MUSIC AND YOUTH ORGANIZATIONS IN CONTEMPORARY
RUSSIA:
THE NATIONAL IDENTITY ISSUE
Chiara Pierobon
[email protected]
1
Index
Introduction
3
1. Literature Review
5
1.1. Defining Russian national identity
5
1.2. Youth Organizations in contemporary Russia
6
1.3. Nationalism and imagined communities
8
1.4. Social movements and Collective Identity
9
1.5. Collective identity and Music
10
1.6. On Music (and) Events
11
2. Research Questions and Hypotheses
13
3. Research Design and Methodology
15
4. Outcomes and Significance
17
Bibliography
19
2
Introduction
As its title suggests, the thesis will be a research on the relation between youth organizations, music
and national identity. More specifically, it will be a thesis about youth organizations in contemporary
Russia, aiming at describing their contribution in the conceptualization of the Russian postcommunist national identity, captured by an analysis of their music practices.
The starting point for the analysis will be 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).
According to the authors, despite the music importance in the formation and remembrance of a wide
range of social movements, “these musical components have seldom been examined explicitly in the
social movements, or broader sociological, literature.”1
Moreover, the authors point out a tendency among social movements’ scholars to operationalize
culture (and music) as a dependent variable, ignoring its role in “supplying actors with the sources of
meanings and identities out of which they collectively construct social action and interaction.”2
Following Eyerman and Jamison’s approach, the thesis will focus on processes of
construction of meanings characterizing contemporary Russian youth organizations by looking at
their music as independent variable. Thus, its originality will consist in interpreting music as a
cultural practice which structures a particular domain of the organizational field of the selected
groups and contribute in the creation of their collective identities.
Broadly speaking, two will be the aims of the research: first of all, the identification of the
configurational patterns explaining music’s contribution to and influence on the organizations’ life;
secondly, the analysis of the organizations’ collective identity produced and reproduced by their
music, with particular attention to the role and their interpretation of the national identity issue.
In particular, through an intra- and inter-scene comparison, the thesis will aim at the detection of
convergences and divergences between the different organizations with regard to both the relation
between music and organizational field and their conceptualization of the post-communist Russian
identity.
But then, how to analyze and compare different organizations in intra- and inter-scene
perspective?
1
2
Eyerman and Jamison, 1998: 7
Ibd.: 162
3
The research will be grounded in a multi-method approach: the data on the selected youth groups and
on the relations and dynamics characterizing their music organizational field will be collected
through semi-structured interviews and ethnography.
Afterwards, in order to effectively compare the different organizations and explain the mechanisms
and extent in which music structures organizations’ life, the data will be analyzed through social
network-based logic and softwares.
Before proceeding to the presentation of the research hypothesis and methodology, in the next
chapter it will follow a description of the theoretical framework which will represent the starting
point for the analysis.
4
1. Literature Review
1.1.
Defining Russian national identity
The collapse of the USSR has meant that Russia is in the process of a triple transformation: as a
nation, as a state, and as a people and has thrown up some very intriguing questions so that it is licit
to wonder what is the meaning of Russia and Russianess in the 21st century.
As Sandle stresses, the issues which dominate the scholarly and the political agenda (such as
the legitimate and proper frontiers of Russia, Russian citizens in the “near abroad”, the form of the
Russian state, the ethnic and religious composition of the population of the Russian state) symbolise
an ongoing search for Russia’s national identity and the outcome of this search is likely to play an
important role in determining the shape of post-Soviet Russia.3
Before 1991, Russia had never existed as a nation-state, but it had always been core of a
larger empire.
