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Keywords: cultural pattern; civilizing instrument; model of development; modernization; Christianity; Confucianism
As a subject of consideration is an influence of cultural patterns on economic development. The comparison of two different models of development, the West model erected from the Christianity and East-Asiatic model based on the Confucianism proves the influence and vitality of the cultural legacy in the formation of both of them. Some elements of the Confucian legacy have great importance, such as a mentality in categories of the duty vs categories of rights, primacy of community over the unit and primacy of the morality over the constituted law. The Confucianism constitutes the store of the irrational tradition and cultural base of the modern society and its social order. It is proved in text that modern economic and political institutions are acting more efficiently if they are underpinned with norms originating from the cultural tradition. Future prospects of East-Asian economy are more promising than the future of the West economy.
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Keywords: design anthropology; house kitchen space; ethnographic research
The aim of this writing is to indicate the possibility of cooperation between anthropologists who are interested in researching everyday life of a human with specialists on design based on house space design. The author refers to a strand of design anthropology whose aim is to demonstrate diversity and complexity of life of people in different social contexts to designers. Thanks to that they can design objects and services which meet customers’ needs better. In this writing, the author presents the results of ethnographic researches related to a contemporary kitchen space. Those researches were inspired by design anthropology and revealed detailed ways of using kitchen spaces, descriptions of their arrangements and equipment as well as everyday activities that happened in therein. Research results show a contemporary kitchen as a place with a potential, as a profusely equipped multitasking workshop which is open to many creative activities, not only culinary ones. They provide the knowledge about behaviours of so-called ordinary people which are a resultant of a tradition, current identity choices and a wide range of grassroots – individual and group – preferences and habits which can be useful not only for settlement culture researchers as well as for designers and producers of various objects and services.
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Keywords: textile industry workers from Łódź; practices of living; kitchen; house; space
The lack of a room in the architectural block of a house that would serve the function of a kitchen – a feature of unicameral housing built for workers before World War II. Only the collected and spaced out equipment and objects established the landscape of the kitchen (people and objects), in which the residents cooperated and which “evoked” certain interactive responses from the human side. In the article, from the perspective of residential habitation, I look at objects and their structuring within a fragment of the space of a flat called a kitchen. I rely on the material collected during many years of research on the interior of housing for workers’ families, which I conducted with students of ethnology at the turn of the seventies and eighties of the twentieth century in Lodz, among residents of tenement houses and family homes built by manufacturers for “their” workers. Among the collected accounts, I choose the ones that the workers who deal with the families lived in the same apartments before and after the war, because I want to look at living as a practice that connects with generational staying in a certain space and passing patterns of her domestication.
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Keywords: Golden Horde; Bolgar Ulus; written sources; urban layout; trade; heyday; crisis
The article addresses the flourishing period of the city of Bolgar after the Mongol conquest, as one of the leading economic and political centers of the Jochi Ulus. Numerous written records by Arabic and European authors and Russian chroniclers allow highlighting the general history of Bolgar in the Golden Horde period. Advantageous geographical position contributed to the rapid restoration of the city and the attainment of its capital status, as well as the further development of handicrafts and trade. Bolgar became one of the first centers of minting Golden Horde coins. According to archaeological data, the features of urban development were recovered. In the 14th century, the Cathedral mosque, administrative buildings, and mausoleums for distinguished persons were built in Bolgar. The decline of Bolgar in the second half of the 14th century was connected with the onset of the general political instability in the Jochi Ulus, the plague and the reduction of trade along the Great Silk road.
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Keywords: P5 + 1 – Iran accord; US–North Korea summit in Singapore; denuclearization of the Korean Peninsula; US–Russia summit in Helsinki; New START; INF; NATO and INF
In 2018, the world’s arms control architecture teetered on the brink of collapse.The paper presents some examples of this process: 1. the United States withdrewfrom the Iran nuclear deal (P5 + 1 – Iran); 2. the summit in Singapore was important,but negotiations between the United States and North Korea over Pyongyang’snuclear programme and denuclearization of the Korean Peninsula stalled; 3. the newSTART was correctly implemented but its future is uncertain; 4. the US threatenedto withdraw from the INF.
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Keywords: European Union;Brexit, Lisbon Treaty; Great Britain; European Parliament; European elections; Euroscepticism; European political parties;
2018 was a year of substantial internal reconfigurations in the EU. In the article,the author focuses on three processes with the biggest potential for change. There isgrowing awareness of practical difficulties of leaving the EU in an orderly fashion,especially in light of the severe political crisis in Great Britain. Chancellor AngelaMerkel declared her plan to leave (in an orderly way) and the opinion polls beforethe European Parliament elections suggest there is a possibility of a relative successof Eurosceptic parties, which would result in anything but order. The power gamewithin the EU starts with the May 2019 elections and it will take up a better part ofthe year. The consequences of 2018 political decisions are still unknown – growinguncertainty being the only certain factor.
