1.4.4 Networks of Trust and the Social Landscape of the City: Non-institutional Texts and Practices
Nikita Petrov
Project Leader
Project period
2020-2025
Context of Research Project within a Subject of Human Capital
Active changes in the city’s social space and the increasing role of ‘new media’ significantly transform the models of emergence, transmission, as well as functions of the city’s vernacular texts (from oral and written verbal text to whole complexes of ritualized practices). At the same time, the texts themselves, to some extent, define and transform the social landscape of the city, creating networks of emotional solidarity at the level of the district or entire Russian cities. Similar processes are particularly noticeable in crisis situations – in terms of epidemics and pandemics (2009, 2020), natural disasters (2010, 2019), economic crises, etc. The high rate of such mutual changes makes it necessary to constantly monitor the development of vernacular practices and urban texts supporting them, to analyze the mechanisms of formation of trust networks in the social landscape of the city. Trust in network interaction forms constantly self-organizing emotional communities, whose members constantly support each other, which turns out to be the most important aspect of studying human potential in an era not only of social catastrophes, but also in the situation of everyday interaction (for example, in the case of neighborhood communities)
Project Aim
Studying trust networks and social landscape of the city
Project Objectives:
- Creating a database of vernacular narratives related to epidemiological discourse
- Creating an index of micro-plots based on texts circulating through grassroots communication channels
- Identifying the mechanisms underlying the dissemination of texts through trust networks
- Analyzing the models of transformation of texts and practices of citizens associated with religious ideas and the nuances of online technologies
Key Findings
2020
Theoretical postulates of the study have been developed, practical texts and theoretical approaches circulating in connection with the pandemic have been analyzed
2021
It has been established that the most dangerous infodemic narratives have been circulating for a long time, and are based on ideas known long before the pandemic. The types of texts that most often stimulate people to move to active steps have been identified. This data can be used to optimize the work of search engines in order to offer users the most reliable information
2022
A large-scale study of emotional regimes as a factor of solidarity in social media has been conducted: current trends of discursive emotional practices in a crisis situation, factors of formation and destruction of solidarity groups (emotional cultures), including the dynamics of reaction to events and the existing ecology of social media have been identified. The strategies of user’s interaction with social media actors related to socialization, strengthening of ties, development of emotional comfort have been determined.
Models of commemorative practices of solidarization have been revealed (the ‘social order’ and the ‘cult of ancestors’ models). In the model of the ‘social order’, the subjects of action are different groups of citizens (professional and age groups), each of which carries ‘its’ dead. In the model of the ‘cult of ancestors’ there are, in fact, two subjects: the first is the descendants of the veteran (individual or family) carrying his portrait, and the second is the front–line soldier himself in the image, who marches in a column with his relatives and receives honors from the townspeople, as if he were alive.
A study of the processes of transferring traditional religious practices to the online environment and the impact of new technologies on familiar everyday practices has been conducted. Using the example of traditional communities of Old Believers, the processes of interaction between online and offline communities have been studied, trends towards a gap between online and offline communities have been identified. The preliminary analysis of the networks associated with religious groups allows us to identify the following research prospects: 1) comparison of old and new communication channels used by synagogues in Russia, their coverage, intensity of posting, variety of content, 2) conducting interviews with editors of social networks of synagogues to identify deeper changes in the practices of building interaction networks on the Internet.
Publications
- Kirzyuk A. ‘I Have No Fear’: Covid-Dissidents in search of Agency and Truth // Monitoring public opinion: economic and social changes. 2021. No. 2. pp. 484-509
- A. Arkhipova, A. Zakharov, I. Kozlova. Ethnography of Protest: Who and Why Took to the Streets in January - April 2021? // Monitoring public opinion: Economic and social changes. 2021. No. 5. pp. 289-323
Conferences
International Scientific Conference and School on Folklore and Cultural Anthropology Folklore and Anthropology of Professions (Moscow, Russia, October 4-10, 2021)