Olga Baysha
Biographic Data
| ID | 1488666 |
|---|---|
| NAME | Olga Baysha |
| GIVEN NAMES | Olga |
| FAMILY NAME | Baysha |
| SIGNATURE | BAYSHA O |
| AFFILIATIONS | National Research University Higher School of Economics |
| ORCID | 0000-0001-9135-9665 |
| VERIFIED | Yes |
| TOTAL WORKS | 18 |
| TOTAL CITATIONS | 31 |
| AUTHOR COUNT | 18 |
| EDITOR COUNT | 0 |
| FIRST PUBLICATION YEAR | 2004 |
| LATEST PUBLICATION YEAR | 2026 |
| H-INDEX | 3 |
Discourse, antagonism and agonism: The discourse theory of Laclau and Mouffe and its further development
The article analyzes which of the fundamental postulates of the discourse theory by Ernes to Laclau and Chantal Mouffe found their development in Laclau’s theory of populism and Mouffe’s theory of agonistic democracy. Three basis components of the discourse theory are considered. These are discursive mechanisms by which certain meanings are fixed; the theory of collective identity, which Laclau developed into the theory of populism; and the possi…
On Professional Values Under a State of War: Exile Journalists From Ukraine in Russia
This paper discusses the case of exile journalists from Ukraine who moved to Russia between 2014 and 2022. What, in terms of journalistic norms, was unacceptable to them in the Ukrainian journalistic field? What did they find problematic in this respect in Russia? These were the basic questions driving the research, in the course of which 15 exile journalists were interviewed; their answers were analysed using Norman Fairclough’s critical discour…
Russia’s Radical Othering in the Global Academic Discourse
Many critical scholars hold that the new Cold War is already more dangerous than its predecessor, partly due to the synergy of Western intelligence services and various hegemonic-ideological institutions—the Censorship-Industrial Complex—in demonizing Russia. This paper is one of the first efforts to empirically measure how pervasive that discourse is within the academic literature. The analysis of 100 articles on the Ukraine conflict published i…
War, Peace, and Populist Discourse in Ukraine
This book explores the detrimental effects on global peace of populism’s tendency to present complex social issues in simplistic "good versus evil" terms. Analyzing the civilizational discourse of Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky with respect to the ongoing war between Russia and Ukraine—with his division of the world into "civilized us" versus "barbarian them"—the book argues that such a one-dimensional representation of complex social rea…
War, Peace, and Populist Discourse in Ukraine
On the Impossibility of Discursive-material closures: A Case of Banned TV channels in Ukraine
Drawing on the ideas of Laclau and Mouffe (1985) and Carpentier (2017), this paper shows how, on the one hand, discursive-material assemblages within the digital environment of interconnected information networks prevent the possibility of final discursive closures, while, on the other hand, they may weaken discourses, preventing them from serving as a mobilizing force for social change. To illustrate this, the paper discusses the case of Volodym…
Dividing social networks: Facebook unfriending, unfollowing, and blocking in turbulent political times
It has been argued that by allowing users to unfriend, unfollow, and block political and cultural ‘others,’ Facebook facilitates the discouragement of dialog between those holding different views on political issues. Using a case study of a civil confrontation in Ukraine, the paper analyzes the reasons for unfriending political ‘others’ reported by 699 respondents of a qualitative survey. Its findings are in line with researchers who have also fo…
Deconstructing the Coloniality of the West-Centric Democratic Imaginary
Many CDA scholars present the idea of “democracy” as a normative yardstick against which injustices of all kinds and in any type of society can be measured; many also assume there is an inherent opposition between democratization with its advances toward social justice and neoliberal marketization with its array of negative consequences. Analyzing the discourse of democratization in the context of contemporary Ukraine, this paper argues that the …
Dehumanizing political others: A discursive-material perspective
In his recent book The Discursive-Material Knot, [Carpentier, N. (2017). The discursive-material Knot: Cyprus in conflict and community media participation. New York: Peter Lang]. Nico Carpentier identifies three nodal points of antagonistic discourse: the need for destruction of the enemy, homogenization of the self as opposed to the enemy, and the radical difference of the enemy. The latter appears when the self and the other are thought to be …
Miscommunicating Social Change: Lessons from Russia and Ukraine
Synecdoche that kills: How Barack Obama and Vladimir Putin constructed different Ukraines for different ends
Drawing on Ernesto Laclau’s theory of articulation, this article analyzes Barack Obama’s and Vladimir Putin’s public speeches on the Ukrainian crisis of 2014. The article discusses how the presidents constructed rival discourses by erasing the nuances of complex tensions between the logics of equivalence and difference existing within the Ukrainian discursive space. Acting like imperial administrators from colonial times, Obama and Putin pushed r…
