Sudeten Ghosts

Author(s): Derek Sayer / Language(s): English Issue: 2/2018

This was written three months after Germany occupied the Sudetenland following the Munich Agreement. Three months later Czechoslovakia was dismembered and Bohemia and Moravia occupied and turned into a Protectorate of the Third Reich. Milena Jesenská was arrested in November 1939. She died in Ravensbrück concentration camp in May 1943. Today, almost 100 years after Czechoslovakia declared independence from Austria-Hungary, over 70 years after the country was liberated from Nazi occupation, and 28 years after the Velvet Revolution ended 42 years of communism, history veers off down another inimitably Czech country lane. [...]

BETWEEN THE IMPERFECTIONS OF SOCIAL POLICIES AND THE WEAKNESSES OF CIVIC CONSCIOUSNESS AND OF SOCIAL RESPONSABILITY – ASPECTS REGARDING SOCIAL MARGINALIZATION IN THE 21ST CENTURY

Author(s): Emilia Tomescu / Language(s): English Issue: 2/2020

Nowadays, as we are living in the 21st century, far from the ‘primitive’ epochs, most of us consider we are much better than our predecessors and, of course, much more civilized than they had ever been. Are we really better and more civilized in comparison with those who lived before us? Is the difference in technology to equal the superiority we claim to have as our prominent difference between our more ‘modest’ ancestors?What about our consciousness, our respect for ourselves and for the others. What about the impressive number of ‘marginals’, of poor and ignorant , illiterate, non-fortunate human beings who officially, according to The Universal Declaration of Human Rights, are all our equal fellows,In spite of the many state institutions or private ones, there are many, still too many, human beings living at the ‘margin’ of our society, without a home, without food, without medical care or education or even a word of comfort.As long as we tolerate social injustice and inequality we cannot call ourselves ‘civilized’, ‘modern’ or even real human beings.

ACTIVISTS IN THE TRAP OF ANTI-POLITICS: AN EXPLORATION OF THE POWERLESSNESS OF HUMAN RIGHTS NGOs IN RUSSIA

Author(s): Françoise Dauce / Language(s): English Issue: 2/2010

In Russia, the “democratic transition” took place about ten years after the transitions in Latin America: the democratic period began in Argentina in 1983, while the Soviet Union disappeared in 1991. Many comparative works have highlighted the role played by civil societies in the fall of these authoritarian regimes (Okuneva 1994; Khoros 1998; Vizgunova 2001; Vorozheikina 2001; Meier-Dallach and Juchler 2002). Andrew Arato and Jean Cohen (1993:2) were “truly impressed by the importance in East Europe and Latin America, as well as in the advanced capitalist democracies, of the struggle for rights and their expansion, of the establishment of grassroots associations and initiatives and the ever renewed construction of institutions and forums of critical publics.” However, ten years later, at the end of the 1990s, as disappointment with the democratization process grew, scholars insisted that the weakness of civil society in Russia was to blame for the failure of the transition. “As regards civil society, it is profoundly isolated: the voluntary and independent union that realizes concerted action is a rarity in our country. Citizens retreat in the face of the state, which, having established complete control over the political sphere, never ceases to extend its participation in the social sphere,” writes Maria Lipman (2006:2). Russian sociologists highlight the differences between Russia and the Latin American countries. Tatiana Vorozheikina (2001:8) underlines similarities in the state’s control of social organizations in Stalin’s USSR and in the Latin American dictatorships, but considers that “in the Latin American countries (Brazil, Argentina, Chile, Peru, and Mexico), the dominance of the state over society was not as strong [as in Russia].”

Pojęcie herezji jako narzędzie sprawowania władzy w dyskursie medialnym

Author(s): Monika Strupiechowska / Language(s): Polish Issue: 18/2020

In the media discourse, the concept of heresy is often given a meaning which deviates from the meaning agreed upon in the scientific and theological debate. Defining a specific phenomenon as a “heresy” is less about deviation from the teaching of the Roman Catholic Church and more about departures from common interpretations of those teachings or about seeking to restore their traditionalism. This article examines two contemporary axes of conflict that are called heresies by the participants in the debate. Using the methods of critical discourse analysis and analysis of the available data, answers were sought regarding the genesis of the heresies, the reasons for their being recognised as such, and the actors in the process, as well as the explicit and hidden goals of the phenomena. In the cases analysed, the use of the concept of “heresy” served the interest of symbolic elites and was an effective tool for legitimising group identity.

