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German historian of modern Ukraine Tarik Cyril Amar positions the third year of the Russian invasion of Ukraine (February 2022) between an analysis of escalated culture wars within Ukraine and its resonance for Anglo-American/European liberalism, whose most influential representatives suppress consideration of class-based, ethnicized contradictions that underlie the appeal to national self-determination, following the Maidan revolution of 2014. The discussion considers how notable "bellicists" of contemporary Anglo-Atlantic liberalism mobilize the Maidan's aspiration for EU and NATO membership (envisioned as the accomplishment of higher standards of living and a middle-class European Ukraine) while instrumentalizing the brutalities of the Russian invasion for a conjuncture marked by the eclipse of the "war on terror," and the attendant exigencies of US-led realignment. Also a historian of the Holocaust, Amar reflects on his established study on the anomalous origins of "Soviet Ukraine" in the city of Lviv during the course of alternating occupation by Soviets and Nazis, in order to draw a sobering link between the twentieth century; the current, state-led "normalization" of memories of collaborationist violence during the interlude of Nazi rule (1941 – 44); and the prospect for a meaningful political future for Ukraine, in the wake of this war. Amar also indicates the unpopularity of such a position in the aftermath of February 2022 by pointing to the emergence of a new-left politics of identity, which, under the sign of "decolonization," accelerates previous state-led efforts to erase traces of communist or Russian history from the built environment, cultural production, literature, and textbooks, even while consigning to illiberality the generally poorer, less educated Russian-speaking opposition to Maidan (from eastern and southern Ukraine). While Amar emphasizes unevenness within his discussion of the sovereigntist position and, more specifically, its uses by an Atlanticist geopolitical agenda, he also indicates its own appropriation of "third-world" vocabularies of emancipation (circulated through the rubric of "decoloniality" out of academic and cultural institutions of the West). The discussion draws links to the ongoing obliteration of Gaza and its alibi—insufficiently challenged by the Maidan generation of activists—in the West's memory culture of the Holocaust. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper delves into the ways in which art and cultural expressions have helped to preserve the memory of the Ukrainian Revolution and how the Maidan Museum contributes to this effort. Specifically, the study explores the significance of the Maidan event in Ukraine’s national memory culture and how it is being integrated into the country’s historical narrative as part of the decommunization and decolonization processes. Additionally, the text examines how the politics of memory, as expressed through the museum’s performances and aesthetics, can serve as a tool of collective and national resistance. Ultimately, the article argues that the Maidan event is not fixed but rather dynamic, and Maidan memory plays a critical role in Ukraine’s ongoing transition away from a shared historical past with Russia. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The behaviour of football fans in Ukraine has often taken the form of public order offences. However, since Maidan, fans have enjoyed a more positive image, linked to their recognition by and assimilation into Ukrainian society through their social and political activities. Eventually becoming one of the driving forces of revolutionary events and contributing to regime change, football fans have taken an active part in hostilities in the east of the country since 2014. This article explores the links between football fans, their collective violent practices and their social transformation before Maidan, at the time of Maidan and in the post-Maidan period. The author presents the idea of the connection between the conversion of various types of capital and the application of different kinds of collective violent practices, which can affect the status of the group within society. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The events that took place on Kyiv’s Maidan in 1990 went down in history as the ‘Revolution on Granite’. It was one of the first student performances in the USSR. Over the years, however, the revolution lost part of its name because, as Oles Donii himself recalls, the full name of the events he helped organise was ‘Student Revolution on Granite’. However, the activity of young people was not rewarded, and the opposition, together with the Communists, raised the age for running for election to the Verkhovna Rada, which clearly destroyed the careers of young activists. The authors of the article try to show not only little-known facts from the history of Ukraine’s systemic transformation, but also the changes that the revolution brought about in Ukraine’s political system. The authors mainly use methods of source analysis, often a little-known position, which undoubtedly positively affects the cognitive value of the article.

