71,700 research outputs found

    The Security of Individually-Owned Property Under Soviet Law

    Get PDF

    Objecting (to) Infrastructure: Ecopolitics at the Ukrainian Ends of the Danube

    Get PDF
    In southern Ukraine, two hydraulic infrastructures continue to exist despite environmentalist campaigns that have exposed them as fragile, broken or unprofitable. The Danube-Dnister Irrigation Project (DDIS), a Soviet mega-project that diverted water from the Danube and turned the Sasyk estuary into a reservoir, receives state funding despite a 1994 ban on its use for irrigation. The Bystre Shipping Canal, built in 2004 despite domestic and international opposition, is losing money but continues to operate. These cases exemplify the material politics of infrastructuring in which infrastructure is understood as an antagonistic process of assembling networks of humans and nonhumans rather than a fixed facility. This approach helps explain how the confluence of unruly coastal matters and the politics of expertise have facilitated these shipping and irrigation infrastructures’ re-embedding in bureaucratic networks. These cases show that obduracy and fragility, as well as visibility and invisibility––conditions that figure prominently in infrastructure studies––should be considered in terms of oscillation rather than as ontologically distinct or static conditions. This analysis also highlights the limits of the modernist search for scientific certainty in resolving environmental conflicts in Ukraine, and some possibilities to experiment politically with new decision-making procedures. This account can thus serve as a “story that intervenes” by pointing beyond reform impulses that re-enact modernist narratives of progress within a strict nature-society divide

    New Belgrade after 1999: Spatial Violence as De-socialisation, De-Romanisation and De-historisation

    Get PDF
    This abstract is a pre copy-edited version of my paper. It was advised during a PGCAP session that staff need to submit a pre copy-edited version onto PEARL. Once the article is published online, it will be available at the following permanent link: http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/13264826.2014.1036491 .New Belgrade after 1999 is associated with the transition from a socialist and single-party state to a consumer capitalist and multi-party system, with the latter perceived as an indicator of democracy. This paper asks if and how this transitional period points to NATO’s 1999 bombing campaign still being in-operation through spatial violence by other means, with these means related to the negation of difference and the transformation of everyday life and social values. Might this spatial violence be even more coercive than that of the war as it manifests through the convergence of military, legal, governmental and economic entities of international “redevelopment” agencies working in the name of “security” along with the Serbian government? This paper explores this proposition by focusing on the post-1999 transformation and re-modernisation of New Belgrade as an elimination of difference through processes of de-socialisation, de-Romanisation and dehistorisation connected with neo-liberal privatisation

    Regional Integration in the Black Sea Region: the Case of Two Sisters, Istanbul and Odessa

    Get PDF
    The political change in the 1980’es and 1990’es in the Black Sea Region has introduced many questions regarding its future as the region faces massive problems like conflicts on territory, drop of production levels in the 1990’es and related poverty, and last but not the least, environmental problems. The size of the region also blurs the picture. However, briefly there are three major influences that mark the future development of the region: globalization, regionalization and Euro-Asian integration. We propose that under these three influences, a new global integration zone, consisting of multiple networks between cities of the Black Sea Region is emerging. Our proposition that a new global integration zone is emerging within the Black Sea Region depends on three assumptions: Our first assumption is that neo-liberal globalization and regionalization (and particularly Euro-Asian integration) lead to development of similar political changes in the region. Our second assumption is that neo-liberal globalization and regionalization lead to development of similar spatial socio-economic developments within the Black Sea Region which brings some cities to the fore to gain power in the national and global organization of production. Our third assumption is that there is increasing trans-national integration between subject cities. Emergence of such a zone is perhaps most important for policy makers at the local level who have to face either positive or negative on-site effects of globalization and regionalization. Increasing socio-economic inequalities, excessive agglomeration of economic activities and population, diversification of population and increasing complexity of problems cripple traditional city management and planning practices in these countries which have a strong central planning and administration background. Due to practical reasons, we limit our study to integration of two sub-national regions, the province of Istanbul, and the province of Odessa which are also sister cities. Province of Istanbul may be recalled as Greater Istanbul, or Istanbul Metropolitan City since at 2004 due to change in the administrative legislation. Province of Odessa includes the city of Odessa as well as other cities within the province. We may conclude that there is progressive convergence in the political grounds between Turkey-Ukraine and Istanbul-Odessa, mainly in the framework of the global structures that are predominantly part of the Euro-Atlantic supra-structure. Though there is not much evidence of similarity in spatial development of Istanbul and Odessa, particularly due to political inclarity and problems of administrative decentralization in Ukraine, there is evidence of economic and social integration, between Turkey-Ukraine and Istanbul-Odessa, which experiences slow development, and negative side effects like informal activities. As a conclusion we may argue that integration of two regions might heavily depend on the Ukrainian foreign and domestic policies, and the decisions of supra-national structures like the World Trade Organization and EU. We may expect a progress in economic integration by the removal of trade barriers, where Istanbul and Odessa would be direct beneficiaries as both production and transfer centres. Further administrative decentralization in Ukraine might lead to a re-population in Odessa Region, as happened in Istanbul after the 1980 period.

