‘EUROPE’ AND THE ‘BALKANS’ IMAGES AND NARRATIVES IN THE CULTURAL STRATEGY OF “PLOVDIV – EUROPEAN CAPITAL OF CULTURE 2019”

Author(s): Zlatina Bogdanova / Language(s): English / Issue: 3/2020

The paper reviews leading narratives and practices that construct specific images of the ‘European’ and the ‘Balkan’ in the intercultural program of ‘Plovdiv – European Capital of Culture 2019’. The argument is based on studied models in intercultural communication: building images of ‘native’ and ‘foreign’ in narrative strategies. The campaign “Plovdiv – European Capital of Culture 2019” was conceived and implemented as an intercultural interaction between Europe and Plovdiv (Bulgaria). Therefore, at a collective level, narratives can stabilize the identity as well as emphasize belonging to a particular cultural and social space (but they can also mark boundaries – ethnic and cultural). The paper draws particular attention to the role of the cultural industries in representing the city as the European Capital of Culture. The research methodology includes observation and participation in specific trainings, projects and events related to the campaign.

‘The Arbitrary Distribution of Emphasis’. (Conclusions)

Author(s): Vladimir Agrigoroaei,Ovidiu Olar / Language(s): English / Issue: 5/2021

“... MAY GOD PROTECT YOU FROM LIGHTNING ...”

Author(s): Arturo Gallozzi / Language(s): English / Publication Year: 0

This study analyzes one of the first, and most important, installations of a lightning conductor system in Italy, applied to a monumental complex: the Abbey of Monte Cassino, in Southern Lazio. This study – in addition to a profile of the designer of the system, Feliciano Scarpellini (1762–1840) an astronomer and professor of physics, a leading scholar and scientific investigator in Italy during the late eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries, the founder, among other things, of the Accademia Caetani, which later became the Accademia dei Lincei – analyzes the relief and planar–altimetric arrangement of the lightning rods, which, together with other partially unpublished documents, provides several important measurements of the Abbey, which, completely destroyed by ferocious cimbat during the Second World War, left little graphic evidence that describes it geometrically. It also outlines the profiles of other scholars who contributed invarious ways to pre–war lightning–rod system installations.

“Bog je čoveku dao pomagača”: Hobs, patrijarhat i bračno pravo

Author(s): Carole Pateman / Language(s): Serbian / Issue: 1/1995

“Capital of Despair”. Holodomor Memory and Political Conflicts in Kharkiv after the Orange Revolution

Author(s): Tatiana Zhurzhenko / Language(s): English / Issue: 03/2011

The Great Famine of 1932–33, known in Ukraine as the Holodomor and silenced for decades by the Soviet regime, holds a special place in national memory. It was after the Orange Revolution that the Holodomor became the core of a new identity politics, which conceptualized the Ukrainian nation as a “postgenocide” community, a collective victim of the Communist regime. But the official interpretation of the Famine as a genocide met ambivalent responses in the regions. While formally complying with the official political line, the regional political elites in Eastern and Southern Ukraine often refused to accept the official interpretation of history and sabotaged orders coming from Kyiv. The present article focuses on the official commemoration of the seventyfifth anniversary of the Holodomor in Kharkiv, the former capital of Soviet Ukraine and epicenter of the famine. The “memory wars” in Kharkiv during 2006 to 2009 have revealed more than just tensions between the center promoting a new national identity and a reluctant “Sovietized” region adhering to its political mentality and commemorative culture. In fact, the official narrative of the Holodomor as a genocide and the corresponding memory regime have been contested, renegotiated, and modified on the regional level, through the conflicts and the bargaining of the local political actors. The borderland identity of Kharkiv, its geographic proximity to Russia, added an international dimension to the local memory wars as the Holodomor issue became a stumbling block in Ukrainian-Russian relations.

“Central and Eastern Europe after the First World War”. Edited by Burkhard Olschowsky, Piotr Juszkiewicz, and Jan Rydel. De Gruyter, Olderbourg. 2021. 435p.

Author(s): Paul Popa / Language(s): English / Issue: 2/2021

„Експанзията“ на Корпуса на мира в Централна и Източна Европа след края на Студената война

Author(s): Simona Samuilova / Language(s): Bulgarian / Issue: 1/2020

The article examines the Peace Corps programs in Central and Eastern Europe after the end of the Cold War, based on archive documents. After developing volunteer programs in Asia, Africa and Latin America for 30 years, in the early 1990s, the Peace Corps received a historic chance to expand its activities in the countries of the former Eastern Bloc and help strengthen American influence in the region. The historical reconstruction of the organization’s activities in the different countries makes it possible to outline the main goals of the Peace Corps and to determine its effectiveness as a “tool” of American “soft power”.

