print

Russia’s Place in the World in the Perception of National Citizens:
Identification Dimension

Evgenyeva T.V.,

Associate Professor, Associate Professor of Department of Political Sociology and Psychology, Faculty of Political Science, Lomonosov Moscow State University; Professor, Political Science and Communication Program, Sociology and Political Science Department, Financial University under the Government of the Russian Federation, etv@mail.ru

elibrary_id: 76115 | ORCID: 0000-0002-4711-5476 | RESEARCHER_ID: J-1957-2018

Smulkina N.V.,

Senior Lecturer, Department of Political Sociology and Psychology, Faculty of Political Science, Lomonosov Moscow State University, smulkina@mail.ru

elibrary_id: 777440 | ORCID: 0000-0002-6691-5372 | RESEARCHER_ID: Q-9718-2017

Tsymbal I.A.,

Postgraduate Student, Department of Political Sociology and Psychology, Faculty of Political Science, Lomonosov Moscow State University, tsymbal2013@inbox.ru

elibrary_id: 1073609 |

DOI: 10.17976/jpps/2020.04.13

Rubric: Laboratory: the Effects of Perception in Modern Russian Politics

For citation:

Evgenyeva T.V., Smulkina N.V., Tsymbal I.A. Russia’s Place in the World in the Perception of National Citizens: Identification Dimension. – Polis. Political Studies. 2020. No. 4. https://doi.org/10.17976/jpps/2020.04.13

The study was supported by the Russian Foundation for Basic Research, project No. 18-011-01138A “The Image of the Country in Russian Society: A Political and Psychological Analysis”

Abstract

The article is based on the results of a study into Russian citizens’ perception of Russia and other countries, conducted by the Department of Political Sociology and Psychology, Faculty of Political Science, Lomonosov Moscow State University. The purpose of the study is to identify if patterns form regarding figurative and symbolic idiosyncrasies into how Russian citizens perceive both their country and others, and such countries’ interaction in the global sphere. Studying the content and structural features of these ideas, we can determine the nature and degree of how crystallized these ideas have become in national-state identity. The study is based on a comprehensive analytical model involving the study of three aspects of the perception of Russia’s place in the modern world. The first is the idea of Russia: the spatial and temporal characteristics that serve as a reflection of the respondents’ self-identification as a Russian citizen. The second is a system of images and symbols representing the respondents’ ideas about the global sphere, the role of states and regions in it, and the features of their interaction and mutual influence. The third is a symbolic representation of how individual countries can be perceived through their relations with Russia. The empirical research methodology is based on a combination of quantitative and qualitative methods: formalized interviews, projective techniques. The research model developed revealed not only the relationship between the spatial and temporal aspects of the perception process, but also their place in the structure of personality identity. Respondents’ national-state identification is reflected in the assessments of their country next to others, determines the perception of Russia’s place in the world as a subjective factor, and forms the image of the past and future. 

Keywords

national state identity, political perception, image of the country, spatial images, temporal images, images of “friends” and “strangers”.

 Full Text

Agirdag O, Phalet K, Van Houtte V. 2016. European Identity as a Unifying Category: National vs. European Identification among Native and Immigrant Pupils. – European Union Politics. Vol. 17. No. 2. P. 285-302. https://doi.org/10.1177/1465116515612216

Castells M. 1997. The Power of Identity. Cambridge: John Wiley & Sons. 585 p.

Ditlmann R., Ropf-Beck J. 2019. The Meaning of Being German: An Inductive Approach to National Identity. – Journal of Social and Political Psychology. Vol. 7. No. 1. P. 423-447. https://doi.org/10.5964/jspp.v7i1.557

Herb G., Kaplan D. 2017. Scaling Identities Nationalism and Territoriality. Lanham, Maryland: Rowman & Littlefield. 226 p.

MacCrone D. Bechhofer F. 2015. Understanding National Identity. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. 226 p.

Siddy M. 2017. National Identities and Foreign Policy in the European Union the Russia Policy of Germany, Poland and Finland. ECPR Press. 224 p.

The Politics of Memory in Postwar Europe. 2006. Ed. by R. Lebow, W. Kansteiner, C. Fogu. Durham: Duke University Press. 384 p.

Evgenyeva T.V., Selezneva A.V. 2017. Transformation of National-State Identity of Russian Youth in the Post-Soviet Period: Values’ Foundations and Symbolic Representations. – Politeia. No. 4. P. 48-64. (In Russ.)