Demokracja poza centrum. Recenzja studium wyborów lokalnych

Author(s): Wojciech Rafałowski / Language(s): Polish Issue: 18/2020

PROJEKT SLOVENSKO JAVNO MNENJE IN NJEGOV ČAS SJM 1968-1999

Author(s): Niko Toš / Language(s): Slovenian Issue: 030-031/1999

In the first part of the article the author outlines the design and development of Slovenian Public Opinion project (Slovensko javno mnenje - SJM) between 1968-1999. The SJM project is the leading national social survey project and empirical ‘infrastructure’ of Slovenian social sciences. It has developed simultaneously with similar projects in North American and Western European countries (General Social Survey, Allbus). Using longitudinal data from SJM survey, the author outlines general value patterns in Slovenian public, concerning various social, economic and political issues. He focuses on transition of values in the period of political transition, that bears significant importance for Slovenian nation (period of self determination). The paper may be considered a contribution for a history of Slovenian sociology. It contributes to deeper understanding of value changes in Slovenian public in the period of transition from authoritarian regime to democratic political system.

The future of print media in the Republic of Serbia in the digital age (media-sociological aspect)

Author(s): Marko M. Nedeljković / Language(s): English,Serbian Issue: 2/2021

The constant decline in circulation, audience and print revenue, the development of a new culture of information, with the concurrent strengthening of online media, have led to the point where the transformation of print media has become inevitable. Therefore, in theoretical and professional discussions, the key question is how to respond to all changes and ensure the survival of print media outlets. In order to investigate this issue, a study based on the empirical method and the procedure of non-experimental research was conducted, which included five daily newspaper newsrooms in Serbia. The results show that new journalistic competencies are still present on a small scale in most newsrooms, that they are characterized by traditional work organization, as well as that they do not sufficiently involve new media professionals. These are also three key elements that hinder the transformation of print media and their adaptation to the digital age.

Binders full of LOLitics:

Author(s): Geniesa Tay / Language(s): English Issue: 4/2014

This paper examines the phenomenon of humorous Internet memes within the context of news and political culture, sometimes referred to as LOLitics. LOLitics are a category of digital texts created by ordinary individuals that, like most political humour, are usually responses to news events or gaffes committed by political figures. The analysis situates LOLitics as popular culture products that exist within the intersection between pleasure-driven ‘play’ and (arguably) genuine political discourse. LOLitics are prominent due to their spreadability and replicability, and the amount of texts being produced has visibly risen over the last election cycle. Internet memes have become one of the default ways to respond to particular situations online, and this certainly reflects the reaction towards news and political culture. The 2012 US Presidential election is applied as a case study in examining the significance of these Internet memes to everyday citizen discourse, and the relationships between ordinary citizens, the mainstream media, and politics. The results argue that humorous viral texts, both visual and verbal, reveal the potential power that ordinary people have in setting the agenda for newsmakers, and to communicate political criticism through popular culture.

Not quiet on the Tasman front?

Author(s): Steven Loveridge / Language(s): English Issue: 4/2014

There is a fascinating idiosyncrasy within New Zealand cartoonist’s depiction of Australia during the Great War. Running parallel to comradely images of fresh-faced ANZACs marching together, New Zealand cartoonists produced acrimonious sketches of their neighbour and ally as dysfunctional and even disloyal. These representations might be considered as charting the limits of neighbourly sentiments and good-natured humour. This article surveys the context, in history and humour, behind these depictions and questions how they fit within the wider panorama of New Zealand’s war effort and the humorous irreverence conventionally considered to be a key aspect of the trans-Tasman relationship.

