| 1. |
- Blackburn, Matthew, Dr.
(author)
-
Being ‘Proficient’ and ‘Competent’ : On ‘Languaging’, Field Identity and Power/Privilege Dynamics in Ethnographic Research
- 2019
-
In: Learning and Using Languages in Ethnographic Research. - Bristol : Multilingual Matters. - 9781788925914 ; , s. 164-176
-
Book chapter (peer-reviewed)abstract
- The acquisition of ‘proficiency’ is often assumed to solve a variety of problems when conducting ethnographic fieldwork in a second language. Based on my experience of doing fieldwork while ‘proficient’ in Russian, this chapter highlights the issues raised by ‘fluency’, which complicate and deepen challenges common to ethnographic fieldwork in general. Firstly, I consider how I was ‘enlanguaged’ by new contexts and activities, espe- cially in learning new cultural norms. Secondly, I examine the performative aspects of conducting fieldwork in a foreign language, such as the pressure to ‘pass for a native’ and the emergence of a ‘field identity’. Finally, I reflect on how being ‘fluent’ impacts on issues of power, hierarchy and inequality in local Russian contexts. This chapter demonstrates how the emotional and ethical challenges of conducting ethnographic research in a foreign language do not end with ‘fluency’ and encourages those doing fieldwork to consider what it means to be an effective ‘intercultural speaker’.
|
|
| 2. |
- Blackburn, Matthew, Dr.
(author)
-
Cheering and Jeering on the Escalator to Hell : One Year of UK Media Coverage on the War in Ukraine
- 2023
-
In: Russian Politics. - : Brill Academic Publishers. - 2451-8913 .- 2451-8921. ; 8:2, s. 206-229
-
Journal article (peer-reviewed)abstract
- While there is a common awareness of wartime media censorship in both Ukraine and Russia, there has been less research on Western media coverage and expert analysis of the war in Ukraine. This essay considers the extent to which a skewed and partisan version of the war’s evolution has been presented in UK media. Five stages are identi- fied in the emergence and evolution of a British meta-narrative on the war in Ukraine, replete with ‘cheering’ and ‘jeering’, that works against a realistic understanding of the war’s nature and reasonable consideration of possible future scenarios. It is argued this coverage has sidestepped critical questions of the war’s stage-by-stage escalation and has essentially avoided serious debate of the risks, costs and benefits of such a course.
|
|
| 3. |
- Blackburn, Matthew, Dr., et al.
(author)
-
Covid-19 and the Russian Regional Response : Blame Diffusion and Attitudes to Pandemic Governance
- 2023
-
In: Canadian Journal of European and Russian Studies. - Ottawa : Centre for European Studies, Carleton University. - 2562-8429. ; 16:1, s. 29-54
-
Journal article (peer-reviewed)abstract
- As was the case with other federal states, Russia’s response to the COVID-19 pandemic was decentralized and devolved responsibility toregional governors. Contrary to the common highly centralized governance in Russia, this approach is thought to have helped insulate the government from criticism. Using local research and analysis based on a national representative survey carried out at the height of the pandemic during the summer of 2021, the article charts the public response to the pandemic across Russia. It examines the regionalization of the response, with an in-depth focus on two of the Russian cities with the highest infection rates but differing responses to the pandemic: St. Petersburg and Petrozavodsk. There are two main findings: at one level, the diffusion of responsibility meant little distinction was made between the different levels of government by the population; at another level, approval of the pandemic measures was tied strongly to trust levels in central and regional government.
|
|
| 4. |
|
|
| 5. |
- Blackburn, Matthew, Dr., et al.
(author)
-
Escaping the Long Shadow of Homo Sovieticus : Reassessing Stalin’s Popularity and Communist Legacies in Post-Soviet Russia
- 2023
-
In: Communist and post-communist studies. - : University of California Press. - 0967-067X .- 1873-6920. ; , s. 1-20
-
Journal article (peer-reviewed)abstract
- It is often asserted that the values and attitudes of Homo Sovieticus, marked in the rising “popularity” of Stalin, live on in contemporary Russia, acting as a negative factor in social and political development. This article critiques the argument that attitudes to Stalin reflect unreformed Soviet values and explain Russia’s authoritarian regression and failed modernization. Our critique of this legacy argument has three parts. First, after examining the problematic elements of the Levada Center approach, we offer alternative explanations for understanding quantitative data on Stalin and the repressions. Second, we examine interview data showing that, for those with a pro-Stalin position, “defending Stalin” is only a small part of a broader worldview that is not obviously part of a “Soviet legacy.” Third, we consider survey data from the trudnaia-pamiat’ project and find common reluctance to discuss much of the Stalinist past, which we argue represents an agonistic stance. Thus, we interpret attitudes to Stalin within a broader context of complex social and cultural transformation where the anomie of the 1990s has been replaced with dynamics toward a more positive identity construct. On the one hand, the antagonistic mode of memory is visible in statist and patriotic discourses, which do not seriously revolve around Stalin but do resist strong criticism of him. On the other hand, we find many more in Russia avoid the Stalin question and adopt an agonistic mode, avoiding conflict through a “de- politicized” version of history.
|
|
| 6. |
- Blackburn, Matthew, Dr.
