Keywords: Piotr Sztompka; socjologia; analiza społeczeństwa
Book Reviews: Piotr Sztompka (2012) Socjologia. Analiza społeczeństwa. Kraków: Społeczny Instytut Wydawniczy Znak
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Keywords: political discourse; scandal; emotions; symbolic capital; reputation; rhetoric; critical discourse analysis
The aim of this paper is to show which emotions, how, and to what end are expressed in political discourse, especially in the context of political scandal, in the framework of critical discourse analysis. The changing methods of political battle, related to the influence of mass media and the Internet, have increased the role of emotions as a means of politics. The personalization, mediatization, and sensationalism of political life have led to the recognition of the importance of emotion control and management. Political scandal, which involves extreme emotions and consequently highlights certain mechanisms of political struggle, seems exemplary as far as the study of emotions in politics is concerned. The analysis of emotionalization as a persuasive means, the role of emotions in the reception and interpretation of political messages, and emotions as key factors in creating a positive self-image are based on the example of Italian political scene and scandals surrounding Silvio Berlusconi.
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Keywords: emotions in organization; organizational conflict; collective dispute; mediations
The presented paper is focused on the role of emotions in mediator’s work in collective dispute resolution between trade unions and employers. Conflict situations often generate very intensive emotions which are a difficult challenge for a mediator. The main problems he has to face are as follows: when to allow free and uncontrolled emotion expressions, including negative emotions, and when mediator should try to mitigate these expressions? Can a mediator afford to express his own emotions and when he should try to hide them? Evaluation of the level of intensity of emotions exposure in the context of organizational culture is another problem to be presented in this paper. The abovementioned problems will be elaborated in the perspective of Bush’s and Folger’s Model of Transformative Mediation. The sociological base for this analysis will be Erving Goffman dramaturgical theory and Arlie Russell Hoshschild’s approach.
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Keywords: qualitative methods; pragmatic knowledge; symbolic interaction; situated research; clothing
In this article I present a research tool which was designed to study clothing as social action. The article describes a technique called “my wardrobe”, which consists of a “wardrobe elicited interview” and observation of existing materials (clothes in the wardrobe). A distinctive feature of this technique lies in the fact that a researcher can get access to social action (clothing) which can hardly be observed otherwise. What is important, the technique allows for the confrontation of speculative and pragmatic knowledge – this is knowledge which comes from lived experience of wearing clothes.
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Keywords: sociology of emotions; feeling guilty; shame; social maladjustment
Feeling guilty is said to be one of important emotions with the social origin, but still little is known about the process of its construction in individual and collective life. The aim of the article is to show different possibilities of researching the problem. The first part of the text poses the problem of defining and classifying the feeling of guilt. Then, selected research perspectives are analyzed connected with arousing, maintaining, and managing the feeling. The final part presents the result of interviews (IDI) with socially maladjusted boys about their feelings of guilt in personal life.
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Keywords: emotions; social emotions; pride; shame; interaction; teachers; sales representatives; observation; semi-structured interview
The aim of the paper is to show the factors affecting the formation of social emotions, such as pride, shame, guilt, embarrassment, and basic emotions, such as sadness, anger, fear, occurring within one’s professional context. These factors are discussed basing on the example of two professional groups such as teachers and sales representatives. Theoretical basis for the analysis are provided Thomas J. Scheff and June Tangney’s concepts. Empirical analysis is based on the author’s research conducted with the use of the semi-structured interviews, covert and overt participant observations, and quasi-participant observations. In this paper the problem of interaction is shown as the main factor affecting experiencing emotions at one’s professional context. Discussed are interactions with colleagues, interactions with supervisors, interactions with customers, interactions with the organization, including interactions relating to the law.
