The Protection of the Sacral Cultural Heritage of the Levant Between Theology, Sociology and New Legal Initiatives

Author(s): Yuri Stoyanov / Language(s): English Issue: 2/2016

The subject-matter of sacral cultural heritage and sites, traditionally the subject of theological research and concerns, has lately become also the focus of anthropological and sociological analyses. The contributions of these three disciplines to the study of this problematic certainly can and should be usefully integrated into similar future inter-disciplinary initiatives focused on the safeguarding of sacral heritage. Approaches, perspectives and conclusions in the treatment of sacral cultural heritage in these disciplines have varied and provoked some sustained and enduring debates. The article intends to summarize the main trends and state of research on the problematic and discuss the latest legal and expert initiatives and documents produced and elaborated in the quest to identify and apply new instruments, strategies and policies to secure the protection of sacral cultural heritage.

Od gastarbeiterów do niemieckich obywateli – problem integracji imigrantów na terenie Republiki Federalnej Niemiec

Author(s): Karolina Gomerska / Language(s): Polish Issue: XIII/2015

After the Second World War, The Federal Republic of Germany gradually began to transform exile in the country of immigration. The formal recognition of Germany as a country of immigration for many years was regarded as a taboo, and both the political and public debate spared this issue. Until recently, Germany’s policy on immigrants was based on an outdated concept of Gastarbeiter system, which had two fundamental assumptions, namely that immigrants are a temporary phenomenon, and their presence is associated only with the labor market. During their stay in Germany, they were entitled to social rights, but it was not required from them to integrate with the host society, because it could interfere with the process of returning to their homeland. The beginning of the new millennium, however, brought a lot of changes. Revolutionaary new provisions has been introduced to the naturalization law, emphasis has been given to integration programs, a system of green cards has been created and many other complex actions has been taken. After some time, Germany realize that they are the country of immigration, and will have to cope with the challenges posed by the fact.

Rola i znaczenie muzyki w protestach przeciwko wojnie wietnamskiej

Author(s): Mateusz Harzowski / Language(s): Polish Issue: XIII/2015

The time of the Vietnam War was one of the most turbulent in the twentieth-century history of the United States, as the modern contestation movement, which aimed at changing the American domestic and foreign policy, arose then. Widely understood culture, including music, played an important role in this movement. This issue is the subject matter of this article, which will analyse the selection of songs. In addition, the author attempts to catalog the most important music events (including festivals) of that period. What is more, it is important to present the profiles of the most important artists. The most important thing, however, is to prove the following thesis: Music has played a significant role in the movement protesting against the Vietnam War and the music was an important traffic binder. The basic research methods include historical analysis and content analysis.

Bruce Springsteen, Ronald Reagan and the Working-Class. An insight to American Politics and Popular Culture in the mid-1980s.

Author(s): Szymon Pietrzykowski / Language(s): English Issue: XIII/2015

By analyzing the political career of Bruce Springsteen’s album “Born in the U.S.A.” (1984), around which the narrative of this article took place, I tried to make a closer insight to the relation between the American politics and popular culture in the mid-1980, considered as the essential aim of this article. Main attention was put on various attempts taken by Ronald Reagan’s administration to co-opt the album’s pop cultural significance for political purposes, especially to reinforce the so called “conservative evolution” perceived as right-wing, libertarian response to the hippie movement. Bruce Springsteen, who through his hard and consistent work achieved enormous success while still remaining himself, a fellow boy from New Jersey, was presented as a role model for the yuppie generation. The title track was read as an anthem for the new American patriotism. This particular interpretation proved to be wrong. In fact, the album’s essential motif is the widening gap between Reagan’s reinterpretation of the American Dream and disappointing reality. However, it did not prevent the Republicans from winning the 1984 election and general misunderstanding of its message.

