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So far it were almost exclusively the citizens of Soviet bloc countries who were seen as the social actors of illicit cross-border trade. Meanwhile, also citizens of the capitalist countries played an important role in illegal trade. Among them were both immigrants from Poland, who were already citizens of other countries and people without Polish roots. What connected them was the ability to make use of any opportunity, awareness of the Polish market’s needs (both in terms of “import” and “export”), and above all – the pursuit to make a profit. They represented the entire spectrum of both nationalities (from Italians and Britons to Mexicans and Nigerians) and professions (from drivers and sailors to diplomats). They used their right of free movement effectively, creating efficient flow channels of goods, money or gold. This feature presents the example of Poland, but there is no doubt, that Poland was not an exception.
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Almost two-thirds of all scientific researches of the late prof. M. Jovanović were devoted to the study of problems concerning Russian emigrees. He managed to formulate a new methodological problem – the existence of the Russian emigration in the Balkans as separate entity linked by the common experiences in different demographic, migratory and cultural events. The argumented unification of the Russian emigration in the Balkans in the specific social and cultural group enabled to develop a special periodization of Russian emigrees. He noticed that the internal connections of Russian emigrants as well as their views and attitude towards their distant Motherland, being less public and obvious for Serbian society, were of primary importance for the Russian emigration as the unique social group. The rational approach of prof. M. Jovanovic was a very successful example of using methodological approaches of social history in new and unresearched areas of history.
More...О двема књигама: „Срби о Русији и Русима“ и „Срби и Руси 12–21. век (историја односа)“
The article is about two books of Professor Miroslav Jovanović, in which he sets light to the Serbian-Russian relations and mutual perceptions of Serbs and Russians. Special attention is paid to Miroslav Jovanović’s effort to establish a rational and critical approach to Serbian-Russian relations, especially the Serbian perceptions of Russians and Russia, often lacking in the Serbian intellectual circles. The special quality of these two books is that they encompass a long interval of relations between the two nations: the first refers to nine centuries of common history, and the second to last 260 years. M. Jovanović aimed at presenting and explaining the entirety of relations between Serbs and Russians, but also to point out to misunderstandings, ignorance, misconceptions and stereotypes in mutual perceptions between the two nations. The article is concluded by M. Jovanović’s statement that Serbian ideas about Russians and Russia rarely correspond to the real situation and that the Serbian society and the Serbian intellectual elite not only does not know the real situation in Russia, but it also shows a substantial lack of interest for it. And since they do not represent a real image of Russia, the examples Miroslav Jovanović brought up in his books, could only be illustrations of Serbian self-image.
More...(Мирослав Јовановић о српској историографији краја 20. и почетка 21. века)
Professor Miroslav Jovanović was aware that the results of Serbian historiography have very limited impact on the world’s leading historiographies, but also that there is a wide gap between Serbian historiography and general orientations in the development of world historiography. Serbian historiography is in crisis and requires a fundamental rethinking. It is closed in “an ivory tower” of traditional positivism, it slaves to the description and it is consequently lagging behind in the methodological and theoretical development. Jovanović pointed out to the works with the notable scientific effort, whose authors unjustifiably interweave certain political beliefs and comments in their professional texts. He also commented on the works that can be regarded as scientific neither by scientific, professional, nor by the standards of scientific ethics. Serbian historiography is also largely characterized by fetishism of documents and lack of synthetic thought. One of the causes of the crisis in Serbian historiography rests on the fact that historians show extreme indifference towards theory of history, the development of theoretical thought and the theoretical and methodological development as well as the results of the other social sciences. And last but not the least, our historiography lacks serious scientific critic. Jovanović concluded that the Serbian historiography is still at the level of “accumulation” of historical knowledge and fails to climb a step higher, to a place which considers spread of historical learning.
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Miroslav Jovanović was rare figure among Serbian historians. This text is an analysis of his essay “Serbia 1804-2004. Development marked with discontinuities (seven thesis)”, published in the book that he had edited Serbia 1804-2004, Three perspectives or invitation to a dialogue. The book was the result of our work on the project Modern Serbian State 1804- 2004. A Chronology which was published for the jubilee of the First Serbian uprising. Working on that book we were discussing the most important phenomena of Serbian modern history and it was Jovanović s idea to publish the book of historical essays dealing with processes of long duree in Serbian past. His essay is the best example of his methodology which was the result of combined quantative method and theoretical approach. His knowledge of statistics, demography and economy were rare among Serbian historian and had helped him to come to the deeper conclusions. Those methodologies were in his work applied on long processes which helped him to focus on specific continuities and discontinuities in history.
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The paper analyses Professor Miroslav Jovanović’s contribution in the field of social and cultural history. It focuses on his study about the debate over Serbian literary language, conducted in the first half of the nineteenth century. This was the main topic of his book “Language and social history”. Myths, stereotypes and legends created around this debate and its participants have enabled the author to start a research of Serbian mentality. It has been concluded that the critical remarks of Miroslav Jovanović on this ancient debate remained without a reaction of the intellectual public, although the book was sold out shortly after its publication. This might indicate the power of myth and depth of divisions in the society caused by the controversy, as an expression of political and ideological tension that still exists in relation to that topic, as well as a proof of conformism and fear which characterize under-developed intellectual public.
