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Globalization is defined by Solomon Marcus as a phenomenon specific to the III millennium, through which the national element is integrated into the formula of the universal culture of the third millennium. Famous intellectuals have left the country, now being professionally successful people and strengthening, through their work, the universal culture. Sanda Golopentia, Constantin Eretescu, Andrei Codrescu or Mihai Nadin are just a few of the personalities who have built a solid passport for Romania’s universality, a new identity paradigm.
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Traditionally, a romantic relationship starts with two people going on dates and developing emotional and then physical closeness. However, social developments and social media have begun to change that. Therefore, the main aim of our qualitative study was to outline modern dating scripts and forms of casual sexual relationships among Croatian emerging adults, and to identify the needs they fulfill. We conducted four focus groups with young people aged 18 to 25, of whom some were unemployed, some employed and some were university students. The results suggest that emerging adults in Croatia equally choose the traditional dating script and modern casual relationships, such as open relationship, friendship with benefits, fuck buddy, booty call, and one-night stand. Long-term relationships are seen as a step before marriage or cohabitation, and some young people try to avoid them until their career and other life circumstances are stable enough. In that sense, casual relationships can be satisfying, at least temporarily. However, they can also be confusing because different people seem to define them in different ways and, accordingly, have different expectations. The present study broadens our understanding of romantic relationships in emerging adulthood, and as one of the first Croatian studies on this topic, makes an important contribution to the field of personal relationships. It can serve not only as a reference for future studies but also as a base for developing prevention programmes that strengthen romantic competence and develop communication skills for emerging adults.
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The world in which we live today is in many ways different from the one in which it was lived just a few decades ago. Under the shade of unsafe and uncertain future, the essential topics are dark scenarios and the questions of survival. In the environment like that, not only do the massive and cruel economically and existentially motivated migrations happen, but also the frequent exile for different reasons, which becomes a lifestyle. This work explores the position of Bekim Sejranović in comparison with the dominantly globalist concept of nomadism as a cultural obsession with transformation. In his case, nomadism presents the aspect of the search for oneself and the resistance to permanent place of residence, entrenched social practices, and totalitarian authorities, as well as the ultimate attempt to live freely and at full speed. That kind of idea is also conveyed throughout the novel by Bekim Sejranović titled Nowhere, From Nowhere (2009), as well as in his other work. Nomadism and exile become not only the narrator’s destiny, but also his worldview and kind of a pursuit for some lost or feigned world. Inseparable from this is, surely, the question of identity which is often fluid or emptied from the content in this era, that it is almost impossible to define it today. The constant redefining of identity and the search for oneself are exactly what is portrayed in this novel by Sejranović.
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This article explores the literature state of Polish research on rural women from 1990 until now. Not only the subject matter is presented here, but also some methodological trends in scientific writing. The main point of this paper is to find gaps in the literature and to propose some new ways and tools in research, the implementation of which will enable the more detailed exploration of the issue.
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Bridge Forum 2 was focused on youth in the Western Balkans and the public was again compound of young people, mostly students, and in this respect the contribution from AIESEC was crucial. The first panel, which took place last October, was dedicated to the importance of the civil society for the quality of democracy; the second one, which took place in December, was dedicated to the processes of integration, both regional and European; and the third one, which took place in January 2023, was dedicated to youth activism for the protection of environment. We are publishing all the six presentations of Bridge Forum 2 in the dossier of this issue of our magazine.
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These fragmentary recollections about the life and work of Abdulah Šarčević, as refracted through the prism of his own writings on Theoodor Adorno’s Critical Theory and the “Frankfurt School”, reveal potential parallels (as well as differences) in the experiences of war and exile, and in relation to the political, between this great German philosopher and one of the most influential thinkers in Bosnia and Herzegovina.
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Despite ongoing critical debates, performance-oriented practice of teaching intercultural communicative competence, including influential models of Michael Byram and especially Geert Hofstede, often relies on static and essentialised cultural models and disregarding the idea of culture as an emergent phenomenon. Focusing on Hofstede’s 6D model, the article discusses the theory and practice of teaching intercultural communicative competence as part of English for Specific Purposes within the context of business and management studies in light of philosophical perspectives drawn from the ethics of dialogic personalism (Levinas, Ricœur) and Wolfgang Iser’s literary anthropology. The aim of the discussion is to provide teachers and practitioners with a relevant theoretical framework as well as pedagogic perspectives necessary for using potentially problematic cultural models in a way which is both efficient and theoretically viable.