„Етнографски етюди. На Димитър Маринов – посвещаваме!“

Author(s): Elena Vodinchar / Language(s): Bulgarian / Issue: 4/2016

„Митология“ и „религия“ в латинската християнска литература на IV–V в.

Author(s): Rosen Milanov / Language(s): Bulgarian / Issue: 1/2019

Christianity illuminated the world in the age of Antiquity but it differed significantly from the life of the ancient world. The Christian writers of IV–V cc. treat the ancient mythology in a negative way. The present article discusses the characteristics of ancient mythology which were unacceptable from a Christian point of view. Why are the concepts of ‘mythology’ and ‘religion’ opposed in the minds of the Christian writers? Christian literature depicts a different world. What are the characteristics of this world? What demonstrates its realityand veracity? The answers to these questions are given in the article “Mythology and Religion in Latin Christian Literature of IV–V cc.”

„Млада Босна” и философија

Author(s): Ilija Marić / Language(s): Serbian / Issue: 169/2019

„Млада Босна” назив је за покрет омладине у Босни и Херцеговини на почетку 20. века (1908–1914). Без обзира на верску припадност, имали су свест да припадају српском народу. Борили су се за ослобођење свих јужнословенских народа од туђинске власти и уједињење у оквиру заједничке државе. Интелектуални вођа „Младe Боснe” био је Димитрије Митриновић, а идеолошки вођа Владимир Гаћиновић. У Босни и Херцеговини тада су постојале само основне и средње школе, али не и факултети, што је било веома неповољно за неговање философије. Средњошколци и студенти, од којих су неки студирали и философију, на више начина су допринели њеном развоју код нас. Прво, својим чланцима и преводима философских текстова шире су промовисали философију на тлу Босне и Херцеговине. Друго, први су код Срба уопште шире пропагирали ирационалистичку оријентацију у философији. Треће, допринели су српској рецепцији нових философских струјања у свету. “Young Bosnia” is the name of the youth movement in Bosnia and Herzegovina in the early XX century (1908–1914). Irrespective of their religious denomination, they had an awareness of belonging to the Serbian people. They fought for the liberation of all South-Slavic peoples from foreign control and for the unification within one common country. The intellectual leader of “Young Bosnia” was Dimitrije Mitrinović and the ideological leader was Vladimir Gaćinović. At the time, in Bosnia and Herzegovina there were only elementary and secondary schools, but there were no universities, which was very unfavourable for cultivating philosophy. Secondary school students and university students, some of which were philosophy students, contributed in many ways to its development among our people. Firstly, with their articles and translations of philosophical texts, they promoted philosophy on a large scale at the territory of Bosnia and Herzegovina. Secondly, they were the first among the Serbs to widely propagate the irrationalist trend in philosophy. Thirdly, they contributed to the Serbian reception of the new philosophical trends that were current abroad.

„Най-голямото признание и най-голямата награда са моите ученици и техните постижения“. Интервю с академик Васил Гюзелев

Author(s): Anita Valova,Maria Valkova / Language(s): Bulgarian / Issue: 5/2017

„Народен орган, каквото трябва“. Епизод от историята на предосвобожденската българска журналистика

Author(s): Antoaneta Kirilova / Language(s): Bulgarian / Issue: 1-2/2017

The article analyzes the ideas of Nayden Gerov (1823–1900) – Bulgarian public figure and Russian diplomat during the third quarter of the 19th century – about the publishing of a Bulgarian newspaper (in the documents from the mentioned period called ‘gazeta’, ‘journal’ or ‘vestnik’) during the 50s and in the beginning of the 60s. The review of the known data from the sources, which show how Gerov’s ideas are born and how they change, is made in a close relation to the concrete circumstances of the Bulgarian social development during those times – the expansion of the church-national movement after the end of the Crimean war (1853–1856) and after the issuing of the latest reform edict – Hatt-i Hümayun (1856), with which the Sultan guarantees all of his subjects equal religious and civil rights. Because of the similarity between the environment and the circumstances, in which Gerov’s ideas are born, and those, in which the issuing of the ‘Suvetnik’ newspaper in Tsarigrad (Istanbul) occurred in March 1863, a special place in the article is dedicated to the pre-history and the first steps of this Bulgarian newspaper, based on newly discovered archive and published sources. An attempt is made to shed light on Evlogi and Hristo Georgievi’s participation with financial assistance in its issuing, based on the clues, which point to the role of the two Bulgarian merchants in Gerov’s ideas from the second half of the 50s. By the way, the topic about the financing of a periodical issue is a main point in Gerov’s ideas and together with the question about the persona of the editor makes the core of Gerov’s concept about the functions and the meaning of the pre-liberation Bulgarian journalism.