Imperial Russia was succeeded by the Soviet Union, an empire that, at least on the ideological level,
incorporated the values of internationalism and egalitarianism and competed with the capitalist West
for world hegemony. Correspondently, the self-understanding of the Soviet state was never that of a
nation-state in the usual sense of the word.4
Not Russian identity but Soviet one characterized the 75 years of Communist regime. The Russian
people suffered as a result of the Soviet experience: their history, culture and traditions and social
structure were all but destroyed by the Sovietisation policies of the Communist Party.5 At the same
time, Russians were identified as the dominant and exploitative group who benefited from the USSR:
as a matter of fact, Russian was the dominant language and, from the 1930s onwards, the superiority
of the Russian culture over all other was boasted, the school curricula gradually became Russified,
and written scripts were adapted to the Cyrillic form.6
Talking about the contemporary political and intellectual debate on Post-Soviet Russia, Tolz
presents five possible interpretations of its national identity: the union identity, Russians as a nation
of all eastern Slaves, Russians as a community of Russian speakers, Russians as a racial community,
and Russian as a civic nation.7
According to the advocates of the union identity, the URSS was the supranational force that reflected
the interests of a multiethnic Eurasian community composed by different nationalities unable to
3
Sandle, 1999: 64
Piirainen 2000: 161
5
Sandle 1999: 68
6
Smith 2000: 198
7
Tolz, 2001: 237-238
4
5
survive outside the “Soviet structure”. Since all these nationalities are still united by a common
Russian culture and belong to a unique civilization, constituting an Edinyi Sovetiskii Narod, these
theorists support a re-establishment of the Union in the form of a supranational state lead by the
Russians.
Less inclusive is the theorization of Russia as a community of Eastern Slaves. In this case, the
religious dimension prevails and Russia is conceived as a triune orthodox nation (triedinaia
pravoslavnaia russkaia narodnost) composed by the three brotherly Slavic peoples: Russians,
Ukrainians, and Belorussians.
Instead, according to the supporters of Russia as a community of Russian-speakers, language
constitutes the main marker of national identity and Russian government should try to regain those
areas where Russians and Russian speakers live in compact settlement in the near abroad. Therefore,
Kiev Rus heritage is not considered part of the Russian historical past.
Extremely restrictive is the vision of those adopting a racial definition of nation according which
Russians should safeguard themselves from the harmful influences of other “ethnoses” and only
those who have “Russian blood” should be admitted in the “Russian community”.
Finally, according to Tishkov and the theorists of a civic national identity, politicians and intellectual
should be working to form a civic Russian nation as a community of all citizens of the Russian
Federation regardless of their cultural and religious differences. For Tolz, “The use of the work
rossiskaia in itself implies a civic identity, based on citizenship of the RF rather than on any form of
ethnic Russian (russkii) characteristics”8 which would lead to the creation of a multi-national people
(mnogonaatsionalnyi narod).
But, then, to what extent do the post-communist debates of intellectuals and politicians about what
Russia is and who the Russians are have affected the broader public? And, more specifically, to what
extend these debates have invested the societal level and the numerous youth organizations that have
been animated the political scene since the collapse of the USSR?
1.2.
Youth Organizations in contemporary Russia
According to Dulman, the proliferation of youth groups registered in the past twenty years confirms
how young people are attributed an increasingly active role in contemporary Russia, compensating,
for example, for the lack of a strong opposition in mainstream politics.9
As stressed by Sieger, Post-Soviet Russia is characterized by four different types of
“Molodjoschnyije organisazii” (youth organizations): pro-Kremlin or by Kremlin founded, liberal
8
9
Tolz, 2001: 249
Dulman. 2009
6
and western-oriented, left-radical and communist, and nationalistic and extreme right-wing
organizations.10
Little is known about the size, features and activities of these organizations. While for the
left-radical, nationalist and liberal groups membership is based more on ideal, moral and ethic
concerns, the belonging to youth-governmental organizations tends to be motivated by opportunism
and carrier opportunities. At the same time, while the liberal and extreme right-wing groups are
stronger in big cities such as Moscow and San Petersburg, the left-radical and pro-Kremlin ones are
more widespread in small towns and in the countryside.
These organizations were founded by parties and political leaders for instrumental and
demographic reasons: the aim was to get in touch and to involve in political activities young people
who have lost interest and trust in conventional political and governmental institutions.
Central in this process of involvement is the strategic use of cultural and sub-cultural symbols:
musicians, showmen, sportsmen are members of and are celebrated as icons of these organizations.
