Blízký východ v komparativní perspektivě

Author(s): Adam Coman / Language(s): Czech Issue: 4/2019

Černý, Karel. Velká blízkovýchodní nestabilita: Arabské jaro, porevoluční chaos a nerovnoměrná modernizace 1950–2015. Prague: Nakladatelství Lidové noviny, 2017, 577 pp., ISBN 978-80-7422-595-6; English edition: Instability in the Middle East: Structural changes and uneven modernisation 1950–2015. Prague: Charles University – Karolinum Press, 2017, 476 pp., ISBN 978-80-246-3427-2. An abridged English version of this review has been published in the online version of the British Journal of Middle East Studies, Vol. 46, No. 3 (2019). The book by Karel Černý, published simultaneously in English and Czech (with the title "The great Middle Eastern instability: The Arab Spring, post-revolution chaos, and uneven modernization 1950–2015"), offers, in the reviewer’s opinion, a unique and original analysis of a broad spectrum of issues which the Middle East region has had to face roughly since the end of WW2. The author analyses modernization processes in local politics, economies, education, and media, as well as demographical changes and urbanization, finding the roots of the regional instability in a disharmony of the above spheres. He sets his studies of these regions into several macrohistoric-sociological comparative frameworks illustrating both specific and general aspect of the modernization process in the Middle East. In doing so, he evaluates the roles of Islam and post-colonialism as two indispensable factors of the situation in the Middle East in responsive and unconventional manner. Černý backs his analysis and conclusions by a broad selection of secondary published sources and a firm theoretical anchoring, but also by original and detailed empirical research and his own productive theoretical model. Thanks to the above, the author is able to present to us an accurate and convincing picture of the processes and events leading to the tumultuous Arabian Spring and subsequent events.

Български език, спомени за българско минало и (твърде) динамично настояще. Две съвременни автохтонни краеведски книги от Югоизточна Албания

Author(s): Valentin Geshev / Language(s): Bulgarian Issue: 8/2014

Energia, praca i walka z entropią

Author(s): Michał Krzykawski / Language(s): Polish Issue: 44/2022

This paper argues that what we commonly mean by “labour” in industrial democracies stems from the obsolete theoretical assumptions of neoclassical economics, which also serve as foundations for a highly entropic economic process. Therefore, to determine the new purposes and functions of what working means is necessary in order to redesign economy and, consequently, to offer an alternative to the Anthropocene. The article develops Bernard Stiegler’s take on work and discusses the way Stiegler brings up to date the theoretical reflection on the transformations of work undertaken by André Gorz. The article addresses the question of work in relation to energy crisis and work automation. Advocating for a redefinition of work beyond employment, the article envisages work automation as a new opening for what work denotes, rather than the end of work. However, two conditions must be met in order to make such a change possible; it is necessary to redefine work beyond employment and socialize benefits from work automation.

The New Humanities: In Search of Boundaries

Author(s): Agata Bielik-Robson / Language(s): English Issue: 44/2022

This article attempts to discuss the philosophical contexts and meaning of the new humanities in the context of the philosophy of subjectivity. At the foundation of the new humanities, as it is argued, is not enlightenment, but Heidegger’s thought, with his excoriating critique of modern subjectivity and its Machenschaft. The article points to the foundational hubris that the new humanities oppose, and to the attempt to reinstall the subject within fixed boundaries. The new humanities, and posthumanism in particular, might backlash with violence against civilisation, comparable to that they endeavour to renounce. In order to manoeuvre through these convoluted figures of subjectivity, the article supports its theses with insightful readings of Hölderlin and Adorno.

Музеи и пандемия

Author(s): Nikolai Nenov,Silvia Trifonova-Kostadinova / Language(s): Bulgarian Issue: 21/2022

The text examines the COVID-19 Pandemic as an element of change that is already necessary for museums. It describes the study, its aims and objectives as carried out – its methodology and focuses on the need for the study and ways of reaching the audience. The work of museums in Bulgaria and the Balkans is presented, as well as the main contradictions in individual lockdowns. The activity on digital platforms and mainly on Facebook, where 100% of the studied museums are present, was examined. Models for working in a changed environment are indicated, which prove to be particularly important for the future of the museum in our country.