„Неавтентичният човек” или за внезапните симетрии в идеологическото писане на Цветан Стоянов

Author(s): Bisera Dakova / Language(s): Bulgarian / Issue: 2/2017

The analysis attempts to recreate the ideological parallel – on the basis of the genetic cohesiveness between two texts (novel “Nad tvoya dom spokojstvie” [Calmness over your home)] – 1962; 1967) and the essayist tract "Nishkite, koito se prekzsvat” [The Strands That Interrupt] – 1967. The ideology here is thought not as narrowly political as a limited doctrinaire, but by the model of Karl Mannheim – as a way of giving the world a total view, to build apart, contrasting, vivid images of reality. In this sense, ideology is valued for its creative potential: through its overwhelming prospect, the great narrative of alienation has been built, a socio-cultural phenomenon is seen in its historical continuity, the fraudulent similarity of its manifestations, its misleading unity.By means of ideological prejudices, the image of the West – the true event, the scene of evil, the place that has refused the same dialogue – was outlined and subsequently refilled. The West of Tsvetan Stoyanov is long-lived to be ideologically rejected. It is a place of premonition differences, but also of spontaneous, suddenly noticed similarities. Within its limits and vision of comfort, settling and affection to home is also seen, where the figure of the philistine, is the basis of the ideological writing of Svoyanov. The Philistine is a figure that collects epochs, infinite in its incarnations; it is the bearer of the author's incoherent idea of organic, warmth and fullness of being. This anathematic vision consistently undermines the grounds for an ideological description of the world.In the thinking of the remarkable Bulgarian erudite, the two obligatory poles are emerging – the food-saturated West and the ascetically-scattered, “shaggy communism” of the Red Guards in China. The unexpected, but clearly visible, image of the slightly outspoken socialist society, whose utopian horizon has not yet been revoked, emerges unexpectedly among them.

„Опасен експеримент”: Промяната в медиевистиката (1944–1956)

Author(s): Kristiyan Kovachev / Language(s): Bulgarian / Issue: 2/2019

The author focusses on the change in the writing about the medieval Bulgarian history. At the beginning my plan was to mark the main aspects in this change (Slavs, Bogomilism, “rural” king Ivaylo, Hesychasm, Feudalism). However, in the writing process, I decided to focus on the change of the staff through which the change in the writing of the story itself takes place. The report is based on memoirs, some articles by Marxist theorists, studies of Marxist historians, documents from the Central State Archives. The Communist party replaced the old medievalists with new ones who had to follow its command. In this way, the Party succeeded to separate the historical guild. Anyone, who opposed the Party's decisions, was cruelly criticized as “unreasonable scientist”, “bourgeois element”, “monarcho-fascist” etc. The old "bourgeois" science was perceived as full of perversions and falsifications. In contrast, the new Marxist history was figured out as objective and party-faithful. The new historians had to prove the Slavic character of Asparuh’s Bulgaria and the progressive role of the Bogomil movement. They had to illustrate the battle between the oppressed progressive classes and the feudal exploiters (the King, the Aristocracy, the Church). This was a "dangerous experiment" that aimed to contribute to building the "new social-political formation" in Bulgaria.

