Migration and National Identity in Contemporary Russia

CEREN Guest Lecture Monday 21 June

INVITATION

Chiara Pierobon, University of Trento and University of Bielefeld

Migration and National Identity in Contemporary Russia

CEREN Guest Lecture Monday 21 June, at 14.15-15.45
Venue: Swedish School of Social Science, Snellmaninkatu 12, room 234

The presentation investigates the relationship between anti-immigration organizations, national identity and music in contemporary Russia. In particular, the focus is on the Russian Movement Against Illegal Immigration, with the aim of describing its contribution in the conceptualization of Russian post-soviet national identity(ies), as captured through an analysis of its music. The starting point for the analysis is Eyerman and Jamison's definition of music as “central element in the construction of social movements' meanings and in the making and organizing of their collective identity” (1998). By using a semiotic approach which conceives music as a form of discourse that articulates identities and plays a central role in recruiting and mobilizing activists, the paper will explore the collective identity of the Russian Movement Against Illegal Immigration produced and reproduced through its songs. In particular,  the analysis will be focused on the national component of its collective identity and on the ways in which the "national community" and its members and not-members are defined. Coherently with a framework that looks at music as element structuring the organizations’ life, the presentation highlights the potentialities of this medium for the exploration of complex political phenomena such processes of identity formation related to anti-immigration attitudes.

WELCOME!

Palaa otsikoihin