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In this paper I briefly investigate the impact of three types of state agricultural policies on rural households in Valchedrum region, North West Bulgaria. I argue that the state remains a key factor, capable to transform the local economies, identities, and everyday life in a few years. I argue that unlike the situation in socialist Bulgaria, when the state lacked resources to implement its policies and had to rely heavily on coercion, the local people have rather limited options for agency now against powerful and efficient EU agricultural policies.
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The article seeks to ascertain whether and to what extent the state policy of “care” and “protection” of the family, woman-mother, children and youth in the period of socialism in Bulgaria is the result of the paternalism and populism typical of the Bulgarian socialist model.
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The article is dedicated to one aspect of the long-lasting life of the Cyrillic alphabet, namely the use of Cyrillic script as base for the Slavonic book publishing in its initial period from the end of the 15th – the 16th centuries. The main goal is to illustrate some peculiarities in the grapheme inventory, and to point out the cultural-historical functions of the early printed Cyrillic, the major of which was the preservation and the reproduction of the religious and spiritual identity. Supplementary, but not less important functions were the creation of cultural communities, the integration of the Bulgarian written legacy in Europe, its cognitive, moral, entertaining function, and others. The statement is subjected to the pursuit of shaping historically the relation between alphabet and identity, which should be realized as value, especially in the year of the Bulgarian presidency of the European Union, and the Cyrillic as one of its symbols.
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The purpose of this article is to draw an overview of a major cause, which, in our opinion, determined, at different times, the emigration processes in the Romanian villages, especially after 1989 - the disorganization of the traditional models. In this approach, we proceeded from WI Thomas's social disorganization theory, which showed that European peasants emigrated from the process of reorganizing their lives on new foundations after many of their traditions had been rejected. Thomas's thesis is of great relevance to the crisis of the Romanian village after 1989, generated by the models of social guidance that destroyed the peasants of the spiritual cadres of life without generating even economic welfare.
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The paper presents the problem of the rights of the child from socially-pedagogical perspective and in connection with the threats of the World War II. Some perspectives are outlined in the foreground: “military complex” and “zone of the social solidarity”. With the first term, the totality of the negative psychical, physical and social consequences that children endured in the result of the military actions are marked. With the second term, different forms of help and actions for children`s protection in case of threat for their life and existence are marked.
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The topics of civic education and children's rights are being discussed more and more frequently in the past 11 years after Bulgaria joined the EU. Civil education is expected to familiarize children with their "equal and inalienable rights, the most important of which are freedom, justice and peace in the world". The outcome of civic education cannot be just “simple voters”, but rather personalities concerned about the public good. Through the civic education, the moral basis of children's rights is internalized.
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The paper deals with practices of vegetable gardening in the village of Mezdreya, Northwestern Bulgaria, before collectivization in 1958. The main question is how gardening affects social relations and, conversely, how getting into particular social relationships “makes” the garden. The interrelation between the plant world in gardens, the gardening practices, the economic interests of families, the social relations within and between families, people’s lifestyle, etc. have been studied. The article presents the interactions between families in the process of growing vegetables in irrigated gardens and in seed exchange, the association between neighbours and collective work in common benefit, the distribution of labour activities in the family by sex and age.
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The article analyzes the specific urban agriculture practice of bio-gardening in schools, which continues the tradition of experimental and teaching plots in schools and combines the basic effects of urban agriculture: social, health-related, economic and ecological. Above all, this tradition illustrates the combined social benefits of urban agriculture related to education, upbringing, and social integration. The data presented in the article are drawn from the findings of research (in-depth interviews and focus groups) conducted in the framework of the project Urban Agriculture as a Strategy for Improving the Quality of Life of Urban Communities, financed by the National Research Fund. The data refer to bio-gardens in schools on the territory of Sofia Municipality.
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Freedom, in the context of the ethical views of the Russian classics – Berdyaev, Solovyov, Dostoevsky and others, is examined. Emphasis is placed on freedom and the enormous challenges to achieve it. The faith in Man and the possibility for divine incarnation is a distinctive characteristic of Russian religious philosophy. The first part discusses Berdyaev’s statements about God and unbridled freedom. He regarded Christianity as a new beginning in the understanding of freedom. Berdyaev highly appreciates the contribution of Dostoyevsky to this topic. Freedom and related suffering are the big themes of Dostoyevsky. The battle between Christ and the Antichrist is studied.
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This article presents the attitudes of Poles towards immigrants and analyses the factors that co-exist with these attitudes. Data come mainly from the European Values Study (2017). The analyses have shown a clear impact of media discourse on the social perception of immigrants, which leads to a split image of the immigrants: „real” ones, whom Poles meet in various public places or at work and who are generally accepted, and „imagined” immigrants - „aliens”, more often causing a sense of threat. Attitudes towards real immigrants are not connected with political views and are to a small extent related to opinions on the European Union. The assessment of the „imagined” immigrants’ impact on the development of Poland is an element of a broader set of axiological orientations, the essential element of which is trying to order the social reality in the framework of traditionally understood roles and hierarchy and which are associated with a negative relationship with the European Union and even with scepticism towards democracy as a form of government and civil liberties.