The following charts present a sample of the most representative youth organizations in
contemporary Russia according to the German research institute Forschungsstelle Osteurope of the
Otto Wolff-Stiftung, the Russian independent research institute ФOM, and the Rossiskaya Gazeta,
Russian popular newspaper.
Pro-Kremlin Youth Groups
Democratic Antifascist Youth Movement (Nashi)
Russian Youth League (PSM)
Young Patriotic Alternative Globalization
Movement (VAL)
Liberal Democratic Party Youth Center
Молодежное демократическое антифашистское
движение “Наши”
Молодая гвардия
Движение молодых политических экологов
“Местые”
Российский союз молодежи
Молодежное патриотические альтерглобалисткие
движение (ВАЛ)
Молодежный Центр ЛДПР
Liberal Youth Groups
Da!
Union of Right Forces Youth Wing
Democratic Movement “We”
Yabloko Youth
Oborona
Ura!
Демократическая альтернатива
Молодежное крыло СПС
Демократическое движение “Мы”
Молодежное Яблоко
Российское молодежное движение “Оборона”
Всероссийское движение “Ура!
Leftwing Youth Groups
Red Youth Vanguard
Youth Left Front
National-Bolshevik Party
Communist Youth League of the Russian Federation
Авангард красной молодежь
Молодежный левый фронт
Национал-Большевистская Партия
Союз Коммунистической молодежи Российской
Young Guard
Mestye Movement of Young Political Ecologists
10
Sieger 2005: 3
7
Socialist Movement “Forward”
Федерации (СКМ РФ)
Революционные коммунистический союз молодежи
РКСМ(б)
Российский коммунистический союз
молодежи РКСМ
Социалистическое движение “Вперед”
Rightwing Youth Groups
Eurasian Youth League
Movement Against Illegal Immigration
Slavic Youth League
Евразийский союз молодежи
Движение против нелегальной иммиграции
Славянский молодежный союз
(SKM RF)
Revolutionary Communist Youth League
(Bolshevik)
Russian Communist Youth League
But then, how to link these organizations to music and their conceptualization of Russian postcommunist identity? The following paragraphs will shed light on the complex relation existing
between organizations, collective identity, music practices and nation(alism).
Let’s start from the last key concept.
1.3. Nationalism and imagined communities
The standard definition tends to locate nationalism as something beyond, or prior to, the established
nation-state. Nationalism, thus, is typically seen as the force which creates nation-states or which
threatens the stability of existing states.
According to Anderson (1983), nationalism is neither an ideology nor a philosophy: it is
rather an imagined political community, imagined as limited and sovereign.
For the author, nationalism and national consciousness are the result of cultural events and political
and social changes emerging through the convergence of historical forces during the 18th century,
such as the development of the concept of sovereignty, the Enlightenment ideals and the rise of
Protestantism and Capitalism.
The concept of nationalism within a nation-state is based on the feeling of a community sharing
common traits and unified through a common language, religion or race, creating nations where they
do not exist: thus Anderson’s “imagined community”.11 These imagined communities led then to the
consolidation of a national consciousness for which an individual would have fought and died.
The feeling of a people having the power of creating a state (a national consciousness) encouraged,
for example, the French and American Revolution rejecting absolute power and putting power in the
hands of people.12
Giddens describes nationalism as “a phenomenon that is primarily psychological.”13
According to the author, “when the sense of ontological security is put in jeopardy by the disruptions
11
12
Anderson, 1983: 6
Ibd.: 7
8
of routines, [...] regressive forms of object-identification tend to occur”14: as a result, individuals are
more willing to invest their emotional energy in the symbols of nationhood and national identity and
in the promise of strong leadership.
Finally, as stressed by Billig, the concept of national identity involves conceiving of “us, the
nation” which is said to have its unique identity (in terms of place, religion, language etc.) and
conceiving of “them, the foreigners”, from whom we identify “ourselves” as different.15 The
assertion of belonging to a “people” is not just an inner psychological issue or a feeling of identity
but it is also a way of being within the world of nations and it demands the political entitlements
which are presumed to follow from being a nation.
