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The effect of education on nationalism and ethnic exclusionism in modern Russia
Pachkov, Aleksandr ; Escriba, Abel (vedoucí práce) ; David, Maxine (oponent)
In authoritarian contexts, such as present-day Russia, textbooks often become vehicles for ideological messaging and reinforcing political narratives. The present study endeavors to scrutinize the role of history education in Russian schools, specifically exploring its contribution to the cultivation of nationalism and ethnic exclusionism within the country's socio-cultural fabric. By investigating the institutional transformations that have transpired in history education since 1992, this research aims to discern the underlying mechanisms employed by the Russian government to imbue schools with indoctrination and harness national history textbooks as vehicles for propagating nationalistic discourses. Consequently, the primary research question emerges as follows: How have Russian schools embedded the narratives of nationalism and ethnic exclusionism through history education? This inquiry is further guided by two subquestions: (1) How has the Russian government indoctrinated history education in schools and used national history textbooks for nationalistic discourses? and (2) How do national history textbooks contribute to the perpetuation of narratives of ethnic exclusionism in present-day Russia? By delving into these questions, this study aims to shed light on the intricate interplay between history...
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Media Discourse on Sustainable Food Consumption in Austria and Czechia
Keenleyside, Vivien ; David, Maxine (vedoucí práce) ; Lizcová, Zuzana (oponent)
The necessity of a transition to a more sustainable food system is widely recognised, but the path that should be taken to achieve this is strongly contested. In 2020 the European Commission published the Farm to Fork Strategy, a policy framework which has the aim of facilitating the transition to a more sustainable food system in the European Union. Since its publication, it has however faced mounting opposition and consequently there are growing concerns that the original promise of the Strategy will be watered down. In light of the need to build and maintain support for the Farm to Fork Strategy throughout the EU, a deeper understanding of the media discourse on this issue can provide important insights for policymakers and campaigners. There is, however, little research on the media discourse on sustainability, and even less on sustainable food systems. Using Austria and Czechia as case studies, this thesis investigates the media discourse on sustainable food systems in the European Union. My findings demonstrate that while there are many similarities in the reporting, there are also important differences in the content of the media coverage between the two countries. Furthermore, I find that frames which emphasise the role of the market in addressing sustainability issues are dominant in the coverage...
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An Inductive Empirical Case Study Of China's Exercise Of Discourse Power: A Topic Model Based Analysis Of Xinhua's English-Language Facebook Posts About The War In Ukraine In 2022 - 2023
Theseira, Julian Anthony ; Kolenovská, Daniela (vedoucí práce) ; Zubek, Marcin (oponent) ; David, Maxine (oponent)
This thesis analysed Xinhua's posts about the war in Ukraine in 2022 - 2023 on its primary global English-language Facebook page, as an inductive empirical case study of China's exercise of Discourse Power. This thesis used an inductive computational method, Topic Modelling, in combination with a framework adapted from the public diplomacy literature due to limited existing scholarship in English about China's Discourse Power, to analyse data about Xinhua's Facebook posts about the war in Ukraine in 2022 - 2023. The dataset of this thesis consisted of 1110 Facebook posts and their associated metadata from the period 1 February 2022 - 31 March 2023. The data was gathered using CrowdTangle, then processed and analysed using the Python programming language. This thesis inductively identified five possible topics of Xinhua's Facebook posts about the war in Ukraine in 2022 - 2023: China's Perspectives On The War In Ukraine; The War In Ukraine And Global Prices; Russia's "Military Operation" In Ukraine And Presidents; UN And The War In Ukraine; US, NATO, And The War In Ukraine. Through an analysis of data from Facebook, this thesis found that these topics possibly obtained some traction with audiences. Therefore, China's exercise of Discourse Power regarding the war in Ukraine via Xinhua was possibly...
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European Solidarity among the Italian Diaspora
Molinari, Nicole ; David, Maxine (vedoucí práce) ; Kissack, Robert (oponent)
European solidarity as a fundamental value of the EU assumed even more relevance in the last decades in the context of the various crises that hit the European continent. The impact of these crises affected public opinion on European solidarity and led to increased politicisation of the issue in national political arenas. The influence of EU issues on national politics has been explored concerning different aspects, especially their role in determining citizens' voting behaviour. Nevertheless, despite its relevance, European solidarity has been disregarded as a voting factor in national elections. This research aims to fill this gap by exploring how people's perceptions of European solidarity might affect their national vote. It focuses on the last 2022 Italian national elections and investigates the Italian diaspora's voting behaviour. It relies on brand-new data collected through a post-electoral survey designed to capture the attitudes towards European solidarity of Italians living in France, Belgium, and Germany. The survey results are put in relation to the parties' stances on European solidarity emerging from their electoral manifestos. The findings show that European solidarity plays a role in shaping the sample's voting behaviour. In particular, they indicate that showing high support for the issue...