AbstractThis study analyzes which party of the conflict was involved in the 2014 Maidan massacre in Ukraine. The massacre of Maidan protesters and the police on 20 February 2014 was a turning point in Ukrainian politics. This mass killing led to the overthrow of the Ukrainian government and spiraled into a civil war in Donbas, Russian military intervention in Crimea and Donbas, the Russian annexation of Crimea, and conflicts between Ukraine and Russia and between the West and Russia that Russia drastically escalated by launching its illegal invasion of Ukraine in February 2022. This article proposes and tests the moral hazard theory of the state repression backfire. Content analysis of synchronized videos, testimonies by several hundred witnesses, confessions by 14 self-admitted members of Maidan sniper groups, and bullet hole locations show that both the police and protesters were massacred by Maidan snipers located in Maidan-controlled buildings and areas. Content analysis of synchronized videos revealed that the specific time and direction of shooting by Berkut policemen, who were charged with the massacre, did not coincide with the killing of specific protesters. Testimonies by the absolute majority of wounded protesters and some 100 witnesses and forensic examinations by ballistic and medical experts for the Maidan massacre trial and investigation in Ukraine corroborate this. The article shows that the false-flag massacre was rationally organized and carried out with the involvement of oligarchic and far-right elements of the Maidan opposition to overthrow the incumbent government in Ukraine.

On 24 February 2022, Russia launched a full-scale invasion of Ukraine in a major escalation of a war that had been persisting since 2014. This article explores three of Sergei Loznitsa's films set in Ukraine and examines the way in which their shared observational style informs the Russia-Ukraine war and may influence viewers' perceptions of the complexities of the conflict. A close analysis reveals that the observational mode used in Maidan (2014), Donbass (2018), and The Kiev Trial (2022) has two primary effects. First, in Donbass and The Kiev Trial, the unfiltered style serves as a contrast to the often farcical and 'staged' content, thereby exposing the lies underpinning Soviet presence in Ukraine and the current Russian invasion. Second, in addition to exposing Russian misinformation, Loznitsa's observational style in Maidan and Donbass facilitates identification with the Ukrainian people by visually and auditorily immersing the viewer in the world on the screen. The article concludes with a discussion of the significance of Loznitsa's work in shaping the public's perception of – and continued commitment to – the war in Ukraine. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Copyright of Codrul Cosminului is the property of Codrul Cosminului and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

This study analyzes which party of the conflict was involved in the 2014 Maidan massacre in Ukraine. The massacre of Maidan protesters and the police on 20 February 2014 was a turning point in Ukrainian politics. This mass killing led to the overthrow of the Ukrainian government and spiraled into a civil war in Donbas, Russian military intervention in Crimea and Donbas, the Russian annexation of Crimea, and conflicts between Ukraine and Russia and between the West and Russia that Russia drastically escalated by launching its illegal invasion of Ukraine in February 2022. This article proposes and tests the moral hazard theory of the state repression backfire. Content analysis of synchronized videos, testimonies by several hundred witnesses, confessions by 14 self-admitted members of Maidan sniper groups, and bullet hole locations show that both the police and protesters were massacred by Maidan snipers located in Maidan-controlled buildings and areas. Content analysis of synchronized videos revealed that the specific time and direction of shooting by Berkut policemen, who were charged with the massacre, did not coincide with the killing of specific protesters. Testimonies by the absolute majority of wounded protesters and some 100 witnesses and forensic examinations by ballistic and medical experts for the Maidan massacre trial and investigation in Ukraine corroborate this. The article shows that the false-flag massacre was rationally organized and carried out with the involvement of oligarchic and far-right elements of the Maidan opposition to overthrow the incumbent government in Ukraine. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article is devoted to identifying key differences between Ukrainian and Russian political identities. It is ascertained that the basic parameters for Ukrainian political identity are individualism, rejection of the authoritarian principle, love of freedom, etc. The idea of freedom has been long embedded in the mentality of Ukrainian people. By contrast, as regards the Russian people (Muscovites) mentality, slavish obedience has long been considered a virtue. According to eyewitnesses, Muscovites considered deception to be a proof of great intelligence. They are not ashamed of lying. Ukrainian political identity representatives should not be expected to automatically submit to the authorities, as the reputation and legitimacy of the leader are important for them. Ukrainians can force an illegitimate official who is also acting illegally to relinquish the power. The bearers of Russia’s political identity are dominated by the need for a supreme leader who will make all important decisions on his own. This state of Russian political culture, where decision-making is delegated only to rulers, and the role of the population is to implement these decisions, is determined by long-standing practices of authoritarianism. Atomization, that is, the disunity of society, is one of the dominant features of Russia’s political identity nowadays. Due to the atomization of society and people being unable to trust each other, all sorts of significant protests or rallies in Russia are impossible.