1.4. Social movements and Collective Identity
According to Habermas (1996), national identity is an artefact made by intellectuals in order to
assure political mobilization and active contribution to the state on behalf of its inhabitants.
The idea of a shared and common identity which could bring people to mobilization and
participation is also central topic in the literature on social movements and collective action.
For Melucci, the collective identity of social movements is an “interactive and shared
definition produced by several individuals (or groups at a more complex level) and concerned with
the orientations of action and the field of opportunities and constraints in which the action takes
place”.16
The definition of the SMOs’ collective identity is a process of construction and negotiation which
establishes ends, means and field of action, which happens in a network of active relationships
between actors who interact, communicate and influence each other and which includes an emotional
investment of the individuals in feeling part of a common unity.
Collective identity is, therefore, “a learning process that leads to the formation and maintenance of a
unified empirical actor that we can call a social movement”17, by ensuring the continuity and
permanence of the movement over time, by establishing the limits of the actor with respect of its
social environment, by regulating membership of individuals and by defining the requisites for
joining the movement and the criteria by which its members recognize themselves and are
recognized.
13
Giddens, 1985: 116
Ibid. 1985: 218
15
Billig, 1995: 61
16
Melucci, 1995: 43
17
Ibd.1995: 49
14
9
The importance of collective identity for social movements is also stressed by Passy, for
whom “people engage in collective action because they share certain norms and values related to a
specific area of political contention: in this perceptive, participation in collective action is an
identification process.”18
According to the author, these identities are created and shaped through social relations and networks
in which actors interact and convey meanings (symbols, rituals, narratives etc.) that build and
solidify identities and shape the actors’ cognitive frames, thereby enabling them to interpret social
reality and to define a set of actions that involve them in this perceived reality. Once individuals have
been integrated into formal or informal networks, they find themselves in an interactive structure that
enables them to define and redefine their interpretative frames, facilitates the process of identitybuilding and identity-strengthening, and creates or solidifies political consciousness towards a given
[protest] issue.
1.5. Collective Identity and Music
Music has been a factor in many major movements, such as the labour movements, the civil right
movements, the oppositional movement in dictatorship Argentina, various ethno nationalist
movements (such as the Estonian national movement against the Soviets which, in fact, was known
as the “singing revolution”) and, of course, the aggressive anarchist punk scene.
Compared to other examples of social movements’ high-cultural and pop-cultural artefacts (such as
paiting and literature) which all can articulate and show off shared values and pride, “only music can
make you feel them and offer an immediate experience of collective identity”.19
For all these reasons, music is probably the most widely studied cultural forms in SMOs’ literature
(see Denisoff and Peterson, 1973; Eyerman and Jamison, 1998; Halker, 1991; Rosingo and Danaher,
2004).
Talking about social movements and music, Eyerman and Jamison (1998) define movements’
identity as a “collective structure of feeling” and highlight the central role played by music in its
making and reproduction.
According to the authors, social movements utilize the media of artistic expression to communicate
with the larger society and, by so doing, often serve to (re)politicize population culture and
entertainment. In music, social movements periodically provide an important source of renewal and
rejuvenation, by implanting new meanings and reconstituting established aesthetic forms and genres.
At the same time, through music social movements lean to a reconstruction of processes of social
18
19
Passy, 2003: 23
Frith, 1987: 140
10
interaction and collective identity formation. As they affirm, “The construction of meaning through
music and songs is a central aspect of collective identity formation […] and collective structures of
feeling are actually made and reorganized through music.”20
Talking about the power of music in the creation of collective identities, Bohlman stresses
how nationalistic music plays a central role in the formation of an ethnic consciousness.
