Options
Between Pravda and Prada: the negotiation of geopolitical identities at a Russian elite university
Type
dissertation project
Start Date
01 July 2005
End Date
08 September 2008
Status
completed
Keywords
Russia
foreign policy
critical geopolitics
discourse
poststructuralism
Description
Be it the gas dispute with Ukraine, the American missile shield in Eastern Europe or the Iran crisis - for several years now Russia has demonstrated growing self-confidence in interstate diplomacy and international politics. Not only has coverage of Russia-related issues increased in Western media, but there has also increased a particular kind of coverage which depicts Russia as having shed the conformity of the 1990s to boldly and independently pursue its national interests. Russia's role in the world is changing and this change begs key questions as to Russia's geopolitical position: What role should Russia play in world politics? What are its interests, who should it be loyal to? Where does it belong?
While foreign policy is an important component, the search for Russia's geopolitical identity takes place at all levels of Russian society. The Moscow State Institute of International Relations (MGIMO) occupies a prominent position in the negotiation of geopolitical identities. Once dubbed the ‘anvil of cadres' of the Soviet nomenclatura, it has developed into a particular kind of ‘elite university' in the post-Soviet age. With the reassertion of Russia's self-confidence, a young generation of students is educated at MGIMO who knows of Russia primarily as an emerging country.
Between Pravda and Prada a multiplicity of geopolitical imaginations of Russia's role and place in the world compete for constitutive hegemony at MGIMO. In this vortex the articulation of geopolitical identities unfolds as a hybrid in its own right - a product of transformation processes which are marked by unprecedented openness but at the same time, inevitably, are subject to attempts at hegemonialisation and closure.
My dissertation conceptualises the collapse of the Soviet Union in 1991 as a dislocation effect within Laclau and Mouffe's discourse theory, serving as a trigger of antagonistic struggles for the articulation of new identities. Drawing on material from ethnographic field research and interviews, I aim to describe these antagonisms as well as the processes by which geopolitical identities are articulated and how they play out seen through the particular lens at MGIMO.
While foreign policy is an important component, the search for Russia's geopolitical identity takes place at all levels of Russian society. The Moscow State Institute of International Relations (MGIMO) occupies a prominent position in the negotiation of geopolitical identities. Once dubbed the ‘anvil of cadres' of the Soviet nomenclatura, it has developed into a particular kind of ‘elite university' in the post-Soviet age. With the reassertion of Russia's self-confidence, a young generation of students is educated at MGIMO who knows of Russia primarily as an emerging country.
Between Pravda and Prada a multiplicity of geopolitical imaginations of Russia's role and place in the world compete for constitutive hegemony at MGIMO. In this vortex the articulation of geopolitical identities unfolds as a hybrid in its own right - a product of transformation processes which are marked by unprecedented openness but at the same time, inevitably, are subject to attempts at hegemonialisation and closure.
My dissertation conceptualises the collapse of the Soviet Union in 1991 as a dislocation effect within Laclau and Mouffe's discourse theory, serving as a trigger of antagonistic struggles for the articulation of new identities. Drawing on material from ethnographic field research and interviews, I aim to describe these antagonisms as well as the processes by which geopolitical identities are articulated and how they play out seen through the particular lens at MGIMO.
Leader contributor(s)
Mueller, Martin
Funder(s)
Topic(s)
Russia
foreign policy
critical geopolitics
discourse
poststructuralism
Method(s)
discourse analysis
Range
Institute/School
Range (De)
Institut/School
Division(s)
Eprints ID
55844
9 results
Now showing
1 - 9 of 9
-
PublicationMaking great power identities in Russia: an ethnographic discourse analysis of education at a Russian elite university(LIT, 2009)Mueller, MartinThis book examines how the geopolitical discourse of a strong Russia plays out at a Moscow cadre university. In so doing, it provides an inside perspective on the geopolitical education of the future Russian elites and thus, possibly, on the future directions of Russian foreign policy. The material for my research was gathered during nine months of ethnographic research as a guest student at the Moscow State Institute of International Relations (MGIMO). This institute is the pivotal Russian cadre university which trains students to serve in the Rus-sian Foreign Ministry and to occupy influential positions in Russian society at large. Conceptually, my project argues that the way identity has commonly been thought of in the fields of Political Geography and International Studies overlooks two crucial things: first, that social practice - what people do - is an important part of identity and, second, that identities are situated, i.e. they unfold in concrete contexts. To address these lacunae I draw on the poststruc-turalist discourse theory of Ernesto Laclau and Chantal Mouffe and ideas of Pierre Bourdieu and Michel Foucault. I combine this conceptual apparatus with ethnographic methodology to look at geopolitical discourses at MGIMO and how they come to position subjects in their identification. With Foucault, MGIMO produces ‘docile bodies' and objectifies knowledge through various small disciplinary techniques. It is this disciplining effect which provides for the successful functioning of the hegemonic discourse of a strong Russia at MGIMO. This geopolitical identity of a strong Russia is arti-culated as a response to the crisis of identity following the dislocation after the collapse of the Soviet Union. Yet, antagonistic forces always block the full reali-sation of a strong Russia. What lies at the heart of this identity is a constitutive lack that makes for a fundamental ambiguity: articulations of a strong Russia are always intertwined with the imminent possibility of a weak Russia. At MGIMO this ambiguous geopolitical identity of a strong Russia is paired with banal patriotism. This patriotism forms an almost natural element of stu-dents' everyday lives. Not only is it considered a central element of education and a pre-requisite for any good graduate and future diplomat but it also per-meates quotidian practices of production and consumption. Through this banal patriotism the political is incorporated into the realm of the everyday and fashioned with the same objective qualities, thus naturalising the discourse of a strong Russia.Type: book