Pieśniowy obraz góralskiego świata. Analiza wartości ludowych zawartych w pieśniach górali żywieckich

Author(s): Anna Hanusiak / Language(s): Polish Issue: XIII/2015

Music has accompanied a man from the beginnings of his existence. Especially with the word it has significantly extended the human possibilities of the communication, being an endless means of expression. Traditional highland-style music illustrates the elements which formed its contents, so there are traces of both certain culture arising due to an aboriginally shepherd’s way of life, as well as the specific historical and social conditions. Besides, it gives vent to emotions or inward states, articulating the everyday reality – a work, entertainments and worries. Folk songs can show how a certain highland community was living and perceiving itself and its own “smallest world”. Using the paraphrase of the conception of linguistic view of the world, the main purpose of this article is to recapture some meanings and values essential for a former, but currently resurgent culture of the highlanders. This analysis is based on an example of the Żywiec highlanders.

Around the Bloc: Dushanbe Residents in Bid to Save Soviet-Era Buildings

Author(s): TOL TOL / Language(s): English Issue: 10/27/2015

Decrepit old structures must go, but plans for their replacements are classified, official claims.

Multikulturalizm w Europie Zachodniej – historia i teraźniejszość

Author(s): Mieczysław Ryba / Language(s): Polish Issue: 24/2014

The author in his article points out that the idea of multiculturalism collapses before our eyes today, because at its source is postmodern ideology which is extremely averse to national Christian tradition being the basis for European identity. In the name of utopia, its believers effectively destroyed the centuries-old tradition. The author notes that this ideology came to Poland in a situation where many Western politicians announced its bankruptcy. The tragic consequences of suppression of Christianity from the public space has been written many times. It is also very tragic that national tradition was destructed in the name of long ago bygone utopia. The author claims that the fight with the thousand-year tradition of the great nation has to end in disaster. Equally confusing is, in his opinion, the fierce struggle with the idea of the nation-state as a supposedly xenophobic solution, generating various wars and conflicts.

Alternatywne ruchy religijne jako element współczesnego multikulturalizmu

Author(s): Robert T. Ptaszek / Language(s): Polish Issue: 24/2014

The article consists of two parts. In the first, which has an introductory character, the author recalls the role which Christianity has played in Western culture yet recently and depicts the peculiarity of modern anti-religious Western culture. In the second part he shows how alternative (new) religious movements function in this culture. The author pays a particular attention on those elements of contemporary culture which enable to create and develop such movements. In his conclusion, the author points out that this multicultural alternative which is offeered by contemporary religious movements is essentially apparent. This is so, because referring to ideas which come from non-European cultures does not resolve important problems of the modern European. Instead of answers there are new, even tougher to explain, problems and questions.

Emancypacyjna obietnica posthumanizmu

Author(s): Joanna Bednarek / Language(s): Polish Issue: 14/2014

Телевизионна журналистика и народопсихология

Author(s): Rossen Petrov / Language(s): Bulgarian Issue: 1/2016

This article examines the way people’s psychology influences the creation of TV news and its contents in terms of meaning and structure without disrupting its state of being authentic, factual and documentary. The analysis is based on people’s psychology factors which create particular models of human behavior related to the individual’s upbringing, intelligence, education and culture. How does this combination of characteristics influence different people’s perceptions evoked by the images on the TV screen and their psychological impact? How does people’s psychology determine the variety of rules in the sphere of information, including the ways it created and distributed? In the article, we are attempting to prove why journalists who work for TV companies should take into consideration the people’s psychology of the particular ethnic group in the process of transforming the events into news. We have examined the methods of creating and distributing TV information implemented by several TV media, such as CNN, BBC, AL-JAZEERA, etc.

Storytelling u ulozi nositelja ideologije promjene

Author(s): Marija Putica / Language(s): Croatian Issue: 1/2016

In the paper the author analyses and presents through practical examples the use of storytelling as the bearer of the persuasion and change ideology. The course of usage is presented through its inception in film industry, mass media to virtual reality. The author has explained how storytelling became part of the panoptic view and participation in the hegemony of power in such way that it assures the rules for behaviour as well as the pedagogy of change. In this paper storytelling is presented as the memory keeper and bearer of strategic project because it possesses the power which cannot be manifested in the control and discipline but in the collective story and memory.