In particular, music serves a nation-state in its competition with other nation-states and contributes to
the struggle over contested territory such as border regions: thus, “Possessing music becomes
possessing land”.21
Nationalist music relies on the symbolism of structures that define the nation and enters into public
and political ritual, in this way giving “nation” an identity. It comes into being through top-down
cultural and political work: rather than representing something pre-existent and quintessential –
culturally prior to the nation – nationalist music represents cultural boundaries with political
purposes. It creates and fabricates an image of the state, mobilizes the residents of the state through
musical ideas and narrates an historical or political struggle. Nationalistic music identifies the entity
against which the nation struggles and draws the battle lines, taking the people of the state into battle,
both abstract and real. In this way, nationalist music generates an aesthetic and musical language that
allows the nation-state to compete for abstract ideas as well as the specific ideologies.
Finally, looking at the nationalist movements and the Youth European movements (Young
Italy, Young Poland, Young Poland, Young Turkey, etc.) of the past century, Johnson and
Klandermans (1995) highlight how they drew heavily on (poetry, literature and) songs as expression
of nationalist and generational discontent and how songs in national language are common in mass
mobilizations such as those of Quebecois chansonniers Pauline Julien, Felix Leclerc, and Gilles
Vigneault.
1.6. On Music (and) Events
According to Futrell et al. (2006), two are the main approaches in the studies of the role of music in
social movements: either they describe music lyrics as tools for framing grievances (semiotic
approach) or they interpret music as a ritual activity (contextual approach).
More specifically, the semiotic approach focuses on music as a product, as an object, and
finds meanings in music’s sonic qualities or lyrics. In this view, music is conceived as a form of
discourse that articulates identities and plays a central role in recruiting and mobilizing activists.
20
21
Eyerman and Jamison, 1998: 160
Bohlman, 2004: 119
11
Music’s main impact is on the cognitive understandings of listeners, who come to perceive social
conditions in new ways and act to change them according to lyrical representations.
Instead, according to the contextualist approach, what music is and what music does depend
on what people are doing when they compose, perform, listen, discuss, dance, or imagine music. In
this view, music is seen “not only as influencing the event, which would assume the event could
exist without it, but as also helping constitute the event itself.”22
Many social movements organize ritualistic occasions around music and ritualistic music
events represent the privileged moment where feelings and emotions are involved and created.
In fact, as documented by Mc Neill (1995), the mutual synchronizing of sonic and bodily experience
created a precognitive bond perhaps deeper than shared conscious meaning and the effects of
temporarily coordinated bodily activities such as marching, chanting, singing, dancing foster a form
of solidarity richer and more robust than cognitive agreement. According to the author, “moving our
muscles rhythmically and giving voice consolidate our solidarity by altering human feelings.”23
Finally, Futrell and Simi (2004) highlight the centrality of music events in the anchoring and
sustenance of SMOs’ collective identities. Taking into account Polletta’s distinction between
indigenous, prefigurative and transmovement spaces (1999), the authors define music events as
transmovement-prefigurative spaces which draw “otherwise unconnected local networks into broader
webs of [white power] culture and identity”24 and develop broad-based cultures of solidarity. Music
festivals succeed in linking local activist networks through both physical and virtual spaces,
providing participants with the feeling of being part of a larger, ongoing movement culture, thus
reinforcing their solidarity, faith and commitment to the cause.
22
Roy and Down, 4
McNeill, 1995, 136
24
Futrell and Simi, 2004: 14
23
12
2. Research Questions and Hypotheses
The main focus of the thesis will be the conceptualization of Russianness characterizing youth
organizations in contemporary Russia captured through their music practices, by looking at the ways
in which music structures their organizational field and constitutes their collective identity.
The analysis will be conducted in two phases.
First of all, I will concentrate on the music organizational field25 of Pro-Kremlin, Liberal, Left-Wing
and Right-Wing youth groups in which the production, distribution and consumption of this cultural
artefact take place.
In this section, I will basically focus on the main actors involved in the music activities of ProKremlin, Liberal, Left-Wing and Right-Wing youth organizations and analyse the roles, relationships
and interaction patterns linking all these actors. The aim will be the detection of relational
configurations situated at multiple levels of analysis, depicting patterns common inside the
organizations, across the organizations belonging to the same political scene and across the different
scenes.
