Report

Teaser, summary, work performed and final results

Periodic Reporting for period 2 - POSEC (Postsecular Conflicts and the role of Russian Orthodoxy in the transnational alliances of moral conservative traditionalists)

Teaser

The POSEC project focuses on the analysis of moral conflicts and of transnational mobilization of moral norm entrepreneurs with a special focus on the role and position of Russia and the Russian Orthodox Church in such conflicts. We start from the observation that conflicts...

Summary

The POSEC project focuses on the analysis of moral conflicts and of transnational mobilization of moral norm entrepreneurs with a special focus on the role and position of Russia and the Russian Orthodox Church in such conflicts. We start from the observation that conflicts over morality issues (abortion and reproductive rights, sexuality & gender, religious freedom) are becoming more and more acute in contemporary societies. The project addresses these conflicts as “postsecular conflicts” (Postsecular Conflicts is also the official title of the project), because these conflicts, while involving religious issues, do not divide stakeholders along religious-secular lines, but along ideological lines. Postsecular conflicts cut across the religious-secular and denominational lines and lead to – at least in the European context – new configurations and patterns of confrontation.
MORALIST INTL concentrates on social conservatism or conservatism of traditional values. Social conservatism is one possible position in these moral conflicts – the other being social or cultural liberalism. The project focuses mainly on social conservative actors in Russia and inside the Russian Orthodox Church, who are actively promoting the agenda of traditional values both in national and transnational contexts.
One of the new features of these postsecular conflicts is that they are not limited to national or denominational contexts. They become, instead, transnational and trans-confessional, i.e. they exist in the context of transnational organizations and are moved by transnational networks of actors. We study the way in which Russian conservative actors join transnational networks and mobilize transnational coalitions, thereby contributing to the emergence of what we call a “Moralist International”.
Moral conflicts are conflicts over divergent normative visions of the good. Such conflicts are becoming increasingly politically relevant in the context of modern societies across the United States, Western and Eastern Europe due to increasing pluralization and individualization. Confrontations over values are one of those key confrontations that determine the contemporary ideological landscape and give rise to new political phenomena, such as populist right parties that identify with social conservatism. In the European context, political right parties were until recently associated with alternative ideological worlds, for example paganism (the Lega Nord in Italy) or libertarianism (the Freedom Party in Austria under Haider, Pim Fortyn in the Netherlands). Conservative Christian values were usually associated with Christian democracy and the center-right, if not center-left. Lately, populist right parties have, in reaction to Muslim immigration and progressive human rights legislation, reinvented themselves as defenders of traditional Christian values (the Lega of Matteo Salvini in Italy, the Austrian Freedom Party under Strache). These groups and parties challenge the political and ideological status quo, and they also challenge the public position of the mainstream churches. The role of Russia is especially important in this context: Russia since 2012 self-identifies as antipode to liberalism and stronghold of “traditional values”, and Russian actors are frequently accused by policy makers and media in the West of exporting the anti-liberal agenda of traditional values to Europe and nourishing European right-wing movements. In this context it makes sense to study Russian social conservatives and their interactions with Western counterparts in order to understand their vision of today’s world (what is the narrative that drives their activities?) and the nature and scope of transnational social conservative norm mobilization.
The main objective is to study the above-mentioned value conflicts, to assess their nature, scope and relevance, and to understand how these value conflicts can be addressed from within a framework of libera

Work performed

\"The first half of the project was devoted to empirical studies of Russian social conservatives and their participation in values conflicts in national, but predominantly in transnational contexts. As for transnational contexts, we focused on the analysis of their activities in transnational organizations – United Nations, European Court for Human Rights, Council of Europe. Besides, we studied their connections with Western counterparts on the level of civil society – primarily through the World Congress of Families. As for the national context, we focused on the emergence of pro-life and pro-family groups in Russia.
This analysis has allowed us to develop a new approach to contemporary Russian social conservatism. Instead of habitual emphasis in the literature on the context of national history or national religious tradition as the source of conservative ideas, we focused on the context of transnational connections and global cooperation. This new approach allows us to see Russian social conservatism in a new light:
1. The widespread perception, also propagated by Russia conservative actors themselves, of a clash of Western global transnational civilizational standards with national traditional values derived from Russian history is not entirely correct.
2. Instead, modern conservatism of traditional values is exactly the same global transnational ideology as the one it tries to oppose.
3. In this respect, the conservatism of traditional values that emerges in the United States in the context of the \"\"cultural wars\"\" of the second half of the 20th century, is becoming global and transnational in the 21st century.
3. Russian conservatism of traditional values is, to a considerable extent, the result of the \"\"export” of cultural wars\"\" and their “import” into Russia and other parts of the former Soviet Union. Our biographical interviews with Russian social conservatives show very clearly how features of American social conservatism were, on the one hand, promoted to Russians from abroad and, on the other hand, actively sought for by Russian actors themselves who looked for ideological alternatives to liberalism and communism.
4. Russian conservatism of traditional values is a hybrid ideology that brings together elements of the imperial Russian historical pattern, the late Soviet ethos, the reaction to the Russian ‘cultural revolution’ of the 1990s and pervasive transatlantic influences.
5. What is often presented as a clash between Russian values and Western values is, in fact, a confrontation in the Russian, European and global context between two global transnational ideologies, namely conservatism and liberalism.
This new vision of Russian social conservatism allows us to make some broader conclusions. Polarization over values is a reality in almost any contemporary society. Transnational perspective allows us to understand that we are no longer dealing with unique national contexts, but with a global phenomenon which has local manifestations. And behind these local manifestations are not unique national actors with their unique national positions, but local elements who appeal to the same global transnational ideology.
We have published widely on each of the issues addressed already and have also undertaken a series of dissemination activities, that exceed the objectives identified in the DoA.
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Final results

The first part of the project was focused on the empirical study of value conflicts with a focus on Russian conservatives and their participation in postsecular conflicts in national and transnational contexts. We have already achieved significant finds that have been published in journals or are in the process of being published. Our expertise on this topic has been recognized by invitations to events and conferences in and outside Europe.
During the second part of the project, we plan to use these empirical material in order to make theoretical contributions to the study of value conflicts and conservatism in the 21st century as a transnational and global phenomenon. Secondly, we will engage with theories of political liberalism, democracy and norm-polarization in order to contextualize ideal normative theory and make it more responsive to the challenges of norm polarization that we describe.

Website & more info

More info: https://www.uibk.ac.at/projects/postsecular-conflicts/.