We would like to organize a panel entitled Doing discourse analysis in post-Soviet studies at the conference The Russian Revolution and Its Legacies: Taking Stock a Century Later (Tartu, Estonia, 4-6 June, 2017).
The panel brings together scholars which are doing discourse analysis research focusing on post-soviet context. We expect the panel 1) to reflect on way of using theoretical approaches in empirical researches and 2) to provide a comparison of approaches. We encourage participating in our panel scholars who use discourse approaches in analyzing social, cultural, religious and political changes in post-Soviet context. Please, find below the description of the panel.
Since the 2010 in Russia the nation building has occurred through the construction of "new old" social myths. The same tendencies are peculiar to other post-Soviet countries to various extents. For example, the Russian Orthodox Church turns to history in order to attain the ideological meaning of Orthodoxy for current policy. Russian cultural policy discourses stress the notions of traditional culture and Russian national genetic code.
The critical policy analysis opens prominent perspectives of studying ideological context of 'human agency'. Following Lacau and Mouffe approach, we assume that the politics is arena where economic, cultural and social forces and relations are producing particular forms of power – forms of domination and subordination. The lines of inclusion and exclusion (e.g. political frontiers) are significant in rethinking the contingency of social relations which naturalize relations of domination, as Howarth pointed. By deconstructing ideological contexts we want to explore different attempts of elites to maintain the order of discourses in culture and arts, national security, religion, education and international relations.
We invite scholars which study the phenomena through different perspectives: genealogical discourse analysis (Foucault 1988), a hegemony approach (Laclau and Mouffe 2001; Howarth 2010), critical (Fairclough 2010; Van Dijk 1993), a sociocognitive approach (van Dijk 2008), an approach developed around different sorts of logic (Glynos, Howarth 2008), etc.).
If you are interested to participate in the panel, please, send the abstract (max 250 words) by February, 1 to romashkotv@gmail.com and katherina.grishaeva@gmail. Com. Do not hesitate contact us if you have any questions or suggestions.
All best,
Tatiana Romashko,
Senior lecturer, Herzen University, Saint-Petersburg
Ekaterina Grishaeva, PhD
Post-doctoral fellow, Religion and Society Research Center, Uppsala University
Senior lecturer, Ural Federal University, Yekaterinburg