This is the second part of an ongoing series that is part of this journal's continuing commitment to our colleagues in Ukraine. In more peaceful times they could focus on publishing their work on the larger culture of central Europe in journals such as this one. Instead, they are now forced to confront the horror of war every day. The least we can do is provide another forum for their voices to be heard. We are grateful to our colleagues in Ukraine for their texts and to their translators for making this series possible. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Copyright of Sprawy Miedzynarodowe / International Affairs is the property of Instytut Studiow Politycznych PAN and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

This study analyzes revelations from the trial and investigation in Ukraine concerning the mass killing that took place in Kyiv on 20 February 2014. This Maidan massacre of protesters and police led to the overthrow of the Yanukovych government and ultimately to the Russian annexation of Crimea, the civil war and Russian military interventions in Donbas, and the Ukraine-Russia and West-Russia conflicts which Russia escalated by illegally invading Ukraine in 2022. The absolute majority of wounded Maidan protesters, nearly 100 prosecution and defense witnesses, synchronized videos, and medical and ballistic examinations by government experts pointed unequivocally to the fact that the Maidan protesters were massacred by snipers located in Maidan-controlled buildings. To date, however, due to the political sensitivity of these findings and cover-up, no one has been convicted for this massacre. The article discusses the implications of these revelations for the Ukraine-Russia war and the future of Russian-Ukrainian relations. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This essay analyzes how artworks express the Ukrainian revolution 2013– 2014 as an experience of democracy. Three questions are foregrounded. How do aesthetic expressions capture and accumulate social energy? How do they help convert such energy into political action? How do they preserve it, for future use? These questions concern the ways in which aesthetic works express what I call political emergence: people who have no say in political institutions come together as a collective that changes the political order. Analyzing selected examples from the Maidan uprising, the essay demonstrates a contradiction between how democratic protests generate aesthetic forms with a strong universal and utopian thrust and how these democratic utopias are subsequently contained by cultural representations and political traditions, in Ukraine’s case a particular form of militant and self-sacrificing nationalism, which, however, cannot do without projections of utopian solidarity [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The proposed article demonstrates that the formation and development of a new political concept is accompanied by an increase in the number of units representing it, which also occurs due to active word-formation processes that lead to the emergence of a significant number of non-derivatives formed from the main representative of the concept. The hypothesis is verified by the example of the description of the verbal-derivational field of the “maidan” media concept.In the course of the research, the method of constructing a word-formation nest was used; to assess the frequency of use of new derivatives, the method of content analysis was used. The material for the study was texts related to media discourse for the period from 2004 to 2019. The article highlights two periods in the development of the concept of “Maidan” in the media discourse, associated with two major protests in Ukraine and their consequences, for each period new derivatives formed from the root of the Maidan are identified and described, the ways of forming new words are determined, their frequency is analyzed. which ultimately allows us to trace the evolution of the concept’s verbal-derivational field. It has been established that each of the periods under consideration is characterized by a significant increase in the number of derivatives of the “maidan” media concept, in particular, at the first stage, 17 new derivative words appeared, at the second stage, their number increases to 41 units, which is accompanied by an increase in the frequency of all non-derivatives. The bulk of the new words allows us to characterize 1) the typology of protests (avtomaydan, eromaydan, mikhomaidan, anti-maidan), 2) its participants (maidan, maidan, maidan, maidan, etc.) and 3) the process of protest and its phases (zamaydan, maidan, re-maidan , domaydanit, etc.). Thus, the results obtained confirm the thesis about the important role of derivational processes in the formation and development of concepts and indicate the increasing importance of the “Maidan” media concept for the national political concept sphere.