Nužnosto dijaloga religija i kultura

Author(s): Ivo Komšić / Language(s): Bosnian,Croatian,Serbian Issue: 4/2016

O niektórych strategiach otwarcia na czytelnika w wybranych przykładach literatury nowomedialnej (rekonesans)

Author(s): Agnieszka Przybyszewska / Language(s): Polish Issue: 1/2016

This article looks at selected examples of e-literature and related fields to explore strategies of creating communicative openness towards the reader. Przybyszewska focuses on two different approaches: the text’s programmed playability, which results in the work’s performative nature, and strategies of including readers’ actions or gestures (most often gestures that overlap with in the imagined universe) within the sphere of the work. This inclusion conditions the reader’s ongoing discovery of the story, or it even influences the work itself. These devices strategically open text to the reader (which mirrors expectations in cultures of participation); they help strengthen the literary mechanisms of immersion or projection-identification, and finally, they facilitate the audience’s entry into the imagined universe and they highlight specific literary values.

Children studies jako perspektywa metodologiczna. Współczesne tendencje w badaniach nad dzieckiem

Author(s): Karolina Szymborska / Language(s): Polish Issue: 1/2016

The article presents a reconnaissance of the humanistic origins of postmodern interdisciplinary field called children studies. Szymborska identifies two opposing approaches within the mainstream of children’s research, namely the paedocentric and paedomorphic. The first is associated with the studies of Gertrud Lenzer, Sarane Boockock, William Corsaro, who have spurred on the recent transformation of child activism into children’s activist narratives in the field. Szymborska sees this phenomenon as an attempt to build a ‘child-story,’ i.e. a counter-history from child’s perspective. The second direction is rooted in Tyson Lewis and Richard Kahn’s posthumanist notions, influenced by Rosi Braidotti’s posthumanist theory. This movement proposes a non-anthropocentric, zoomorphic approach to childhood in the context of what is known as exopedagogy. These researchers’ paedomorphic annihilation of conceptual dualisms and of the hierarchy of species represents, for Szymborska, an adultocentric reduction of the child’s subjectivity to its hypostases, which are expressed in discourse through the symbiotic hybrid of the humanimal.

Das Nebeneinander der Ethnien und Konfessionen in Siebenbürgen in Trachtenbüchern und auf Stadtveduten des 17. bis 19. Jahrhunderts

Author(s): Robert Born / Language(s): German Issue: _/2014

Das Zusammenleben einer Vielzahl ethnischer und konfessioneller Gruppen auf engem Raum wurde seit der Frühen Neuzeit als eine Besonderheit Siebenbürgens sowohl von Reisenden als auch von den Bewohnern der Region selbst hervorgehoben1. Im Folgenden sollen die bisher nur punktuell beachteten visuellen Zeugnisse dieses Neben- und Miteinanders der Ethnien und Konfessionen in den Blick genommen werden. Die meisten Darstellungen der Bewohner dieser Region stammen aus dem 18. und 19. Jahrhundert. Einen besonderen Schwerpunkt der Untersuchung bilden dabei gemalte Darstellungen, die zu sogenannten Trachten- oder Kostümbüchern zusammengefügt wurden. Zu diesem weit über Europa verteilten Quellenkorpus gehören größere Konvolute in Bologna, Bukarest, Debrecen, Graz, London und Hermannstadt sowie einige kleinere Folgen in Berlin und Budapest (siehe Anhang).

Modernaus būsto idėja tarpukario Lietuvoje: tarp funkcionalizmo ir tautinio romantizmo

Author(s): Lijana Šatavičiūtė / Language(s): Lithuanian Issue: 4/2011

In the current article, the living interiors of interwar Lithuania are discussed from the aspect of the relation between modern and conservative tendencies. The author seeks to reveal the discourse of the modernistic thought and find out how the new aesthetics was put into practice in a living space. Modernist propaganda in interior furnishing began to manifest itself in the 1920s and gained momentum in the 1930s, with the acceleration of the processes of the society’s modernization, the growth of cities, and the merging of traditional lifestyle with new forms of daily life. Modern culture in Lithuania was associated with progress and renewal. It was directed not only to introducing innovatory aesthetics, but also to overcoming backwardness. Lithuanian citizens were acquainted with the main features of modern architecture on the popular level. The authors of the articles ( Juozas Valentukonis, Mikalojus Vorobjovas, Halina Kairiūkštytė-Jacinienė) that appeared at that time were advanced specialists in their fields, well aware of the importance of the culture of daily life in forming a conscious society. However, the publications lacked deeper theoretical insights, and methodical advice based on practical logic – how to build and furnish a house in a more economical, simple and sanitary way – prevailed. With the aim to consolidate the professionalism of craftsmen, schools and courses of fine crafts were established. One of the important centres of training was the Evening Courses for Decorators established by the Ministry of Education in Kaunas in 1932, in which the creative abilities of apartment decorators were trained, their interests were expanded, and their taste was developed. An innovatory environment took root in Lithuania under the impact of local needs and traditions. Although the tendencies of functionalism and rationalism were reflected in interior furnishing, the conservativeness of the citizens, the limited financial possibilities of the state and individuals, the restrained attitude to the new aesthetics, and possibly the ideal of a cosy home became a hindrance to the radical development of innovations. The understanding of contemporariness did not clash with the traditional aesthetic norms and national features, which were adapted in the conditions of a new era.