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Keywords: emotions; situation of action; climbing; mountaineering; anxiety; fear; disturbing emotions; climber’s identity; physical hazards; social world
In the article I rise the problem of emotions experienced by climbers in the situation of climbing and mountaineering. I consider emotions not as an individual feature or tendency to experience some emotional states but as particular sensations experienced during climbing activity. The subject of my interest are emotions that inseparably accompany climbing action, substantially determine this action. These emotions affect the results of climbing activity and remain one of the most important conditions of it. I try to review emotions experienced by participants of climbing situation, and then, I concentrate on particular emotions – anxiety and fear – directly connected with climbing activity. I discuss fear of heights, fear of coming off the wall and fear of “flights,” and the ways of getting control over them. In the climbing world “strong psyche” is perceived as a positive feature of participant. I present motives of climbing activity appealing distinctly to the emotions and discuss impact of real physical threats encountered by climbers in the rock and mountain areas during climbing activity. Bringing up the problem of unwanted and “disturbing emotions” that hamper conducting actions and make climbing more difficult, simultaneously, I treat those emotions as an “indicator” of “getting mature” and becoming a mountaineer. The processes of forming climber’s identity and his/her emotional grow are discussed on the base of diary analysis of Polish mountaineer Piotr Morawski (1976-2009). I treat the process of working on emotions as important aspect of climbers’ identity shaping and essential aspect of climbing and mountaineering activity.
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Keywords: Emotionality; Theory; Ethnography; Aristotle; Rhetoric; Pragmatism; Interactionism; Persuasion; Negotiated Reality
In contrast to those who more characteristically approach emotion as an individual realm of experience of more distinctive physiological and/or psychological sorts, this paper addresses emotionality as a socially experienced, linguistically enabled, activity-based process. While conceptually and methodologically situated within contemporary symbolic interactionist thought (Mead 1934; Blumer 1969; Strauss 1993; Prus 1996; 1997; 1999; Prus and Grills 2003), this statement is centrally informed by the pragmatist considerations of emotionality that Aristotle (circa 384-322 BCE) develops in Rhetoric. Although barely known to those in the human sciences, Aristotle’s Rhetoric provides a great deal of insight into people’s definitions of, and experiences with, a wide array of emotions. Addressing matters of persuasive interchange in political, judicial, and evaluative contexts, Aristotle gives particular attention to the intensification and neutralization of people’s emotional states. This includes (1) anger and calm, (2) friendship and enmity, (3) fear and confidence, (4) shame and shamelessness, (5) kindness and inconsideration, (6) pity and indignation, and (7) envy and emulation. Following an introduction to “rhetoric” (as the study of persuasive interchange) and “emotionality,” this paper briefly (1) outlines a pragmatist/interactionist approach to the study of emotionality, (2) considers Aristotle as a sociological pragmatist, (3) locates Aristotle’s work within the context of classical Greek thought, (4) acknowledges the relationship of emotionality and morality, and (5) addresses emotionality as a generic social process. Following (6) a more sustained consideration of emotionality within the context of Aristotle’s Rhetoric, the paper concludes with (7) a short discussion of the importance of Aristotle’s work for studying emotionality as a realm of human lived experience on a contemporary plane.
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Keywords: citizenship; society; Roman ia; Hungary; perception
Citizenship represents the permanent legal and political relationship that exists between the state and the individual. Citizenship is often defined in terms of legislation and accompanying political debates, far from the realities experienced by citizens. Due to the lack of uniformity between laws of different countries regarding the criteria for granting citizenship, an individual can be found in a position to have more than one citizenship or in a position where his/her right to citizenship is denied. We are facing a citizenship conflict that bears the concept of multi-nationality or even of statelessness.
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Keywords: national identities; civic an d ethnic elements; Europe
Western and Eastern European national identities developed and differed due to the disparate historical contexts (both recent and distant) that they were exposed to. Often, it is seen that Western civic nations are more ethnic than is usually recognized, and Eastern nations are more civic and less ethnic than their Western counterpart. Conceptually, some scholars have even attacked the logic of the civic/ethnic distinction. Most say that states and nations contain both ethnic and civic components in their national history. Smith (1991), for example, writes that “every nation building has civic and ethnic elements in varying degrees and in different forms… Sometimes civic and territorial elements predominate; at other times it is the ethnic and vernacular components that are emphasized. France and Germany, and all of Western and Eastern Europe, have faced the international discourse on nationalism-including both ethnic and civil claims of popular political participation”.
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Keywords: ethnicity; religion; intercult ural dialogue; European border space.
Ethnicity and religious confession are concepts around which discussion and controversy arise, generating emotions and feelings of extreme intensity. Each of us belongs to such communities. By default, there is a strong pressure on us to be subjective. Intercultural dialogue can be successfully provided where a community that is aware of the others comes to communicate, to cooperate, and to build the structure of a multicultural society. Studies have shown that ethnic and religious diversity is poor when missing openness to other communities. On the other hand, this diversity, as it is the case throughout Central and South-Eastern Europe, reveals the less desirable realities. Today we are talking about discrimination, marginalization, low-status minorities, peripheral societies, inequitable distribution of resources; therefore, we can conclude that the majority-minority relations management highlights the demographic aspect (quantity) and the sociological aspect, i.e. the distribution of authority and power.
