Towards Rediscovery of Social Class after the Post-Communist Transition: A Comparative Neo-Weberian Analysis of Baltic States

Author(s): Vaidas Morkevičius,Zenonas Norkus / Language(s): English Issue: 2/2017

Class effects in Estonia, Finland, Latvia and Lithuania are compared in the framework of the Neo-Weberian social class theory (EGP class schema), using European Social Survey (ESS) Round 4 (2008–2010) data, just at the time when Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania completed their transition to market economy and liberal democracy. Finland, perceived in the post-communist Baltic countries as a model or a “real utopia” state, is used as benchmark for a comparative estimation of the strength of class effects. The main findings of the statistical correspondence analysis are the following: (1) Class inequality of life chances is more pronounced in the post-communist Baltics than in Finland; (2) Paradoxically, class effects on ideological orientations and party voting are more prominent in Finland, where class inequality is less pronounced.

Brytyjskie studia kulturowe a polski strach przed polityką

Author(s): Arkadiusz Nyzio / Language(s): Polish Issue: 01/2014

Despite considerable change over recent years, British cultural studies and the work of the Birmingham Centre for Contemporary Cultural Studies, the very cradle of this discipline, remain on the peripheries of Polish cultural studies. While the causes of this remain under debate, the author deduces that one of them is of utmost importance: the aversion to politics and politicians, observable in the Polish public discourse since 1989, which has amounted to a politicophobia. This phenomenon makes it difficult to accept “an ‘engaged’ set of disciplines”, as Stuart Hall put it. The author argues that overcoming this barrier is one of the key pieces of the development of cultural studies in Poland.

The Effect of Technology on Language and the Importance of Language Technologies

Author(s): Rafał Uzar / Language(s): English Issue: 04/2013

Back in the 1970s, the celebrated writer, scientist and inventor Arthur C. Clarke envisaged a world in which computers could be accessed in one’s own home and could provide us with information to help with our daily needs. Clarke talked about people being able to access their bank accounts and buy theatre tickets with a console the size of a book. A decade later the science fiction writer William Gibson termed the word ‘cyberspace’ in Burning Chrome, a full seven years before Tim Berners‐Lee invented the world wide web in 1989. Hypertext came soon after and with it the explosion that was the internet and the rise of the machines – personal computers, tablets, smartphones and the suchlike. The internet is essentially a gargantuan repository of language, both written and spoken. Hypertext, can be seen as an elegant metaphor for what the internet is, a dynamically evolving receptacle of linguistic information: hyper text. But technology, the internet and personal computing, has not only helped us compartmentalise and store our linguistic resources, it has also helped to fashion our language. Since the birth of hypertext, the virtual world and PCs, technology has had a profound effect on language. Our power to shape language has grown unexpectedly, our access to linguistic tools has expanded exponentially and our communicative abilities have bloomed beyond our wildest dreams. The paper will detail how ‘going online’ has changed our attitudes to language. Ideas of censorship and readership have dramatically altered over the past twenty five years. Technology has liberated language through the new medium that is the internet allowing for unfettered (and undisciplined?) language use.

Naukowiec czy artysta? Polskie interpretacje poglądów Marshalla McLuhana

Author(s): Kalina Kukiełko / Language(s): Polish Issue: 03/2013

The main aim of this article is to present interpretations of Marshall McLuhan’s views made by Polish scholars and commentators. In Poland, long‐term discussion concerning McLuhan’s hypotheses has been reduced mainly to the question of their “artistic” or “scientific” character. Among Polish polemicists, the controversial Canadian has found scrupulous critics as well as ardent followers. Both were astonished by his extraordinary erudition and practically boundless areas of interests. However, there is still no certainty as regards whether we should see McLuhan’s texts as strict scientific publications or rather as a kind of attractive artistic commentary.

Postmoderna kao Aufhebung religije i tijela

Author(s): Bernard Harbaš / Language(s): Bosnian Issue: 1/2017

The article analyses the concept of postmodernity as the framework denoting philosophical and artistic understanding of contemporary era, especially in the second half of the twentieth century. This conceptual framework brakes with classical understandings of the world and life summoned in grandiose explanations which Lyotard calls Grand Stories, and as a principle introduces fragmentation and multitude of equally valuable and irreducible opinions. The article analyses the concept of religion as the view that aspires towards a unique and universal idea and message and its relation towards postmodern worldview, which inherits its ideas from relativism and incommensurability. Further on, the concept of the body and its status in postmodern thinking, especially its role in the construction of identity is being elaborated. Ending of the article strives to think through the relationship between religion and the body by indicating that, on one hand, contemporary culture of shaping the ideal is theological, and on the other, that Christianity is, first of all, a bodily phenomenon.

