BUILDING BRIDGES WITH MULTICULTURAL SENSING. THE ROLE OF FILM AND LITERATURE IN CONTEMPORARY SOCIETIES

Å SKAPE BROER MED FLERKULTURELL SANSING. FILMENS OG LITTERATURENS ROLLE I DAGENS SAMFUNN

Author(s): Adriana Margareta Dancus / Language(s): Norwegian / Issue: 3/2016

Keywords: literature; film; multicultural sensing; Norway.

Building Bridges with Multicultural Sensing. The Role of Film and Literature in Contemporary Societies. Starting from three Norwegian examples from the 2000s, two fiction films and one collection of short stories, this article shows how film and literature play an important role in shaping our affective responses to people with a different background and interpretative framework than our own. In particular, the article sheds light on how film and literature can bring us very close to the unknown, the foreign and the unpleasant and tune us affectively in ways that build bridges between people living side by side in a multicultural society.

LIV ULLMANN AND HER SISTERS – AN ESSAY ABOUT GENDER EQUALITY, PRODUCTION FREEDOM IN NORWEGIAN FILM AND TELEVISION

LIV ULLMANN OG HENNES SØSTRE – ET ESSAY OM LIKESTILLING, PRODUKSJONSFORHOLD OG REPERTOARFRIHET I NORSK FILM OG FJERNSYN

Author(s): Jan Erik Holst / Language(s): Norwegian / Issue: 3/2016

Keywords: gender; Liv Ullmann; Norwegian feature and television production; drama.

Liv Ullmann and her sisters – an essay about gender equality, production freedom in Norwegian film and television. An article about film and television production in Norway. Norway has had a rather strong position in the field of female directors, thanks to governmental policy in the production of film and television. This article aims to describe this development after World War II.

THE USAGE OF DOUBLE DEFINITENESS IN OLD NORWEGIAN

BRUK AV DOBBEL BINDING I GAMMALNORSK

Author(s): Fartein Th. Øverland / Language(s): Norwegian / Issue: 3/2016

Keywords: Old Norse; double definiteness; syntax; morphology; treebank querying; dependency grammar.

The Usage of Double Definiteness in Old Norwegian. This article aims to present a survey of the scope and ways of usage of double definiteness in Old Norwegian. Double definiteness is defined in this study as a common noun in the definite form + a demonstrative determiner. The usage of definite forms to express definiteness was grammatically optional in Old Norwegian, and it is therefore of interest to look for the motivation of their usage patterns. The main findings of the study are that the total scope of double definiteness was very small and that the distribution between the analysed texts are highly uneven.

TO EXPLORE FOREIGN LITERATURE IN A NEW CONTEXT. HAMSUN, HUNGER AND ROMANIAN STUDENTS

Å MØTE FREMMED LITTERATUR I NY KONTEKST. HAMSUN, SULT OG RUMENSKE STUDENTER

Author(s): Marthe Berg Reffhaug / Language(s): Norwegian / Issue: 3/2016

Keywords: education; learning effect; Norwegian literature; Norwegian didactics; Hamsun.

To explore foreign literature in a new context. Hamsun, Hunger and Romanian students. This article aims at grasping the extent to which Romanian students, studying Norwegian, understand Knut Hamsuns Hunger, and, furthermore, how it affects their participation in a special event where a Norwegian professor gives a lecture about the novel. This article demonstrates how students require explicit guidance from their teachers in advance of such events for effective learning. In addition, it portrays that such events trigger students’ curiosity in reading Norwegian literature and in developing their language skills.

FOREIGN LANGUAGE LEARNING IN TODAY’S MULTICULTURAL AND MULTILINGUAL CLASSROOMS

FOREIGN LANGUAGE LEARNING IN TODAY’S MULTICULTURAL AND MULTILINGUAL CLASSROOMS

Author(s): Raluca Pop / Language(s): English / Issue: 3/2016

Keywords: foreign language teaching; multiculturalism; multilingualism; cultural context; formal education.

