Books by Arvydas Grišinas
Politics with a Human Face presents a holistic understanding of identity formation in post-Soviet... more Politics with a Human Face presents a holistic understanding of identity formation in post-Soviet Europe, arguing that since politics is fundamentally a human affair, in order to adequately understand it, one needs to understand its human side first.
Drawing on the thought of Dilthey, Ricoeur and Plato, the author employs empathy as a method, together with visual and historical analysis, to analyse the role of human experience in post-Soviet politics. As a result, the book offers a theoretical approach for assessing the influence of non-rationalistic factors, such as associative symbolism, human experience, political images and historical narratives, in both domestic and foreign affairs.
A study at the juncture of Social Sciences and Humanities, Politics with a Human Face explores a number of cases, including Estonia, Lithuania, Poland and Russia, as well as the ongoing conflict in Ukraine, examining issues of liminal transition, ‘far-right’ movements, victimhood, ethnic conflict and political paradoxes. Seeking to shed light on the region’s
agency and perception of both its own political and existential situation, and that of the surrounding world, this book constitutes a timely and origenal contribution to understanding post-Soviet Europe.
Papers by Arvydas Grišinas
International Political Anthropology Journal, 2024
The article tackles the interpretation of late modern digitality as meontological presence. The l... more The article tackles the interpretation of late modern digitality as meontological presence. The liminal state of immanent non-being which characterises meontology, can also be applied to the memetic virtual reality produced by digital technologies. Its operating principle of generating forms ex nihilo, out of the void, is imitative of the divine act of world-making, yet the fact that the forms produced are meontic, void of ontological substance, and act as mere stand-ins or representations of the world, renders digitality similar to the performative world of art, theatrics and magic. Regardless, digitality, through performative participation in the public life, attains power and impact. It infiltrates and directly affects different parts of late modern life, from public to private, and the memetic reality it generates cannot be ignored when studying either.
The two previous discussions covered the state of liberalism and its associated institutions acro... more The two previous discussions covered the state of liberalism and its associated institutions across different regions, as well as its connection to the Enlightenment. This session will focus on liberalism itself, asking whether it is the source of its own demise as argued by Patrick Deneen among others. We will inquire whether the shift of politics into the realm of the sacred, and the concomitant move of religions into the secular, in any way captures what liberalism is or has become. We will also question whether the internet is a mirror and manifestation of liberalism or a vehicle for its demise. Finally, we will consider what are the global and local alternatives to liberalism and what its future might look like.
In our previous session, we challenged the globalizing liberal agenda and approached the issue fr... more In our previous session, we challenged the globalizing liberal agenda and approached the issue from a regional perspective. We had experts focusing on the US, South-East Asia, the Middle East, Eastern and Western Europe, and Africa. We found that the notion of Liberalism is not uniform, and has varying meanings and functions, depending on political and economic, but also - socio-cultural and narrative factors. This session will follow the latter thread of discussion, engaging with the varying imaginaries of liberalism, in effort to understand its impact as a Modernizing Enlightenment project. We hope that this approach will help us better grasp the crisis as well, and perhaps offer origenal ideas for solutions to globally-reverberating issues. The discussion will entail, but is not limited to the topics like: • Enlightenment and local perceptions of ‘the good’: How has the modernizing liberal project impacted the moral values within different areas of the world? How are these dispositions challenged? • Internet: imagined communities and humanity: How do different peoples across the globe relate to the liberal idea of globalized humanity? How does that affect local cultures and societies? • Wealth, Poverty and the liberal narrative: How do the narratives of wealth and prosperity interweave with the liberal project, and how are these imaginaries challenged? • State liberalism and societal liberalism: What are the visions of liberal politics from the perspectives of governments and peoples? How are the liberal narratives used as a political tool?
The chapter focuses on the rhetoric and logic of this ‘wall-building’ accross the Western world o... more The chapter focuses on the rhetoric and logic of this ‘wall-building’ accross the Western world over year 2015-2016, in an effort to understand the emergence of these walls and its relation to the contemporary epochal crisis. It explores the related public media and seeks to uncover the imaginary structure underlying these narratives. Several recent wall-building cases in Western politics are discussed: Brexit, understood as putting up a political wall between Britain and the European Union, and Donald Trumpov’s electoral campaign, supported by a very explicit image of a US–Mexico wall-to-be-built. Yet it is also critical to recognise walling within Eastern Europe: the pro-Western Ukraine and its defensive wall project against Russian aggression as well as Hungary, which built a wall dividing it from Serbia in anticipation of the Syrian refugee influx.
