Theoretical approaches to the “Snowflake- Millennial”/“Me Generation”/“Egocentric Generation”

Author(s): Samira Cîrlig / Language(s): English Issue: 2/2023

This material discusses some sociological and other theories that can explain the snowflakegeneration phenomenon. In this article, we focus only on the “millennial snowflake”, i.e., those youngpeople born between 1980 and 2000 whose main problematic traits are: loneliness, hypersensitivity,and fear. Therefore, we address these issues by providing a theoretical explanation of the problem. Theapproach will be complementary and will consider both classical and modern/contemporary theories.

Sociálna opora ako súčasť zdravotnej gramotnosti u pacientov s artériovou hypertenziou

Author(s): Mariana Magerčiaková,Marcela Ižová,Katarína Zrubáková,Mária Novysedláková / Language(s): Slovak Issue: 2/2024

Objectives: The partial objective of the pilot study was to determine the perception of social support in the field of health in patients with arterial hypertension. The pilot study was carried out as part of the KEGAproject no. 010KU-4/2022 Implementation of elements of supporting health literacy of the adult population in education in the field of nursing. Material and methods: The survey group consisted of 96 respondents with arterial hypertension. 52 (54%) women and 44 (46%) men were represented in the ensemble. The respondents were aged between 19 and 76 years (average age: 49.3 years). Data collection was carried out using the Slovak version of the standardized measurement tool Health Literacy Questionnaire (HLQ) based on the HLQ™ license agreement. Results: The average score achieved for the entire domain 4 of the HLQ questionnaire: Social support in the field of health is at the level of 3.06, which means that the respondents feel a strong social support in the field of health. The analysis of the results in our pilot study did not show a statistical significance of age, gender, education and place of residence of the respondents in relation to the perception of social support. Conclusion: Optimal health literacy in patients with arterial hypertension is essential for effective disease management, including blood pressure monitoring, adherence to recommended treatment procedures, and lifestyle modification. Social support is an integral part of health literacy in patients with arterial hypertension.

The Individual and Social Dimension of Canon Law on the Example of the Declaration of Marriage Nullity in the Light of Polish Research

Author(s): Przemysław Kisiel,Piotr Kroczek,Paweł Ulman / Language(s): English Issue: 95/2024

Canon law is an integral part of the Church’s life, and it has two dimensions: individual and social. The effects of declaring a marriage null highlight this characteristic of the law, as it significantly impacts both the religious life of the individuals involved and the wider community of the faithful. This article presents research results on individuals who have participated in this process, which demonstrate that canon law plays a crucial role in resolving many individual and collective issues within the Church.

Univerzální základy evropského práva

Author(s): Stanislav Přibyl / Language(s): Czech Issue: 94/2024

This paper recalls the three pillars of European culture: Judeo-Christian, ancient Greek and especially Roman law. First of all, the text highlights the Judaic basis of Christianity, with the emphasis on the role of divine law. It then sets out the basis principles of Roman law, expressing the need for fairness and for values to anchor the application of the law. In the course of history, there have been two receptions of ancient Roman law. First, this process developed in the Middle Ages, as is also demonstrated here in the quotations from the canon law collection “Liber sextus”. Also, from the early nineteenth century Roman law inspired the creation of civil codes, beginning with the Napoleonic Code. The modern understanding of human rights and freedoms was formed primarily as a result of the development of the right to religious freedom. Today’s state should not overextend its powers and should provide citizens with a wide scope of freedom. This is also helped by the separation of powers that applies in European democracies today.

Population Growth and GDP Per Capita Growth: Identifying the Causal Variable in 30 African Countries

Author(s): Michal Mec,Klára Čermáková / Language(s): English Issue: 1/2024

Within a wider framework of institutional factors of economic growth and the relationship between population growth and GDP growth, this article focuses on the population growth and GDP growth per capita for 30 countries in Africa between 1960 and 2020. We provide a comparative analysis of approaches to methodology and results obtained in the impact of population growth on GDP/pc growth discourse. By performing the Bootstrapped PanelGranger Causality test, the estimation results show that half of the countries showed no causality and other half of countries showed different levels of significant causality. The most seen causality is the unidirectional causality from GDP growth per capita to population growth. In addition, unidirectional causality is observed from population growth to GDP growth per capita and bidirectional causality. Overall, the results add more evidence into the research of endogenous population growth theory, which implies that there is country-specific environment which determines the causality between these two variables.