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Through analysis of advertisement campaigns for a food supplement that promises the return of happiness, this article problematizes the regulatory effects of the search for happiness in the context of the transition and popularization of new forms of womanhood in Croatia. The article points to gendered dimensions of “transition” by analyzing its materializations in the context of popular culture. With a focus on gendered mental health, the text builds on Sara Ahmed’s work on the affectivity of social norms and ideals and Lilijana Burcar’s work dealing with the relations of capitalism and patriarchy in post-Yugoslav space.
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The paper discusses the narrative about social marginalization and bullying of geeks and their justified revenge which has been widely popular in the first decade of the 21st Century. Said narrative is discussed as one of the factors which have contribu- ted to the emergence of the incel identity, and is exemplified by Joss Whedon’s musical Dr. Horrible’s Sing-Along Blog. At the moment of its creation the 2008 movie was supposed to portray the antagonism between the geeks and the jocks who torment them. Nowadays, in a changed social context, the movie’s message is very much different.
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Review of: MOREE, Dana. Základy interkulturního soužití. Praha: Portál, 2014. 2008 s. ISBN 978-80-262-0915-7
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The article explores the problem of purism and the criteria for identification of purist interventions that usually occur after changes of political systems. From a theoretical point of view, the article analyzes the definition of purism and discusses the dilemma regarding the existence of a neutral period from the aspect of purism. In that context, it tries to explain why some Croatian linguists denote only some parts of Croatian history as purist. In the first part, the author identifies the problem of the definition of purism and the methodological problems of its observation, while in the second part the article offers a brief comparative overview of perspectives on the need for intervention in the Croatian language in the period 1918 - 1990. The author argues that purism should be assessed according to the degree and methods of removing undesired words from usage, and concludes that partial historical analyses will always result in finding that a particular regime pursued the policy of purism. Therefore, future studies of purism should include elements of comparison and criteria for the evaluation of the policy aggressiveness and of the ideology behind it. Without the latter, linguistic debates on purism, although not intended to qualify certain political regimes, remain primarily indicators of their authors’ political preferences.
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This contribution aims to address risks and opportunities for cultural diversity resulting from platforms’ personalisation tools based on a legal analysis of the main provisions of the European Union General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) on consumer profiling and automated decisions, as well as a sample of data protection policies of selected streaming platforms. It examines how the latter may in practice affect the protection of consumers’ personal data for the purpose of recommending personalised audio-visual and music content online and how such provisions relate to the discoverability of a diversified cultural offer online and, at the European level, the obligation for platforms to give prominence to European works in their catalogues. The paper shows that a lot may still be done to improve the transparency of algorithms used for personalisation purposes and to provide users with greater control of their data, as required by the GDPR.
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This paper seeks to explore the notion of “island time” as a metaphor for addressing the multiple island temporalities emerging in the community of Sali, the biggest settlement on the southern shore of Dugi otok. In general, temporalities are conceived as the mode and the rhythm of being, entangled within the thick web of social, cultural, spatial, economic, gendered, and ideological transformations. The concept of “multiple temporalities”, inspired by the time studies and the anthropology of thime theoretical framework, points to the processes of diverse temporal frames and rhythms overlapping, intertwining, and coexisting. The focus of this paper is on the emergence of linčarnica, a triangular slope in the port of Sali. Based on ethnographic research, the paper will address the problems involved in the social and cultural creation of “island time”, popularly known as time moving at a slower pace. By problematising the concept of temporality at the crossroads of Mediterranean studies, island studies, time studies, and Balkan studies, the paper will address questions of specific, island-triggered, and socially performed atmospheric “island time” rebranded for the purpose of tourism and imagined within the specific cultural and social milieu of Dalmatia.
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In Istanbul, a city that is undeniably shaped by bodies of water, boats constitute ethnographic sites to observe the multiple processes of community-making. By looking at the time travelled on boats en route to the famous Prince’s Islands Archipelago located off the city proper, this article demonstrates how different understandings of time and temporality among the permanent (both winter- and summer-time) and the temporary (summer-time only) residents of the islands both define and inform particular relationships to the islands. For instance, to what extent everyday practices of accommodating time – such as waiting for boats and anticipation of delays – reflect different ways of belonging to the islands? In relation to the very specific demographic compositions and public imaginations about these islands as a non-Turkish/Muslim space populated by Jews, Greeks and Armenians, this article necessarily investigates how accessibility to urban mobility plays out in the (un)making of national unity. In doing so, it follows a specific approach to understanding noise, sound and hearing as ethnographic data, and tackles the ways through which non-Muslim difference and diversity are expressed (and/or similarly silenced) in the city. This is how the article provides an ethnographically thick description of the “stigmatization” of these islands in Turkish national and public imagery by way of focusing on the tangible aspects of (spending) time which is often sensed as discriminatory by the islanders.