More...(рад са студентима Одељења за историју)
Having spent his entire professional life at the History Department of the Faculty of Philosophy in Belgrade, fighting for the “new history”, free from traditional historicism and myths, Miroslav Jovanović realized that one of the key problems of historical science in Serbia originates from the professional education of historians. Therefore, in his pedagogical work, he insisted that students apply a multidisciplinary approach and analyze each topic using a variety of sources, with obligatory contextualization of problems. With his students, he researched 20th century not only through dominant political history, but also through social, cultural, economic history and the history of everyday life, teaching them about French analysts, the new US economic history, British social history of British, German social-historical science and historical anthropology . Although he was passionate fighter against the “fetishism of the sources”, he considered it necessary that students work with different types of sources and learn to use and critically anayze them. Modernizing the teaching of history, aware of the importance of the new technological revolution, he introduced the use of information technologies at the History Department in practical and theoretical sense. By promoting “new history” at the Faculty of Philosophy, in Petnica Science Center, among high school students, and through his books, primarily “The Crisis of History”, Miroslav Jovanović left an indelible mark forming generations of historians who are to change the historical profession in the spirit of the “new history”.
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This paper investigates the sources of representations on the communist period and the type of engagement with the past in an experiential museum, in the context of the National Network of Romanian Museums’ project for a laboratory-museum of Romanian Communism. Our analysis of focus-groups in October-November 2012 explores the public’s expectations in terms of museum experience and engagement with objects and the potential of an experiential museum to facilitate deliberation about the past. We use the conceptual framework of recent studies on postmemory (Hirsch, 2008) and prosthetic memory (Landsberg, 2004, 2009) to focus on ways of building the experiential archive needed to produce prosthetic memory. We consider that such an analysis is relevant for two interconnected problems: the bidirectional relationship between a projected museum of communism and a prospective public, and the methodological insights available for investigating this relation. With regard to the first problem, this paper makes a case for treating museums as a memory device rather than a lieu de memoire and analyses the role of the museum in relation to cultural memory. With regard to the second problem, it offers an example of conducting research on prospective publics which departs from traditional marketing approaches, adopting theoretical insights and analytical categories from specific conceptualizations in the field of memory studies.
More...How to Communicate the History of Communism in Museums
Communication of sciences / arts lies at the core of a museum public activity. It is a special type of communication, meant to make the collections and the domain of the expertise of the museum accessible to a wide public in order to fulfill the special cultural and social role that museums have in the contemporary society. This cannot be achieved without the cooperation of visitors, as well as the museum stakeholders. For fruitful relationships, museums have to design their activity and public offer taking into account the characteristics as well as the interests of various segments of its audience. The present paper discusses the prerequisites for a successful museum exhibition. Special attention is given to designing an effective exhibition on the history of communism. By investigating the profile of the potential visitors for such an exhibition, the paper draws a framework to be considered when designing it. The discussion is timely, since in the last few years there are discussions and initiatives related with the establishment of a museum of communism.
More...A Study of Materialist Values Shared by Facebook Users
This paper attempts to analyze how materialist values mediate the relationship between time spent on social networking websites (SNW) and overall life satisfaction. Admittedly, younger generations spend more time on SNW compared to older generations, therefore we can anticipate that younger people are more affected by materialism and, consequently, less satisfied with their lives. The conceptual model proposed here was tested on a convenience sample of 390 Romanian adults. Using structural equation modeling, our findings validate the hypothesis that younger people spend more time on SNW; the SNW usage makes them more materialistic and, as a result, less satisfied with life. These findings raise ethical questions regarding the impact of SNW on overall life satisfaction. For example, Facebook, the most popular SNW in Romania, is a virtual social sphere where people become “friends”, give or receive “likes”, are “fans” of something or somebody, etc. Therefore, we argue that Facebook is a symbolical locus for quantitative manifestations of something intimate and private, like feelings or appreciations. Such materialist approach to friendship and relationships has a significant negative impact on life satisfaction.
More...Digitized press vs. Television documentaries
This paper looks at how the media – particularly the British press and television – frames the issue of Romanian immigrants in Great Britain, in the context of the freedom of movement for workers in the European Union. The study focuses on the frames employed by the British journalists in constructing anti-immigration discourses in the digital and the TV sphere, comparatively. This study analyzes the stereotypes about Romanian people used in two British media formats and the way in which they affect Romania’s country image overseas. Using a mixed research approach, combining framing analysis (Entman, 1993) with critical discourse analysis (Van Dijk, 1993), and dispositif analysis (Charaudeau, 2005) this article investigates 271 news items from three of the most read newspapers in the UK (The Guardian, Daily Mail and The Independent), published online during January 2013 – March 2014. Also, the paper analyzes three film documentaries from BBC (Panorama – The Romanians are Coming? – BBC1, The Truth About Immigration – BBC2 and The Great Big Romanian invasion – BBC World News). The analysis shows that the British press and television use both similar and different frames to coverage Romanian migrants. The media also infer the polarization between “Us” (the British media) and “Them” (the Romanian citizens).