Special attention will be devoted to the examination of the relation between organizations and bands
since the latter, through their lyrics, contribute to the creation and maintenance of the organization’s
collective identity and, in the course of the music events, are delegated the role of “representing” the
organization on stage.
Five main questions have been identified that will lead to a logical progression trough the analysis:
-
Which are the actors constituting the music organizational field of the selected youth
groups?
-
What kind of relation links the actors in the music organizational field of the selected
youth groups?
-
Are there music networks linking organizations which belong to the same political scene?
-
Are there music networks linking organizations of different political scenes?
-
Which are the configurational patterns which better describe the role of the music in the
selected organizations’ life?
Through an intra- and inter-scene comparison of different music-organizational configurations, it
will be tested the hypothesis whether and to what extent there is a significant relation between
organizations and music and evaluate the degree of intra- and inter-scene interdependency and
isomorphism characterizing Russian youth groups with regard to their music practices.
25
DiMaggio and Powell define the organization field as those organizations that, in aggregate, constitute a key
suppliers, recourse, and product consumers, regulatory agencies, and other organizations that produce similar
services or products (1983: 148)
13
Instead, the second part of the research will be dedicated to the study of youth organizations’
contribution to the conceptualization of Post-communist Russia’s identity.
Taking into account the music events organized by Pro-Kremlin, Liberal, Left-Wing and Right-Wing
Youth groups in a specific time period (summer 2010), by looking at these prefigurativetransmovement spaces as privileged moment for the creation and maintenance of the organizations’
collective identity and significations of the world, I will analyze the performances enacted by
organizations (t.i., discourses) and the bands (t.i., lyrics) in the course of these events.
The analysis will be grounded on the textual materials of these performances, wherein texts are
conceived as a formalization of the organizations’ collective identity; the focus will be on the their
national component.
In this section, I will address in particular six main questions:
-
What kind of collective identity is produced and represented in the organizations’ discourses
and bands’ lyrics?
-
What is the role played by the national identity issue in the organizations’ collective identity?
-
What conceptualization of Russian national identity characterizes the selected organizations?
-
Are there convergences/divergences in the collective identity and conceptualization of
Russian national identity proposed by organizations’ leaders and “their” bands?
-
Are there convergences/divergences in the conceptualization of Russian national identity
between youth organizations belonging to the same pro-Kremlin, Liberal, Left-Wing and
Right-Wing Youth scenes?
-
Are there convergences/divergences in the conceptualization of Russian national identity
among youth organizations of the different pro-Kremlin, Liberal, Left-Wing and Right-Wing
Youth scenes?
Through an intra- and inter-scene comparison, I will point out features, convergences and
divergences in the conceptualization of Russianness characterizing contemporary youth
organizations, thus providing the intellectual and political debate on Russian post-communist identity
with new insights from the societal level.
14
3. Research Design and Methodology
The dissertation will be grounded on a multi-method approach.
In the first part of the research regarding the music organizational field of Russian youth
groups, the data will be collected through semi-structured interviews and analyzed through social
network analysis.
The starting point of the analysis will be the sample of the most representative youth organizations
according to Forschungsstelle Osteurope of the Otto Wolff-Stiftung, ФOM, and the Rossiskaya
Gazeta.
Through face-to-face or telephone interview with organizations’ leaders (starting from march 2010),
it will be possible to identify the main actors involved in the music organizational field of the
selected youth groups. The questionnaire will include sections on the links between organizations
and music, on the links that these organizations have with music bands, and on the events organized
by these groups involving music practices.
Since the aim of this research phase will be the detection of configurational patterns characterizing
the music organizational field of the selected youth groups, the collected data will be analyzed
through a network-based logic. More specifically, the analysis will make use of two social network
analysis software packages: UCINET (for quantitative analysis) and NetDraw (for visualization)
(Borgatti, Everett and Freeman, 2000). In this network dataset, the “nodes” will represent the actors
involved in the music organizational field of the selected youth groups and the “ties” the existence of
a relation between these actors.
