The Rise of Social Movements in Romania

Author(s): Claudia Elena Ionaș / Language(s): English Issue: 66/2020

Social movements have increased during the last decade all over the world, but mostly in Europe. In relation to the history of this phenomenon in the region, nowadays it has become an ordinary behavior to participate in a protest in the majority of EU-states, Romania included. Several issues regarding the rise of social movements are subject of interest in the field of social science: what determines people to participate in a protest, what are their expectations and what is the result of the social movements? Are the most recent protests in Romania a sign of political participation? Through social media, antigovernment messages expanded quickly and numerous Romanians gathered in Victoriei Square to demonstrate against an emergency ordinance considered by many of the protestors to undermine the fight against corruption. Since then, two rounds of elections took place (presidential and European elections) and a change of power. Following a noconfidence motion that brought down the Social Democratic Government, the National Liberal Party formed a center-right minority government, but shortly after, it was dismissed as a result of a vote of no confidence. The study of social movements in Romania is important to have a comprehensive approach about this phenomenon: is there a link between social movements and social media use, what triggers the people to mobilize and for what reason some stimuli have a greater impact than others on the individuals so that people act together for a common purpose such as social change.

Tales of Post-Communist Transition and Right-Wing Extremism. An Analysis of the 2000 Romanian Elections, 20 Years after

Author(s): Mihaela Ivănescu / Language(s): English Issue: 66/2020

In recent years, several European states have witnessed the emergence and / or intensification of the radical right, whose exponents have even managed to obtain very good electoral results in some cases. In Central and Eastern Europe, the success of right-wing extremism has been more visible in Poland or Hungary, but other states have also had their fair share of extremist movement in the years since 1990. Compared to the other states in the region, where political formations on the far right of the political spectrum became, in recent years, electorally viable, in Romania this trend did not take hold. Instead, the right-wing extremism has manifested itself outside the political class, within different groups or social movements. Of the Romanian right-wing political formations, the Greater Romania Party (PRM) had been the most successful, and the presidential election from 2000 represented the peak of the extremist political discourse in post-communist Romania. In this paper, we will analyze the Romanian general and presidential elections from 2000, with an emphasis on the PRM and its candidate, as the main center of right-wing extremism. PRM, as the analysis will show, had registered a double electoral success during these elections. On the one hand, it became the main opposition party in the Romanian Parliament; on the other hand, its candidate entered the second round of the presidential elections, managing to obtain, in the first round, almost one third of the valid votes cast. Consequently, the main thrust of the paper will be on discourse analysis, focusing, in particular, on the themes used in the electoral campaign for the presidential elections by the two candidates who qualified for the second round. Given that the incumbent president did not seek to be reelected, we argue that the right-wing surge witnessed during this period can be premised, in part, on the poor performance of the outgoing president and government from the 1996-2000 period. Similarly, electoral absenteeism also played a major role in PRM’s electoral success to a certain extent.

8th of May 1921- The founding of the Communist Party from Romania (PCdR)- Analysis on the beginning of the communist movement in Romania until 1924

Author(s): Florin Nacu / Language(s): English Issue: 71/2021

At the end of the 19th century and in the first years of the 20th century, as it has already been presented in my studies, the socialist movement was at a critical point. Some socialist intellectuals left PSDMR and joined the “Sincere Liberal Faction”, united with the National Liberal Party. Other socialists came closer to the actions of the Russian socialists that had, in Romania, connections as Constantin Dobrogeanu Gherea, Christian Rakovski and other political activists. The Social Democratic Party from Romania, during the last stage of the World War I, divided between the socialists and the communist followers after the Russian Revolution of February 1917 and the Counterrevolution of October 1917, when the radicals, “the reds” or Bolsheviks seized the power having V.I. Lenin and Lev Trotsky as main leaders. In January 1918, Romania and the Soviet Russia ended the diplomatic relations and a lot of Bolsheviks from Bessarabia entered in Romania. There were some strikes, as that in December 1918 (workers in printing industry). In the summer of 1919, Romanian Army had destroyed the Bolshevik Republic from Budapest, led by Bela Kun, a Bolshevik agent, preventing the communism to get positions in Central and Western Europe. In 1919, the communist uprising of Spartakist Movement in Germany was defeated. In Romania, a group of communists, many of them with other origins (Ukrainian, Polish, Bulgarian, Jew, Hungarian) put the bases of the Communist Party from Romania (PCdR) founded in Bucharest on May 8th 1921. Because of its anti-Romanian attitude, PCdR was declared illegal in April 1924, being in this situation until August 23 1944. In this article we will try to present the activity between 1921 and 1924 because, later, even the communist government of Romania, tried to minimize the importance of the “illegal activity”, because of the assumed Soviet political line.

