Lezione-seminario di Alexander Bikbov
A cura di Marco Santoro (nel programma di Corso Metodi di ricerca negli studi culturali)
DAMS, Università di Bologna, Palazzo Marescotti (via Barberia 4), Aula Secci
14 ottobre 2022, dalle 11:15 alle 13:00
Before the Russian invasion of Ukraine started, the public image of Russian society was largely shaped by the ‘Putin’s majority’, which followed obediently or jubilantly the manifestations of superior arbitrariness. The chronicles of the wartime are marked by two massive waves of emigration of those who, on principle, did not accept the Russian government’s military aggression or did not want to join the army following the national mobilisation announced after the military defeats of the Russian professional army. The larger is the place these images receive in the public space of European debates and of Russian media, the darker the picture of Russian society during the war becomes. Who remains in Russia, how non-violent resistance is organized to the militarisation of public life, and how do social groups which do not adhere to conformist or activist positions adapt themselves to the dual condition of perpetrator and victim? The study by sociologist Alexander Bikbov (associate member of CERCEC, EHESS) fills this gap being focused on those who remain in Russia using different strategies of adaptation and resistance. Relying on a qualitative methodology, alternating formalised interviews and informal exchanges, working directly with the traumatising and dangerous (due to censorship) vocabulary of war and avoiding trauma with the ‘insignificant’ vocabulary of everyday life, the study discovers how subjective adaptation and détournement of the space of possibilities takes place, determined by the extraordinary circumstances of the undeclared state of war.