The article is devoted to identifying key differences between Ukrainian and Russian political identities. It is ascertained that the basic parameters for Ukrainian political identity are individualism, rejection of the authoritarian principle, love of freedom, etc. The idea of freedom has been long embedded in the mentality of Ukrainian people. By contrast, as regards the Russian people (Muscovites) mentality, slavish obedience has long been considered a virtue. According to eyewitnesses, Muscovites considered deception to be a proof of great intelligence. They are not ashamed of lying. Ukrainian political identity representatives should not be expected to automatically submit to the authorities, as the reputation and legitimacy of the leader are important for them. Ukrainians can force an illegitimate official who is also acting illegally to relinquish the power. The bearers of Russia's political identity are dominated by the need for a supreme leader who will make all important decisions on his own. This state of Russian political culture, where decision-making is delegated only to rulers, and the role of the population is to implement these decisions, is determined by long-standing practices of authoritarianism. Atomization, that is, the disunity of society, is one of the dominant features of Russia's political identity nowadays. Due to the atomization of society and people being unable to trust each other, all sorts of significant protests or rallies in Russia are impossible. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper highlights different facets of public space in Indian cities by examining contestations and conceptualizations of a maidan (open ground) in Bangalore. Since the early 1980s, the Post Office Ground, a master planned open space in an upper-class neighbourhood of Bangalore, was used as a place for exercise and recreation by local residents and visitors. Local residents contested and stopped government attempts to build quasi-public buildings on the maidan. The protracted battles for the Ground, resulting in its partial conversion to a gated park, reveal Bangalore’s complex state–society–space dynamics where contestations and negotiations between actors of state and society compete with the master plan in shaping public space. This article concludes that the open maidan presents a more inclusive, though contentious, terrain for such contestations and negotiations than the gated park. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

'Maidan', as a public space, is an old concept in the Persian language and culture. The concept has changed along with its cultural context, connected with other concepts in a semantic network. This paper discusses one of its fundamental changes rooted in Qajar Iran, the crucial period at the beginning of modern Iran when cultural and social changes accelerated and a novel semantic network emerged. Using pictorial sources of Qajar cities and Qajar written sources, the authors clarify the meaning of 'maidan' in context; including the Constitutional Revolution and the 'public sphere'. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Copyright of Studia Ukrainica Posnaniensia is the property of Adam Mickiewicz University and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

Social movements aim to change society, but whether they actually cause change is difficult for researchers to assess. A social constructionist approach can add to the understanding of social movement outcomes by allowing the activists themselves to define these consequences. I demonstrate the utility of this approach with a qualitative study of the social movement actors who attempted to change their society through Euromaidan in Ukraine. The movement in Kyiv grew into a nation-wide contention in which local Maidan actors issued their own demands to authorities. The larger consequence was the resignation of the President and new elections, followed by a military conflict in the east of the country. To examine the outcomes of Maidans from the participants' point of view, I used primary documents issued by protest assemblies in 2013-2014 to select four local communities as case studies and, in 2018, held 24 interviews with 33 Maidan activists, representatives of local authorities, and observers. My findings suggest that local Maidans resulted in a rotation of local elites, but also in shifts of the receptiveness of local authorities to public opinion. These changes, however, mostly did not spread, which is due to the military conflict that ensued immediately after Maidan. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Andriy Gul was born in 1990 in Kuropatniki, a village in the Ternopil region. Gul graduated from the Kyiv Orthodox Theological Academy and was ordained a priest in 2015. After his ordination, Gul was sent to the Church of St. Nicholas in Kyiv as a full-time priest and later joined volunteers at the front following the beginning of the conflict in eastern of Ukraine. Since 2018 Gul has been chaplain of the Hetman Bohdan Khmelnytsky Independent Presidential Regiment.

