security for the Baltic and discusses a future agenda for the region with ideas for policies which are needed but which, in many cases, do not exist.
Recent events in Ukraine and Russia and the subsequent incorporation of Crimea into the Russian state, with the support of some circles of inhabitants of the peninsula, have shown that the desire of people to belong to the Western part of Europe should not automatically be assumed. Discussing different perceptions of the Ukrainian-Russian war in neighbouring countries, this book offers an analysis of the conflicts and issues connected with the shifting of the border regions of Russia and Ukraine to show how ’material’ and ’psychological’ borders are never completely stable ideas. The contributors – historians, sociologists, anthropologists and political scientists from across Europe – use an interdisciplinary and comparative approach to explore the different national and transnational perceptions of a possible future role for Russia.
The COURAGE Handbook ushers its reader into the world of the compellingly rich heritage of cultural opposition in Eastern Europe. It is intended primarily to further a subtle understanding of the complex and multifaceted nature of cultural opposition and its legacy from the perspective of the various collections held in public institutions or by private individuals across the region. Through its focus on material heritage, the handbook provides new perspectives on the history of dissent and cultural non-conformism in the former socialist countries of Central, Eastern, and Southeastern Europe. The volume is comprised of contributions by over 60 authors from a range of different academic and n...
This study examines why the USSR - a political system that originally prided itself on its internationalism - devoted such efforts to controlling its borders, sealing its society from the outside world. It provides a revealing case study of the strengths and weaknesses of the Soviet state.
This book is about transformations of social bonds, the most fundamental sociological concept. It examines how these bonds are formed, dissolved and forged anew. The book offers a reflection on the course and consequences of the ongoing transformations of the social order and invites to reconsider the foundations of sociological thinking.
We define our conscious experience by constructing narratives about ourselves and the people with whom we interact. Narrative pervades our lives--conscious experience is not merely linked to the number and variety of personal stories we construct with each other within a cultural frame, but is subsumed by them. The claim, however, that narrative constructions are essential to conscious experience is not useful or informative unless we can also begin to provide a distinct, organized, and empirically consistent explanation for narrative in relation to consciousness. Understanding the role of narrative in determining individual and collective consciousness has been elusive from within tradition...
The People, Place, and Space Reader brings together the writings of scholars, designers, and activists from a variety of fields to make sense of the makings and meanings of the world we inhabit. They help us to understand the relationships between people and the environment at all scales, and to consider the active roles individuals, groups, and social structures play in creating the environments in which people live, work, and play. These readings highlight the ways in which space and place are produced through large- and small-scale social, political, and economic practices, and offer new ways to think about how people engage the environment in multiple and diverse ways. Providing an essen...
Borders are where wars start, as Primo Levi once wrote. But they are also bridges - that is, sites for ongoing cultural exchange. Anyone studying how nations and states maintain distinct identities while adapting to new ideas and experiences knows that borders provide particularly revealing windows for the analysis of 'self' and 'other'. In representing invisible demarcations between nations and peoples who may have much or very little in common, borders exert a powerful influence and define how people think as well as what they do. Without borders, whether physical or symbolic, nationalism could not exist, nor could borders exist without nationalism. Surprisingly, there have been very few s...