In the name of national security: Articulating ethno-political struggles as terrorism
The discourse of terrorism is one of the most powerful political discourses of our times. More often than not, its labels and assumptions – including the division of the world into sharp dichotomies of ‘free’ and ‘civilized’ states vs. ‘evil’ and ‘barbarian terrorists’ – go unquestioned in related political speeches, media reports, and public deliberation. These unquestioned assumptions, however, become problematic when the signifier ‘terrorism’ …
On progressive identity and internal colonization: A case study from Russia
This article analyzes how the ‘progressive’ imagination of democratically minded intellectuals in Russia discursively produces the internal ‘other’ – Vladimir Putin’s supporters – as a singular monolithic subject whose ‘underdeveloped’ intellectual condition is judged against an imagined scale of human progression. Discussing the case study of a Russian independent radio station Echo of Moscow, the author argues that its democratizing anti-Putin …
Ukrainian Euromaidan: The exclusion of otherness in the name of progress
Although criticism of Enlightenment ideas has become widespread within academic circles, the basic Enlightenment narrative – an inexorable movement to a progressive condition – remains a dominant assumption within the discourses of modernization and democratization. This article analyzes how the ‘progressive’ imagination of Euromaidan protesters in Ukraine discursively produced the internal ‘other’ as a singular monolithic subject whose ‘underdev…
"Conservation" as a Catalyst for Conflict: Considering Stakeholder Understanding in Policy Making
Stakeholder negotiation processes are increasingly used in environmental management, but are often difficult due to values differences among stakeholders. These values can be reflected in the language used by stakeholders, which may lead to conflict in negotiation processes. This study investigated whether there are widespread differences among Colorado water stakeholders in how they define the term "conservation," a key value and policy term, an…
The Global in the Local: A Case Study on Deforestation in a Ukrainian Journalistic Field
It is widely assumed nowadays that in order to effectively respond to environmental challenges, humanity must cultivate cosmopolitan ethical consciousness. An important role, according to this outlook, should be assigned to journalists, who must possess a cosmopolitan sense of responsibility. How can this global responsibility emerge out of the local sense of belonging? To examine this question, we present the case study of the decision of 107495…
The Construction of Fear: The New York Times Deliberation on the USA-Russia Nuclear Dialogue
The term “politics of fear” implies that political elites manipulate people’s anxieties intentionally, for political reasons. This study investigates how the image of frightening Russia has been maintained by the New York Times since the collapse of the USSR. The study focuses on the nuclear dialogue between Moscow and Washington. Starting from December 25, 1991, and finishing with December 5, 2009, the authors analyze 903 of the New York Times e…
Media framing of the Ukrainian political crisis, 2000–2001
This paper examines how selected Ukrainian news media—three television channels, one newspaper, and one Internet site—framed the nation's political crisis of 2000–2001. Dominant media frames and framing devices were identified through content analysis of 829 news stories. Frames were compared across these news outlets as well as across different time periods to analyze the role of framing in public deliberation. The study revealed the strong infl…
Media framing of the Ukrainian political crisis, 2000–2001
This paper examines how selected Ukrainian news media—three television channels, one newspaper, and one Internet site—framed the nation's political crisis of 2000–2001. Dominant media frames and framing devices were identified through content analysis of 829 news stories. Frames were compared across these news outlets as well as across different time periods to analyze the role of framing in public deliberation. The study revealed the strong infl…
Ukrainian Euromaidan: The exclusion of otherness in the name of progress
Although criticism of Enlightenment ideas has become widespread within academic circles, the basic Enlightenment narrative – an inexorable movement to a progressive condition – remains a dominant assumption within the discourses of modernization and democratization. This article analyzes how the ‘progressive’ imagination of Euromaidan protesters in Ukraine discursively produced the internal ‘other’ as a singular monolithic subject whose ‘underdev…
Synecdoche that kills: How Barack Obama and Vladimir Putin constructed different Ukraines for different ends
Drawing on Ernesto Laclau’s theory of articulation, this article analyzes Barack Obama’s and Vladimir Putin’s public speeches on the Ukrainian crisis of 2014. The article discusses how the presidents constructed rival discourses by erasing the nuances of complex tensions between the logics of equivalence and difference existing within the Ukrainian discursive space. Acting like imperial administrators from colonial times, Obama and Putin pushed r…