Foreign Language Learning in Todayʼs Multicultural and Multilingual Classrooms. This paper intended to emphasize the fact that foreign learning language implies being able to communicate effectively in diverse cultural and linguistic contexts. Therefore, in an increasingly multicultural society, the development of a competence that facilitates appropriate cultural and linguistic transfers needs to be considered. The paper provides details about the challenges and positive aspects of learning a foreign language in a multicultural and multilingual context. The educational landscape has undergone considerable changes in order to accommodate the learning process to the requirements imposed by a globalized society.

AMERICAN ANTI-HUMOR AND 21ST CENTURY SPANISH TELEVISION COMEDY

AMERICAN ANTI-HUMOR AND 21ST CENTURY SPANISH TELEVISION COMEDY

Author(s): Eduardo Barros Grela / Language(s): English / Issue: 3/2016

Keywords: Anti-humor; American television; Spanish television; national identity; humor; Muchachada Nui; Cultural Studies; Media Studies.

American Anti-Humor and 21st Century Spanish Television Comedy. This article studies the connections between American and Spanish comedy shows taking Muchachada Nui as a case study. I analyze their referentiality to contemporary American audiovisual culture in order to question the associative projections of this Spanish show as a humoristic manifestation—and interrogation—of a national identity. Muchachada Nui displays acid satirical performances of “Spanishness” using parody as a decontextualizing device to produce humor, mostly by impersonating American celebrities of the 70s and 80s in the context of contemporary Spain.Muchachada rewrites the power of anti- humor by applying the hyperbolic features of Spanishness to these characters from other countries (who are normally subject to be representative of a démodé aesthetics in Spain). The subsequent alienation that this practice confers to Spanish nationals from their own national identity becomes the container of the absurdity that is typical of the anti-humor performances of Muchachada Nui.

SANDA TOMESCU BACIU, [WELCOME! – NORWEGIAN CONVERSATION TEXTBOOK], ED. A III-A REV., IAȘI: POLIROM, 2015, 184 P.

SANDA TOMESCU BACIU, VELKOMMEN! – MANUAL DE CONVERSAȚIE ÎN LIMBA NORVEGIANĂ [WELCOME! – NORWEGIAN CONVERSATION TEXTBOOK], ED. A III-A REV., IAȘI: POLIROM, 2015, 184 P.

Author(s): Raluca-Daniela Răduţ / Language(s): English / Issue: 3/2016

Velkommen! – Manual de conversație în limba norvegiană [Welcome! – Norwe-gian Conversation Textbook] is written by professor Sanda Tomescu Baciu, the head of the Department of Scandinavian Languages and Literatures at the Faculty of Letters of “Babeș-Bolyai” University of Cluj-Napoca. She is the author of various articles and translations from Norwegian literature among which we make reference to the the third edition of the Norwegian conversation textbook, Velkommen! [Welcome!]. It is worth mentioning that this textbook was first published in 2006 and then reprinted twice, in 2010 and in 2015. In the preface of the third edition from 2015, professor Sanda Tomescu Baciu provides a brief overview of the Norwegian conversation textbook, pointing out the fact that learning Norwe-gian is the gateway towards the other Scandinavian languages and cultures. Apart from these, the author states that this textbook offers an introduction into Norwegian language, namely into bok-mål , being very useful both for Romanian people who want to learn Norwegian and for students who study Philology alike.

SVANHILD NATERSTAD, ROMANIA, TRONDHEIM/OSLO: AKADEMIKA FORLAG, 447 P.

SVANHILD NATERSTAD, ROMANIA, TRONDHEIM/OSLO: AKADEMIKA FORLAG, 447 P.

Author(s): Marthe Berg Reffhaug / Language(s): English / Issue: 3/2016

Romania is a beautiful country. It has a rich history and an even richer present. In 2012, the Norwegian journalist, Svanhild Naterstad, published a detailed and fasci-nating book about Romania - containing information about all that was, and all that is in the country. Naterstad refers to the book as ‘a declaration of love’ towards a country that has meant the world to her since her first visit in 1988.

HANS KRISTIAN RUSTAD & HENNING WÆRP (RED.), (FROM WERGELAND TO KNAUSGÅRD. STUDIES OF NORDIC LITERATURE) AKADEMIKA FORLAG, 2014, 497 P.

HANS KRISTIAN RUSTAD & HENNING WÆRP (RED.), FRA WERGELAND TIL KNAUSGÅRD. LESNINGER I NORDISK LITTERATUR (FROM WERGELAND TO KNAUSGÅRD. STUDIES OF NORDIC LITERATURE) AKADEMIKA FORLAG, 2014, 497 P.