Virtualiųjų stendų taikymo galimybės nusikalstamumo geografijoje, remiantis policijos registruotų viešosios tvarkos pažeidimų Vilniaus miesto savivaldybėje 2015–2019 m. pavyzdžiu

Author(s): Kostas Gružas,Giedrė Beconytė / Language(s): Lithuanian Issue: -/2022

In this article the authors present virtual dashboards, their possibilities and use cases, focusing on infringements of public policy registered by the police of Lithuania. Events of particular types registered by the police are reliable indicators of crime. Appropriate analysis and visualization of event data reflect current situation and may lead to better management of crime. ArcGIS Online applications that allow creating interactive cartographic and analytical products are described in more detail–. The article provides information on the types of dashboards and their examples. Possibilities of cartographic dashboards in the field of crime geography are presented. Our dashboards represent crime event data registered by the police with a focus on infringements of public policy that have been analyzed and visualized using ArcGIS Online technologies.

Celebrities turning into populists: The celebrity populism of Miroslav Škoro during the 2019 Croatian presidential campaign

Author(s): Silvija Vuković / Language(s): English Issue: 25/2022

Populist politicians performing as celebrities and celebrities becoming populist politicians is a phenomenon that illustrates how populism and celebrity politics can easily be combined in contemporary political communication. This study aims to gain a deeper understanding of the latter type of celebrity populist by analyzing the Facebook posts of Croatian musician and populist politician, Miroslav Škoro, during the 2019 presidential campaign in Croatia. The conducted qualitative content analysis led to the conclusion that, in the context of celebrity populism, the concept of “the people” attains more meaning and power, as celebrity capital is used for an even stronger emphasis of populist appeal to “the people.” This is seen through two main categories that emerged from the analysis: 1) representation of celebrity fans as “the people” and 2) using celebrity background as proof of unity with the people.

Jesu li influenceri predvodnici mišljenja? Studentska percepcija influencera kao informacijskih resursa iz pozicije teorije dvostupanjskoga tijeka komunikacije Paula Lazarsfelda

Author(s): Filip Starej,Ivan Burić / Language(s): Croatian Issue: 25/2022

Paul Lazarsfeld’s two-step flow of communication theory tells us that the information from the media is shared with the audience with the help of opinion leaders. Opinion leaders are those who consume more media content than other members of the community. They are influential when it comes to topics in which they are perceived as the most interested and the most knowledgeable members of the community. Today, social media have a special group of users – the influencers. Influencers have large followings, and their influence is recognized by the marketing industry. Through this thesis we tried to find out whether influencers are opinion leaders, as Lazarsfeld described them. Results of the research conducted on a convenient student sample have shown that, although influencers and opinion leaders share some of their characteristics, influencers are lacking the ability to mobilize their followers, that is, to influence their behavior. Their posts do not entice their followers to seek information from other sources and the level of trust in them as an information source is not high. Compared to other information sources in our research, influencers are not a relevant information source in the decision-making process.

Numbing numbers: considering the dark side of counting

Author(s): Elmar Schenkel / Language(s): English Issue: 1/2022

This essay is an attempt to uncover the hidden strategies underlying the use of numbers and quantities in order to reach certain social or political aims. Though statistics is invaluable, its effect can be deceptive since it is a symptom of the quantification of living processes which eventually escape measurement. This is where the quality of number becomes more important – as seen by such thinkers as Kepler or Pythagoras. There is a cosmic potential in numbers that should be considered when building houses or interpreting poems. However, number is not everything. Elias Canetti diagnosed the hypnotic power of numbers and crowds in anthropological terms. His diagnosis is part of a constant defence in literature and the arts against the overwhelming and dehumanising power of numbers in modern life – G. K. Chesterton being one of its most prominent representatives.