Simbol heraldic – Identitate naţională. Românii şi stema Transilvaniei

Author(s): Anton Coşa / Language(s): Romanian Issue: L/2021

Dans cet ouvrage, l’auteur évoque la question de la représentation des Roumains dans les armoiries de Transylvanie. Lʼarticle trouve sa source dans les discussions (sur la représentation des Roumains dans les armoiries de Transylvanie) que lʼauteur avait, au fil du temps, avec un certain nombre dʼintellectuels de Transylvanie. Cet article a été présenté par lʼauteur à la réunion (du 8 juin 2021) de la Commission Nationale dʼHéraldique, de Généalogie et de Sigilographie de lʼAcadémie Roumaine (branche Iași).

Власт, влияние, авторитет и уважение – монополното право да подчиняваш или силата да вдъхновяваш и убеждаваш

Author(s): Elitsa Petrova / Language(s): Bulgarian Issue: 2/2024

The object of the present scientific study is the problem of power and influence, authority and respect, which complement or oppose each other as practical aspects of human life. The article emphasizes both their destructive and creative force and emphasizes the dilemma of which we have the right to use – the monopoly right to subjugate or the ability to attract, inspire and persuade others. The scientific methodology used is a combination of an etymological review of the considered phenomena of power, influence, authority and respect, a content analysis of the nature and concepts of the considered phenomena, a brief historical review, a meta-analysis of primary scientific data combined with a critical scientific review, and presentation of the latest scientific findings on the practices for using power, influence, authority and respect in human societies management. As a scientific result, statements and concepts of the considered phenomena from ancient times to the present have been derived and systematized, positive and negative effects accompanying the four mentioned phenomena in the social life of people and its management have been indicated.

Теория, теоретик, пътуване: деколониални размисли на емигрант от първо поколение

Author(s): Nikolay Karkov / Language(s): Bulgarian Issue: 2/2024

This article weaves together theoretico-political reflections with biographical detail to work through some of the challenges, difficulties, and possible uses of opening up a „space of translation“. Drawing in two articles by Edward Said on the topic of „traveling theory“, the author discusses both his own research in the field of decolonial thought and the travels of decoloniality in an East European context. More specifically, the first part of the text explores how decolonial thinking complicated the author’s prior Western-centric theoretical and political dispositions, while the second part examines some of the original contributions that thinking from Eastern Europe has made to decolonial theory itself.

Грижовен прочит на прекарийността: труд и социално възпроизводство в ерата на „гъвкавия“ капитализъм

Author(s): Mariya P. Ivancheva,Kathryn Keating / Language(s): Bulgarian Issue: 2/2024

This article proposes a new reading of the concept of precarity, with regard to the relationship between care and social reproduction. The increased academic interest in the topic of precarious „flexible“ working conditions in developed post-industrial economies is often based on the false dichotomy of „precarity-stability.“ While stable working and living conditions have historically been the privilege of a minority of autonomous individuals engaged in productive labour, free from direct dependence or dependents, women and marginalised groups are often made even more vulnerable as no or unequal value is attached to their heavily exploited labour activities. And while contract work with demands for constant presence in the workplace is not a solution for people in precarious circumstances who need flexibility to navigate complex caring relationships, subordinating the affective sphere to free market principles does not offer an effective solution to the widening inequality between productive and reproductive labour. The paper is situated at three different levels: (1) a critique of the ethnocentrism and androcentrism embedded in the notion of precarity; (2) a call for a more in-depth discussion of the precarious conditions of life in the precarity debate, currently confined to labour conditions; (3) and an appeal to a praxis that restores solidarity, care and love in the workplace as a means to resist the principles of competition and alienation imposed by capitalism. By examining a range of empirical studies, we show the ways in which care redraws the strict boundary between precarity and stability. We argue that rethinking care as a central activity in human production and reproduction, both outside and within wage labour, allows us to more clearly delineate potential sites of exploitation and emancipation within „flexible“ capitalism.

„Вече даже не искаме да е „хубаво“. Искаме да свърши“: хумор и политика на терена на София

Author(s): Neda Genova / Language(s): Bulgarian Issue: 2/2024

A central interest of this article is the study of the political potential of vernacular humour, which targets the urban ground as part of urban infrastructure in Sofia. Eccentrically and ambivalently, in instances of infrastructural breakdown humour proceeds by weaving together associations with other times and spaces, with territories that remain foreign and strange when superimposed upon the familiar territory of the city. In the article I first briefly engage with the „post-political“ paradigm in critical analyses of Bulgarian post-socialism. I argue that this theoretical framework, together with the opposition between the spheres of „culture“ and „politics“ in some of the analyses available to us, prevent us from developing a complex understanding of heterogenous political events and articulations; instead, they construct a homogenising and totalising narrative about the present. In the second part of this article, I examine with some instances of humorous interventions and appropriations of urban infrastructure in Sofia, discussing these vis-à-vis some theoretical and philosophical texts engaging with memes, mediation and humour.