Музейни репрезентации в Панаира на музейните изложби 2020

Author(s): Silvia Trifonova-Kostadinova / Language(s): Bulgarian Issue: 21/2022

The hybrid staging of the Museum Exhibition Fair 2020 gave a clear signal that places of memory must and can adapt to the changed environment. Although slowly, the process of transformation began. The willingness of museums to join the Fair, to present themselves and their exhibitions with alternative, not well-known and not mastered mechanisms for working in the online space, is impressive. The search, testing and use of new and different communication channels is indicative of the perceived need for change to bring museums closer to their audiences and expand the circle of their audiences – initially virtual, and later with real visits. Museums are closing their doors, but as if for the first time in decades they are opening themselves wide, looking at themselves, studying and analyzing their behavior towards cultural heritage and users, trying to understand the expectations of their visitors and provoke their interest.

Блог и Ютюб – имат ли те значение за музеите?

Author(s): Silvia Trifonova-Kostadinova / Language(s): Bulgarian Issue: 21/2022

The text examines the meaning of maintaining a museum blog and a museum YouTube channel, giving examples from the activities of Bulgarian museums. Among them, about 50% have a YouTube channel, but do not have much video content, and rarely use the Blog. Nevertheless, some of the museums have seen an increase in uploaded video products just during the Pandemic.

Увод

Author(s): Snezhana Yoveva-Dimitrova / Language(s): Bulgarian Issue: 12/2016

The new "ONGAL" thematic volume - "BULGARIANS ABROAD - SO CLOSE SO FAR" allows for two approaches towards observing the ethno profile of our compatriots around the world: a scientific/academic one and an emotional/ethno psychological one. During the last few decades the number of people living in Bulgarian communities abroad has grown, and seems to have caught up with population numbers in Bulgaria itself. This dynamic growth of our communities is due to irreversible migration processes. New corporations, associations, schools, kindergartens, folk music ensembles, media, radio stations and TV channels are established by the Bulgarian communities. They develop their communities in their own way - so near, yet so far... As stated above, in this volume of "ONGAL" there are two approaches - academic and scientific studies in the fields of anthropology, ethnology and linguistics on one hand, which show the character of different Bulgarian communities around the world and different problems related to them, and on the other hand are texts which openly tell their stories in a very peculiar for the "Bulgarians there" manner. Their messages are emotionally loaded to the extent of lofty naivety and reveal desire to share and find empathy. The Bulgarians in Banat (in Svetlana Karadjova's text) as well as the Bulgarian communities in Izrael, Spain, Slovakia, Switzerland and Austria write their history through the eyes of emigrants who have found a new motherland. The study of topology of the Bulgarian presence by Ass. Prof. Dr. Vladimir Penchev offers an important and broad introduction to the topic of Bulgarian communities abroad. This study allows further understanding of the texts devoted to the Bulgarian communities in Chicago (in An immigrant's suitcase: the museum without walls by Diliana Ivanova) or in Washington (in The heritage and consolidation of migrant communities by Lina Gergova and Yana Gergova), in Hamburg (about the uses of Bulgarian cultural heritage by Tania Matanova) or about the peculiarities of the Bulgarian communities in Central Europe (in Hungary - by Adriana Petkova Papadopoulos and Kristina Menhart). Snezhana YovevaDimitrova's text addresses the adaptation models of the Bulgarians in Slovakia and Austria and the specifics of integration policies regarding the Bulgarians as a minority in those two countries. The linguistic studies (by Ana Kocheva, Lucia Antonova, Kiril Parvanov and Slavka Keremidchieva) contribute to create a thorough ethnocultural image of the Bulgarians abroad - language is of capital importance and reveals the ethnic characteristics of a group of people. Issues of bilingualism, dialect words and specific unlocking ethno linguistic markers, or sleep talking in regions inhabited with Bulgarian communities abroad, all correspond with the concept of Bulgarians abroad - so near yet so far. At first sight the eclecticism of different views and approaches, methodologies and scientific models that were collected in this issue of "ONGAL" might look unbalanced, but when read in its entirety the main message is revealed: there is a need to share the destiny, existence, anxieties and all other emotional and scientific specifics of Bulgarians abroad. All texts communicate and share space in the diaspora, while what is not so far but rather near - is the motherland.

