To Speak or Stay Silent? Russian Migrants in Norway and the Dilemma of Political Protest during the War in Ukraine
Susanne Bygnes & Tatiana Sokolova
What the paper says
This article provides a sociological analysis of (the absence of) political protest among Russian migrants following the full-scale invasion of Ukraine. We compared the narratives of Russian migrants in Norway who participated in anti-war protests with those who identified as ‘outside of politics’ [внеполитики]. The study anchors the interviewees’ narratives about their reactions to the war by typologising two frames of reference: a frame of ‘avoiding politics’ that considers politics useless and dangerous and a frame of ‘democratic ideals’ that renders political activity relevant and important. However, several interview narratives oscillate between these two frames, indicating an ambivalent relation to political involvement, their stories forming a tapestry of both legitimation and rejection of political participation. We posit that such oscillation between available frames of interpretation is an important aspect of individuals’ responses to shocking political events.
Evidence weight
Balanced mode · F 0.40 / M 0.15 / V 0.05 / R 0.40
| F · citation impact | 0.50 × 0.4 = 0.20 |
| M · momentum | 0.50 × 0.15 = 0.07 |
| V · venue signal | 0.50 × 0.05 = 0.03 |
| R · text relevance † | 0.50 × 0.4 = 0.20 |
† Text relevance is estimated at 0.50 on the detail page — for your query’s actual relevance score, open this paper from a search result.