Нови книги

Author(s): Teodora Karamelska / Language(s): Bulgarian Issue: 2/2024

Vezirski grad zaslužuje jednu modernu bolnicu! – Pitanje izgradnje nove travničke bolnice 1899. i rad zavoda u prvim godinama nakon otvaranja

Author(s): Minela Radušić / Language(s): Bosnian Issue: 53/2024

Although the opening of the first hospital in the town of viziers is an important historical moment, it is an unexplored episode from Bosnia and Herzegovina’s social past. In addition to completing and expanding the very modest knowledge on this issue, the paper intends to use an isolated example, in the light of very complex state-legal relations, to question and valorise the attitude of the Austro-Hungarian authorities towards the issue of building new health institutes in Bosnia and Herzegovina. In accordance to the aforementioned, the first part analyses how the opening and adaptation of the first hospital in Travnik took place, and an attempt is made to define what kind of health care institution it was. In the second part the author tries to find out what are the decisive factors that led the Austro-Hungarian government to decide on the construction of a completely new hospital building, and what role did the Provincial Government in Sarajevo play in that process. In the context of the evaluation of the efficiency of the health modernization process, the positive effects of the application of modern forms of treatment are examined in the final part.

Double Standards and Dissonance: Women’s Rights and Freedom of Religion in the Global North

Author(s): Rola El-Husseini / Language(s): English Issue: 3/2024

In this article, I explore the complex intersection between women's rights and religious freedom in liberal democracies, particularly focusing on the Global North. I demonstrate how both religious freedom and women’s rights have been instrumentalized by Western powers, often as tools of foreign policy. I highlight the dissonance between Western nations’ rhetoric, which promotes these rights globally, and their domestic practices, which sometimes impose restrictions, especially on Muslim women. Through case studies, including countries in the Middle East, France, and the United States, the article underscores the hypocrisy of Western democracies that criticize religious restrictions in authoritarian regimes while enforcing their own limitations on women’s religious expression. In the conclusion, I emphasize the importance of consistent application of human rights to avoid reinforcing cynicism and authoritarian practices.

Performative Contradictions of Women's Rights and Religious Freedoms: Dissonance across Space and Time

Author(s): A. Ebru Akcasu / Language(s): English Issue: 3/2024

This piece deliberates on Rola El-Husseini’s contribution to contemporary debates on double standards and dissonance at the intersection of women’s rights and religious freedom in the Global North by highlighting similar performative contradictions of the past. In exercising thinking through current dilemmas with Mark Twain’s commentary on non-dyadic marriages in the Ottoman Empire and the United States, this reaction suggests that across time and space, whoever the manufactured “other” may be, the processes and mechanisms of inclusion and exclusion generally favor the interests of those who hold and seek to maintain the greatest martial, economic, and political power.

Power, Institutionalisation, and Religion: Gender-Washing as a Tool of Autocratic Control

Author(s): Blanka Knotková-Čapková / Language(s): English Issue: 3/2024

This article reflects on Rola El-Husseini's critique of the Western double standards concerning women’s rights and religious freedom in her work "Double Standards and Dissonance: Women’s Rights and Freedom of Religion in the Global North." It expands on the concept of "gender-washing," illustrating how both left- and right-wing authoritarian regimes exploit gender equality rhetoric for political gains without genuine efforts toward equality. Through examples from Czechoslovakia and contemporary India, the article explores how different ideologies—from Marxism-Leninism to religious nationalism—use women’s rights as a façade while maintaining autocratic control. It also engages with postcolonial feminist critiques of Western universalism.

Individuation and Movements of Existence in Jan Patočka: Horizon of Education

Author(s): Lina Marcela Gil-Congote / Language(s): English Issue: 2/2024

Jan Patočka addresses the concept of individuation in relation to the three movements of existence. This article argues that education functions as a process of individuation, requiring educators to engage with the third movement of existence in order to summon learners’ potential in their search for truth, autonomy and responsibility. The article is structured into three sections: Education in Patočka, Individuation and the movements of existence, and Pedagogical implications of the third movement, characterized by the open soul, as the horizon of education.