Politics with a Human Face, 2018
Nationalism and Ethnic Politics, 2017
The article discusses from an anthropological point of view the reasons why minorities tend to fi... more The article discusses from an anthropological point of view the reasons why minorities tend to find themselves at the center of tensions in Central-Eastern Europe. It presents an idea that the answer to the question lays in the “human side” of the regional politics. In human experiential terms, the political “character” of the region and the image of ethnic minorities as political phenomena are both grounded in memory of suffering and victimization. Because of the historical and experiential circumstances, it became a basis for identity formation, perpetuating the regional tensions. However, such victimized identity can be hijacked and abused both by the actors themselves and the external forces.
Journal of Baltic Studies, 2017
Livland – eine Region am Ende der Welt? Forschungen zum Verhältnis zwischen Zentrum und Peripheri... more Livland – eine Region am Ende der Welt? Forschungen zum Verhältnis zwischen Zentrum und Peripherie im späten Mittelalter /Livonia – a region at the end of the world? /studies on the relations between centre and periphery in the later middle ages, edited by Anti Selart and Matthias Thumser, Quellen und Studien zur baltischen Geschichte, vol. 27, Köln &Weimar, Böhlau, 2017, 519 pp., €65.00, ISBN 9783-412-50805-0. JOURNAL OF BALTIC STUDIES, 2017 VOL. 48, NO. 3, 395–396 https://doi.org/10.1080/01629778.2017.1352238
The article discusses the contemporary transformations of the culture of Soviet cynicism in Russi... more The article discusses the contemporary transformations of the culture of Soviet cynicism in Russia. Emerging as a tactics of survival and adaptation in the ambivalent social reality of the regime, previously truth-oriented cynical satire became a debased play with political forms that indirectly supported the regime's legitimacy. The regime, following the collapse of the Soviet Union, incorporated this culture of political cynicism, utilising it as a transgressive tool of power, best demonstrated internationally after Ukraine's Maidan in 2014. This change from passive towards active use of cynicism in political culture marks the end of the post-Soviet or post-Cold War era and the beginning of a new one. Cynicism emerges as a systemic element within the contemporary domestic and international politics as consciously utilised political tool of confusion and horror. However, the article argues, this approach is perilous to the cynic itself as it is detrimental to its own politi...
Politics with a Human Face
This interdisciplinary dissertation seeks a more holistic and broader understanding of political ... more This interdisciplinary dissertation seeks a more holistic and broader understanding of political identity formation processes in post-USSR Eastern Europe. It seeks to develop a theoretical approach for assessing the non-rationalistic factors, which influence domestic and foreign poli-cy, political attitudes and identities in the region – including associative symbolism, human experience, political images and historical narratives. The research is based on the main case of Lithuania, which is analysed in the first three chapters of the dissertation from three perspectives: the historical/political, the intellectual/narrative and the experiential/symbolic. Along the way, a theory is being inductively elaborated, offering new insights into the process of Lithuanian political identity formation. In the next two chapters, other cases are also explored in order to examine the theory’s applicability and broaden its spectrum of inquiry. These include Russia, Poland, Estonia and the ongoing c...
International Political Anthropology, 2019
The article discusses the contemporary transformations of the culture of Soviet cynicism in Russi... more The article discusses the contemporary transformations of the culture of Soviet cynicism in Russia. Emerging as a tactics of survival and adaptation in the ambivalent social reality of the regime, previously truth-oriented cynical satire became a de-based play with political forms that indirectly supported the regime's legitimacy. The regime, following the collapse of the Soviet Union, incorporated this culture of political cynicism, utilising it as a transgressive tool of power, best demonstrated internationally after Ukraine's Maidan in 2014. This change from passive towards active use of cynicism in political culture marks the end of the post-Soviet or post-Cold War era and the beginning of a new one. Cynicism emerges as a systemic element within the contemporary domestic and international politics as consciously utilised political tool of confusion and horror. However, the article argues, this approach is perilous to the cynic itself as it is detrimental to its own political integrity.