Author(s): Ştefana – Teodora Popa / Language(s): English / Issue: 3/2016

Fra Wergeland til Knausgård. Lesninger i nordisk litteratur (From Wergeland to Knausgård. Studies of Nordic literature) is a collection of articles dedicated to Professor Ole Karlsen, on the occasion of his 60th birthday. Ole Karlsen is a professor of Nordic literature at the Hedmark University College, who devoted his life to the intense study of Nordic poetry and literature in general.

CARL FRODE TILLER, ENCIRCLEMENT, CLUJ-NAPOCA: CASA CĂRȚII DE ȘTIINȚĂ, 2015, 287 P.

CARL FRODE TILLER, ÎNCERCUIRE (ENCIRCLEMENT), CLUJ-NAPOCA: CASA CĂRȚII DE ȘTIINȚĂ, 2015, 287 P.

Author(s): Raluca-Daniela Răduţ / Language(s): English / Issue: 3/2016

Carl Frode Tiller is the name of the contemporary Norwegian writer and his-torian who wrote several novels in Ny-norsk that is “New Norwegian”. He was born in 1970 in Namsos, a town situated in Nord-Trøndelag, Norway. He made his literary debut in 2001 with the novel Skråninga (The Slope) which was adapted for the stage in 2004. With this novel, Carl Frode Tiller was nominated for Bragepris-en, a Norwegian literary prize. In 2003 he published his second novel entitled Biper-soner (Minor Characters) followed by the novel Innsirkling (Encirclement) that was published in 2007 when the author was awarded both Brageprisen and Kritiker-prisen. This novel is part of a series of psychological and social novels that were published in 2010 Innsirkling 2 (Encircle-ment 2) and in 2014 Innsirkling 3 (Encir-clement 3). Before these two novels, in 2007 he also published a play entitled Folkehelsa (Public Health).

HÉDI KADDOUR, LES PRÉPONDÉRANTS, PARIS, GALLIMARD, 2015, 464 P.

HÉDI KADDOUR, LES PRÉPONDÉRANTS, PARIS, GALLIMARD, 2015, 464 P.

Author(s): Simona Ilieș / Language(s): French / Issue: 3/2016

Hédi Kaddour nous propose un excel-lent roman-fresque, la radiographie d’un monde en détresse tel qu’était le nôtre après la Première Guerre mondiale, un roman d’autant plus complexe qu’il nous fait voya-ger de l’Afrique colonisée par les Français, en passant par un Hollywood en plein scandale, jusqu’en France, un pays qui prend sa revanche en colonisant petit à petit l’Allemagne. Le roman a trois volets disposés chronologiquement et suit l’évolution d’un jeune Arabe éduqué, fils de caïd, nommé Raouf.

ISABELLE AUTISSIER, SOUDAIN, SEULS, PARIS, STOCK, 2015, 252 P.

ISABELLE AUTISSIER, SOUDAIN, SEULS, PARIS, STOCK, 2015, 252 P.

Author(s): Anamaria Lupan / Language(s): French / Issue: 3/2016

Isabelle Autissier, née en 1956 à Paris, interroge les frontières entre le réel et la fiction ; elle reprend des éléments de son métier – navigatrice française et, de plus, la première femme à avoir accompli un tour du monde en compétition en 1991 – dans ses écrits ; c’est ainsi qu’elle nous invite toujours à faire des voyages en palimpseste : le lecteur part à la recherche de l’histoire des personnages qui, à leur tour, sont en quête d’ailleurs. Roman de la crise humaine, Soudain, seuls, paru chez Stock en 2015, interroge les valeurs qui dominent et structurent notre époque.

MATHIAS ENARD, BOUSSOLE, PARIS, ACTES SUD, 2015, 400 P.

MATHIAS ENARD, BOUSSOLE, PARIS, ACTES SUD, 2015, 400 P.