Skurdo kultūros apraiškos socialinės paramos gavėjų grupėje

Author(s): Rasa Zabarauskaitė,Boguslavas Gruževskis / Language(s): Lithuanian Issue: 2/2015

The article analyses the phenomenon of poverty and aims at assessing the culture of poverty among the households receiving social benefits in Lithuania. The concept of poverty is discussed as well as the main causes of poverty are analysed in the first part of the article. In this context, a special focus is placed on the theory of poverty culture. Macro and micro-level analysis of poverty situation in Lithuania is carried out in the second part of the article: on a macro level – poverty and social exclusion indicators in Lithuania are analysed in the context of EU Member States; on a micro level – the analysis of data obtained from the survey of recipients of social benefits in Lithuania is carried out. The survey demonstrated some signs of poverty culture in the households receiving social benefits in Lithuania. Manifestations of the poverty culture in the mentioned social group were mainly evidenced by blaming external environment for poverty of their households, fatalism as well as frustration with government and employers. This article is based on the findings of the research which was commissioned by the non-governmental organisation Caritas Lithuania and conducted by the authors of the article in 2014.

Žmogaus gerovės kūrimas transformuotoje visuomenėje: švietimo prieinamumo principas

Author(s): Kęstutis Trakšelys / Language(s): Lithuanian Issue: 2/2015

The article deals with the accessibility of education as one of the most important human well-being transformed society principles. Access to education for transformed society guarantees the personal social mobility, career and income, the key indicators that affect the welfare state index. Empirical research on the education availability of various social groups is also presented in the article.

“More-or-less body”: the social perception of normativity of the body in Poland

Author(s): Anna M. Kłonkowska,Agniezska Maj / Language(s): English Issue: 2/2015

The article presents results of a study aimed at exploring social concepts associated with bodily ‘normativity’ and ‘passability’: the notion of normative body weight and attitude towards over- and underweight individuals. We were particularly interested in the common concepts and notions associated with normative body weight as well as possible reasons for rejection of people whose bodies do not fall within the socially shared knowledge of what the ‘right’ body is. The article presents results of a qualitative, interview-based research study conducted with the use of visual materials.

Uždaros gyvenvietės kaip teritorinės segregacijos veiksnys

Author(s): Gintare Pociute-Sereikiene,Dovile Krupickaite / Language(s): Lithuanian Issue: 2/2016

CEE countries are experiencing post-socialist transformations. The new ideas that are coming from the Western part of Europe or USA are kindly welcomed in the former socialist countries. With these new ideas, in the CEE countries has appeared a new phenomenon – gated communities (GC) – as the new-style residential settlements that become the symbols of territorial segregation. This phenomenon in Lithuania is not so often, but during the last years the number of such neighbourhoods has increased and currently we count around 30 GCs in our country. In public and academic literature that is analysed and presented in this article, the appearance of such territorial structures in the cities and their regions is considered controversially. On the one hand, it is pointed out that these settlements create a positive atmosphere, economic value, social infrastructure for both: settlement residents and also for the neighbourhoods where they are located. On the other side stand the opponents of GCs who underline that these settlements segregate the society and they provide with the list of negative effects of these gated settlements again for both: GC residents and the ones who are left “outside the wall”. The main questions that are raised in our research are the following: does the emergence of gated communities influence the segregation in the cities/city regions? How do the GCs affect the residents of these settlements and the society that is left “beyond the wall”?