In the name of national security: Articulating ethno-political struggles as terrorism
The discourse of terrorism is one of the most powerful political discourses of our times. More often than not, its labels and assumptions – including the division of the world into sharp dichotomies of ‘free’ and ‘civilized’ states vs. ‘evil’ and ‘barbarian terrorists’ – go unquestioned in related political speeches, media reports, and public deliberation. These unquestioned assumptions, however, become problematic when the signifier ‘terrorism’ …
"Conservation" as a Catalyst for Conflict: Considering Stakeholder Understanding in Policy Making
Stakeholder negotiation processes are increasingly used in environmental management, but are often difficult due to values differences among stakeholders. These values can be reflected in the language used by stakeholders, which may lead to conflict in negotiation processes. This study investigated whether there are widespread differences among Colorado water stakeholders in how they define the term "conservation," a key value and policy term, an…
Dehumanizing political others: A discursive-material perspective
In his recent book The Discursive-Material Knot, [Carpentier, N. (2017). The discursive-material Knot: Cyprus in conflict and community media participation. New York: Peter Lang]. Nico Carpentier identifies three nodal points of antagonistic discourse: the need for destruction of the enemy, homogenization of the self as opposed to the enemy, and the radical difference of the enemy. The latter appears when the self and the other are thought to be …
Media framing of the Ukrainian political crisis, 2000–2001
This paper examines how selected Ukrainian news media—three television channels, one newspaper, and one Internet site—framed the nation's political crisis of 2000–2001. Dominant media frames and framing devices were identified through content analysis of 829 news stories. Frames were compared across these news outlets as well as across different time periods to analyze the role of framing in public deliberation. The study revealed the strong infl…
The Construction of Fear: The New York Times Deliberation on the USA-Russia Nuclear Dialogue
The term “politics of fear” implies that political elites manipulate people’s anxieties intentionally, for political reasons. This study investigates how the image of frightening Russia has been maintained by the New York Times since the collapse of the USSR. The study focuses on the nuclear dialogue between Moscow and Washington. Starting from December 25, 1991, and finishing with December 5, 2009, the authors analyze 903 of the New York Times e…
The Global in the Local: A Case Study on Deforestation in a Ukrainian Journalistic Field
It is widely assumed nowadays that in order to effectively respond to environmental challenges, humanity must cultivate cosmopolitan ethical consciousness. An important role, according to this outlook, should be assigned to journalists, who must possess a cosmopolitan sense of responsibility. How can this global responsibility emerge out of the local sense of belonging? To examine this question, we present the case study of the decision of 107495…
"Conservation" as a Catalyst for Conflict: Considering Stakeholder Understanding in Policy Making
Stakeholder negotiation processes are increasingly used in environmental management, but are often difficult due to values differences among stakeholders. These values can be reflected in the language used by stakeholders, which may lead to conflict in negotiation processes. This study investigated whether there are widespread differences among Colorado water stakeholders in how they define the term "conservation," a key value and policy term, an…
On progressive identity and internal colonization: A case study from Russia
This article analyzes how the ‘progressive’ imagination of democratically minded intellectuals in Russia discursively produces the internal ‘other’ – Vladimir Putin’s supporters – as a singular monolithic subject whose ‘underdeveloped’ intellectual condition is judged against an imagined scale of human progression. Discussing the case study of a Russian independent radio station Echo of Moscow, the author argues that its democratizing anti-Putin …
Ukrainian Euromaidan: The exclusion of otherness in the name of progress
Although criticism of Enlightenment ideas has become widespread within academic circles, the basic Enlightenment narrative – an inexorable movement to a progressive condition – remains a dominant assumption within the discourses of modernization and democratization. This article analyzes how the ‘progressive’ imagination of Euromaidan protesters in Ukraine discursively produced the internal ‘other’ as a singular monolithic subject whose ‘underdev…
Synecdoche that kills: How Barack Obama and Vladimir Putin constructed different Ukraines for different ends
Drawing on Ernesto Laclau’s theory of articulation, this article analyzes Barack Obama’s and Vladimir Putin’s public speeches on the Ukrainian crisis of 2014. The article discusses how the presidents constructed rival discourses by erasing the nuances of complex tensions between the logics of equivalence and difference existing within the Ukrainian discursive space. Acting like imperial administrators from colonial times, Obama and Putin pushed r…