Social Media Word of Mouth and Masstige Purchase Behaviour

Author(s): Burhanudin Burhanudin,Firsta Diva Septianti / Language(s): English Issue: 5/2024

Many individuals enjoy sharing their stories and experiences through social media, which exemplifies social media word-of-mouth (social media WOM). This study examines the role of social media WOM in driving masstige purchase behaviour. This study involves perceptual distance, luxury perception, purchase intention and gender in such an investigation. Masstige refers to providing prestige to the masses, indicating luxury products for a broad audience. A survey of 246 consumers is conducted and structural equation modelling is employed to analyse the data. We find that social media WOM positively influences perceptual distance, luxury perception and purchase intention. Perceptual distance negatively influences purchase intention, while luxury perception positively influences such intention. Purchase intention positively influences purchase behaviour. This study does not find support that gender moderates the relationship between perceptual distance and purchase intention, as well as between luxury perception and purchase intention. The findings suggest that marketers need to identify social media platforms that match the luxury perception of their target audience and present exclusive content to encourage purchase intention and, further, masstige purchases. Masstige purchase behaviour is vital for collectivist countries because it can increase their consumers’ social status and prestige. Implications for Central European audience: Cultural and social homogeneity among Asian people brings the popularity of masstige brands from Western countries (Paul, 2015), especially Central European brands to capitalise on the capabilities they have created (Alić et al., 2022). The findings of this study are crucial as Indonesia and the Visegrád Group (V4) of the Czech Republic, Hungary, Poland and Slovakia have strong business relationships (Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the Republic of Indonesia, 2019).

SOCIJALNI KONSTRUKTIVIZAM KAO ODGOVOR NA ESENCIJALISTIČKO KONCEPTUALIZOVANJE PSIHOPATOLOGIJE

Author(s): Vojana Obradović / Language(s): Serbian Issue: 4/2024

The main goal of this article is to introduce the essentialist and reductionist approach to psychopathology and to review the disadvantages of this approach. On the other hand, the goal is also to present another perspective of social constructivism, and explore the consequences of both approaches on society, and vice versa. Also, it was discussed the power of the currently dominant categorical essentialist approach to psychopathology and the reasons for its sustainability. The final goal of this article is to open space for discussion about different conceptualizations of psychopathology and their implications.

Unterlagen der staatssicherheitsdienstlichen Überwachungen in Ungarn – Zugang, Aufarbeitung, Hindernisse

Author(s): Olivér Ráth,Ádám Varga / Language(s): German Issue: 3/2024

More than thirty years have passed since the change of regime and the question of what can be done by those who were under state surveillance in the previous regime is still relevant. How can a victim find out who tore his family apart, who ruined his career? Will the identity of the collaborators ever come to light? Can these people still participate in public life and hold public office today? In our study, we take stock of the specificities of the subject in Hungary and the obstacles to facing history. We conclude that the exclusion from holding a public office is overdue, the documents are incomplete, their authenticity is questionable, and the issue is sensitive because of competing fundamental rights. The generation that has become of age since the change of regime is less and less interested in our immediate past. This trend is dangerous, because the unresolved past contributes to the blurring of the dividing line between the two regimes to the point where, faced with the new difficulties, society is left longing for the old. Will there be a real change? The legal possibility (at least in the field of information compensation) is still there, and this is what we show in our study.

АНТИФАШИЗАМ КАО ОДРЕДНИЦА СРПСКОГ НАЦИОНАЛНОГ ИДЕНТИТЕТА

Author(s): Uroš V. Šuvaković / Language(s): English,Serbian Issue: 4/2024

The aim of this paper is to contribute to the understanding of the elements of Serbian national identity as the Serbs’ collective identity. It starts from understanding collective identities in which, apart from the consciousness of WE characterizing them, there is an important characteristic difference between social groups of the same kind, or the relation between WE and THEY. In that respect, it is argued that anti-fascism as a value is the characteristic of Serbian national identity that is insufficiently emphasized. Moreover, we do not determine anti-fascism primarily as an ideological matrix, but as the concretization of the value of libertarianism, about which the largest number of our authors dealing with this topic agree – that it is an element of Serbian national identity. A conclusion is drawn that anti-fascism as an element of Serbian national identity is also complementary with other national-identity characteristics of the Serbian people.