Author(s): Simona Ilieș / Language(s): French / Issue: 3/2016

Dans ce roman récompensé par le prix Goncourt en 2015, Mathias Enard raconte une belle histoire d’amour qui, bien qu’elle se passe dans ce début de siècle, ressemble plutôt aux grandes histoires d’amour d’antan. La bien-aimée inaccessible, la présence de la mort, la sensation de n’avoir accompli rien de valeureux, sont autant de causes de dé-pression chez l’occidental blasé qu’est devenu le musicologue autrichien, Franz Ritter. Il s’agit d’un roman très dense dans lequel les études érudites d’orientalisme de l’auteur sont mises à contribution et nous dévoilent un Orient inattendu : celui qui a été exploré au fil du temps par beau-coup d’Occidentaux fascinés non seule-ment par les traces archéologiques des anciennes civilisations, mais surtout par ce que la culture arabe a transmis à la culture européenne en l’enrichissant signi-ficativement. La boussole de ces amoureux de l’Orient indique, tout comme la boussole de Beethoven, l’Est ! La métaphore de la boussole renvoie aussi au cœur et, dans le cas de Franz, elle montre l’Est parce que Sarah n’arrête pas de s’en occuper, qu’il s’agisse du Proche-Orient ou d’un Orient plus éloigné. Inaccessible au lecteur pressé, ce livre récompense avec générosité le téméraire : l’amour et la maladie, thèmes prépondérants, sont traités dans un registre sombre, celui du désespoir, qui contraste avec la beauté paradoxale de l’espace oriental où évolue Sarah, une chercheuse française d’une érudition remarquable. La belle Sarah représente l’aimant qui attire le narrateur et le motive pour continuer ses études orienta-listes. Sa passion le contamine et le pousse à continuer des recherches aux-quelles il aurait renoncé depuis longtemps.

TOBIE NATHAN, CE PAYS QUI TE RESSEMBLE, PARIS, STOCK, 2015, 540 P.

TOBIE NATHAN, CE PAYS QUI TE RESSEMBLE, PARIS, STOCK, 2015, 540 P.

Author(s): Anamaria Lupan / Language(s): French / Issue: 3/2016

Tobie Nathan, représentant de l’ethnopsychiatrie en France, diplomate et écrivain, nous propose dans son dernier roman – Ce pays qui te ressemble paru chez Stock en 2015 – un voyage multiple et dense, ailleurs, dans un monde qui ne cesse d’enchanter et d’étonner par son dynamisme et par sa complexité. L’exotisme d’un univers éloigné de notre culture européenne fascine par sa poésie et par la magie qui font tomber toutes les frontières (qu’elles soient de race, de langue, d’âge, de confession religieuse, etc.).

Game of the City Re-negotiated: the Polish Urban Re-generation Movement as an Emerging Actor in a Strategic Action Field

Game of the City Re-negotiated: the Polish Urban Re-generation Movement as an Emerging Actor in a Strategic Action Field

Author(s): Anna Domaradzka,Filip Wijkström / Language(s): English / Issue: 3/2016

Keywords: urban re-generation movement; right to the city movement; civil society; strategic action field; field theory

In recent years, many Polish cities have become the sites where a new urban movement emerges, shaped in the meeting between the engagement of neighborhood activists around what Mergler (2008) has called a "concrete narrative" of particular space and everyday needs, and the inspiration of internationally connected "norm entrepreneurs" (Finnemore and Sikkink 1998). As part of the movement formation, a number of small groups and local associations have become important in the process of linking local issues to the global dispute over quality of life in urban areas. Although the process is multi-faceted and the involved actors diverse in nature, we claim that it can be described and analyzed by using the recently developed framework of Strategic Action Fields (Fligstein and McAdam 2011, 2012). We illustrate how this new group of civil society actors have become important in the "game of the city" in Poland-thus re-negotiating the public-private divide, which is a crucial part of the urban policy field in-between a retreating city-level public sector and the entrance of corporate actors.

Development of Trust in Low-Trust Societies

Development of Trust in Low-Trust Societies

Author(s): Dominika Latusek,Tomasz Olejniczak / Language(s): English / Issue: 3/2016

Keywords: trust; organization; stage-models

The article focuses on the issue of trust development in low-trust societies. Based on a review of the existing literature, we discuss the types of trust as well as mechanisms of trust creation. On this basis, we propose a dynamic four-stage model of trust development. The model is based on the assumption of gradual accumulation of various trust forms on a social level. The article also discusses the implications of the model as well as the possible future routes of empirical research it may open.