Plątanina linii, blokowość i linearność

Author(s): Paweł Lasota,Magdalena Mosiejuk / Language(s): Polish Issue: 02/2017

The article is a consideration of differences between block thinking (blocks, compositions) and line thinking (movement, knots). It is also an attempt to describe the experience of working with a robot as a new project practice in which we ponder: is a robot as a designer's tool closer to the experience of craftsmanship, or to the modern practice of computer-assisted design? It is also a description of our final project "Knotty" involving translating the technique of knitting into the language (movement) of a robot, being the practical answer to the questions and theoretical problems stated above.

Osztály és társadalomszerkezet a magyar szociológiában

Author(s): Márk Áron Éber,Ágnes Gagyi / Language(s): Hungarian Issue: 21/2014

The article looks at research on social structure in Hungarian sociology from the perspective of class analysis. It follows the paradigms and institutional context of Hungarian sociology, as they have been formed by Hungary’s double dependence from Soviet and Western cores throughout the second part of the 20th century, and demonstrates that, as a result of those changes, the concept of class has gone absent from social research from the early 1970’s on. While thinking towards a possible reconstruction of 20th century Hungarian social formation in a class sensitive perspective embedded in the dynamics of the capitalist world system, we point at a typical effect of global hierarchies upon the description of local social structure: the tendency to identify a „double structure” in local society. „Doubling” places various characteristics of local society on two different onthological levels – Western vs. Eastern, future vs. past. We argue that in order to conceive local social formation as inherent part of an integrated, synchronic global history, this internalized effect of global hierarchies needs to be transcended.

Politikai igazságosságkoncepciók a világképek kontextusában: Jürgen Habermas és az overlapping consensus lehetősége

Author(s): László Gergely Szücs / Language(s): Hungarian Issue: 19/2012

The article reconstructs the critique of Jürgen Habermas about the Rawlsian conceptof „overlapping consensus”. According to Habermas, the possibility of the Rawlsianoverlapping consensus depends on the „division of labor” between private individuals’philosophical-metaphisical use of reason, and citizens’ public-political use of reason. Fromtheir „participant perspective”, private individuals use metaphisical arguments to underlie their worldviews and their ethical beliefs. From this perspective they can agree with politicalprinciples of justice created through monological, generalizing procedures. From thepoint of view of Habermas this idea can be criticized with the fact that it is counterintuitive,and it makes the agreement vulnerable if the bases of „consensus” – the moral andethical elements – are not seen as possibly part of the consensus, and thus they are notpublicly debated. A further problem from the point of view of Habermas is that if beforereaching a politial consensus there is no reference to publicly accountable criteria ofreason, then it becomes impossible to resolve conflicts between individuals followingsolely their own ethical beliefs and moral expectations, thus it becomes impossible toexplain how an overlapping consensus can be achieved. The article shows that accordingto Habermas the problems can be solved if the individuals, trying to reach a consensus,are asked at the first steps leading towards the consensus – at the moment of articulatingtheir ethical or moral beliefs – to present the norms of the public use of reason. Thus,even from the first steps leading toward a consensus, we can refer to reasonable norms,and if we presume these, it becomes easier to explain why it is obligatory to aspire forreasonable difference of opinions, and to appeal with more general moral and politicalnorms in cases of ethical differences of opinion.

„Криворазбраната възпитанизация“ – за модерните общества и повредените деца

Author(s): Svetoslava Saeva / Language(s): Bulgarian Issue: 4/2016

This paper deals with the modern ways of welcoming, treating, raising and educating the children from the last century. Some of the most common tendencies in modern societies are being described as something not to be tolerated any more for children’s sake and for the sake of mankind.For every step aside from the pathway used millions of years for raising and educating a child, the nature gives signs that it is the wrong path we are walking on. It is the basic instincts of parenthood that must prevail for the generations to be. Every child deserves that from the moment of their birth. Even before that.

