Chiara Pierobon

Civil Society in the EU Development and Human Rights Agenda: The Case of DG DEVCO-EIDHR

The chapter provides an overview of the current development and human rights agenda of the European Union by investigating how the EU conceptualizes the contribution of civil society as development actor. The chapter introduces the central tool that the EU has at its disposal—the European Instrument for Democracy and Human Rights (EIDHR)—to cooperate directly with local civil society organizations (CSOs) promoting democracy and human rights in non-EU countries. ‘Civil Society in the EU development and human rights agenda: The case of DG DEVCO-EIDHR’ concludes with a case study on the implementation of the EIDHR on the ground, by analyzing the EU support to CSOs in Kazakhstan.

On the role of music

There are two different types of sociological research related to culture and music: a first tradition of sociology of art focused on the decoding of social meanings in artistic work, and a second tradition based on a micro-scale and detailed empirical field research investigating the processes of music production and consumption. Whereas the first approach is concerned with analyzing the work of art per se, the second approach deals with the study of situations and contexts in which specific social practices and artistic products are produced and consumed; while Adorno is the most authoritative exponent of the first tradition, Becker is the main representative of the second approach.

Political youth organizations and music: a web analysis

The following chapter is devoted to the study of the relationship existing between youth organizations and music, as captured through an analysis of their webpages. This phase of the research is of pivotal importance since it will allow the construction of the sample of songs and lyrics which will be included in the semantic field analysis of Chapter 6.

Music and Russian national identity: a semantic field analysis

The following chapter is dedicated to the content analysis of the music characterizing the political youth organizations object of this study. In particular, the analysis is focused on the different conceptualizations of Russian post-Soviet national identity/ies emerging from the songs of the selected political groups.

Russia and the national identity issue

The concept of national identity has been the object of study of various disciplines, including sociology, history, psychology, ethnic and communication studies, etc. Its complexity and interdisciplinary character make it particularly difficult to provide an exhaustive definition. What is certain is that national identity is concerned with a sense of belonging to a “nation” and that this sense of belonging is a powerful social force “which defines the makeup of and the relationship between larger collectivities” (Best, 2011, 995).

Political youth organizations and music: the case of St. Petersburg

After the introduction on the context in which the political youth organizations selected for this study find themselves – the Russian and the St. Petersburgian political field – the next two chapters are concerned with the role of music in the life of the selected political groups. In particular, the current chapter is focused on the ways in which these organizations conceptualize the medium music and include it in their life while Chapter 5 is dedicated to the study of the extent to which music plays a role in the organizations’ online self-presentation.

Introducing the sample: the Russian and St. Petersburgian political field

According to the Russian Ministry for Statistics, about 35.3 million people were aged between 15 and 29 in Russia in 2006, representing around 25% of the total population (Unesco Russia: 2005).