Evgenyeva T.V., Titov V.V. 2017. Images of the Past in the Russian Mass Political Consciousness: Mythological Dimension. – Political Science (RU). No. 1. P. 120-138. (In Russ.)

Gorshkov M.K., Petukhov V.V. 2016. Vneshnepoliticheskie orientatsii rossiyan v kontekste vyzovov sovremennoi global’noi politiki [Foreign Policy Orientations of Russians in the Context of the Challenges of Modern Global Politics]. – Politicheskaya nauka pered vyzovami global’nogo i regional’nogo razvitiya:

nauchnoe izdanie [Political Science Facing the Challenges of Global and Regional Development: A Scientific Publication]. Ed. by O.V. Gaman-Golutvina. Moscow: Aspect Press. P. 606-634. (In Russ.)

Huntington S. 2005. Who are we? Challenges of American National Identity. (Russ. ed.: Huntington S. Kto my? Vyzovy amerikanskoi natsional’noi identichnosti. Moscow: AST Press. 635 p.)

Kiseliov I.Yu., Smirnova A.G. 2016. The Population’s Perception of Foreign Policy Results – the Peculiarities. – Vestnik instituta sotziologii. Vol. 7. No. 4. P. 136-154. (In Russ.) https://doi.org/10.19181/vis.2016.19.4.432

Malinova O.Yu. 2018. The Commemoration in Russia of the Centenary of the 1917 Revolution(s): Analysis of Strategies of the Key Mnemonic Actors. – Polis. Political Studies. No. 1. P. 9-25. (In Russ.) https://doi.org/10.17976/jpps/2018.01.02

Mitrofanova S.Yu. 2016. The Image of “Enemy Country” and “Friend Country” in the Ideas of Modern Students of a Technical University. – Economics and Sociology. No. 2. P. 19-23. (In Russ.)

Okunev I.Yu. 2020. Osnovy prostranstvennogo analiza: monografiya [Spatial Analysis Basics: Monograph]. Moscow: Aspect Press. 255 p. (In Russ.)

Petukhov V.V. 2010. Foreign Policy Priorities of the Mass Consciousness of Russians. – Sociological Studies. No. 11. P. 4-13. (In Russ.)

Popova O.V. 2016. Bazovaya matritsa gosudarstvennoi politiki identichnosti v sovremennoi Rossii [The Basic Matrix of State Identity Policy in Modern Russia]. – Politicheskoe prostranstvo i sotsial’noe vremya [Political Space and Social Time]. P. 160-165. (In Russ.)

Psikhologiya politicheskogo vospriyatiya v sovremennoi Rossii [Psychology of Political Perception in Modern Russia]. Ed. by E.B. Shestopal. 2012. Moscow: ROSSPEN. 432 p. (In Russ.)

Semenenko I.S. 2016. Identity Politics and Identities in Politics: Interethnic Perspectives in a European Context. – Polis. Political Studies. No. 4. P. 8-28. (In Russ.) https://doi.org/10.17976/jpps/2016.04.03

Shestopal Ye.B., Smulkina N.V. 2018. Factors of Political Perception of Post-Soviet Countries in Contemporary Russian Society. – Polis. Political Studies. No. 1. P. 26-44. (In Russ.) https://doi.org/10.17976/jpps/2018.01.03

Snezhkova I.A., Kalacheva I.I., Shalygina N.V., Gromov D.V. 2019. The Images of Russia and Belarus in the Views of the Youth of the Two Countries. – Vlast’. No. 1. P. 107-112. (In Russ.) https://doi.org/10.31171/vlast.v27i1.6236

Titov V.V. 2012. Natsional’no-gosudarstvennaya identichnost’ rossiiskoi molodezhi v nachale XXI veka [National-State Identity of Russian Youth at the Beginning of the 21st Century]. Moscow: Max Press. 168 p. (In Russ.)

Zadorin I.V. 2008. Integrational Orientations of the Population of the Cis Countries: Dynamics and Prospects. – Integration in Eurasia: A Sociological Dimension. Vol. 2. Moscow: INES. P. 61-89. (In Russ.)

Zamyatin D.N. 2004. Vlast’ prostranstva i prostranstvo vlasti: Geograficheskie obrazy v politike i mezhdunarodnykh otnosheniyakh [The Power of Space and the Space of Power: Geographical Images in Politics and International Relations]. Moscow: ROSSPEN. 349 p. (In Russ.) 

See also: