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"Despite decades of Putin, it is too simplistic to assert that authoritarianism has eliminated Russian activism, especially in relation to everyday life. Instead, we must build an awareness of diverse efforts to mobilize citizens to better understand how activism is shaped by and, in turn, shapes the regime. Varieties of Russian Activism focuses on a broad range of collective actions, from labor unions to housing renovation, religion, electoral politics, minority language rights, and urban planning. Contributors draw attention to significant forms of grassroots politics that have not received sufficient attention in scholarship, or that deserve fresh examination. The volume shows that Russians find novel ways to redress everyday problems and demand new services. Together, these essays interrogate what kinds of practices can be defined as activism in a fast-changing, politically volatile society. An engaging collection, Varieties of Russian Activism unites leading scholars in the common aim of approaching the embeddedness of civic activism in the conditions of everyday life, connectedness, and rising society-state expectations"--

"In this collection of original essays, empirical analysts and theorists across disciplines turn a critical eye to a variety of recent institutional forms and styles of innovation. They examine lived reality and theoretical underpinning, promise and accomplishment, but also the pitfalls and capacity-building challenges that face virtually all attempts to bring citizen voice, knowledge, and skill to the center of public problem solving. Their analyses are both hopeful and hard-headed and are guided by commitments to help understand appropriate fit and realistic sustainability. Cases include face-to-face deliberation, online networking and citizen journalism, policy forums, and community and stakeholder planning sessions across local, state and federal contexts. Policy issues run a broad gamut from community and regional economic development and environmental sustainability to minority rights and gay marriage"--

AbstractThis article discusses a case of language competition between two minority languages, Votic and Ingrian. We analyze the sociolinguistic situation in the contact area, and the contact-induced linguistic changes in both languages. Although the two languages had a very similar fate, and the same premises for language competition, Ingrian appears to have been more socially prestigious and was for a long period of time gradually replacing Votic. It is shown that the two languages chose different strategies for interaction. The Ingrians preserved their strong identity but transformed their language significantly, and thus achieved an easier understanding with their neighbors. On the other hand, the Votes were unwilling to adapt their language to contact influence, but shifted easily to their neighbors' identity. We suggest distinguishing between two types of volatility: social volatility, which describes the willingness of a nation to shift to a new language and identity; and linguistic volatility, which denotes the readiness of speakers to adopt innovations from a neighboring language. In minority vs. minority competition, the two types of volatility often demonstrate inverse tendencies: high volatility on the linguistic level corresponds to low volatility on the social level, and vice versa.

AbstractHistorians have often described early-twentieth-century Japanese Buddhists as ignorant of the importance of religious freedom, myopically focused on their parochial agendas, and sycophantically aligned with the state. Such depictions assume that the attitudes of a minority of elite Buddhist clerics represent majority Buddhist opinion; they also problematically treat religious freedom as a universal principle rather than a historically contingent concept subject to the conflicting claims of competing interest groups. This article highlights the contingency of religious freedom law and the diversity of its interpretation by introducing three discrete attitudes that surfaced in Buddhist responses to a controversial Bill advanced by the Japanese government in December 1899. Tracing differences between statist, corporatist, and latitudinarian interpretations of religious freedom, it shows that religious freedom is never unitary or uniform in any time or place.

This paper examines whether the individual and neighborhood factors associated with visible drug problems are also related to drug use. It also looks at how the relationship between individual and neighborhood characteristics and substance use may vary depending upon type of substance under consideration (e.g., marijuana versus cocaine). Using data from the evaluation of the "Fighting Back" national demonstration program, our findings indicate that while neighborhood disadvantage, minority concentration, and density are strongly related to increased levels of visible drug problems, these characteristics are not significantly related to drug use. One implication of these findings is that law enforcement tactics aimed at reducing drug-related "incivilities" in a neighborhood are unlikely to have a substantial impact on residents' rates of drug use. The results also suggest that intervention programs targeting demand reduction among residents in a given neighborhood are likely to have little impact on visible drug problems in that area.

The article discusses the historical growth and development of the Muslim population and its contemporary situation in Finland. Finland was annexed as a grand duchy by the Russian Empire in 1809, which led to the presence of Muslim military personnel on Finnish territory and later enabled the settlement of Tatar Muslims from central parts of Russia. These Tatars were for a long time the only organized Muslim community in Finland. They maintained their cultural and linguistic traditions, while being very much at home in their Finnish civic identity. During the 1980s and especially since the 1990s Finland has received many Muslim immigrants, including international students, spouses, refugees, and asylum seekers. The article addresses several complexities in Muslim organizations' ethnic, national, and sectarian varieties, and takes on board the change in official policies towards Muslims over the years. It also examines the media debates and public attitudes to Islam. The historical Tatar minority's role has in many respects been important for more recent Muslim immigrants, and though little remarked in public debate, remains very importantin seeking a relationship between Islam and north-western Europe.

AbstractThis article ethnographically examines the situation surrounding the teaching of Croatian in Serbia. It analyzes the discourses and efforts of minority activists in promoting Croatian culture and language in various ways, specifically drawing on fieldwork conducted in a school where three mutually intelligible language varieties—Serbian, Croatian, and Bunjevac—were taught. Instruction in Croatian has been offered in Serbia since 2002 through a minority rights framework. However, prior to the wars of Yugoslav succession in the 1990s, those identifying as Croat were not considered a minority in [the] Socialist Yugoslavia, as it was a South Slavic federation. The number of children enrolling in Croatian minority programs in Serbia is small, and of those who attend them, a significant number do not come to identify as Croatian, a fact that many minority activists consider to be a problem. The article is organized in four parts. First, the context and various perspectives are introduced through an ethnographic vignette. Second, the research context and legal and institutional framework are introduced. Activist perspectives are then discussed, including tensions present. Finally, Michel-Rolph Trouillot's concept of "state effects" is presented and elaborated with respect to the case study, and the various efforts of activists in trying to promote and/or maintain Croatian "groupness" are evaluated.