Humour in conversation among bilinguals:

Author(s): Marianthi Georgalidou,Vasilia Kourtis-Kazoullis,Hasan Kaili / Language(s): English Issue: 3/2022

In this study, we analyse conversations recorded during ethnographic research in two bilingualcommunities on the island of Rhodes, Greece. We examine: (a) the bilingual in Greek andTurkish Muslim community of Rhodes (Georgalidou et al. 2010, 2013) and (b) the Greek-American/Canadian community of repatriated emigrant families of Rhodian origin (Kourtis-Kazoullis 2016). In particular, combining interactional and conversation analytic frameworks(Auer 1995; Gafaranga 2007), we examine contemporary approaches to bi-/multilingualismfocusing on the pragmatics of humour in conversations among bilinguals. We scrutinise aspectsof the overall and sequential organisation of talk as well as instances of humour produced byspeakers of different ethnic origin, generation, and social groups. We focus on the constructionof “otherness,” which reflects the dynamic interplay between the micro-level of conversationalpractices and the macro-level of discourse involving contrasting categorisations and identitiespertaining to differently orientated ethnic and social groups. Based on the analysis, we willshow a) how humorous targeting orients in-groups versus out-groups, and b) mediates thedynamic process of constructing the identity of speakers who, being members of minoritylinguistic communities, represent “otherness.”

Travel-related humour and COVID-19:

Author(s): Anja Pabel,Maja Turnšek / Language(s): English Issue: 3/2022

This study aims to provide an overview of humorous travel-related memes shared during theCOVID-19 pandemic. A total of 80 Internet memes were content analysed for emergentthemes. The findings reveal three major themes: playful aggression, making fun of one’slonging for travel, and making fun of new travel realities. The identified themes were linked tothe existing literature to better understand the memes being studied. The analysis of memesprovides a methodologically agile way to study conditions that may otherwise be overlooked,e.g., peoples’ travel-related desires and concerns while in lockdown.

Особености на българо-немския смесен език в Австрия

Author(s): Ana Kocheva / Language(s): Bulgarian Issue: 12/2016

The language of the Bulgarians, spoken in different micro sociums, dispersed scatteredaround the Austrian capital Vienna, but united by a tangle of direct and indirect links betweenthe communicants, turns into intermediate (mixed) language. This is evident from very richempirical material: many German label expressions, proverbs, ready formulas wingedphrases, phrasal combinations, complete untranslated in Bulgarian sentences, exclamations,names of different concepts for specific Austrian realities in the field of administrative lifeand documentaries, education, business and trade relations, companies and services, thechurch and so on.

Начини за назоваване на явлението говорене на сън в Родопските говори

Author(s): Kiril Parvanov / Language(s): Bulgarian Issue: 12/2016

The article is dedicated on the words expressing the phenomena speaking during the dream in232 villages in the Rhodopian Dialects. The collected linguistic material is taken from thequestionnaire for the Rhodopian Dialect Atlas and the Archive for Bulgarian DialectDictionary. The article presents the words (борав’а, бълнувам, блазнем, сборувам, бърборя)and the idioms with the verbs (приказвам, гълча, лафа) expressing speaking during thedream – their origin and their distribution. It also analyzes the other meanings of the wordsexpressing speaking during the dream in the Bulgarian dialects in Bulgaria, Macedonia,Turkey, Greece, Serbia.