In the name of national security: Articulating ethno-political struggles as terrorism
The discourse of terrorism is one of the most powerful political discourses of our times. More often than not, its labels and assumptions – including the division of the world into sharp dichotomies of ‘free’ and ‘civilized’ states vs. ‘evil’ and ‘barbarian terrorists’ – go unquestioned in related political speeches, media reports, and public deliberation. These unquestioned assumptions, however, become problematic when the signifier ‘terrorism’ …
Miscommunicating Social Change: Lessons from Russia and Ukraine
Dehumanizing political others: A discursive-material perspective
In his recent book The Discursive-Material Knot, [Carpentier, N. (2017). The discursive-material Knot: Cyprus in conflict and community media participation. New York: Peter Lang]. Nico Carpentier identifies three nodal points of antagonistic discourse: the need for destruction of the enemy, homogenization of the self as opposed to the enemy, and the radical difference of the enemy. The latter appears when the self and the other are thought to be …
Dividing social networks: Facebook unfriending, unfollowing, and blocking in turbulent political times
It has been argued that by allowing users to unfriend, unfollow, and block political and cultural ‘others,’ Facebook facilitates the discouragement of dialog between those holding different views on political issues. Using a case study of a civil confrontation in Ukraine, the paper analyzes the reasons for unfriending political ‘others’ reported by 699 respondents of a qualitative survey. Its findings are in line with researchers who have also fo…
Deconstructing the Coloniality of the West-Centric Democratic Imaginary
Many CDA scholars present the idea of “democracy” as a normative yardstick against which injustices of all kinds and in any type of society can be measured; many also assume there is an inherent opposition between democratization with its advances toward social justice and neoliberal marketization with its array of negative consequences. Analyzing the discourse of democratization in the context of contemporary Ukraine, this paper argues that the …
On the Impossibility of Discursive-material closures: A Case of Banned TV channels in Ukraine
Drawing on the ideas of Laclau and Mouffe (1985) and Carpentier (2017), this paper shows how, on the one hand, discursive-material assemblages within the digital environment of interconnected information networks prevent the possibility of final discursive closures, while, on the other hand, they may weaken discourses, preventing them from serving as a mobilizing force for social change. To illustrate this, the paper discusses the case of Volodym…
War, Peace, and Populist Discourse in Ukraine
This book explores the detrimental effects on global peace of populism’s tendency to present complex social issues in simplistic "good versus evil" terms. Analyzing the civilizational discourse of Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky with respect to the ongoing war between Russia and Ukraine—with his division of the world into "civilized us" versus "barbarian them"—the book argues that such a one-dimensional representation of complex social rea…
War, Peace, and Populist Discourse in Ukraine
On Professional Values Under a State of War: Exile Journalists From Ukraine in Russia
This paper discusses the case of exile journalists from Ukraine who moved to Russia between 2014 and 2022. What, in terms of journalistic norms, was unacceptable to them in the Ukrainian journalistic field? What did they find problematic in this respect in Russia? These were the basic questions driving the research, in the course of which 15 exile journalists were interviewed; their answers were analysed using Norman Fairclough’s critical discour…
Russia’s Radical Othering in the Global Academic Discourse
Many critical scholars hold that the new Cold War is already more dangerous than its predecessor, partly due to the synergy of Western intelligence services and various hegemonic-ideological institutions—the Censorship-Industrial Complex—in demonizing Russia. This paper is one of the first efforts to empirically measure how pervasive that discourse is within the academic literature. The analysis of 100 articles on the Ukraine conflict published i…
Discourse, antagonism and agonism: The discourse theory of Laclau and Mouffe and its further development
The article analyzes which of the fundamental postulates of the discourse theory by Ernes to Laclau and Chantal Mouffe found their development in Laclau’s theory of populism and Mouffe’s theory of agonistic democracy. Three basis components of the discourse theory are considered. These are discursive mechanisms by which certain meanings are fixed; the theory of collective identity, which Laclau developed into the theory of populism; and the possi…
Political science (17 works) · Sociology (12 works) · Law (10 works) · Law (9 works) · Politics (9 works) · Epistemology (5 works) · Linguistics (5 works) · Media Studies and Communication (5 works) · Philosophy (5 works) · Political economy (5 works)