    From a restricted to full linguistic space: an ‘affirmative action’ strategy for the Udmurt language

    Get PDF
    This study analyzes the long-term reasons why Udmurt occupies a restricted linguistic space in the post-Soviet state – the low status of Udmurt, due to Soviet language and other policies; urbanization; population shifts; myths and stereotypes about Udmurts; making Russian compulsory after 1938 – and the consequences of this for the fate of the Udmurt language today (relatively few native speakers). The central argument is that Udmurts have not overcome the Stalinist legacy, which led to the reversal of Lenin’s ‘affirmative action’ policy on non-Russian languages. This stems from the failure of the elites in the Udmurt Republic to pursue an ethnic mobilization strategy to promote the Udmurt language in contemporary Russia. Drawing upon language planning and ethnic policy elsewhere in Russia (Tatarstan) and in the UK (Wales), this article outlines ways to raise the status of Udmurt without generating inter-ethnic conflict, thereby creating a ‘space for all’

    "Socialist cities" under post-Soviet conditions: symbolic changes and new ways of representation

    Full text link
    The construction of so-called “socialist cities” (sotsgorods), implemented in the USSR in the 1920 and 1930s, proved to become one of the most radical and large-scale urban experiments realized in the 20th century. That project was aimed at creating a completely new urban space which embodied a concept of an ideal social living and utopian dream of the “cities of the future”. The fall of socialism turned all “socialist cities” into “devastated” spaces which had lost their functional meaning, symbolic significance and any clear narratives. This article tries to reveal how these “socialist cities” have been integrated into the current urban reality and symbolic contexts of the post-Soviet period. It seeks to explore whether spaces of the former “socialist cities” are able today to acquire any new symbolical meanings replacing previous ones and, if so, how these meanings are reproduced under current conditions. The author focuses on the case of the Uralmash district in Yekaterinburg (Russia) which was established in the 1930s as exemplary socialist city and became one of the fast-growing urban settlements in the USSR. The paper analyses the symbolic representations of the Uralmash district in the post-Soviet period and, traces the shifts of major narratives which have outlined new symbolic boundaries of this urban area in the last decades. It is claimed that transformation and changes of “socialist cities” under post-Soviet conditions depend not only on the new urban city-planning initiatives, but also on the new symbols and meanings that give a clear vision of these spaces in current social and cultural contexts.Der Bau der sogenannten "sozialistischen StĂ€dte" (Sotsgorods), der in der UdSSR in den 1920er und 1930er-Jahren vorangetrieben wurde, hat sich als eines der radikalsten und grĂ¶ĂŸten urbanen Experimente des 20. Jahrhunderts erwiesen. Dieses Projekt sollte einen komplett neuen urbanen Raum schaffen, der das Konzept eines idealen sozialen Lebensraums und eines utopischen Traums von der "Stadt der Zukunft" verkörperte. Mit dem Fall des Sozialismus wurde aus allen "sozialistischen StĂ€dten" eine Art "zerstörter" Raum, der seine funktionelle Bedeutung, seine symbolische Relevanz und jegliches klares Narrativ verloren hatte. Dieser Artikel versucht aufzuzeigen, wie "sozialistische StĂ€dte" in die gegenwĂ€rtige urbane RealitĂ€t und die symbolischen Kontexte der postsowjetischen Zeit eingebettet werden. Aus diesem Grund soll untersucht werden, ob die RĂ€ume der frĂŒheren "sozialistischen StĂ€dte" heutzutage in der Lage sind, neue symbolische Bedeutung zu erlangen und dadurch die vorherige Bedeutung zu ersetzen und, wenn ja, wie diese Bedeutung unter den gegenwĂ€rtigen Bedingungen wiedergegeben werden kann. Der Autor konzentriert sich auf das Beispiel des Uralmash-Bezirks in Jekaterinburg (Russland), das in den 1930er-Jahren als exemplarische sozialistische Stadt errichtet wurde und eine der am schnellsten wachsenden urbanen Siedlungen der UdSSR wurde. Die Arbeit untersucht symbolische Darstellungen des Uralmash-Bezirks der postsowjetischen Zeit und zeichnet dadurch die Verschiebungen bekannter Narrative nach, die in den letzten Jahrzehnten neue symbolische Grenzen dieses urbanen Raums definiert haben. Es wird geltend gemacht, dass die Transformation und VerĂ€nderung der "sozialistischen StĂ€dte" unter postsowjetischen Bedingungen nicht nur von neuen Stadtplanungsinitiativen abhĂ€ngig sind, sondern auch von den neuen Symbolen und Bedeutungen, die eine klare Vision dieser RĂ€ume im gegenwĂ€rtigen sozialen und kulturellen Kontext vermitteln könnten