The focus of the analysis will be on the structural features of the music networks of the selected
youth groups: therefore, comparison between the music networks of organizations of the same scene,
of organizations of different scenes and of different scenes as a whole will be conducted. Particular
attention will be paid to music actors linking different organizations and scenes, thus creating interorganizational and inter-scene music field.
Instead, the second part of the research dealing with the organizations’ collective identities
and conceptualization of Russianness will be grounded on ethnography and network text analysis
(NTA).
Ethnographic data and video recordings of the music events will be collected during the summer
2010. This ethnographic phase will be of pivotal importance for capturing the context in which
organizations’ meanings are created and constructed and will represent the frame for the analysis of
their collective identity.
15
Afterwards, organization leaders’ discourses and bands’ lyrics will be turned into textual materials
and analyzed through network-based logic.
Following Carley’s example (1997), I will conduct a network text analysis (NTA).
This approach is based in the decodification of the discourse in concepts (single idea), relationships
(link between two concepts), and statements (two concepts and their relationship between them) and
examines the discourse in terms of concept’s position in the conceptual network and of relations’
networks between concepts (also called mental model).
Thus, through the NTA, it will be possible the identification of networks of concepts which
constitute the collective identity of the selected organizations and to detect the position (and thus the
centrality) of the national identity issue.
Moreover, the decodification of mental models of the selected organizations’ discourses and lyrics
will allow a quantitative depiction of their collective identity, thus enabling a systematic comparison
of organizations’ structures of feelings and conceptualization of Russia.
16
4. Outcomes and Significance
As Eyerman and Jamison assert, “Music and songs have been important in the formation, and
remembrance, of a wide range of social movements, but these musical components of collective
identity have seldom been examined explicitly in the social movement, or broader sociological,
literature.”26
Scholars of the “political opportunity structure” theory have made the ontological choice to see the
world in terms of structures and processes which exist outside the meanings actors give them: from
this instrumentalist perspective, culture is operationalized as a dependent variable, as a weapon in
strategic battle, which can be taken on and discarded more or less at will. But, as Eyerman and
Jamison stress, in social movements and organization culture should be rather seen as an independent
variable, “as a seedbed of social change, supplying actors with the sources of meaning and identity
out of which they collectively construct social action and interaction.”27
Moreover, in their book “Social Movements and Networks” (2003), Diani and McAdam
suggest the adoption of integrated approaches, which enable to translate awareness of the link
between networks, actions, and identities in specific research field.
In particular, Diani highlights the need to pay more attention to the network processes connecting
events, activities, and ideas (and not only to those linking individuals or organizations) as well as to
the multiplicity of networks potentially linking different actors and events. Instead, McAdam
recommends movement researchers to supplement traditional macro and micro staples of movement
analysis with a more serious investment in ethnography and other methods to shed empirical light on
meso-level dynamics.
The thesis will be an attempt to take up all these challenges.
Besides enriching the contemporary intellectual and political debate on Post-communist Russian
national identity with new insights from the societal level, this dissertation will distinguish itself by
its originality.
First of all, the thesis will be innovative for its conceptualization of music. Following
Eyerman and Jamison, the research will be based on the idea of music as an independent variable
which structures part of the organizations’ life, contributes to the creation of the organizations’
collective identity and constitutes the context in which this identity is produced and should be
interpreted.
26
27
Eyerman and Hamison, 1998: 7
Ibd. 1998: 162
17
Secondly, the research will be original for its multi-dimensionality and its multi-method
approach which will link micro with macro, interviews and ethnography with social network
analysis, and organizations with bands, events, and ideas in intra- and inter-organizational
perspective, thus exploring and comparing music organizations’ dynamics and configuration patterns
at multiple levels.
Coherently with a framework that looks at music as significant resource for academic
observes, the thesis will highlight the potentialities of this medium for the examination of complex
phenomena such social movements and organizations, taking into account both their structural and
ideational dimensions, thus opening up new intriguing perspectives in the organizational field
studies.
18
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