contributors

Alexandra Biktimirova and Victoria Kravtsova

Alexandra Biktimirova is a student at the HSE University in Moscow and a feminist activist. Research interests center on the intersections of feminism and Islam in the Volga-Ural region in Russia, as well as globally. Coordinated the exhibition Feminist Translocalities in Kazan in 2020. Research interests are gender, muslim women, and relationships between discourses of power and marginality.

Victoria Kravtsova is a Feminist researcher, NGO-worker and activist. Born in Smolensk, Russia. Initiated Feminist Translocalities – a queer feminist network between the former USSR, Germany, and sometimes other locales, as wel l as a platform for supporting projects – publications, exhibitions, seminars, podcasts etc. Research interests include the intersections of feminist, antiracist and decolonial struggles in the countries of the former USSR.

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Articles by Alexandra Biktimirova and Victoria Kravtsova

  1. Ring out the old and ring in the young: Upgrading Authoritarianism in Azerbaijan

    Using Heydemann’s concept ‘authoritarian upgrading’ as the theoretical point of departure, this article sheds light on the adaptation of the Azerbaijani authoritarian regime that is taking place in the political arena, civil society, media and information sector, and in relation to religious practices. It elaborates on how authoritarian upgrading is associated with the consolidation of the authoritarian regime and suggests that the core of these measures entails making authoritarian norms and values appear more attractive and acceptable. Notably, it illustrates the conscious attempts to engage the younger generation across multiple sectors in authoritarian upgrading making them both a target and a tool in this process.

  2. Soft Power. Coopting post-Soviet youth: Russia, China, and transnational authoritarianism

    This Special Issue include eight articles that endeavor to analyze more deeply different aspects of the influence of transnational “soft power” aimed at coopting youth in authoritarian and hybrid regimes through radical and nationalist youth organizations, patriotic education, and youth wings of ruling parties. By means of such activities, governments try to distract the youth from countercultural movements and opposition politics as well as to educate an obedient and loyal generation. The purpose is to “vaccinate” such generations with illiberal or authoritarian values in order to eliminate potential threats to regimes’ stability.

  3. The EU-funded “Europast”project’s first summer school

    June 19-23, 2023, a summer school of the international project “Europast” took place at Lund university. “Europast” is short for the project’s title “Facing the Past: Public History for a stronger Europe” and is an international project financed by the EU within Horizon Europe program that started in December 2022 and will end in November 2025.

  4. Promoting multidisciplinarity and international cooperation

    On March 27—30, the Baltic University Programme (BUP) organized the BUP Master Thesis Training 2023. 22 master students from the BUP participating universities attended the event, which took place at the Geocentrum at Uppsala University.

  5. Cultural heritage under scrutiny. As a concept, a political tool and a contemporary discourse

    Kulturarv: en begreppspolitik [Cultural Heritage: the politics of the concept], Johan Hegardt and Marcia Sá Cavalcante Schuback, (Södertörn philosophical studies, 2022), 124 pages.

  6. How and why did Estonia succeed? Exploring the long-lasting grip of the Soviet period

    Bakom och bortom järnridån. De sovjetiska åren och frigörelsen i Baltikum och Ukraina [Behind the Iron Curtain and Beyond. The Soviet Years and the Emancipation in the Baltics and Ukraine]. Li Bennich Björkman. Stockholm: Appell förlag. 465 pages

  7. A neighborhood view of Kaliningrad. Investigating close cross-border relations

    The Kaliningrad Region. A Specific Enclave in Contemporary Europe Eds., Arkadiusz Żukowski and Wojciech T. Modzelewski (Paderborn: Brill Schöningh, 2021) 336 pages

  8. Everyday life in rural Belarus. In the shadow of the last kolkhozes

    A Taste for Oppression — A Political Ethnography of Everyday Life in Belarus Ronan Hervouet: (New York, Oxford: Berghahn, 2021) 254 pages. (Original: Ronan Hervouet: Le Goût Des Tyrans. Une Ethnographie Politique Di Quotidien En Biélorussie (Lormont: Le Bord de l’eau, 2020) 281 pages

  9. Combining fossil-fuel phaseout and just transition

    The conference From the grassroots to policy and back: Putting just transition to practice gathered social scientists who in different ways struggled with the tensions implied in the concept of “just transition”. The conference took place in Katowice, Poland, in many ways at the epicenter of the transition.

  10. ENHANCING DEMOCRACY? European presidents and national referendums from 2000 to 2020

    Referendums have been extensively analyzed from multiple perspectives and different studies have discussed their various features and types and how different actors use them. However, little attention has been paid to investigating the reasons why political elites (i.e., European presidents) initiate referendums. Thus, this article explores the intentions and aims by analyzing 18 referendums called by European presidents from 2000 to 2020. Secondary sources, such as media reporting, official documents, and scientific works, have been analyzed using a comparative case study approach. The results indicate that presidents usually have strategic objectives when they call referendums, and that the initiation of a referendum is influenced by the anticipated short- or long-term effects that could result from the referendum.

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