СОЦИАЛЬНЫЙ ПОРЯДОК НА МУРМАНСТРОЙКЕ. ЧАСТЬ 2. ЭТНОКУЛЬТУРНЫЕ МОДЕЛИ И СОЦИАЛЬНАЯ ДЕВИАЦИЯ

Author(s): Olga Vasilievna Zmeeva / Language(s): Russian Issue: 8/2022

The purpose of the article is to show through the study of archival documents how the urgent problems of ethnosocial contradictions were resolved during the process of creating a vast multiethnic working collective in various, often conflicting, everyday interactions. The object of the study is the “Caucasian” guards – an ethnically- based group of workers, which was perceived by other construction participants as a collective actor. Their behavior was different in that they systematically violated the established norms and rules during the construction of the Murmansk Railway in 1915–1916. The review of the job description for the guards, which established their functions and acceptable patterns of behavior when interacting with the local population, their direct supervisors, groups of war prisoners, and other construction participants, demonstrated the impact of the consequences of the “Caucasian” guards' deviant group behavior. It is concluded that the situational deviations of the guards were welcomed by the management as an intermediate stage of ethno-cultural adaptation. The author also identified the motives for the cooperation between individual groups of employees and revealed the influence of ethnic groups’ cultural models on the choice of ways to restore the social order. Specific inter- and intragroup communications built by the guards were influenced by a common system of values, the similarity of traditional ideas about power and subordination, and group responsibility to the working collective.

Как молодежь использует новые медиа в политическом участии в России и Казахстане

Author(s): Yerkebulan Sairambay / Language(s): Russian Issue: 2/2022

In the study of political participation, the question arises of whether young people use new media as a “political spectacle,” “virtual agora,” or “political coliseum.” This article examines how young citizens use new media in political participation in Russia and Kazakhstan. Drawing on surveys conducted using Qualtrics (N = 2,400) and semistructured interviews (N = 90) carried out in 54 cities, towns, and villages in 2019–2020, I demonstrate that both Russian and Kazakhstani young people use new media as a mixture of political spectacle, virtual agora, and political coliseum. Results revealed that online activists and observers are increasing in numbers in both countries. However, based on the experiences (actions) and views (opinions) of respondents, the most numerous new-media users are apolitical people in Kazakhstan and observers (spectators) in Russia. I also found that for some young people intentional political disengagement and disenchantment might signify political contestation. Online and offline political participation in the forms of contestation is more frequently observed in urban than rural areas in both countries, and participation in “alternative” forms of protests such as monstrations seems to be becoming popular among young Russians and Kazakhstanis. My study sheds light on how new media are used in political participation in the postcommunist context, contributing to cross-national comparative studies of non-Western political systems.

Григорий Юдин, Общественное мнение, или Власть цифр

Author(s): Philipp Chapkovski / Language(s): Russian Issue: 2/2022

Review of: Григорий Юдин. Общественное мнение, или Власть цифр. Санкт-Петербург: Изд-во ЕУСПб, 2020. 173 с. ISBN 9785943802942.

Fenomen social dating: strategie autoprezentacji

Author(s): Hanna Karpova / Language(s): Polish Issue: 11/2020

In recent years, the use of online dating platforms has evolved from a marginal to a widespread social practice. The online dating arena provides an opportunity to investigate changing cultural norms concerning technology-mediated relationship formation and to shed light on such aspects of online behavior as the impression formation process and self-presentation strategies. A field experiment was focused on self-presentation strategies and tactics among online dating participants, investigating how participants' sex effects on managing their online presentation of self in order to accomplish the goal of enhancing their level of attractiveness. After conducting a pilot study, was collected 200 text-based profiles (100 women, 100 men) from the online dating service “Sympatia.pl” and examined through them with respect to strategies type.