Identities : a challenge for the EU / David G Mayes -- The challenge of co-existence : Islam and Europe in the twenty-first century / Barrie Wharton -- All happily gathered together around their colonial campfires : a nineteenth-century Polish traveller's observations on some European colonising nationalities in the Antipodes / Sarah Cozens -- In their own voices : indigenous Pacific writers writing sexual violence and the challenge for Europe / Raylene Ramsay -- Language policies and their implementation regarding regional and minority languages in the European Union : the case of the Sardinian languages / Franco Manai -- Border blues : a socioeconomic needs assessment of Ukrainian economic migrants post Poland's European Union accession / Amanda J. Laichak -- The European connection with Tonga / James Bade -- Gunter Grass and the politics of the past--and present : the "Grass-Debate" of 2006 / James Braund -- Equality as reciprocity : Kieslowski's cinema lesson for the new Europe / Deborah Walker -- Perceptions of European Union member state diplomats : the potential impact of the EEAS in New Zealand / Serena Kelly -- Multicultural histories of European globalisation by Fernandez-Armesto : from colonial to postcolonial shifts in cultural centres and peripheries / Roberto Gonzalez-Casanovas

Aroma composition was analyzed in grape musts from five Vitis vinifera red cultivars (Pedral, Sousón, Caíño Redondo, Espadeiro and Mencía) grown in Galicia (NW Spain) with the aim to know the potential profile of these varieties. All cultivars were collected from Coto Redondo Winery vineyard (A.O.C. Rías Baixas) and grown under the same conditions. All cultivars (with a total of 96 aroma compounds, 35 free volatile and 61 glycosidically bound compounds) were identified and quantified by GC-MS. The results showed that Caíño Redondo and Pedral had the highest concentrations of volatile compounds. The free fraction showed the highest concentration for all cultivars studied with the exception of Pedral. High concentrations of free C6-compounds and free alcohols were found for all red cultivars studied, especially for Caíño Redondo. Sousón and Mencía presented similar characteristics in the free fraction. Pedral showed an important contribution of glycosidically bound compounds. This cultivar showed the highest concentration of bound alcohols, terpenoids, volatile phenols, and C13-norisoprenoids. With terpenoids, higher levels were found in the bound fraction than in the free fraction. Regarding C13-norisoprenoids, Pedral also showed an important contribution of these varietal compounds. The principal component analysis (PCA) showed a good separation of the different grape cultivars, so they could be discriminated based on their potential volatile composition. The oenological potential of ancient and minority grape varieties from NW Spain, with the aim to provide genetic diversity, is illustrated with this work. ; This work was partially supported by the project 07MRU016403PR from the Galician government (Spain). The authors would like to thank to the Coto Redondo Winery from As Neves - Pontevedra (Galicia, Spain) especially Antonio Mendez. P. Canosa and M. Vilanova are grateful to the Spanish Ministry of Education and Conselleria de Innovacion e Industria from Xunta de Galicia for different financial ...

Are we in a new "Polanyian moment"? If we are, it is essential to examine how "spontaneous" and punctual expressions of discontent at the individual level may give rise to collective discourses driving social and political change. It is also important to examine whether and how the framing of these discourses may vary across political economies. This paper contributes to this endeavor with the analysis of anti-finance discourses on Twitter in France, Germany, Italy, Spain and the UK between 2019 and 2020. This paper presents three main findings. First, the analysis shows that, more than ten years after the financial crisis, finance is still a strong catalyzer of political discontent. Second, it shows that there are important variations in the dominant framing of public anti-finance discourses on social media across European political economies. If the antagonistic "us versus them" is prominent in all the cases, the identification of who "us" and "them" are, vary significantly. Third, it shows that the presence of far-right tropes in the critique of finance varies greatly from virtually inexistent to a solid minority of statements.

Are we in a new "Polanyian moment"? If we are, it is essential to examine how "spontaneous" and punctual expressions of discontent at the individual level may give rise to collective discourses driving social and political change. It is also important to examine whether and how the framing of these discourses may vary across political economies. This paper contributes to this endeavor with the analysis of anti-finance discourses on Twitter in France, Germany, Italy, Spain and the UK between 2019 and 2020. This paper presents three main findings. First, the analysis shows that, more than ten years after the financial crisis, finance is still a strong catalyzer of political discontent. Second, it shows that there are important variations in the dominant framing of public anti-finance discourses on social media across European political economies. If the antagonistic "us versus them" is prominent in all the cases, the identification of who "us" and "them" are, vary significantly. Third, it shows that the presence of far-right tropes in the critique of finance varies greatly from virtually inexistent to a solid minority of statements.

Are we in a new "Polanyian moment"? If we are, it is essential to examine how "spontaneous" and punctual expressions of discontent at the individual level may give rise to collective discourses driving social and political change. It is also important to examine whether and how the framing of these discourses may vary across political economies. This paper contributes to this endeavor with the analysis of anti-finance discourses on Twitter in France, Germany, Italy, Spain and the UK between 2019 and 2020. This paper presents three main findings. First, the analysis shows that, more than ten years after the financial crisis, finance is still a strong catalyzer of political discontent. Second, it shows that there are important variations in the dominant framing of public anti-finance discourses on social media across European political economies. If the antagonistic "us versus them" is prominent in all the cases, the identification of who "us" and "them" are, vary significantly. Third, it shows that the presence of far-right tropes in the critique of finance varies greatly from virtually inexistent to a solid minority of statements.