„Опити” на Мишел дьо Монтен (1571-1592): Скептичен консерватизъм и парадоксална антропология

Author(s): Paul Geyer / Language(s): Bulgarian / Issue: 1/2019

At first, Montaigne followed the process, which began with Petrarch, of adopting the “Roman-Greek philosophy of life”. Unusual, however, was the extent to which Montaigne attached the ancient life teachings to his own self. It replaced the instance of transcendence that had become void or insignificant by acquiring its qualities. The self for Montaigne became a substitute for metaphysics and an addition to God. Montaigne, however, avoided the trap of the metaphysics of the subject by sharpening figures of thought from ancient skepticism and transferring them into his own self. The Essays is the first place to testify that the solutions, which ancient authors offered, were no longer satisfactory for the problems of subjectivity in modernity. Montaigne appears quite a modern thinker when he refers the notion of barbarism – a notion, with which the Europeans readily treat other civilizations – to the horrors of the religious wars in Europe or when criticizing the European colonialism in South America, at the same time highly appreciating the old American cultures. He realized that all values and customs are relative and that they do not have any transcendent origin. In his later years, Montaigne allowed for the possibility of self-consciousness and conscience being neutralized as instances of (self-)knowledge and morality. But pushing the understanding of the multilayeredness and elusiveness of one's own self, Montaigne became one of the first representatives of the nostalgia for the essential, which even up to today, through Romanticism and existentialism, accompanies the work on the notion of modern subjectivity.

„Палеобалкано-западноанатолийската общност“ – необходимият термин

Author(s): Alexandar Portalsky / Language(s): English,Bulgarian / Issue: 23/2018

The paper justifies the use of the term Palaeobalkan-westanatolian community. The community is defined as over-lingual and culturally identifiable, but it demonstrates similarities in the political systems too.The community becomes identifiable from the second half of the 2nd millennium BC., slightly blurred in Hellenistic and Roman period, but its strong fundamentals hold until the end of antiquity. The announcement of Constantinople as an imperial capital plays a big role for that. It, in turn, is conditioned by the existence of this core that ensures the centuries long existence of Byzantium. Late manifestations of Palaeobalkan-westanatolian community are well documented and easily noticeable. A more significant question is since when we may identify this community and what might cause its formation. It`s appearance is related with the presence of similar natural conditions and the common to a great extent religion, as well as with the eased communication around the three seas - the Aegean, Sea of Marmora and Black sea.The community includes different languages, not all of which are ethnically close. Within the community appear some of the earliest protopoleis and cities in Europe. The Greek polis was born here too. Polis suggests a different type of culture and polity in comparison to the monarchy, but both are formed gradually and would have hardly strengthen without interaction with the other political formations in Palaeobalkan-westanatolian community. They do not simply accept greek apoikies, they need a symbiotic relationship with them. The easy migration of local population in the colonies shows that the way of life in them is known and acceptable for non-greeks. All that will emerge as a symbiosis between polis and monarchy in the era of Hellenism and in the Roman Empire, has already been tested within the Palaeobalkan-westanatolian community and has proven its viability.The term summarizes many previous observations made by many scientists. The term “Mycenaean Thrace” shows diachronic proximity between societies in Mycenaean Greece and Thrace from the early Iron Age. I can add also the parallels between Thrace and Phrygia synthesized in the term “Thracian-Phrygian contact zone” and “Thracian-Trojan ethnocultural community.” Subsequently the term “Palaeo-Balkan community” is introduced.Observations on ancient authors show awareness of the existence of such a community. It is expressed most often through mythological genealogy of eponyms of different ethnic groups that show the connections between them. This tradition began by Herodotus and increased during the Hellenistic era. Finally I offer examples which suggest the existence of a Palaeobalkan-westanatolian community in the understanding of kingship and cults.

„Светска моћ или пропаст“ – Фридрих фон Бернхарди и немачки милитаризам пред Први светски рат

Author(s): Mihael T. Antolović / Language(s): Serbian / Issue: 4/2014

The paper analyzes the role of militarism in the political life of Germany before WWI. By pointing out the roe of militarism in the political life of Germany at the start of the 20th century, the paper puts an emphasis on the writing of Friedrich von Bernhardi titled Germany and the next war, published in 1912. Bernhardi sought to prove the inevitability of “preemptive war” and territorial annexations in order to provide for the economic and political interests of Germany as a global force. Bernhardi legitimized his opinion by calling on social-Darwinist arguments as well as the tradition of German idealist philosophy, and claiming that war is the only means by which it is possible to sustain German culture as the highest form of “German spirit” and its most valuable contribution to humanity. Considering the high rank which Bernhardi held as a general in the German military, as well as how his attitudes fell in with German foreign policy of the period, Bernhardi’s writing represents, in a condensed fashion, an expression of militaristic ideas present in German society before WWI.