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Keywords: worship; Eucharist; christian experience; Divine Mercy; experience of Divine Mercy
The article indicates the necessity of combining the message of revelations given to Saint Faustine with an in‑ depth theological reflection and with the liturgy of the Church, i.e. the holy sacraments, in particular with the Eucharist. At the beginning it explains liturgical worship as a work of Jesus Christ, a reliable and merciful Priest, and of the people of God. It presents mercy as a ”real sacrifice” which must not be left out of the properly understood Christian worship. It then describes the Eucharist in historical terms as a sacrament of mercy in its fuller and fuller understanding. It analyses Mass orations on mercy aimed at introducing participants of the liturgy into the experience of the mystery of Redemption. It explains the notion of Christian spiritual experience and provides two examples of the mystic experience of the Eucharist as a sacrament of mercy (Saint Faustina Kowalska and Saint Vincent Pallotti).
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This dissertation concerns the rare phenomenon in the Polish eighteen-century poetry, particularly authored by a woman, that is footnotes, occasionally extensive, which Konstancja Benisławska included in some parts of the volume Pieśni sobie śpiewane… (1776). These footnotes, far beyond source references, are where the poet expresses, sometimes emphatically, her moral and religious convictions, and criticisms regarding her contemporary literary life and editorial movement. Thus, Benisławska’s footnotes become an individual seal of a poet-erudite. Aside from the main argument, while delineating the field of research, the author of the article offers a bibliography of the nineteen-century editions of the prayer-book which have not been associated with Benisławska’s name up to now.
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Keywords: the amateur movement; band; brass orchestra; repertoire; Polish dances adapted for a brass orchestra
The author discusses the main problems associated with the directing and the functioning of amateur brass bands on the basis of an example furnished by the Brass Orchestra of the Voluntary Fire Brigade in Pruszcz, which is led by the Author. The text presents the types of brass bands, with a detailed description of the instrumentarium. In order to enhance the presentation of the peculiarities of amateur brass bands, the Author presents the line-up of the orchestra he leads, the arrangement of the orchestra during concerts and marching (parades), and the criteria of inclusion to the orchestra. The author also focuses on the realisation of works based on national dances in the orchestra. He also presents exercises whose mastery is intended to yield correct intonation, articulation and dynamics in the orchestra band.The basis of all band-related activities is constituted by the appropriately understood discipline of work and active cooperation of all band members. It also furnishes a great deal of situations which facilitate noble competition. The band members are united by a common goal, which forms their attitudes and integrates the band. Participation in a band performs a very important role – it enables the appealing management of one’s free time. In the course of common activities, band members develop links of friendship, team spirit, support and kindness.
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The article is devoted to the description and analysis of a copy of Racine’s Phèdre, translated by Wincenty Kopystyński and published in 1858 in Warsaw, annotated with notes which concern the Cracow stage production from 1873, starring Antonina Hoffmannowa (housed at the Library of the National Ossoliński Institute in Wrocław, catalogue number 192322 I). The aim of the article is an attempt at a recreation of the adaptation strategies made in order to adjust the text of the play to the norms and theater conventions of that time. Firstly, the stage director systematically limits the importance of characters other than the protagonist. This practice can be attributed to the character of the 19th-century professional scene and the phenomenon of stardom. Secondly, the implemented changes aim at removing the unwanted associations between Phèdre’s actions and the types of conduct which the 19th-century morality and art condemned. Thirdly, the staging of Racine’s play indicates a rejection of the classical ideals of realism and constant illusion on the part of the theater scene in Hoffmannowa’s times. Influenced by the tradition of Romantic theater, tragedy is thus perceived as a sequence of distinct scenes, while the importance of the logical connections between the scenes to create a coherent whole is diminished.
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Keywords: Interpretation; synthetic work of art.; historical reality; audiovisual arts; feature film;video games;
Music and sound design are extremely significant elements for historical feature films and video games. The following article explains, on the basis of selected examples, what type of music is used in such productions. As the author suggests, while the soundscapes in such productions predominantly reflect the historical reality, authentic music from the given epoch does not feature to a significant degree. Rather, the score composers produce creative interpretations of selected historical elements. As a result, such scores are mostly ahistorical, but at the same time they underscore the dramatic developments of the plot as well as the general mood of the story. Such musical interpretation on the part of the score composer, both of the work itself as well as the presented historical reality, gives the entire work of fiction a unique character and meaning.