Panoramiškumas ir panoptiškumas senovės graikų kultūroje: apie antikines panoptikumo idėjos ištakas

Author(s): Naglis Kardelis / Language(s): Lithuanian Issue: 12/2017

The author of the article focuses on the origins of the idea of panopticon in Classical Antiquity. Though the point of departure is the concept of the panopticon as an architectural structure, for example, a panoptic prison or factory, as envisaged by Jeremy Bentham in the late 18th century, the author, seeking to trace the beginnings of this idea in the ancient Greek culture, treats the concept of the panopticon both in the broadest possible sense and in that sense which might be viewed as a direct anticipation of the modern (Benthamian) concept of panopticon. First of all, in the first chapter of the article, starting with the analysis of the words “panoramic” and “panoptic”, the author draws attention to the fact that both these words, strictly speaking, are of a rather late coinage (though the adjective panoptēs, employed as an epithet of some gods and other mythological beings, is already attested in the corpus of Classical literature), yet each of them has two easily recognizable Greek roots: the meaning of the first one, namely, pan-, is “all”, and the meaning of the second one is “visual, optical”. After discussing some subtle semantic differences between the meanings of the words “panoramic” and “panoptic”, the author briefly presents a few examples of Greek mythological narratives illustrating the “panoptic” abilities of some divine beings. In the second chapter of the article, the author discusses the varieties of “panoramic” and “panoptic” phenomena (as well as certain “panoramic” and “panoptic” aspects of some other phenomena) in Classical Greek philosophy, mainly focusing on the philosophical importance of vision and visuality in Greek experience and theoretical thinking, as well as on some specific “panoramic” and “panoptic” features inherent in the ancient Greek world-outlook and general mindset. By way of the examples drawn mainly from the works of Plato and Heraclitus, but also from such fields as mythology, geography, and architecture, the author presents an argument for the close affinity, interrelationship, and interdependence between the logocentric and optocentric traits in Greek experience, philosophical thought, and general mindset. The “panoptic” character of Classical Greek culture is analyzed not only in terms of the conceptual and experiential interrelationship between the optocentric and logocentric traits in Greek world-outlook, but also from the point of view of the hypothetically reconstructed everyday experience of ancient Greeks. A few examples from the works of Plato and Heraclitus are presented in order to demonstrate the existence in the ancient Greek thought of those aspects of Greek “panoptic” phenomena that might be viewed as direct and rather exact anticipations (replete with all necessary judicial references and connotations) of the modern concept of panopticon as envisaged by Jeremy Bentham. At the end of the article, the author draws a conclusion that, despite the absence in the ancient Greek language of the word “panopticon” as a precise technical term with contemporary meaning, various approximations to the contemporary concept of panopticon, including both vague intimations and very close anticipations of the modern concept, already existed in the culture and mental landscape of Classical Antiquity. It is also very important to observe that the ancient Greek correlates of the modern concept of panopticon were imbued with a much broader spectrum of philosophically significant meanings.

Kockázatos lehetőségek. Individualizálódás, társadalmi életformák és a szerelem összefüggése

Author(s): Ulrich Beck,Elisabeth Beck-Gernsheim / Language(s): Hungarian Issue: 15/2011

The paper, which also serves as an introduction to the book, examines the historically developed opposition of love, freedom, and the family. The authors argue that though the industrial society triggered the emergence of the nuclear family, at the same time it separated the ideals of the era – i.e. freedom and equality – from it. As these ideals gradually emerged in the family, however, they also spread to love relationships through self-realization and the heightened expectations towards love. One of the main reasons for the change was individualization. Values connected to one’s carrier became internalized, which, in turn, created tension between the differing demands of the labor market and relationships. This resulted in the opposition of family and freedom. Although individualization existed in previous eras too, it has never ever had such a widespread impact.

Love, Sex, Communism: A Discussion

Author(s): Jules Joanne Gleeson,Jose Rosales,Andrew Culp / Language(s): English Issue: 1-2/2018

The following discussion arose from a chance encounter now routine for a generation raised by the internet. Emerging from a common interest in ultra-left politics, queer social life and the isolation of academia, the conversation unfolded online with the participants typing away on a shared document while researching resources on-the-fly and holding side conversations over chat. The style of their remarks demonstrates how scholars are now fusing traditional forms of thought with the tools of digital culture, as their high-minded observations are punctuated by quotes from online anthologies, page numbers quickly culled through machine searching, and references provided by hyperlink as encouragement for readers to complete their own deep dive into the material. As such, perhaps the reader should imagine it less as an academic panel discussion and more like a post with threads, replies, likes, and links.