Yuriy Kazmirenko was born in 1972 in Stavyshche, a village in the Zhytomyr region and was educated at the paratroopers’ academy, Kyiv National Economic University, and the Faculty of Law. Kazmirenko served in army airborne and reconnaissance units before going on to receive his religious education at Kyiv Orthodox Theological Academy, after which he served as a priest at the Svyatoduhovsky Temple in Kyiv prior to the start of the war. Kazmirenko has served as a military chaplain attached to the 20th Dnipropetrovsk Territorial Defense Battalion since 2016 and previously served between 2014 and 2015 as a priest and ambulance driver in the Aidar Battalion.

Aleksandr Vronsky was born in 1981 in Markovichi, a village in the Volyn region. Vronsky, who was educated at the Volyn Orthodox Theological Academy, is a priest of the Orthodox Church of Ukraine currently serving at the Church of St. Job of Pochayev in Lutsk. Vronsky worked as a military chaplain with the Sich Battalion and the 92nd Independent Mechanized Brigade. Since March 2020, Vronsky has served as staff chaplain of the 204th Aleksandr Pokryshkin Sevastopol Tactical Aviation Brigade.

Since its national awakening in the middle of the nineteenth century, the Ukrainian people have had two options for development: to pursue the modernist program of nation-building or to submit itself to the imperial projects that first the Russian and Austro-Hungarian empires, then the Soviet Union, and lastly Vladimir Putin were trying to build. The Ukrainian Maidans of 2004 and 2013–14 indicated a third way, a via tertia : to developing a civil society based on civil values, such as transparency, justice, and solidarity. This third option is a way towards modernization. The Ukrainian churches found themselves at the crossroads facing the same choices—the modernist, imperialist, or civil. A public theology that advocates for a 'symphony' with civil society, instead of a traditional symphonic relationship with the state, suggests a way for the churches: it would make them coherent with the social developments in the country. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

It has been argued that by allowing users to unfriend, unfollow, and block political and cultural 'others,' Facebook facilitates the discouragement of dialog between those holding different views on political issues. Using a case study of a civil confrontation in Ukraine, the paper analyzes the reasons for unfriending political 'others' reported by 699 respondents of a qualitative survey. Its findings are in line with researchers who have also found that the likelihood of selective avoidance is higher among people who are more politically active, emotionally involved, and who have more online friends. The paper also discusses an interesting discovery that has not been previously considered. The respondents often shunned political 'others' out of suspicion that they were trolls. As this paper suggests, whether real or imagined, trolling has turned out to be a real force influencing people's decisions to withdraw from communication on the most important issues of public life. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

There is an established tradition in social movement research to study protests through event datasets constructed from newspaper data. However, studies evaluating the magnitude of bias in newspaper reporting on protests have been largely confined to Western Europe and North America and have predominantly focused on time-invariant bias. I extend the past scholarship by analyzing the bias in online newspapers' reports on protest events in Ukraine prior to and following the Maidan protests, focusing on issue attention cycles. I find that the number of mentions per protest event in the national media dropped after Maidan, while the coverage of ideological protests increased, indicating an issue attention cycle. The regional sources displayed less bias; however, they over-reported protests against separatism and Russian intervention. This presents researchers with a trade-off between using selective national outlets which adhere more to journalism standards and less selective regional outlets featuring more unpredictable patterns of bias. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

On the basis of three typical stories of ordinary citizens’ commitment to Maidan protests, this article sheds light on the representations and endured experiences which motivated them and many other Ukrainians, to join the marching revolution. It also depicts the modalities of those citizens’ common protest action, in particular, within their mini-groupings (AutoMaidan, “Hell barrel”, “Hromads’kyï Sector”), as well as the politicization process that they have experienced at the protest place and that turned them into revolutionaries who were determined to resist.