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Keywords: The objective of this study is to analyze the discursive identity buildings from the perspective of the members of the Hungarian political elite who has to give a reasoned endorsement to the people that it stands for; as a way to prove not only a territ
The objective of this study is to analyze the discursive identity buildings from the perspective of the members of the Hungarian political elite who has to give a reasoned endorsement to the people that it stands for, as a way to prove not only a territorial belonging, but also the irreconcilable differences of this ethnic group in relationship to the majority represented by the Romanians. From this perspective, we analyze the feeling of the national affiliation, the claim of the regional autonomy and the setting of the “historical memory” in the public sphere, with recurrent use in the rhetoric of the Hungarian political elite, as possible elements generating conflict for a minority group whose level of perception of its own difference in opposition to the identity of the majority is very high.
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Keywords: cross-border cooperation; cross-border region; citizenship; EU; Interreg, transnationalism; multi-culturalism; post-nationalism.
The 1990s have witnessed a strong debate around the emergence of a new kind of citizenship in Europe. This paper analyses the ways in which identity and citizenship are being reshaped in cross border areas following the implementation of EU CBC programmes and civil society mobilization, with reference to the Upper Adriatic area. First, it offers a brief theoretical background on citizenship. Second, it investigates how different crossborder grassroot stakeholders relate to each other in the process of implementing CBC projects, and through their interaction construct new meanings, interests, and values and revisit their identities. It concludes by arguing that the constant interaction between societal and political cross/border actors at the local/elite level is leading to greater mutual understanding, long-term transnational initiatives and an increasing emphasis on shared interests and values.
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Keywords: ethnic community; ethnic group; ethnic minority; assimilation; ethnic and cultural identity; inter-ethnic dialogue; cultural survival; ethnicity; rights; autonomy; cross-border cooperation.
In the Soviet period the Romanian ethic minority in Ukraine was submitted to a Russification process, in order to achieve the so-called Soviet People, speaking of the Russian language. Now there is a process of Ukrainization in order to achieve a Ukrainian nation, including the ethnic minorities. After the collapse of the Soviet Union, Romania and the Republic of Moldova (RM) have the duty to establish agreements and cooperation with Ukraine, to create common governmental Ukrainian-Romanian- Moldovan commissions on the fields of education, culture and so on, to solve all problems regarding the preservation of the ethnic identity of the Romanian minority. In this regard there are a few topical problems: to open schools with the Romanian language of teaching in the Romanian villages with no such schools; to create an University with Romanian as the language of teaching in CernăuŃi (Chernivtsy) or in HerŃa; the problem of the recognition of diplomas obtained by the Ukrainian citizens in Romania and RM (the graduates have to pay a lot and must take certain exams); a branch of the Romanian Cultural Institute in CernăuŃi is a matter of urgency; to enhance the cooperation within the Upper Prut Euro region and Lower Danube Euro region, between the RM, Ukraine and Romania; to open all the possibilities for the Romanian minority to travel in Romania, as it can travel in Moldova, without visas (in this regard, the authorities from Bucharest and from Kiev must achieve the same agreements as the Polish Government achieved with the Ukrainian Government); the example of the Swedish minority from Finland would be useful to follow: as it is known, the Swedish language has the status of state language in Finland. Perhaps, it would be useful to introduce the Romanian language as the official language in the Romanian villages from the CernăuŃi and Odessa regions. The perspectives of the Romanian minority survival depend on the implementing these proposals.
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Keywords: ethnicity; identity; mino rity; Islam; secularization; Kurds; imagined
This paper studies the linkage between migration and (in)security in the context of two major conflicts that have marked the recent history of the Iraqi Kurds: the Gulf War and the Iraq War. One of its observations is that current migratory patterns from the Middle East towards Western Europe and the emergence of Middle Eastern ‘diasporas’ within the EU are important sources of perceived insecurity for the citizens of the recipient countries. This is related to a number of reasons including: historical experiences, recent events, cultural and religious cleavages, economic disparities, normative differences etc. Most of these factors are actually overemphasized and even exploited by the political elites or the mass-media. The European societies had become throughout centuries homogenous societies. The foreign element was usually rejected and blamed for anything went wrong within the society. A residual xenophobia is still manifesting in the behaviour of many Westerners whether or not they acknowledged it. Meanwhile, the positive aspects of migration are frequently forgotten.