“Uncanny Domesticity” in Contemporary American Fiction: The Case of Jhumpa Lahiri

Author(s): Jelena Šesnić / Language(s): English Issue: 04/2017

The argument contends that Jhumpa Lahiri’s fiction – in particular her two novels to date, The Namesake (2003) and The Lowlands (2013) – features a combination of the elements of homeliness and estrangement, domestic and foreign, ultimately, self and the other, that evokes the Freudian concept of the uncanny. Placing it in the context of the diasporic family dynamics, prevalent in Lahiri’s fiction, the uncanny effect may be seen to reside in the unspoken secrets and repressed content passed on from the first to the second generation and disturbing the neat acquisition of the trappings of middle-class domesticity. Drawing on recent models of the “geopolitical novel” (Irr), the “new immigrant fiction” (Koshy) and the “South Asian diasporic novel” (Grewal), the reading engages with the irruption of the unhomely into the domestic space, sustained by immigrant families in the face of local and global disturbances.

Апориите на "простия" конструктивизъм: в търсене на един по-рефлексивен конструктивизъм

Author(s): Cyril Lemieux / Language(s): Bulgarian Issue: 1/2018

Апология на наивността

Author(s): Hristo Todorov / Language(s): Bulgarian Issue: 1/2018

La nature historique de la construction sociale.

Author(s): Ádám Takács / Language(s): French Issue: 45-46/2018

Naturalisme et constructivisme dans la critique sociale radicale

Author(s): Boyan Znepolski / Language(s): French Issue: 45-46/2018

The morality of naturalism

Author(s): Stiliyan Yotov / Language(s): English Issue: 45-46/2018

Siromaštvo kao lični poraz i strah od izopštenosti

Author(s): Mirko Filipović / Language(s): Serbian Issue: 1/2018

The texts of sociological classics (de Tocqueville, Marx, Simmel) as well as recent European research offer a fruitfull analitical frame for thinking about poverty using the idel-type constructs of „integrated“, „marginalized“ and, nowdays dominant „disqualifying“ poverty (S. Paugam). The application of this analitycal frame, completed with new explanatory factors – as flexibilisation or precarization of work and jobs, the fear of getting fired as a new factor of inequality, the intensity of social ties and „spatial disqualification“ of social groups with the great risks of poverty and dependance of the social intervention system – lead to new insights in collective representation of poverty: now seen as personal failure, „social falldown“ in the process that include cumulation of social handicaps. So, what is nowdays perceived as a central social fracture – the fracture between those whose future is secured and those exposed to „threats of the job market violence“ (Maurin) – passes through the whole class structure producing social insecurity and diffused anxiety, undermining social cohesion and imposing new mechanisms of collective identities construction.

Consumption and Production as Forms of Resistance

Author(s): Bernard Harbaš / Language(s): English Issue: 2/2018

Concept of the political appeared for the first time in Carl Schmitt’s theory, implying the autonomy of political decision making specific in relation to other spheres of human actions such as economy and art. With the postmodern political theory, concept of the political starts to be used in combination with the notion of politics, as a sort of counterbalance to political power of established government and its efforts to fully master the society. One of the pioneers of postmodernism, Michel Foucault, believed that the resistance to totalitarian efforts of every politics is performed through caring of self (souci de soi), that is, through our individual action manifested as a sort of micropower and representing a counterbalance to official politics. That way, individual action represents the action which limits government’s efforts to fully equate politics and social life. Thus, certain sorts of consumption, as one of the fundamental economic activities, can be interpreted as a sort of political activism. Consumption, as a resistance to official politics and economy, can in contemporary context be noticed in projects like slow-food nutrition, buying of second-hand products, rejecting to ware cloths made of fur, rejecting to purchase from socially irresponsible corporations. Political activism can be noticed in production as well, which can be seen in the examples of Marx’s analyses of this activity. For Marx, only in communist epoch, production becomes an important activity because only then it is transformed from slavery work into a means through which individual capacities and senses are developed. In the communist epoch, with the abolition of private property, production becomes free and creative activity. In contemporary context, “free and creative production” can be perceived in the organic food production, use of already used materials when making cloths and furniture, hand-made production of cosmetic products, in so called home-made production. As it can be seen, consumption and production don’t necessarily have to represent products of global capitalism and ways through which the control over the working class is performed. On the contrary, these economic practices can represent both a form of political actions and to, as a “postmodern” concept of the political, function as a means in struggle against domination of capitalism and politics’ efforts to identify itself with the society.