ევროკავშირის სამეზობლო პოლიტიკა და კოვიდ პანდემია საქართველოში

Author(s): Edisher Japharidze / Language(s): Georgian / Issue: 5/2021

This paper presents the concept of Europeanization of Georgia's foreign policy, in particular the new formats of the Neighborhood Policy and the Eastern Partnership between Georgia and the EU, which reflects directly from the period of cooperation between Georgia and the EU to the current political reality.What do these formats mean for Georgia? What is its purpose? And what prospects and challenges do these two sides actually have today?The main cornerstone of the relations and cooperation between Georgia and the European Union since 1992 has been the European Neighborhood Policy Platform, which has been implemented at different times with different initiatives and different types of formats. However, one thing is clear that Georgia was more actively involved in bilateral cooperation with other neighboring countries (Ukraine, Belarus, Armenia) than in other countries, and strictly fulfilled the obligations and requirements of the framework programs proposed by the EU. In fact, it made better use of all the opportunities and resources that would significantly prepare it for a eventual return to a single European family, compared to other beneficiary countries. It is no coincidence that today the new democratic government of Georgia expresses its readiness that by 2024 Georgia will apply for full membership in the European Union and Georgia will soon become a full member of the European Union.

იაპონური აზროვნების ლაბირინთებში

Author(s): Mariam Chalabashvili / Language(s): Georgian / Issue: 1/2021

Japanese mainstream way of thinking prevails as a puzzle for the whole world including Georgia. Several Japanese words and phrases are hard to grasp even after the translation; Ikigai (生き甲斐) and Wabi-sabi (わびさび) are the two striking examples. Both of them could be deemed as not only words, but also as the way of thinking or the way of life.The word etymology of Ikigai (the reason, value of life) derives from the Heian period (794-1185). According to the clinical psychologist Akihiro Hasegawa, Gai comes from the Japanese word Kai - shell; during the Heian period (as well as much earlier) shells were perceived highly valuable as artists decorated them by hand, and used them in a shell-matching game called Kaiawase. Kaiis also used in other Japanese words and actual verbs such as hatarakigai (the value of working); yarigai (the value of doing) and asobigai (the value of playing). Since Gai relates to value, Ikigai could also be translated as the value of life, something worth living for. The concept of Ikigai could be compared to a sunflower, the sunflower seeds in the center could be perceived as the source of Ikigai and petals of the flower as one’s feeling about the ikigai object - Ikigai-kan (Ikigai feeling). As the Japanese proverb goes, "ten people, ten colours". Therefore, Ikigai could be as diverse as the number of people and the Japanese tend to follow their own Ikigai, without clarifying the word.Another Japanese concept - Wabi-sabi (which gradually transformed its initial gloomy connotation since 14th century) offers us to perceive beauty even inimpermanence, incompletion and imperfection. Even though, the concept is intricately entangled with the everyday life, that makes it very difficult for Japanese people to convey the meaning, the essence of Wabi-sabi could be comprehended in the ancient craft of Kintsugi and Japanese house design as well.

კორონავირუსის პანდემია და სიღარიბისა და მარიონეტული ხელისუფლებების რიცხვის ზრდა განვითარებად ქვეყნებში

Author(s): Vazha Shubitidze,Edisher Japharidze / Language(s): Georgian / Issue: 5/2021

The paper addresses the study of how the coronavirus pandemic (COVID 19) accelerated the growth of poverty and the number of puppet governments around the world.This was led by the tendentious and subjective management of globalization by rich countries that selfishly pursued only their own interests.The coronavirus pandemic has exposed this problem and countries. Especially poor countries faced with presence-absence.Increased the likelihood of their vulnerability. The large number of victims (up to 4 million people) forced scientists to start anin-depth study of this phenomenon.Famous foreign and Georgian researchers in such a situation (D. Black, J. Brown, P. A. Aldama, R. Capriano, K. Fitzpatrick, D. Cohan, A. Geller, A. A. Alvis, J. Shapiro, P. Berm , L. Papava, A. Sulaberidze, A. Silagadze,E. Mekvabishvili, M. Djibouti, I. Archvadze, etc.) are increasingly inclined to form a new, integrated scientific discipline of pandemology, which we also agree with.It will study not only medical field, but also the consequences of economic, geopolitical, psychological, demographic, sociological and other changes caused by the pandemic, both globally and locally (A. Sulaberidze). Accordingly we will have pandemic economics, pandemic sociology, pandemic demographics, pandemic geopolitics, pandemic political science, pandemic international politics, and so on.