(author)
-
Mainstream Russian Nationalism and the “State-Civilization” Identity : Perspectives from Below
- 2021
-
In: Nationalities Papers. - : Cambridge University Press. - 0090-5992 .- 1465-3923. ; 49:1, s. 89-107
-
Journal article (peer-reviewed)abstract
- Based on over 100 interviews in European Russia, this paper sheds light on the bottom-up dynamics of Russian nationalism. After offering a characterization of the post-2012 “state-civilization” discourse from above, I examine how ordinary people imagine Russia as a “state-civilization.” Interview narratives of inclusion into the nation are found to overlap with state discourse on three main lines: (1) ethno-nationalism is rejected, and Russia is imagined to be a unique, harmonious multi-ethnic space in which the Russians (russkie) lead without repressing the others; (2) Russia’s multinationalism is remembered in myths of peaceful interactions between Russians (russkie) and indigenous ethnic groups (korennyye narodi) across the imperial and Soviet past; (3) Russian culture and language are perceived as the glue that holds together a unified category of nationhood. Interview narratives on exclusion deviate from state discourse in two key areas: attitudes to the North Caucasus reveal the geopolitical-security, post-imperial aspect of the “state- civilization” identity, while stances toward non-Slavic migrants in city spaces reveal a degree of “cultural nationalism” that, while sharing characteristics with those of Western Europe, is also based on Soviet- framed notions of normality. Overall, the paper contributes to debates on how Soviet legacies and Russia’s post-imperial consciousness play out in the context of the “pro-Putin consensus.”
|
|
| 7. |
- Blackburn, Matthew, Dr., et al.
(author)
-
Parade, plebiscite, pandemic : legitimation efforts in Putin’s fourth term
- 2022
-
In: Post-Soviet Affairs. - : Taylor & Francis Group. - 1060-586X .- 1938-2855. ; 38:4, s. 293-311
-
Journal article (peer-reviewed)abstract
- Putin’s fourth term as president (2018–2024) has involved new challenges for Russia’s hybrid regime. COVID-19 hit the Kremlin at a sensitive time, when the old institutional forces had been demounted and new arrangements, including extensive constitutional changes, had yet to become cemented. There is an emerging gulf between state rhetoric, PR events, and patriotic performances, on the one hand, and economic chaos, social disorder and dysfunctional state capacity, on the other, which is likely to reduce system legitimacy and cause increased reliance on repressive methods. This article examines Kremlin legitimation efforts across Beetham’s three dimensions: rules, beliefs, and actions. We argue that the regime’s legitimation efforts in 2020–21 have failed to reverse emerging cleavages in public opinion since 2018. Increased reliance on repression and manipulation in this period, combined with the contrast between regime promises and observable realities on the ground, speak not of strength, but of the Kremlin’s increased weakness and embattlement.
|
|
| 8. |
- Blackburn, Matthew, Dr.
(author)
-
Political Legitimacy in Contemporary Russia ‘from Below’ : ‘Pro-Putin’ Stances, the Normative Split and Imagining Two Russias
- 2020
-
In: Russian Politics. - : Brill Deutschland GmbH. - 2451-8913 .- 2451-8921. ; 5:1, s. 52-80
-
Journal article (peer-reviewed)abstract
- This paper explores how urban Russians perceive, negotiate, challenge and reaffirm the political configuration of the country and leadership in terms of the ‘imagined nation’. Based on around 100 interviews in three Russian cities, three main pillars appear to prop up the imagined ‘pro-Putin’ social contract: (i) the belief that ‘delegating’ all power into the hands of the President is the best way to discipline and mould state and society; (ii) the acceptance of Putin’s carefully crafted image as a ‘real man’, juxtaposed against negative views of the Russian ‘national character’; (iii) the internalization of a pro-Putin mythology on a ‘government of saviors’ that delivers normality and redeems a ‘once-ruined’ nation. The paper shows that those who reject these pillars do so due to differing views on what constitutes ‘normality’ in politics. This normative split is examined over a number of issues, leading to a discussion of internal orientalism and the limited success of state media agitation in winning over the skeptical.
|
|
| 9. |
- Blackburn, Matthew, Dr., et al.
(author)
-
Pragmatism and protest : Russia’s communist party through Covid-19 and beyond
- 2024
-
In: European Political Science. - : Springer Nature. - 1680-4333 .- 1682-0983.
-
Journal article (peer-reviewed)abstract
- The Covid-19 epidemic came at a sensitive time for Russia’s leadership, which was attempting a political reset and structural reforms, including the removal of President Putin’s presidential term limits. This article examines how issues related to the pandemic provided new opportunities for the systemic opposition, the Communist Party of the Russian Federation, who emerged as the main beneficiaries after capitalising on opportunities created by the epidemic. The underappreciated role of systemic opposition parties in electoral authoritarian systems, which balance “voice” and “loyalty” to benefit both themselves and the regime, is examined in the context of the Covid-19 crisis.
|
|
| 10. |
|
|