-
PublicationThe inevitable flaws in Russia's great power project(www.exploringgeopolitics.org, 2009-01-18)Mueller, Martinhttp://www.exploringgeopolitics.org/Publication_Mueller_Martin_Russia_Great_Power_Project_Inevitable_Flaws_Discourse_Analysis_Social_Construction_Foreign_Policy_Russian_Threat_Education.htmlType: discussion paper
-
PublicationDoing discourse analysis in critical geopolitics(Université de Reims Champagne-Ardenne, 2010-12-10)Mueller, MartinThis paper seeks to contribute towards a more explicit and candid discussion of the methodologies of discourse analysis within critical geopolitics. Proposing a classification along the three core dimensions of context (proximate or distal), analytic form (post-/structuralist or interpretive-explanatory) and political stance (involved or detached), it examines the ways in which critical geopolitics scholarship has understood and made use of discourse analysis. Subsequently, the paper introduces the poststructuralist discourse theory of Laclau and Mouffe, arguing that it is particularly suitable to address a number of key emerging concerns on the agenda of critical geopoliticsType: journal articleJournal: L'Espace PolitiqueVolume: 12Issue: 3
-
PublicationZusammen, aber doch getrennt? Vorstellungen von Russlands Platz in Europa an einer russischen Eliteuniversität(Institut für Länderkunde Leipzig, 2007-10-01)Mueller, MartinType: journal articleJournal: Europa RegionalVolume: 15Issue: 4
-
PublicationRethinking identification with the hegemonic discourse of a ‘strong Russia' through Laclau and Mouffe(ibidem, 2009)Mueller, MartinType: book section
-
PublicationGeopolitics and the geographical imagination: the social construction of global space in Russia : [in Russian](School of Social and Economic Sciences, 2007)Mueller, MartinType: book section
-
PublicationLack and jouissance in hegemonic discourse of identification with the state(Sage Publ., 2013-03)Mueller, MartinThis paper shows how hegemonic discourses are sustained through the play of lack and jouissance. Lack refers to the symbolic limits of discourse and is both the condition of possibility and of impossibility of hegemony: while it vitiates the realization of a full identity, it at the same time keeps spurring the search for it. Jouissance describes the paradoxical satisfaction in dissatisfaction that subjects procure from this lack, from the failure to attain the enjoyment that hegemonic discourse promises. Looking at how organizations become enmeshed with the formation of state subjects, the paper considers identification with the discourse of a strong Russia at a Russian elite university as an empirical illustration. This discourse becomes hegemonic in students' identification not only because it proposes a comprehensive project that unifies a range of diverse signifiers and promises enjoyment, but also because it fails to provide a full symbolic suture and subjects are unable to obtain the promised enjoyment. This constant lack forms the basis for repeated acts of identification that strive to overcome it and provides a jouissance that keeps subjects attached to the illusory quest for real enjoyment - and thus to identification with a strong Russia.Type: journal articleJournal: Organization : the critical journal of organization, theory and societyVolume: 20Issue: 2
Scopus© Citations 29 -
PublicationMarket meets nationalism : making entrepreneurial state subjects in post-Soviet Russia(Carfax Publicatons, 2011-11-24)Mueller, MartinThis paper argues that nationalism and neoliberalism should not be considered as conflicting ideologies, but can enter into a productive association. This association creates an entrepreneurial nationalism that people can actively embrace as selfgoverning subjects in pursuit of a good life and successful career, rather than as subjects governed through state-mandated projects from above. The paper illustrates this argument with material from nine months of fieldwork at a Russian elite university. While students at that university strive to develop their potential and increase their market value to be successful in the competition for the best jobs, they also emphasize that developing themselves is not antithetical to serving Russia and being true to one's country. On the contrary, advancing Russia and advancing one's own career are articulated as two sides of the same coin. At the same time, the Russian nationalist project is reframed in entrepreneurial terms: making the Russian nation strong is about developing its potential and raising its competitiveness in the global marketplace.Type: journal articleJournal: Nationalities PapersVolume: 39Issue: 3
Scopus© Citations 8 -
PublicationEducation and the formation of geopolitical subjects(Wiley-Blackwell, 2011-03)Mueller, MartinDespite the crucial role of schools and universities in shaping the worldviews of their students, education has been a marginal topic in international relations. In a plea for more engagement with the power and effects of education, this paper analyzes the interplay of discipline and knowledge in the formation of geopolitical subjects. To this end, it employs material from ethnographic research at the Moscow State Institute of International Relations, the premier university for educating future Russian elites in the field of international relations. The paper draws on Foucault to chart the ensemble of disciplinary practices producing ‘‘docile bodies'' and objective knowledge and traces how these practices are bound up with the geopolitical discourse of Russia as a great power: while they fashion the great power discourse with objectivity, disruptions in the discourse also disrupt disciplinary practices.Type: journal articleJournal: International Political SociologyVolume: 5Issue: 1
Scopus© Citations 36