    Portmerion, Proportion and Perspective

    Get PDF
    The holiday village of Portmerion was created by Bertram Clough Williams-Ellis (1883 1978) over a period of fifty-one years, starting in 1926. It was grade II listed in 1971. However, Portmerion has become a part of western popular culture rather than of mainstream architectural history. Its use as the setting for the cult 1967 television series “The Prisoner” ensures continued worldwide interest and a constant stream of visitors. Williams Ellis’ design methods were empirical, initial designs being adjusted by eye on site in close collaboration with trusted builders. This paper analyses the development of Portmerion as a gesamtkunstwerk; considering the experience of movement through the village as a dynamic composition of shifting vistas, focussing the visitor on a series of constructed views. Through this analysis, Portmerion is revealed as both a manifestation of the architecture of pleasure and an exercise in the pleasure of architecture

    Memories of an Unfulfilled Promise: Internationalism and Patriotism in Post-Soviet Oral Histories of Jewish Survivors of the Nazi Genocide

    Get PDF
    Memories of Soviet Jews who were born during the first two decades of the existence of the USSR show that the destruction of the Soviet society and its ideological tenets is central to their experience of the Nazi genocide. Elderly survivors of the Nazi genocide remember their lives based on comparative evalu- ations of their lives in the Soviet Union and under the Nazi regime, making a strong case for understanding memory as a relational construct. Interrogating the significance of growing up secular and Soviet for experiencing and remembering the Nazi genocide reveals that in order to understand Soviet Jews’ responses to German occupation and genocide and how they remember them, we must turn to their prewar socialization as Soviet internationalists and patriots

    Sexuality and nationality: homophobic discourse and the 'national threat' in contemporary Latvia

    Get PDF
    This paper considers why attitudes towards gays and lesbians in Latvia appear to be more intolerant than in all other EU member states. The paper argues that while the legacy of communist discourses on homosexuality and the impact of post-communist transition have played a role in shaping attitudes towards sexuality and sexual minorities in Central and Eastern Europe, these factors cannot sufficiently explain the divergence among post-communist states and, in particular, do not account for Latvia’s extreme position. While acknowledging that intolerance towards non-heteronormative sexualities cannot be explained by a single factor, the paper argues that homosexuality has become particularly reviled in Latvia because it has been widely discursively constructed as a threat to the continued existence of the nation

    Dr. Strangelove Visits Canada: Project Rustice, Ease, and Bridge, 1958–1963

    Get PDF
    During the Cold War, many NATO governments developed highly secret contingency plans to maintain the continuity of government (COG) during and after nuclear attack. Canada was no exception. COG planning generally consisted of several elements including legal mechanisms and constitutional matters; document duplication and storage; skeleton bureaucracies; dispersion; transportation; and shelter. All were necessary to keep Canada functioning as a nation in the face of an attack by Soviet atomic and hydrogen bombs. The most misunderstood element of COG planning has been the shelter component. Critics of civil defence programmes argued that protecting government leaders in shelters and not providing similar facilities to the population as a whole was “undemocratic,” designed to maintain the “power elite.”1 The reality of Canada’s COG programme was quite different from this propaganda line and its ability to protect the country’s leaders in underground facilities was much more limited than alleged. This study will concentrate on the strategic context, physical arrangements and concepts of operation developed to maintain the continuity of Canadian government in the era of the greatest danger during the Cold War, 1958 to 1963
    • 

    corecore