CEU Electronic Theses and Dissertations, 2015
| Author | Poleschuk, Svetlana |
|---|---|
| Title | NEW INTELLECTUALS GO PUBLIC: "COMMUNICATION EXPLOSION" IN AUTHORITARIAN MINSK |
| Summary | The purpose of this research is to investigate the phenomenon of burgeoning public lectures in Minsk. In spite of the constraints imposed by the authoritarian regime, independent public educational and cultural activities are growing. People who stand behind them are usually the scholars who received Western education, strive to integrate themselves in the global academic market, but at the same time remain on the margins of the academic establishment in Belarus. I use Bourdieu’s field analysis to investigate the position of new intellectuals in the university field in Belarus. Besides, I use the theory of public sphere to explain the “public” dimension of the informal educational initiatives. Data for this research were collected through the fieldwork in Minsk in April 2015. The results show that due to the fact that the state authorities retard the transformation of the university system and preserve it as highly centralized, hierarchical, and state-controlled, it is difficult for new intellectuals to integrate themselves into the system. As the result, they create an alternative intellectual sphere where they can use cultural capital they accumulated and follow alternative ways to pursue academic careers in Belarus. The strategy of “going public”–to give, attend, and organize intellectual public events–is one of the ways to create alternative discursive arenas and counterpublics. The thesis explores recent changes in the cultural and academic landscape of Belarus and brings more understanding of the post-socialist symbolic space. |
| Supervisor | Fabiani, Jean-Louis |
| Department | Sociology MA |
| Full text | https://www.etd.ceu.edu/2015/poleschuk_svetlana.pdf |
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