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Grassroots political activism in Russia
Chervotkina, Yulia ; Svoboda, Karel (vedoucí práce) ; David, Maxine (oponent)
Russian protests of 2011-2012 revitalised the country's political life. Hoping for a change, citizens were looking for opposition leaders to represent them in their dialogue with the authorities. However, the opposition failed to maintain its support and attract new followers over time, and this paper analyses why it happened. To answer the question, we analysed the long-term consequences of state-organised repression and institutionalisation. Our results showed that repression is not the only reason for the loss of support of the opposition. Limited radicalisation, premature institutionalisation, and disconnection of the opposition from civil society played a vital role in this process. Even though these were the main characteristics of the For Fair Elections movent, this research argues that the Russian opposition did not outgrow them ten years later. Keywords: Russia, protests, political opposition, repression, civil society
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A historic agreement? Debating the EU Recovery Plan in the German and Dutch plenaries
Eumann, Esther ; David, Maxine (vedoucí práce) ; Váška, Jan (oponent)
This thesis will analyse whether national parties formulate credible alternatives to EU policies. According to the literature, national parties have the important function of making political choices and political alternatives visible. Nevertheless, much of the literature has failed to empirically investigate the extent to which national parties actually propose alternatives and how credible these alternatives are. Empirically investigating whether parties do propose credible alternatives is important, because only then they manage to introduce choice into EU politics. This is the gap that this thesis will address. In order to answer the research question, this thesis analyses how the EU's recovery plan for the Covid-19 pandemic has been debated in the German and Dutch national parliamentary debates and whether German and Dutch parties manage to present credible policy alternatives to the recovery plan. Focusing on two case studies allows for a sufficiently detailed discussion while also providing the benefit of comparison. The recovery plan has been chosen because it is identified as an important issue for voters in both countries. The coding-scheme from Karlsson and Persson (2018) is applied to code all statements made by Members of Parliament (MPs) about the recovery plan between April 2020 and December...
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Soft Counterterrorism Strategies: The Italian Case
Perez- Bouzada Baravelli, Carlota ; David, Maxine (vedoucí práce) ; Mejstřík, Martin (oponent)
The discussion of the approach in counterterrorism started to arise especially around the United States and its tactics in its missions to other countries to "fight terrorism". Thus, this approach particularly developed around threats that did not come from 6 within but in relation to threats that were fought in other countries. With the worsening of the jihadist threat, the so-called new terrorism, the debate regarding homegrown threats became more pressing. In Europe, countries such as the United Kingdom, France, and Norway understood the need to develop strategies other than the classic hard approach to contain the new threat. Thus, soft power started to be applied in homeland security. This new method of approaching counter-terrorism, however, entails numerous criticisms, especially, due to problems in measuring the results obtained. The academic world is extremely divided on the utility and the benefits of the approach (see van Dongen, 2018). Italy has been dealing with homegrown terrorism since the birth of its first republic. However, contrary to its European neighbours, there seems to be a lack of debate surrounding the state of its counterterrorism approach and its prevention tactics. This gap represents the scenario that this thesis aims to fill. Powered by TCPDF (www.tcpdf.org)
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Punching Above the Weight: the Baltic States' Energy Security Policy
Pinchuk, Anastasiia ; Pożarlik, Grzegorz (vedoucí práce) ; David, Maxine (oponent)
The topic of the thesis and the research problem are highly relevant for the EU as a whole. Energy security remains one of the main challenges of the EU, and it was identified as "one of Europe's main external vulnerabilities" in the Union's Global Strategy of 2016. As it was mentioned above, 6 the issue has strong regional characteristics within the EU, that is to say, heavy dependence on Russian fossil fuels is more sensitive for some EU member states than others: more precisely, those that are in a relative proximity to the Russian borders, namely, Central and Eastern European states, Finland, and the Baltic States, as they have few or virtually no alternatives to the Russian gas due to their lesser energy integration with the rest of the EU. Their position is aggravated by the fact that the Kremlin "systematically uses its dominant position in the energy field vis-a-vis its ex-Soviet allies in order to exploit their high vulnerability and serve wider foreign policy goals" . In light of 7 this, it is particularly interesting to examine how the Baltic states, usually identified in the literature as typical small states, have enhanced their energy security by looking into their steps on various levels to raise awareness in the EU and shape the Union's policy-making. Powered by TCPDF (www.tcpdf.org)
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Towards More Participatory Governance? Comparative Analysis of Georgia and Ukraine
Makhauri, Nino ; Weiss, Tomáš (vedoucí práce) ; David, Maxine (oponent)
The thesis discusses the participatory governance establishment in Georgia and Ukraine with a focus on the elements of deliberative public participation. Through the analysis of the established practices of citizen engagement, the research attempts to find out whether Georgia and Ukraine managed to construct the system of the inclusion of the people in policy-making and set up the opportunities for deliberative public participation. The thesis contains the analysis of the legislative frameworks and the implemented Open Government Partnership initiatives in Georgia and Ukraine to find out which platforms of citizen engagement are set up in both countries and identify their character: do these platforms include the elements of deliberative public participation? If yes, to what extent? Each of the main mechanisms of citizen engagement is analysed according to the four categories defined in the evaluation framework. After identifying the level of deliberative public participation in both countries, the thesis discusses the environments both in Georgia and Ukraine to understand which factors underpinned the process of the development of deliberative public participation, and also, which factors held back the progress.
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