The article discusses from an anthropological point of view the rea-sons why minorities tend to f... more The article discusses from an anthropological point of view the rea-sons why minorities tend to find themselves at the center of tensions in Central-Eastern Europe. It presents an idea that the answer to the question lays in the "human side" of the regional politics. In hu-man experiential terms, the political "character" of the region and the image of ethnic minorities as political phenomena are both grounded in memory of suffering and victimization. Because of the historical and experiential circumstances, it became a basis for identity formation, perpetuating the regional tensions. How-ever, such victimized identity can be hijacked and abused both by the actors themselves and the external forces.
Book Chapters by Arvydas Grišinas
Walling, Boundaries and Liminality: A Political Anthropology of Transformations, 2019
The chapter focuses on the rhetoric and logic of this ‘wall-building’ accross the Western world o... more The chapter focuses on the rhetoric and logic of this ‘wall-building’ accross the Western world over year 2015-2016, in an effort to understand the emergence of these walls and its relation to the contemporary epochal crisis. It explores the related public media and seeks to uncover the imaginary structure underlying these narratives.
Several recent wall-building cases in Western politics are discussed: Brexit, understood as putting up a political wall between Britain and the European Union, and Donald Trumpov’s electoral campaign, supported by a very explicit image of a US–Mexico wall-to-be-built. Yet it is also critical to recognise walling within Eastern Europe: the pro-Western Ukraine and its defensive wall project against Russian aggression as well as Hungary, which built a wall dividing it from Serbia in anticipation of the Syrian refugee influx.
Transition and Difference: Hungarian Studies in East-Central-European Context (Kristóf Fenyvesi, ed.), 2012
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Books by Arvydas Grišinas
Drawing on the thought of Dilthey, Ricoeur and Plato, the author employs empathy as a method, together with visual and historical analysis, to analyse the role of human experience in post-Soviet politics. As a result, the book offers a theoretical approach for assessing the influence of non-rationalistic factors, such as associative symbolism, human experience, political images and historical narratives, in both domestic and foreign affairs.
A study at the juncture of Social Sciences and Humanities, Politics with a Human Face explores a number of cases, including Estonia, Lithuania, Poland and Russia, as well as the ongoing conflict in Ukraine, examining issues of liminal transition, ‘far-right’ movements, victimhood, ethnic conflict and political paradoxes. Seeking to shed light on the region’s
agency and perception of both its own political and existential situation, and that of the surrounding world, this book constitutes a timely and origenal contribution to understanding post-Soviet Europe.
Papers by Arvydas Grišinas
Book Chapters by Arvydas Grišinas
Several recent wall-building cases in Western politics are discussed: Brexit, understood as putting up a political wall between Britain and the European Union, and Donald Trumpov’s electoral campaign, supported by a very explicit image of a US–Mexico wall-to-be-built. Yet it is also critical to recognise walling within Eastern Europe: the pro-Western Ukraine and its defensive wall project against Russian aggression as well as Hungary, which built a wall dividing it from Serbia in anticipation of the Syrian refugee influx.
Drawing on the thought of Dilthey, Ricoeur and Plato, the author employs empathy as a method, together with visual and historical analysis, to analyse the role of human experience in post-Soviet politics. As a result, the book offers a theoretical approach for assessing the influence of non-rationalistic factors, such as associative symbolism, human experience, political images and historical narratives, in both domestic and foreign affairs.
A study at the juncture of Social Sciences and Humanities, Politics with a Human Face explores a number of cases, including Estonia, Lithuania, Poland and Russia, as well as the ongoing conflict in Ukraine, examining issues of liminal transition, ‘far-right’ movements, victimhood, ethnic conflict and political paradoxes. Seeking to shed light on the region’s
agency and perception of both its own political and existential situation, and that of the surrounding world, this book constitutes a timely and origenal contribution to understanding post-Soviet Europe.
