Projects SemioCommLab

Relational approach of strategic history narrative

Abstract: In the past couple of decades there has been talk of a “cultural turn” in political and sociological sciences. Cultural factors are crucial also in another turn – the “narrative turn” in International Relations, and in social and political science in general. It means that culture and narratives are emphasised as crucial in the construction of a political actor’s identity and the course of their future activities. In international relation, narrative approaches often proceed from a constructivist paradigm which stresses the interaction of the intersubjective (often incompatible) views in the dynamics of foreign policy. International politics arise from mutually constitutive relations of multiple social actors and their shared understandings. It is not only states that are considered main actors, but the role of non-state institutions and of the audience in forming international relation has grown considerably in today’s media ecology. That is why the project relies on discourse-semiotic transmedia analysis of strategic narratives and, on a more conceptual level, on relational ontology.br /Strategic narratives function to justify (geo)political aims, forge international alliances, and shape public opinion in domestic and foreign audiences as well as creating new conflicts and polarisations of target audiences. History narratives are not strategic per se, but are made strategic by the context in which they occur. We focus on the history narratives spread in the messages by the Russian Federation’s strategic actors and important mediators and channels linked with these. It means that the project does not concentrate only on the states’ grand strategies, but considers it equally important how the debating of narratives around a state’s identity, its conception of order, and the policies it wishes to pursue shape which ideas become accepted.