Foreign Agents in Russia - Doria

structural factors.
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1.4. Methodology
I have taken examples on how to conduct a research from various literature and academical models
in the extent that they have absorbed into my own hybrid way of conducting a research. Among
others the primary research material has shown me some of the available approaches related to my
research question. Most recent methodology literature worth mentioning are Theory and Methods in
Political Science (2010.) edited by David Marshin Gerry Stroker and Suuri ja Mahtava
Metodologia? (2010) Edited by Viljanen Elina, Aitamurto Kaarina, Lassila Jussi and Salmi Anna-
Maria. Both of these works have contributed to the general and practical research approaches and
processes that I imply.
Likewise much of my research theory, also my primary research methods are compatibly
Foucauldian: Foucauldian discourse analysis (FDA) and the archeology of knowledge. Discourse
analysis per se is nothing new for Russian studies, as many of the scholars important for my study
have used it, but most often by the genealogy of knowledge -approach. Susanna Hast used a
discourse analysis to examine Russia first in her research of identity politics, recognition and
agency (2004, 2007) and then later to define discourses of spheres of influence (2010, 2012). Iver
Neumann on the other hand examined Europe as the other for Russia and vice versa in Foucauldian
approaches (1996, 1999). Later he used discourse analysis on the issue of governmentality and
Russian great power recognition. Partially these studies are close to mine in their efforts to describe
Russian political and social identity, but my interest is to see an updated snapshot of the discoursive
reality not only in international community but also inside Russia. Moreover in general there seems
to be some existing public discussion on what 'foreign agents' have meant historically, which would
be a good research question but I rather make a study directly connected to the presence and simply
present the historical background to contextualize my research.
The prior technical implementation of Foucauldian discourse analysis (FDA) I follow from
Foucault'lainen Diskurssianalyysi by Sari Husa(1995.), from Jokinen, et. Co Diskurssianalyysi
liikkeessä(2002) and Using Foucault's Methods by Gavin Kendall and Gary Wickham (1999). The
FDA highlights the intertwined connection between language and social reality, words and things,
the statements and visibilities which fits for examining and interpreting the discourses of foreign
agents and their juridical realization in 2012-2013. The FDA seeks to interpret speech, text and
events per se without looking for hidden meanings and agendas. Hence I ask how do ideas
condition the usage of foreign agent discourses and how the usage itself describes these ideas.
I start my analysis chronically by analyzing the introduction first of the idea and then the