Реликти в българските диалекти от междуезиковите контакти на Балканския полуостров (с оглед на превода им на чужд език)

Author(s): Slavka Keremidchieva / Language(s): Bulgarian Issue: 12/2016

Some of the difficulties, that the translator of the ancient Bulgarian literature faces, where in the texts he finds already outdated terminological (production, socially-political, religious, etc.) lexis, had been analyzed. Part of this lexis is a relict prove of the time when the argotic dialects on the Balkan peninsula had been in their bloom and when the Balkan nations had accomplished intensive material, cultural and spiritual exchange, that brought to the interaction and the mutual penetration of their languages at different linguistic levels.

Проф. д.изк. Анна Илиева (1933–2021)

Author(s): Evgenia Grancharova / Language(s): Bulgarian Issue: 4/2021

In memoriam

„BUCHENLANDDEUTSCHE“ VERGEMEINSCHAFTUNG NACH DER „UMSIEDLUNG“. DIE „LANDSMANNSCHAFT DER BUCHENLANDDEUTSCHEN“ ALS ETHNOPOLITISCHE UNTERNEHMERIN

Author(s): Alexander Weidle / Language(s): German Issue: 1/2022

The following article relies on sources from the archive of the only Association of the Bukovinian Germans – “Landsmannschaft der Buchenlanddeutschen” – which was active on (almost) the entire federal territory of Germany. This organization was founded in 1949 and was disbanded at the request of its last president, Ewald Zachman, in 2019.The author considers that members of the three to four Christian groups of German speaking population in Bukovina – among which there was no ethnic cohesion before the displacement, but rather a confessional, socio-economic or local one – were turned into“Bukovinian Germans” by the action of “entnopolitical entrepreneurs / performers”(as according to Roger Brubaker). In order to problematize the “becoming” of the Bukovinian Germans, Weidle formulates and presents four hypotheses: 1. The involvement(commitment) of people who enjoyed authority or notoriety in the “old homeland”, Bukovina, even if many of them collaborated with the National Socialist regime;2. The top-down legitimation, i. e. since the first years of its existence, the “Association of the Bukovinian Germans” has been conferred various competences, including that of deciding who should be compensated for the material losses suffered as a result of the displacement. The fact that many Jewish women and men from Bukovina were not recognized as belonging to a “German cultural community” and they did not benefit from compensation would be, according to the author of this hypothesis, one of the darkest aspects in the history of the organization of the “Bukovinian Germans” in Germany;3. Control of the dissemination of meaningful narratives for the social group of Christian Germanophones and of the way in which the “Bukovinian Germans” were perceived in the social environment. The newspaper of the “Bukovinians from all over the world”, i. e.“Der Südostdeutsche”, has always propagated the idea of the existence of an authentic community and has always urged its readers to attract other subscribers, thus managing to gain influence; 4. Nothing can be done without the “Landsmannschaft” (“Nichts ohne die Landsmannschaft”). All actions to socialize or strengthen the cohesion of the group were dependent on the “Landsmannschaft”, which organized and marked the most important events and decided, at least in the first years of the organizationʼs existence, who the speakers were and asked for speeches in order to consent to their content.

Археологическият запис като информация и ентропия

Author(s): Serghey Gherdjikov / Language(s): Bulgarian Issue: 4/2022

The archaeological record is information left in artifacts and biofacts from an extinct culture. It is the result of a process of growth of entropy in the site, which destroys the structures of culture. I theorize on archaeological information and archaeological entropy – the missing information about the site. From archaeological record to virtual reconstruction, information is extracted from the entropy of the extinct cultural form/process in the archaeological record. Archaeological entropy is differential and depends on the material, not the culture.

ASPECTE ALE IDENTITĂȚII CONFESIONALE PE CELE DOUĂ MALURI ALE NISTRULUI ȘI ROLUL ACESTEIA ÎN PROCESUL DE REGLEMENTARE A DOSARULUI TRANSNISTREAN