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Keywords: Nation; ethnicity; national policy; the interethnic conflict.
The most of the modern states, including the Republic of Moldova, are poly-ethnic; according to their political forces it is necessary to solve the problem of formation and realization of the internal policy reflecting interests and prospects each, from an ethnic group occupying them. The political parties play a special role in this process, their variety on the one hand displays ethnic diversity existing in a society, and on the nother they can influence interethnic relations through the competent policy. During existence of Republic of Moldova as an independent state a fairly rich experience of party’s ethno policy including both positive and negative examples of influence of the parties on interethnic relations has been collected. Experience of the developed European states has shown that overcoming of ethnic discrimination in activity of parties became an important factor for harmonization of interethnic relations in a society and the precondition of its progress in the future. Level of representation of interests of various ethnic groups in the Moldavian society by political parties and the outlined tendencies of development of parties’ ethno policy allow us to draw a conclusion on prospects of our state in this direction.
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Keywords: national minority; Fram ework Convention; national policy; national minorities’ language; educational policy.
This article is dedicated to the main issues of national minorities being in Ukraine. The author analizes the Ukrainian law in the sphere of protecting of national minorities rights, the level of implementation of international agreements in this direction by Ukraine. The problems and perspectives of national communities of Bukovyna region and Crimea peninsula are observed in the article. The author points out that the position of such national communities as Romanian, Moldovan and Russian in named regions is veru good. They are protected by Ukrainian state and have wide possibilities for realization their national-cultural, educational etc. rights. At the same time, Crimean Tatars need more attention from Ukrainian state, especially in educational sphere.
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Keywords: Euroregions; Demography; Ethnicity; Cross-border Cooperation; NUTS system
Bihor – Hajdu Bihar Euroregion is a form of cross-border cooperation that includes the counties of Bihor and Hajdu Bihor, at the midst of which there are the two county capitals, Oradea and Debrecen, communities that have a diverse ethnical structure, sharing a history older than 800 years. Nowadays we can talk about anintense cross-border cooperation at the Romanian-Hungarian border of various forms and shapes.
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Keywords: ethnic/national politics; Gagauz Yeri; minorities integration etc.
The Gagauz people are a Turkish-speaking group adhering to the Christian Orthodox faith. Today, the majority of them live in the autonomous region of the Republic of Moldova called Gagauz Yeri (Gagauz Territorial Autonomous Unit). Also, smaller groups live in enamoring districts in The Ukraine, Bulgaria, Romania, Greece, Turkey, Kazakhstan, Uzbekistan, and the pockets in the Caucasus. This research wills traits the main peculiarities and the lacks of sociopolitical integration\disintegration of The Gagauz in Moldovan society. Certainly, the integration of ethnic groups in a nation-building state represents a complex and dynamical process of accommodation. In particular, it will be analyzed the degree of participation and interest of The Gagauz in the socio-political processes in Republic of Moldova and in autonomous unit; the degree of identification of Gagauz people with Moldavian state and their elements. To assure a positive result it’s important to improve the implication of the both parts: one side, the main goal of ethnic politics of state needs to be the protection of identity of that segment of population and an equilibrate naturalization by accommodation in the state community; other side, the ethnic groups mast to wish a live in a democratic integral state. Especially, the autonomous status of the Gagauz in Moldova doesn’t stipulate the separation or isolation, but represents a guarantee for accommodation of the Gagauz by keeping their ethnic specific.
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Keywords: The Roma population; discrimination; social exclusion; social inclusion, human rights.
In the context of the 2004, 2007 EU enlargement and the increased Roma mobility that followed, the EU should be the natural choice to lead policy developments to tackle the anti-Roma sentiment and discrimination. It is argued in this paper that this debate reflects a much larger political discussion about EU responsibility and identity. The failure of the EU's reform process over the past ten years highlights a crisis of identity for the EU. The security dimension of Roma migration issue is one case which has the potential to force researchers to think afresh and confirm the social responsibilities of the EU. This is important because until the EU clarifies its position as a 'social' regional actor it will never be in a position to play an active role in the relation with other regional organizations or states.
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