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This article investigates the influence of digital technologies on the experience of adventure in outdoor activities at a time when outdoor activities are becoming increasingly popular in Croatia. Based on ethnographic research conducted among outdoor enthusiasts and new adventurers, adventure tour guides, and adventure sports practitioners in Croatia, this paper aims to show some of the ways in which the widespread use of digital media and technologies, from social networks to smart watches, affects us and the perception, concepts, and practices of adventure in Croatia.
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Historical events, however terrible, are not in and of themselves traumatic. For a trauma to emerge at the level of a collectivity, ‘social crises must become cultural crises’ (Alexander et al., 2004, p. 10). For an historical event to become a cultural trauma, it must be socially mediated and represented, a trauma narrative must be constructed. Consequently, there is always a gap between the traumatogenic event and its representation, this gap creates the space for the ‘trauma process’. Unlike trauma theory, therefore, cultural trauma places the weight of analysis not on the historical event as such but on the narrative struggle that constitutes and sustains that event as a cultural trauma. Thus, we have a series of interrelated terms: history, trauma, narrative and memory, that pivot around an absent presence, a traumatogenic event. It is the nature of that traumatogenic event that I explore in this paper. First, I will set out my theoretical differences from trauma theory and then attempt to square the circle between a non-pathological conception of trauma in cultural trauma theory and my own commitment to psychoanalysis. In conclusion I will put forward a number of claims that I hope will be consistent with cultural trauma theory. That is to say, the traumatogenic event is not given but is retrospectively constructed and in this sense is ahistorical and non-narrative.
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Dystopia, just as utopia, has always been immersed in political visions: utopia as an ideal society and dystopia as its opposite: ‘bad place’ – a futuristic, usually very near future, an imagined universe in which oppressive social control rules. However, utopia and dystopia cannot be absolutely separated, there is a constant threat of replacing good place by bad place, very often leading to the conclusion that every utopia either leads to dystopia or already is dystopia. Today, it often seems that the dystopian future has already arrived, the reality itself evokes dystopian imagination: the global warming and the catastrophes, the monstrous underside of various technologies that would ultimately overpower us – humans. Furthermore, both utopia and dystopia are narratives about how to govern the commons. Whereas in the past the commons appeared in different utopian visions of good governing, today most often the commons fleshes out in disfigured forms of dystopian narratives. In this essay I analyze dystopian imagination as a traumatic symptom of the commons, expressed in different narratives of the crisis of capitalism (the Anthropocene, the global monsters, the uncanny weather, metaverse, neo- or techno-feudalism).
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In this text, by analysing the message that envelopes strategies to deal with the COVID-19 pandemic, “Let us remain responsible”, the author points to the problem that cultural trauma can be witnessed only after the event (Nachträglichkeit) or during the event itself. The message by itself already produces at least three interwoven paradoxes: 1) paradox of addressee; 2) paradox of receiver; and 3) paradox of demand. Those paradoxes point to the existence of trauma inside the culture that becomes tangible in the time of crises and is reflected, among other things, as the awareness of the split in subject (Jacques Lacan). This awareness of the split as ‘extimate’ experience broadens the binary interpretation of cultural trauma proposed by Jeffrey Alexander, who situates trauma between the event and its representation, in which the representation is the source of trauma, not the event itself. The presented cases point to the conclusion that the event itself is already symbolic and, hence, representational, but in the inverse sense, as an object that is missing in the symbolic or Lacanian algebra as “object a” that is the source of traumatic repetition.
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The concept of media literacy has become more popular in formal and non-formal education in Bulgaria in recent years. The nongovernmental sector has been particularly active in developing course materials, conferences, seminars, and resources for teachers and instructors. Media literacy is slowly being integrated into school and university curricula. It is precisely these two aspects of the evolution of media literacy in Bulgaria that this study focuses on due to the fact that in all countries with high levels of media literacy an active collaboration between formal and non-formal educational institutions is present. We have analysed school and university-level initiatives in the years 2019-2022, major projects in the nongovernmental sector, and the experts’ assessment of the level of media literacy in Bulgaria. We have also described the results of a survey that we conducted among 534 high-school teachers at the beginning of 2022. Drawing on our analysis, we highlighted the thesis that the system of formal education needs to catch up with the non-formal education sector in relation to media literacy, the aim of which is not directed only towards students and teachers, but towards a range of age and societal groups.
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