Complexity, Institutions, and an 'Agile' Disability Policy

Complexity, Institutions, and an 'Agile' Disability Policy

Author(s): Seweryn Rudnicki / Language(s): English / Issue: 3/2016

Keywords: disability; complexity; systems theory; Luhmann; agile policy

The aims of this article are: 1) to offer a deeper and more theoretically grounded understanding of the dysfunctions of the institutional support system for people with disabilities in Poland; and 2) to propose inspirations for a new, 'agile' disability policy. To this end the author applies concepts from Niklas Luhmann's theory of social systems and its more recent interpretations, as well as ideas from so-called complexity theory. It is shown that the dysfunctions of the institutional system can be interpreted as resulting from the system's autopoiesis and insensitivity to the complexity of the environment. Yet, as the system/environment relationship is precarious, the system could be motivated to redefine itself and to implement solutions that would make it more responsive to the environment. It is argued that an agile disability policy, based on the assumption that complexity is a crucial environmental feature, could be a solution to this problem.

Analysis of the Dynamics of the Internet Use by Persons with Disabilities in Poland over the Decade 2003-2013 in the Context of Their Socio-Demographic Characteristics

Analysis of the Dynamics of the Internet Use by Persons with Disabilities in Poland over the Decade 2003-2013 in the Context of Their Socio-Demographic Characteristics

Author(s): Tomasz Masłyk,Ewa Migaczewska / Language(s): English / Issue: 3/2016

Keywords: disability; internet; digital divide;Social Diagnosis

The aim of this article is to present changes in the scale and functionality of internet use by persons with disabilities in Poland over the course of a decade (2003-2013). In the first analytical step, the growth in internet use by disabled persons is presented in connection with the basic variables of their socio-demographic profiles. While demonstrating the stable pattern of influence of socio-demographic traits on internet use by disabled persons over time, an attempt has been made to verify the thesis that the side of the digital divide on which a disabled person will be situated is not determined by the sole fact of having a disability but is rather a derivative of the person's social status. As the second half of the article attempts to show, social status for this category of user also determines the level of the internet's functionality (the number of activities performed on the internet and the amount of time devoted to their performance). Empirical analyses were based on data from successive editions of the Social Diagnosis research.

Aging Adults about Online Dating: "I am back on the relationship market"

Aging Adults about Online Dating: "I am back on the relationship market"

Author(s): Karmen ERJAVEC,Suzana Žilič Fišer / Language(s): English / Issue: 3/2016

Keywords: online dating; older adult; later life; post-socialism

The incidence of increasing aging populations and the popularity of online dating point to the importance of examining aging adults' involvement in online dating. The study uses semi-structured in-depth interviews with 38 individuals from Slovenia aged 63 to 74. The analysis reveals than the majority of the participants claimed that they had access to a large market of potential partners by use of online dating. They used economic metaphors and related them with extremely positive expressions of recovery: we are alive again because we are back on the relationship market. Their decision to seek a partner through online dating meant that they were once again active in a socially important space, which stimulated a sense of revitalization. Even though the participants lived the majority of their lives under socialism, they have internalized the principles of the market economy and perceive their re-entry into the relationship market as their revival.

From Political Transformation to Europeanization and Democracy in the New European Union Member States: An Attempt to Review Results

From Political Transformation to Europeanization and Democracy in the New European Union Member States: An Attempt to Review Results

Author(s): Józef M. Fiszer / Language(s): English / Issue: 3/2016

Keywords: transformation; democratization; Europeanization; European Union

This article addresses the arguments in an article in the quarterly Polish Sociological Review, no. 1(193)2016, entitled 'The Rocky Road of Europeanization in the New Member States: From Democracy to a Second Try at Democratization' by Attila Ágh, a Hungarian political scientist. In my opinion, Ágh's interesting article, which looks at political transformation processes, Europeanization, and democratization in new member states of the European Union (i.e., Bulgaria, Croatia, the Czech Republic, Hungary, Poland, Romania, Slovakia, and Slovenia), has certain methodological and factual deficiencies. Moreover, it contains numerous ideas that I believe are debatable and require further empirical research.