The article is a study of anti-government mobilization in the cities of southern and eastern Ukraine in spring 2014. By closely examining the developments that preceded the outbreak of the armed insurrection in the Donbas, the study seeks to elucidate the various factors that precipitated the veritable collapse of the Ukrainian state in parts of the Donetsk and Luhansk regions and its stabilization elsewhere. The article argues that the armed conflict in the Donbas was hardly a predetermined outcome of the Russian government strategy—which was employed also outside the Donbas—but rather a product of a synergetic confluence of several structural and conjunctural factors that were absent or present to a much smaller degree elsewhere. These included the peculiar political and ethno-cultural profile of Donetsk and Luhansk oblasts; a higher degree of the legitimacy crisis of the interim government; the destabilizing effects of the status quo created by the victory of the Euromaidan—not only in terms of the change of Ukraine's geopolitical orientation and Russia's apparently compromised interests, but also in terms of the perceived change of status of different ethno-political communities; the proximity of the Russian border, trans-border ethnic politics, and the activities of nationalist groups from Russia; the residual influence of the once-powerful networks associated with clients of the former president Viktor Yanukovych; the relative weakness of organized pro-Ukrainian groups; and last but not least, the incremental collapse of the law enforcement apparatus, which drastically reduced the capacity of Ukrainian authorities. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Copyright of Beytulhikme: An International Journal of Philosophy is the property of Beytulhikme: An International Journal of Philosophy and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

Maidan, the central square in Kiev, is not just a place but also a movement and a representation of the different borders that exist in the country. Maidan symbolises the historic and political border between Ukraine and Russia. It is also the manifestation of the ideological border between the people and those in power that is at the centre of all civil resistance movement. And finally Maidan highlights the border between the different factions in Ukraine, between "us" and "them". This research analyses Maidan as a place, a movement and a symbol using the film by Lostitsa by the same name. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Ukrainian lands in the twentieth and twenty-first centuries have been in proximity of great geopolitical changes several times. During that time the Ukrainian nation – due to various factors – encountered a number of “windows of opportunity” for achieving the realization of dreams about independence and national sovereignty. The author identified in the period considered four “general moments,” of which two have been completed successfully. The first of these occurred in 1990–1991, when for the first time in modern history, Ukrainians managed to achieve a lasting and relatively stable independence. The second of the “moments” – still unresolved – are events that began in the late autumn of 2013. The process, called “Revolution of Dignity”, represents a new quality in the history of the Ukrainian nation, therefore, that the Ukrainians have to defend the status quo (independence, territorial integrity, sovereignty, etc.) but not to seek to achieve an independent being. The analysis leads to the conclusion that the ability of Ukrainians to achieve and maintain independence is largely a function of the relative power of the Russian state as measured with respect to the shape and quality of international relations.

Much has been said and written about the Ukrainian revolution of 2013–14, yet research on Maidan Nezalezhnosti, the protests’ most iconic location, has thus far been rather limited. This article analyses the history, attributes and symbolism of this particular city space. What function does Maidan have in the Ukrainian society? In the cause of my fieldwork in Kyiv 2013–15 on the recent revolution, I found that Maidan has many features that make it a particularly suitable site for protests. In the current article I argue that several factors related to the square's physical space, from its location between the religious, historical and political centres of Ukraine, to its proximity to important landmarks, as well as its infrastructure, shape, architecture, and size, make Maidan both a symbolic and a practical space to occupy for people demanding change. Since the collapse of the Soviet Union Maidan has acquired a special significance for Ukrainians. The name of the square itself could be interpreted as a protest against Russia, and the many protests and three revolutions on Maidan have given it a particular revolutionary meaning. I argue that Maidan functions as a socio-political safety valve – a place people turn to and turn up at to demand change when the formal political institutions fail to deliver.