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The post-war situation confronts the Turkish population in Bulgaria with the challenges of both the strained relations between Sofia and Ankara and the assimilation-led policies of the communist ideology against the minority. This publication examines the attempts of the Bulgarian Communist Party to build a new view of life among the Turkish women in Bulgaria through the mechanisms of education and culture. By pursuing its goal of depersonalizing the influence of religion at the expense of emancipatory perceptions of women’s active participation in social and political life the state harnesses totalitarian propaganda in order to change the value orientation of the Turkish women. The striving for modernization of the life of the Turkish women is also in compliance with the specific tasks and problems of the simultaneously pursued minority policy in the country.
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The proposed text does not attempt to present in detail the transformations pertaining to the Bulgarian Turks that have taken place in the state system and the society in Bulgaria since November 10, 1989. Rather, it attempts to explore a phenomenon which, at first glance, undoubtedly resembles nostalgia, but reveals, after a more thorough looking into it, the Bulgarian Turks‘ memory of the repressive party line of the totalitarian state and its culmination - the policy of forced assimilation, cynically called „revival process“. Also, the new reality of the Transition evokes a certain perception of the totalitarian regime, not in regards to its construction, normative or services, but in regards to its everyday life expressed through work realization, education, organization of public spaces, etc.
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This study is motivated by the legal possibility of spelling the names of Bulgarian national minority members in the Republic of Serbia in accordance with the Bulgarian spelling standard. The paper presents the historical and administrative aspects of the spelling of personal and, in particular, family names of Bulgarians in Tsaribrod, Serbia.
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The article has intended to study the action of Twitter-based media advocacy promoted by the Ministry of Health (MOH) of the Government of India, and World Health Organization (WHO) during the Covid-19 pandemic. Its goal was to assess the degree of the WHO and MOH's media campaigning for Covid-19, as well as the public's perception of this advocacy. In this regard, mixed methods have been used for data collection where a survey has been conducted with 125 respondents, who use Twitter, from Kolkata (India) with the help of random sampling. A content analysis of two well-known Twitter accounts was conducted, which helped to reflect the current trends that they follow. The findings of this research have reflected the choice of medium preferred by the respondents for receiving news and information during the Covid-19 pandemic. It has also helped to identify the Twitter handles and tweets they mostly follow and thereby the major factors influencing their choice. The outcome of this research has helped to study whether Twitter can be used for institutionalized health communication or not in the future.
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Urban lifestyle, stressful work, a large number of daily obligations significantly affect the occurrence of stress. If stress reduction is not addressed, adverse effects on human health may occur. This paper proposes a model of smart healthcare service based on the Internet of Things. The main goal is to develop an IoT system that will enable real time monitoring of citizens’ stress in a smart city, during their everyday lives. Users of this system can monitor stress level and receive notifications and recommendation how to low down stress via their mobile phones. Depending of the detected stress level, users of the proposed system can be provided with relaxation materials in the form of short relaxing video or audio contents. After the stress level is normalized, the user receives a notification and can continue with normal activities. Unlike well-known solutions for stress management, this solution is wearable and can provide biofeedback to both, users and therapist or healthcare workers. The proposed IoT system is developed using intelligent devices such as mobile phones, Raspberry Pi microcomputer, Arduino microcontroller, and sensors for monitoring heart rate and skin conductivity. As a support for monitoring stress level a responsive web application is developed. All the measured data are stored in the cloud. Based on obtained and analyzed data, users can manage the stress level and prevent disease. The obtained results could serve as a good basis for adoption and implementation of stress management as a smart city service.
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In many of the world's armed conflicts, the health sector has become a target of attacks, and the number of such attacks has increased significantly in recent years. The impact and consequences of armed conflict on health care are far-reaching and long-lasting. In addition to the direct casualties of armed conflict, indirect casualties remain significantly underestimated. The unstable situation as a result of armed conflict leads to the abandonment of preventive programs, the delay of diagnosis, or the abrupt interruption of the therapeutic process, which significantly reduces the prognosis of patients and leads to an increase in mortality. Mass migration, including the migration of patients, shortages of medicines and medical equipment, interrupted basic and clinical research, the mental strain on the population, or staff shortages, have a significant burden on the health sector. This article attempts to collect and describe the key problems faced by health systems affected by armed conflict, using examples in the context of the current war in Ukraine, among others. This paper aims to conduct an analytical study to develop recommendations for the health sector facing a humanitarian crisis. It describes the findings of a literature review regarding the impact of armed conflict on the health sector. The collected literature was the subject of critical analysis. The conclusions drawn were placed in the context of the current conflict in Ukraine.
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On the 6th of February, 2023, a strong earthquake struck south-eastern Turkey and north Syria. A number of international search and rescue teams went to the affected region. Against the background of these events, the author discusses the most important aspects of the operation of the international civil protection systems, focusing on those directly related to the deployment of rescue teams to the earthquake-affected region. In addition, the key stages of rescue operations carried out by a group from Poland (HUSAR Poland) are discussed, with references to theoretical issues of organising the work of the teams and assisting those who were affected. The article demonstrates the activities of international aid systems and provides statistics of victims extracted by search and rescue teams. It proved their effectiveness in saving lives.
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