‘Instigators,’ ‘Hooligans,’ ‘Sex Maniacs,’ ‘Drug Addicts,’ ‘Alcoholics…’. The Image of Students ’ Protests Mirrored in the Rhetoric of the State

Author(s): Renata Czekalska / Language(s): English Issue: 59/2019

In February 2016, the students of Jawaharlal Nehru University in New Delhi began to protest against the violation of basic democratic freedoms by Narendra Modi’s government. The protest was quickly supported by other Indian universities, and the campaigns organized by students happened in all the important academic centres in India. The purpose of this paper is to show selected examples of language expressions employed by the Indian authorities against the student protesters and used in the official Indian media, to describe the actions taken by protests’ participants, as well as to compare the language of the Indian authorities and media used against protesting students in the second decade of the 21st century with some official statements about student protests in Poland under the communist regime.

The Dilemma of “Blasphemy Laws” in Pakistan – Symptomatic of Unsolved Problems in the Post-Colonial Period?

Author(s): Roswitha Badry / Language(s): English Issue: 59/2019

By all accounts, the Islamic Republic of Pakistan has the strictest “blasphemy laws” among countries with a majority Muslim population. The controversial amendments to the provisions of the Pakistan Penal Code on “offences relating to religion” go back to General Zia ul-Haq’s top-down policies of Islamization. Despite their flaws, doubtful legitimacy, and negative repercussions, the “blasphemy laws” have neither been reformed nor abolished under subsequent governments. This contribution will shed light on the complex political, economic, and social factors that have led to both the emergence of the laws and to the continuous escalation of the situation in terms of increased sectarian and religiously-motivated violence that the ongoing debate about the “blasphemy laws” has engendered. It may be asked, to what extent the controversy on the laws can be taken as indicative of problems with which the country was confronted since its formation, and to what extent shifts and transformations in the socio-political structure of Pakistan, the inability or unwillingness of the authorities to deal with the challenges in a systematic way, and also external factors have exacerbated these deep-rooted problems.

Cultural Factors of Aggression in the Public Space

Author(s): Lilla Młodzik / Language(s): English Issue: 24/2019

The analysis of literature on the subject indicates the occurrence of cultural stereotypes that hinder the adaptation to the conditions of the era of an information civilization. They are of a particular importance in the public sphere. Their main feature (disadvantage) is the stimulation of aggression in social relations, the manifestations of which deform the functioning of liberal democracy. Aggression as a cultural trait comes from the fear of losing identity and from the uncertainty. The dissemination of the patterns of liberal culture and thus the displacement of the restrictive culture are the ways of counteracting the negative phenomena associated with it. The development of this problem is the subject of this text.

Kyiv Philosophical School and Human Rights. National-Cultural Movement in the Ukrainian SSR: Scientific and Public Dialogue and Interaction

Author(s): Heorhii Vdovychenko / Language(s): English Issue: 8/2021

This article deals with defining and analyzing the experience of dialogue and interaction of the founders of the Kyiv philosophical school, as a leading participant in the philosophical life of the Ukrainian SSR from the Khrushchev’s “thaw” to the Gorbachev’s “perestroika,” with the human rights and national-cultural movement of the 1950s and 1980s, also represented, in particular, by its figures V. Lisovyi and Y. Pronyuk. Academicians S. Krymskyi and V. Horskyi, founders both of this school and, at the same time, its main academic center, namely the Institute of Philosophy of the Academy of Sciences of the Ukrainian SSR, were long-term employees of its two most nonconforming Departments – Logic and Methodology of Science and History of Philosophy of Ukraine, and left a lot of evidence on this topic. In their final autobiographical reconstructions of the past two decades, they left a number of recollections of their long-term friendly relations with the known ideologists of the Ukrainian human rights movement I. Svitlychny, I. Dziuba, E. Sverstiuk, L. Plyushch, including their colleagues, prisoners of conscience V. Lisovyi and Y. Pronyuk. At the same time, they provided much evidence of similar relations with well-known in the USSR and the world Russian Soviet dissidents: the philosophers A. Zinoviev and A. Esenin-Volpin, and the writer V. Nekrasov. Other no less important sources of the topic of the article, apart from the memoirs of the mentioned and other figures of the Kyiv philosophical school, as significant achievements of the first domestic projects on the oral history of philosophy of T. Chaika and Student Society of Oral History of Philosophy of Taras Shevchenko National University of Kyiv, are used below. These are scientific works, memoirs, and correspondence of the said well-known academic human rights scholars: dissident philosopher V. Lisovyi and his colleague from the Institute of Cybernetics of the Ukrainian SSR Academy of Sciences, also dissident philosopher L. Plyushch. They reflected the formation of a new type of Ukrainian intelligentsia of the post-Stalin era of the generation of the sixties as postmodern thinkers-visionaries of democratic Ukraine