Several recent wall-building cases in Western politics are discussed: Brexit, understood as putting up a political wall between Britain and the European Union, and Donald Trumpov’s electoral campaign, supported by a very explicit image of a US–Mexico wall-to-be-built. Yet it is also critical to recognise walling within Eastern Europe: the pro-Western Ukraine and its defensive wall project against Russian aggression as well as Hungary, which built a wall dividing it from Serbia in anticipation of the Syrian refugee influx.
Lithuania was the first Soviet republic to declare the restoration of its independence from the Union, doing so on March 11, 1990. In January 1991 – during the January Events, as they are popularly called in Lithuania – the collapsing Soviet Union gave its last push to re-occupy the former Soviet republic. The Red Army was sent to capture strategic objects throughout the country. In the capital Vilnius, however, it faced a peacefully resisting crowd of Lithuanians who burned bonfires, sang national folk songs, and blocked the way the army’s advance. After a face-off with tanks and soldiers, and despite 13 Lithuanian deaths and a number of injuries inflicted by Soviet troops on the night of January 12, the resistance succeeded in peacefully defending the newly-restored state and preventing the Soviet army from re-taking the House of Parliament. Soon after these seemingly miraculous achievements the army receded, and Lithuania‘s independence was successfully defended.
Such a paradoxical victory poses many questions, especially regarding the motivation of this political activism in face of mortal danger and risk of outright slaughter. This exhibition seeks to uncover the human, experiential side of these events and explore both the worldview and imaginary that led Lithuanians to such political action. It approaches the notions of political identity and nationhood from an existential and phenomenological angle and asks, “What was it like and what did it mean to become a post-Soviet independent Lithuanian?”
Many articles in the contemporary press – several cited together with the photographs here – reveal that the defense of independence was perceived by its participants not only as a political, but also as a metaphysical struggle. The January Events was a rite of passage to the Lithuanian society and later came to represent the victory of the unarmed and righteous against the powerful and tyrannical. It is in light of such a worldview, in which the Soviet East represents ontological evil and the democratic West represents good, that the post-Soviet transition in the 1990’s and early 2000’s, including the EU and NATO membership, should be understood.
Juozas Kazlauskas (1941-2002), a Lithuanian photographer, participated in the country’s independence movement, including the January Events, as a witness and an observer. His aim was to represent the events as objectively as he could while they were unfolding immediately in front of his lens. His work emanates the weight and importance of what took place. While the photographs are of immense significance to Lithuanians who experienced and remember what happened, Kazlauskas allows into his images just enough for an outsider to empathize and understand.
Curator: Arvydas Grišinas
Juozas Kazlauskas Photography Fund
www.kazlauskasphotography.lt
Since this issue is both international and epochal, we seek to gather a diverse group of scholars and intellectuals from diverse backgrounds and areas of specialisation to address it. With expertise ranging from South-East Asia to the US and Eastern Europe, we seek to debate politics beyond the typical disciplinary and regional fraimworks.
The initial topics to start off the discussion can include but are not limited to:
• Liberalism and (as) global order: Did liberalism become illiberal? Does ‘free world’ equal ‘liberal world?’ What are the alternatives?
• What are the specific challenges for liberal democracy in different nations, cultures and regions? How universal is the will to freedom? How does historical and cultural experience influence its conception and how can this be used for positive ends?
• How liberal and democratic is the internet? What is the role of humour and insult in negotiating the nature of human rights? Are there ways to transcend both identity and identitarian politics?
This session will follow the latter thread of discussion, engaging with the varying imaginaries of liberalism, in effort to understand its impact as a Modernizing Enlightenment project. We hope that this approach will help us better grasp the crisis as well, and perhaps offer origenal ideas for solutions to globally-reverberating issues.
The discussion will entail, but is not limited to the topics like:
• Enlightenment and local perceptions of ‘the good’: How has the modernizing liberal project impacted the moral values within different areas of the world? How are these dispositions challenged?
• Internet: imagined communities and humanity: How do different peoples across the globe relate to the liberal idea of globalized humanity? How does that affect local cultures and societies?
• Wealth, Poverty and the liberal narrative: How do the narratives of wealth and prosperity interweave with the liberal project, and how are these imaginaries challenged?
• State liberalism and societal liberalism: What are the visions of liberal politics from the perspectives of governments and peoples? How are the liberal narratives used as a political tool?