More...(Cambridge, Malden: Polity Press, 2012, 180 pages)
Book review of Cultures of Mediatization by Andreas Hepp, Cambridge, Malden: Polity Press, 2012, 180 pages
More...(New York: Nova Publishers, 2014, 265 pages)
Book review of The Emotions Industry edited by Mira Moshe, New York: Nova Publishers, 2014, 265 pages
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All communities largely care about their own political history, as this is part of their common identity. It is natural for politicians and political parties to seek legitimacy for their own power and political position in historical events, regardless of whether they identify with the Right or with the Left. Societies usually recall events inspiring pride and conjuring up memories of the struggles for freedom. After1989, as a result of the change of the social and political situation, post-communist countries began toput a very strong emphasis on political history. Politicians have utilised legislation to push for a binding political interpretation of history ever since the collapse of communist regimes, which has naturally generated conflicts in a democratic system, particularly among social scientists and diverse segments of civil society, who often present the views of a particular political line. Proclamation of a new beginning once again became the most acceptable solution, acknowledged by the absolute majority of society. Dealing with the past is never a purely individual problem; it is always a collective issue, for the history of an individual coincides with the history of a collective and vice versa. There will always be a dispute about whether individual or collective dealing with the past are sufficient and whether institutionalization of the problem and the adopted legislation are able to adequately reflect the real attitude of society towards totalitarian regimes.
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The main object of analysis in the presented study is the process of self-identification of both the Slovak majority nation and the Hungarian minority nation within the newly established Slovak Republic. The issue of identity is examined in the context of the transition process after 1989 with an emphasis on its historical bearings. The author focuses on the typology of fundamental milestones which, within the self-identification process, have effected a gradual change in the behaviour and activities and moves made by its main political actors. The author has been particularly interested in their views on the nature of their coexistence – on the transition from the particular, i.e., ethnic attitudes towards the civil perception of social and political reality. The research framework is constituted by the concept of „Geschichtsbewältigung“, or dealing with the past. Following a 25-year lapse from these revolutionary events, social sciences still continue to strive for their objective interpretation. The author has attempted to capture the complex process of transformation of society and its impact on international politics and bilateral relations within the said concept of dealing with the past. In this sense, the argument seeks to reflect on the fact that, over the course of the twentieth century, the nature of the research problem had gradually evolved according to the scientific discourse spanning various scientific and political circles or points of view and, above all, in accordance with the increasing depth of knowledge and elaboration of the substance of the matter at hand.
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The presented study analyses the use of the so-called memory policies in bilateral relations between Slovakia and Hungary after 1993. Its aim is to identify the main reference points from the past brought up by Slovakia’s foreign policy in promoting nation-state interests of the Slovak Republic. At the same time, the study strives to identify the extent to which this process has been a result of deliberate “memorypolicies” pursued by the state institutions of Slovakia and of Hungary. Furthermore, it attempts to explore the impact of the historical aspects of Slovak-Hungarian relations on major decisions of Slovakia’s foreign policy and to establish why, up until 2015, Slovak-Hungarian historical reconciliation has no tbeen achieved.
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The twentieth century was a time of profound development and change in Catholic theology, a time that might only be compared with the thirteenth century in that regard. In the thirteenth century, theology shifted its locus from the monastery to the new universities in the burgeoning cities of Europe, and developed new methods for exploring divine truth. It gave us towering figures such as Thomas Aquinas and Bonaventure. In the twentieth, theology renewed itself by at once returning to its sources and by engaging a rapidly changing world. In that century that now lies just behind us, we see once again what makes for the most important advances in the theological articulation of faith: a rediscovery of the depths of Tradition, of the faith that has been handed down to us from the apostles; and its wrestling with the great issues that re-emerge in a time of change in society and the Church. .
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This article tries to analyze the meaning and relevance of the concept of solidarity as compared to the concept of justice. While ‘justice’ refers to rights and duties (Moralität), the concept of solidarity refers to relations of personal commitment and recognition (Sittlichkeit). The article wants to answer the question whether solidarity and liberal justice should be seen as mutually exclusive or whether both approaches should be regarded as complementary to each other. The paper starts with an analysis of liberal theories of justice which are followed by an analysis of the descriptive and a moral understanding of the concept of solidarity. The importance of solidarity lies in its relational aspects, particularly its emphasis on cooperation and commonality. The paper argues that while solidarity is more fundamental than justice, both concepts are important for the arrangement of health care practices. The paper gives special attention to the concept of decent care, reflective solidarity and humanitarian solidarity which is seen as fundamental for all health care policies and care practices.
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