“We Are in Control”: Instagram Influencers and the Proliferation of Conspiracy Narratives in Digital Spaces

Author(s): Marie Heřmanová / Language(s): English Issue: 3/2022

Female spiritual influencers on Instagram engage with conspiracy content and appeal to the issue of control over female bodies to bridge the gap between mainstream and fringe online spaces. I use the concept of “third space” to analyse the dynamics of Instagram communities around spiritual influencers and highlight how these communities operate as spaces for political discussion while simultaneously appearing apolitical from the outside. Analysing data from participant observation and interviews with six female Czech spiritual influencers, I place their online communication and presentation within the context of the conspirituality movement (Ward, Voas, 2011). Furthermore, I present ethnographic evidence on how the influencers moved from spiritual to conspiritual content within their everyday online performances.

Between the COVID-19 Pandemic and Saving the World: Practices and Narratives by the Falun Dafa Community in Bulgaria

Author(s): Aneliya Manova / Language(s): English Issue: 3/2022

This paper presents a research case study that explores in depth the question of the function of conspiracy theories and their uses among a religious community during a Global Pandemic. Falun Dafa is a new religious movement that emerged in China and was banned by the Chinese Communist Party. Growing into a global community, it has nowadays followers in many countries, including Bulgaria. The movement’s complex doctrine includes visions of the impending destruction of humanity. Today, they serve as a well-prepared coping mechanism to deal with the crisis, having set their apocalyptic expectations long before the advent of COVID-19. Based on years of observation of the community in Bulgaria, I explore how the conspiracy narratives, underlying this movement, help to reassure and restore psychological balance among followers and how the conspiratorial attitudes get stabilized in such situation of Global Crisis.

Dosah pandémie COVID-19 na zmeny v nákupnom správaní spotrebiteľov na Slovensku

Author(s): Katarína Čuláková,Kristína Bilková,František Križan,Katarína Danielová,Petra Hencelová / Language(s): Slovak Issue: 5/2022

Globally, the COVID-19 pandemic disrupted daily activities, which led to a change in consumer shopping behavior as well. The aim of this paper is to analyze how shopping behavior of consumers has changed as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic in Slovakia. Two phases of an omnibus survey of shopping behavior were realized (before COVID-19, January 2018 and during COVID-19 pandemic, November 2020, June 2021). The research indicates that consumption patterns changed before and during the pandemic. The majority of Slovak consumers purchased their food at large stores before and during the pandemic. The pandemic resulted in panic shopping among a third of consumers in Slovakia. About more than tenth of Slovak consumers used online shopping more often than before pandemic.

KONTROVERZE KOLEKTIVNOG PAMĆENJA

Author(s): Esad Delibašić / Language(s): Bosnian Issue: 20/2022

Ever since the nineties of the XX century collective memory has become preoccupation and a research topic in a number of scientific disciplines. Despite its frequent use, even nowadays this term provokes uncertainty, disapproval and doubt. The debate on whether there is collective memory or not is usually taking place between two opposing theoretical interpretations of the term. One interpretation rests upon the perception that collective memory actually exists as an independent entity, and is essentially different from individual memory. The other interpretation is based on explanations of memory in which first individual consciousness is isolated from the social context, and then as such is analyzed without taking into account the social context it originated from. The consequence of such a methodological approach is the creation of the individual awareness and memory as independent essentialized entities. Through a critical review of both of these interpretations, we come to the realization that for the creation of the phenomenon of memory, both an individual and a social component of an individual are necessary.

Wpływ przynależności do grupy zawodowej pielęgniarek i lekarzy na milczenie organizacyjne

Author(s): Barbara Kudryńska,Krzysztof Krzywdziński / Language(s): Polish Issue: 3-4/2021

Employees who have relevant information about the functioning of the organization sometimes decide to share this information, and in other cases, they choose not to disclose their opinion. In the literature on the subject, this phenomenon is called organizational silence. This study aimed to try to answer whether the position in the organization and belonging to a specific professional group will impact organizational silence. The survey covered representatives of employees of two professional groups – doctors and nurses. The questionnaires were completed by 30 doctors and 35 nurses. The study showed that in the three analyzed situations, the hypothesis, assuming that the silence of employees is more pronounced in a situation where the violation of the applicable professional standards concerns people from the same professional group of nurses or doctors, was confirmed only in the case of a “mistake in administering the drug”.

