Societal fragilities and resilience: The emergence of peoplehood in Belarus

Abstract

The article examines societal fragilities and local resilience strategies in Belarus with a particular focus on the notion of peoplehood. Premised on the idea of evolving forms of agency under the Anthropocene, and the emergent complexity-thinking in International Relations, the article draws on these approaches to societal fragilities and community resilience to understand and explain the unprecedented levels of mobilization occurring in Belarus since the disputed presidential election in August 2020. To this end, the article zooms onto the local communities to provide an analytical perspective on the study of resilience as self-organization. In line with complexity-thinking, it argues in favor of history-specific processual identities, shaped by the aspirations of a “good life,” and realized via local support infrastructures which lie at the heart of societal resilience in Belarus. Yet, the potential of all these elements to actualize into a sweeping transformative force, referred to as “peoplehood” in this article, is rare, and comes at a time of unprecedented crises and existential threats to the life of a community. The Belarusian society seems to be undergoing such a moment that not only makes it more resilient and adaptive to change; it also transforms it into a new form of societal being, self-aware of its worth, self-organized, and self-reliant on its inner capabilities to fight for a life of excellence. The article traces these moments of becoming with, and societal being, via a critical discussion of fragilities and the elements of resilience, actualized into peoplehood.

Power, People, and the Political: Understanding the Many Crises in Belarus

“…Elsewhere (Korosteleva 2021; Petrova 2021), we contend that what we observe in Belarus today is the formation and the rise of Belarusian peoplehood , facilitated in response to the many crises and the political, especially, with the violent crackdown of freedom by the regime. From a complexity perspective it originally emerged through a relational mesh of self-organization and support infrastructures to combat COVID-19 pandemic from the bottom-up in the absence of the state response.…”

Flowers, Tractors, & Telegram: Who are the Protesters in Belarus?: A Survey Based Assessment of Anti-Lukashenka Protest Participants

“…Although there is weak evidence that language and ethnicity are important dividing factors in Belarusian political behavior and public opinion (Burant 1995; Marples 1999; McAllister and White 2015), we note that scholars have highlighted a national awakening in the last two decades (Brown 2005; Goujon 1999; Kittel et al 2010; Marples 1999; Woolhiser 2014). While most analysts have portrayed the events of 2020 as a civic moment, some have even written about an ethno-linguistic awakening (Bekus 2021; Bobrovska 2020; Guetta 2021; Kazharski 2021b, 2021a; Kazharski and Kubová 2021; Kolarz and Lozka 2020; Kulakevich 2020; Maxwell 2020; Murashcenkova et al 2022; Petrova and Korosteleva 2021). Similarly, our interlocutors also reported to us that they were switching to speaking Belarusian and that some people who previously identified as Russian were coming to call themselves Belarusian first and foremost.…”

“…Scholars have also demonstrated that collective action often relies on the formulation of clear political and/or economic grievances and claims (Gould 1995;Kawalerowicz and Biggs 2015;Opp 1988;Passini and Morselli 2015;Robertson 2004;Rosenfeld 2017;Tarrow 2011;Thomson 2018) that are shared across the protesting population and can form a master narrative (Beissinger 2013;Onuch and Sasse 2016a;Polletta 1998;Snow and Benford 1992). Because we know that the protesters in Belarus were at least in part triggered by a fraudulent election (Bedford 2021;Kazharski 2021a;Mateo 2022a;Moshes and Nizhnikau 2021;Onuch and Sasse 2022a;Petrova and Korosteleva 2021;Robertson 2022;Sierakowski 2020;Wijermars and Lokot 2022), we would expect the protest claims to center on pro-democracy values and orientations in relation to grievances focused on fraudulent elections and the regime's authoritarian repression.…”

“…The Anti-Lukashenka protesters reclaimed the red-and-white flag of the Belarusian National Republic dating back to 1918–1919 and temporarily used around the breakup of the Soviet Union. Local observers played down the notion of an ethno-national undercurrent to the protests, but many commented on the national awakening the protesters represented, suggesting it was “produced” by the protests (Bekus 2021; Bobrovska 2020; Gapova 2021; Kazharski 2021a; Kulakevich 2020; Maxwell 2020; Petrova and Korosteleva 2021; Weller 2022). 5 It was also observed that in reflection of the country’s close social, political, and economic linkages to Russia and weak links to the EU, protesters refrained from voicing pro-EU, pro-western slogans and grievances (Liubakova 2020).…”

The Dynamics of Mass Mobilization in Belarus

“…The events caught many observers by surprise and challenged some of the assumptions in the comparative literature on protests. The prolonged nature of the demonstrations, their all-country nature, the potential role of social media and messenger services, the informal organizational structure behind the mobilization, collective identities, the dynamics of regime repression, and the events’ aftermath are among the features that social scientists have begun to explore (Basik 2022; Bedford 2021; Bekus 2021; Bodrunova 2021; De Vogel 2022; Gapova 2021; Greene 2022; Kazharski 2021; Kazharski and Kubová 2021; Kulakevich 2020; Leukavets 2022; Maliauskaya 2022; Mateo 2022; Moshes and Nizhnikau 2021; Murashcenkova et al 2022; O’Loughlin and Toal 2022; Onuch and Sasse 2022b, 2022a; Pendse 2022; Petrova and Korosteleva 2021; G. Robertson 2022; Sierakowski 2020; Weller 2022; and Wijermars and Lokot 2022).…”