Airports are located at the core of the production process, but can they also be where the "revolutionary subject" is hidden? We know what airports stand for nowadays, but have we pushed for what they could possibly stand for? Can airports, as a form of urban technology, be reimagined beyond their current roles of a "space technology nexus" driving capital movement? Can we imagine, idealize, and locate them somewhere else in a period dominated by the economy of time, where speed and accessibility matter the most? In this framework, this provocative essay aims to frame airports as a protest and public expression venue. Drawing inspiration from recent examples, such as the Stansted Airport protests in the UK, the Occupy Airports protests that occurred all around the United States, and touching upon the divergent example of Turkey's 15th of July night protests in 2016, I provide a glimpse of an alternative prospect for this key urban infrastructure. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Drawing on Ernesto Laclau’s theory of articulation, this article analyzes Barack Obama’s and Vladimir Putin’s public speeches on the Ukrainian crisis of 2014. The article discusses how the presidents constructed rival discourses by erasing the nuances of complex tensions between the logics of equivalence and difference existing within the Ukrainian discursive space. Acting like imperial administrators from colonial times, Obama and Putin pushed representations of Ukraine based on two ‘impossible wholes’: a unified nation whose sovereignty was threatened from outside (Obama’s discourse) and a consolidated pro-Russian Southeast needing to be defended from Kyiv-based nationalists and extremists (Putin’s articulation). [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

An alarming decision “to pause” the process of Ukrainian Eurointegration taken by the previous government of Ukraine, turned out to be highly disturbing, both to the Ukrainian people and the EU in terms of planned partnership. Following the country’s course change a series of dramatic events unraveled triggering a mass protest movement called Euromaidan across major part of Ukraine, indicating the position of Ukrainian society towards the events. The further unfolding of the events in the Ukraine starting from November 22, 2013 diminished the “euro” direction making it solemnly “MAIDAN”. The direction of Eurointegration in Ukraine’s foreign policy was no longer the priority of the rebel movement, shifting the focus of those protesting to the internal issues. During the Maidan the EU’s representatives initiated and participated in the negotiation process between the government and the opposition, thus demonstrating support to Ukraine on its way to democracy. In the meantime, Maidan expected stricter sanctions towards representatives of the state at that time: freezing of the accounts of those associated with corruption as well as their visa bans and restrictions for travel and business conduction in the EU, etc.. The EU’s lasting conservative behavior was regarded negatively by protesters and lead to disappointment.

The discourse of terrorism is one of the most powerful political discourses of our times. More often than not, its labels and assumptions – including the division of the world into sharp dichotomies of ‘free’ and ‘civilized’ states vs. ‘evil’ and ‘barbarian terrorists’ – go unquestioned in related political speeches, media reports, and public deliberation. These unquestioned assumptions, however, become problematic when the signifier ‘terrorism’ is used to depict an armed struggle ofethno-nationalistic groupsforindependent self-governance. This is because struggle against ‘terrorism’ justifies a completely different arsenal of response strategies, which might lack legitimacy when countering separatism. This problem becomes apparent when states respond to separatism by manipulating the fear of terrorism to justify undemocratic actions in the name of national security. Using as a case study the post-Maidan confrontation in the East of Ukraine and analyzing related coverage by three political websites, this paper discusses how the discourse of terrorism has been formed within the public sphere of Ukraine. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A sense of public religion emerged in Ukraine during the Maidan protests at the end of 2013-2014 as religious leaders, groups and organizations played a key role in the protests and in mediating between the authorities and opposition. However, using religion as a cultural resource to shape social processes presents both opportunities and serious challenges for religious organizations. In this paper I analyze different religious manifestations during the Maidan and the consequences the protests have had for religious institutions. I focus on the different dimensions of the religious components of social change as it unfolds. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]