The influence of judical practice on the Legislation in the Sphere of LGBT Community Rights

Author(s): Ana Čović / Language(s): English,Serbian Issue: 3/2021

In the light of the announced adoption of the Law on Same-Sex Unions, the question arises whether the draft law is in accordance with the Constitution, especially after the announcements that the law will not be signed. Although the Constitution specifies that marriage is a union of a man and a woman, experts point out that in this case it is not a law on marriage and family, nor does it provide for the possibility of adoption of children by same-sex couples, but that it regulates property, health, pension and other legal relationships of same-sex partners living in the union. At the same time, many public figures have invited traditional religious communities to react in order to defend the “right to freedom and future of the people”, emphasizing that contentious issues related to the regulation of mutual rights and obligations of same-sex couples could be resolved by amending the existing laws in those areas. In the countries where similar laws exist, case law has played a significant role, just as various medical and psychological associations. The European case law is not uniform, and cases often end before the European Court of Human Rights, while in the United States at the federal level, all anti-homosexual laws are repealed by a Supreme Court decision (Lawrence v. Texas, 539 U.S. 558 [2003]). Nevertheless, there is no single law in this area and the rights of same-sex couples vary from country to country. The paper will provide an overview of significant court decisions in this area in European countries, as well as the decisions of the US Supreme Court, which may lead us to think about the possible legal consequences of (non)adoption of the disputed Law on Same-Sex Unions, about procedures that could be initiated if partners decided to request judicial protection for the purpose of recognizing their guaranteed human rights, as well as the content and significance of such court judgments.

The onset of national socialism. Germans of the Kingdom of Yugoslavia in 1941

Author(s): Saša S. Marković,Željko U. Vučković / Language(s): English,Serbian Issue: 3/2021

The German community of the Yugoslav Kingdom was, for the most part, concentrated in the territory of today’s Vojvodina. Their centuries-long presence in this area indicates their readiness to live in a multinational environment, but also their ambition to live better than others, both in a cultural and economic sense. The attitude of this community towards the newly formed Yugoslav state was cautious, marked by concern and reserve, but it was not as negative as the one seen in the Hungarian community. The Germans intended to preserve their cultural identity through the organization of associations, and then to found a party. Their ambitions grew with the strengthening of the Third German Reich, when their political manifestation became more provocative and militant.

Political ideas of Serbian writers in Dragan Simeunović‘s History of Serbian political thought

Author(s): Marko Nedić / Language(s): English,Serbian Issue: 4/2021

Konne figury władzy

Author(s): Marcin Laberschek / Language(s): Polish Issue: 19/2020

The tradition of equestrian monuments is over 2,500 years old. The origins of such monuments date back to ancient Greece and Rome, and their numerous manifestations can be found today not only in Europe but on all continents. These monuments are not accidental – they perform a specific social function which is indicated both by the symbolism of a horse and rider, as well as by the figure of the rider himself. By analysing equestrian statues, the author of the paper attempts to answer the question: What is the function and social significance of equestrian statues as figures of power and how has this significance changed over time? Four main periods of power, manifested in equestrian statues, have been distinguished: 1) the ancient period of absolute power, 2) the medieval period of divine power, 3) the modern period of absolute power, 4) the modern period of democratic power.

Statuy pod gilotynę

Author(s): Marcin Darmas / Language(s): Polish Issue: 19/2020

This text is a multi-faceted analysis – economic, symbolic, and ideological – of the destruction of monuments commemorating white historical figures such as Josephine de Beauharnais and Victor Schœlcher in the summer of 2020 in French overseas departments. Violence, racism, the logics of repentance, and revolutionary elements indicate the existence of a significant crisis in the Fifth Republic and, perhaps, announce a new order. The text also contains the hypothesis that acts of vandalism are part of the global tendency to reject the colonial past.

O roli ortografii w rozumieniu historii

Author(s): Piotr Herbich / Language(s): Polish Issue: 19/2020

O pomnikach nie tylko społecznie

Author(s): Jan Mizerski / Language(s): Polish Issue: 19/2020