Müze Sergilemelerinde Propaganda: Viyana Arsenal Askeri Tarih Müzesi (Heeresgeschichtliches Müzesi) Örneği

Author(s): Seher Selin Özmen,Süleyman Özmen / Language(s): Turkish Issue: 20/2022

A museum is a structured institution that collects, preserves and protects all scientific, cultural, artistic, man-made, or non-human objects of historical significance. Museums try to present the works in their inventories in the most effective way to achieve goals. Museums can create a propaganda effect on the masses by effectively using curatorial techniques and manipulating the works they exhibit to create a persuasive result. With this technique and intent, visitors’ knowledge, emotions about political ideas can be managed. In this context, in our study we have conducted to reach an objective point of view on propaganda in museum exhibitions, we have carried out an analytical study on the example of the Heeresgeschichtliches Museum by also mentioning the importance and impact of the Second Siege of Vienna on the European peoples. As a result of the study, it was concluded that museums can also be used for propaganda purposes when necessary.

Един социологически ключ към общественото мнение

Author(s): Georgi Medarov / Language(s): Bulgarian Issue: 2/2022

Ötekiliği Kucaklamak: Mega-üst Kimlikler, Sosyal Kategorizasyon ve Gruplar Arası İlişkiler

Author(s): Zafer Güney Çağış / Language(s): Turkish Issue: 24/2022

The social categories that individuals are members of form important parts of their selves. Therefore, being a member of any group affects people's perceptions, motivations and attitudes. In addition, social group membership is closely associated with intergroup behavior and extreme forms of social conflict. Without any other reason, social categorizations are sufficient for important social issues such as prejudice, discrimination and intergroup conflict in modern intergroup relations. Especially in societies that differentiate based on a single primary social category such as ethnic identity or religion, membership in these groups causes negative consequences. However, inclusive identities can reduce negative intergroup relations based on categorization. For this reason, the main purpose of this study is contributed to the literature by bringing together mega-superordinate identities that have the effect of reducing negative intergroup relations based on social categorization. For this purpose, in the present study, the importance of social categorization in intergroup relations was emphasized and mega-superordinate identities such as "inclusive identity", "meta-personal self", "identification with all humanity", "quiet ego" and "ecological identity" were presented. The present study is the first study that these identities are discussed together. For this reason, it fills the relevant gap in the literature and provides resources for future studies. There are very few studies related to these identities in the Turkish sample. Therefore, examining the psychological factors associated with such inclusive identities in the Turkish sample would contribute to the relevant literature.

Sosyal Psikoloji Perspektifinden Kolektif Eylemlere Katılmanın Belirleyicileri Üzerine Bir Derleme

Author(s): Zafer Özkan,Halime Ünver,Büşra Kızık,Ertuğrul Gazi Eraslan,Hüseyin Çakal / Language(s): Turkish Issue: 24/2022

Examination of collective action and its determinants, which have great social effects is important in terms of understanding and foreseeing such actions. The aim of this literature review is to provide a summary of the main and current discussions and research of collective action from the perspective of social psychology for publication in Turkish and provide knowledge for alternative research areas to students and researchers who want to work on collective action. Accordingly, this review is structured into six main sections. In the first part, the definition of collective action is presented, this definition is discussed, and a typology of collective action is introduced through a social psychological perspective. In the second part, four main motivations (identification with the group, efficacy beliefs, feelings of anger, and moral motivations) that determine participation in collective action are explained and these motivations are examined with the empirical findings that provide evidence for these phenomena. In addition, models that examine one or more of these motivational sources together (e.g., Social Identity Model of Collective Action) are introduced. In the third section, studies related to the sedative effect of intergroup contact on the intention of the disadvantaged group to participate in collective actions are mentioned. In the fourth section, the effect of intergroup contact on advantaged groups’ motivation to participate in solidarity-based collective action is discussed. In the fifth part, a summary of the studies examining the Gezi Park protests as a common example of collective actions in our country is presented. To conclude, existing models and perspectives on collective action are discussed, the research gap in the field is highlighted, and alternative research topics are suggested for future studies.