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Keywords: European Commission; Brexit; art. 50 TEU; EU reform; Polish European policy; Ursula von der Leyen; European Parliament; Green New Deal; Boris Johnson; Aachen treaty
At the beginning of 2019, the EU faced substantial but defi ned challenges: Brexit, newleadership after the elections to the new Parliament, confronting the growing rift betweenthe two sides of the Atlantic. There was tension associated with predictions of a majorvictory for Eurosceptic parties, which would enable them to paralyze the EuropeanParliament. As the year progressed, distrust became gradually the central and majorfactor defi ning political decisions. This article provides insight into various dimensionsof this unfavourable situation that makes the EU not a good place to live: growingimpatience with the United Kingdom, mistrust undermining the Atlantic community,a widening Franco-German split. The last part sums up the fi fteen years of Polishmembership in the EU, emphasizing also the lack of basic trust as the dominating factorin the relations since 2015.
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Keywords: United States; Donald Trump; impeachment; foreign policy; Republicans; Democrats; US economy; Iran; Syria; Russia; trade wars
2019 was dominated by political tensions and the impeachment process against PresidentDonald Trump – only a third such case in the history of the United States (US).The domestic struggle between Democrats and Republicans did not leave muchspace for the administration to conduct and implement its political goals in other areas.Despite growing rivalry between major world powers (US, China, Russia), includingincreasing tensions and confl icts on a global scale, US foreign policy remained onthe sidelines. However, the US economy continued to fl ourish, increasing the incumbentPresident’s chances for re-election in 2020. The goal of this paper is to analyze the USdomestic aff airs and its foreign policy through the events of 2019. The main hypothesisis that the initiation of the impeachment process was a manifestation of a politicalcrisis in the US but, due to good economic conditions, the charges against the USPresident carried negative consequences neither for the country’s domestic situationnor for the President himself. Rather, the impeachment trial resulted in a deepeningof the leadership crisis in the US and overall weakening of the country’s position onthe global scene.
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Keywords: Poland; international order; foreign policy 1989–2020
Foreign policy of independent Poland after 1989, at a time when the previous bipolarsystem was disintegrating and America had its unipolar moment: priorities, buildingof the foreign service before joining NATO and the EU; shaping of the new internationalorder in the beginning of the 21st century, growing uncertainty and unpredictabilityin international relations, Law and Justice’s and its political satellites’ foreign policy;threats to Polish national interests.
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Keywords: mixed-mode survey;representative research;survey mode preference;survey research methodology
The aim of this chapter is to show the state of knowledge in the field of mixed-mode survey design methodology, the known theoretical and practical issues in its use, and to highlight knowledge gaps on this subject. Inclusion of survey mode preference hypothesis in this context is particularly interesting because of possible positive effects of its proper implementation on increasing response rates and measurement quality and lowering survey costs. However, this phenomenon is still not deeply understood and lacks a well-developed theoretical context. This chapter connects it with a wider range of theories of survey participation and gathers the elements of possible future theory. In conclusion, it presents a possible strategy for the utilization of knowledge about participants’ preferences concerning a mode in survey research.
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The debut prose-work by Witkacy carries a large emotional and intellectual load, which is characteristic for a youthful piece of work, but simultaneously it addresses fundamental problems for the historical period and the artist himself. In the light of the events of the revolution of 1905, the role of art was sought once more in social engagement. Aestheticism and isolationism of the author became the object of criticism. It does not change the fact that Witkacy decided to make art and the artist the central problem of his first novel. Dandyism was born in the historical reality ignorant of avant-garde, mass culture, democratization, and relaxing moral standards. In many ways, the ideology of dandyism proved to be identical to the convictions of modernists. First and foremost, because dandyism seemed to be an unrealized ideal of modernism. The Downfalls is the story about consecutive attempts at delineating borders between art and reality, and simultaneously a record of constant overstepping of these barriers, as well as mutual interactions between the sphere of creation and every-day life. The dualism of life and art is the central problem of this novel. Every artist moves between these two spheres. The author, attempting to break the deadlock, reaches for the attitude of the dandy, which, by definition, preconceives transgression (crossing the cultural and social borders, eliminating sex differences in outfit and behaviour, erasing the differences between art and reality by immanent dramatization of the latter). The fact that dandy inspirations are transferred onto his writing technique proves that in Witkacy they are not merely a decoration.
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