Author(s): Marius Spechea / Language(s): Romanian Issue: 1/2022

Religious identity represents one of the most sensitive topics, especially in the context of a conflict, so religious identity and confessional aspects can be bridges for resolution and de-escalation, or on the contrary, they can block and stiffen the regulatory process. The confessional reality on the two banks of the Dniester has so far not been analyzed from the perspective of the regulatory process, but more from the historical perspective of the evolution of religious life in the Transnistrian region. The Soviet period made it practically impossible to discuss religious life in the region, it was almost annihilated. But even in the context of special and internationally unregulated political realities after 1991 and which still bear strong traces of the Soviet period, religious and confessional life developed and diversified. In this situation, a series of questions arise regarding the specifics of religious and confessional life as well as confessional freedoms in the region, as well as the role they may or may not have in the effort to regulate the Transnistrian file.In general, the confidence-building measures considered and are undertaken by international actors, but also by the authorities on the two banks of the Dniester, where they have focused in recent years especially on elements specific to human security and less on elements of national security and state consolidation, as many expected or counted on in the regulatory process, a fact that somewhat displeased the political decision-makers. In the context of the war in Ukraine, the negotiation format has stalled, and the process of settling the Transnistrian file has entered a very dangerous minefield. That is why it is important to analyze the opportunity or, on the contrary, the risk, that religious identity can generate the continuation of measures to strengthen trust and maintain dialogue, especially when political channels of communication close.

SECURITY, SAFETY, AND FREEDOM IN ROMANIA: AN ANALYSIS OF GENERATION Z PERCEPTION IN THE CONTEXT OF THE WAR IN UKRAINE

Author(s): Marius Grad,Raluca LUȚAI / Language(s): English Issue: 2/2022

The “special military operation” launched by the Russian Federation in Ukraine at the beginning of 2022 had a strong impact on the European security environment. The full-scale invasion marked an unwelcome return of armed conflict within the continent and an unprecedented humanitarian situation. It was also the first time that members of Generation Z are seeing what war really looks like. The existing literature provides extensive studies about Gen Z’s perception of various issues like social and political values, workplace, and quality of life. However, very little is known about young citizens’ perception of security, safety, and freedom after the war in Ukraine started. This study seeks to address this gap in the literature and analyses how Gen Z’s perception of security, safety, and freedom has changed in the current security environment. The analysis is based on a single case study – in Romania, and semi-structured interviews conducted in September-October 2022 with young citizens coming from different socio-demographic profiles. The main purpose is to explain how the conflict affected the perceptions variation of the abovementioned indicators, in a post-communist state where those under 25yo did not experience a large-scale military conflict so close to our borders.

THE WAR IN UKRAINE AND GENERATION Z. UNDERSTANDING YOUNG CITIZENS’ PERCEPTION ON REFUGEES

Author(s): Raluca LUȚAI,Marius Grad / Language(s): English Issue: 2/2022

In the last decades the issue of refugees and immigrants has become more transparent and a subject of interest for the common citizen. Many authors discuss and analyze how people perceive immigration and the issues related to them. However, we know very little about what young citizens, members of generation Z, think about refugees and immigrants. The paper addresses this gap in the literature and analyzes how young citizens perceive immigrants and refugees that arrive in Romania. It uses Romania as a single-case study and semi-structured interviews conducted in September 2022-October 2022 with young citizens coming from different socio-demographic profiles, to explain the variation in how they perceive the recent Ukrainian refugees and other immigrants. The main purpose is to explain the perceptions variation related to the current crisis generated by Russian Federation. The findings indicate that young citizens’ perceptions are influenced by a combination of general attitudes toward the political system and society, education, and specific attitudes about potential external threats.

СОЦИАЛНАТА ДЕЙНОСТ В ХРАМ „СВЕТИ ПРОРОК ИЛИЯ“ В КВ. КНЯЖЕВО ПРЕЗ ПЪРВАТА ТРЕТА НА ХХ В.

Author(s): Dilyan Tsvetkov / Language(s): Bulgarian Issue: 21/2022

After the liberation from the Ottoman Empire, the Bulgarian Orthodox Church began to actively care for Christians in Bulgaria. The Church does not limit care giving to the spiritual needs of people; it also provided material help by developing broad social activity. Both the high clergy and the ordinary clergy and Christians are active units in this activity. The period before the Second World War was a time of comprehensive development of church activities for those in need of medical help, shelter and care.