The Writing Practice as a Renegotiation of Identity in Context of Emigration

Author(s): Diana Vargolomova / Language(s): English Issue: 01/2017

The paper discusses the connection between writing, identity and community in the online communication, presenting a part of a PhD thesis which reviews 12 blogs of recent Italian emigrants in the United States between October 2011 and October 2014. The identity is examined through by the means of two theories. The first theory is the Narrative Identity Theory, which assumes that the identity is a process of construction of the self, a personal project, mediated by narratives that can be consciously renegotiated and elaborated. The second theory assumes that not only one identity is contained within one person, but the self is guided by many voices or “I positions” (The Dialogical Self of Hubert Hermans). This theory sees the writing as a way to actively reorder the I-positions according to the needs of the situation. It’s fundamental to be able to integrate the new context and the new events in the global “legend” of the self in a period of passage and discontinuity. The blog writing is analyzed as a strategy to take control of the inner narrative and stabilize a disbalanced condition. The blogosphere takes the part of supporting community in the absence of the traditional migration connections

Conversion, Personal Identity, Life History

Author(s): Zsuzsanna Bögre / Language(s): English Issue: 04/2016

In this study, the life histories of two basic groups, Krishna monks and Krishna followers were examined. During the analysis, we discovered that the different situation of the two groups has essential influence on the process and development of conversion. We found that the definition of conversion proposed by Snow and Machalek may be considered an ideal type, as its properties are present in the exact form described by the authors primarily in the case of monks. In the case of those more loosely connected to the Hare Krishna Movement, only a “minimal programme” of the new mentality is present. In their case, the properties of conversion, i.e. drastic biographical reconstruction, adoption of the new pattern of thinking and thorough embracement of the convert role, were only partially attained. In what the fourth property – iconic language – is concerned, no relevant example was found in the scholarly literature about those loosely connected to the Movement. Thus, even the members of a new religious movement with such rigorous and fundamental theology as the ISKCON should not be treated as a homogeneous group.

SME: CULTURAL SCOPE OF EUROPEAN ECONOMY

AN ESSAY ON THE STRENGTH AND OPPORTUNITIES OF ENTERPRISE EUROPEAN STYLE REFLECTED FROM ITS CULTURAL PROFILE

Author(s): Frank VAN HELMOND / Language(s): English Issue: 28/2018

This paper is about entrepreneurship European style and European economy as aculture, by means of a theoretical model that is constructed of the distinctive features of Smalland Medium Enterprise (SME). This is not a quantitative but a qualitative model, stemmingfrom historical experience, that can be considered as a visionary image of the future form ofEuropean economy and its position in the globalising world. Based on such a forecast a backcastinganalysis can be developed: a problem-solving-oriented analysis of the extremelycomplex crisis where the European Union finds itself in at present. The cultural identity aswell as the success of the economy European style lays in the incalculable risk factor of thehuman involvement in the enterprise, that in the neo-liberal shares-value oriented economy issystematically factored out; involvement of man, not just as ‘manpower’ (knowledge andlabour force), but the central presence of man as such, determining the whole of theorganisation by ‘proximity’.

Szempontok a kora újkori unitárius püspöki vizitációs jegyzőkönyvek népesedéstörténeti hasznosításához

Author(s): Kristóf Bálint Bandi / Language(s): Hungarian Issue: 1/2019

This article provides an introduction to the transformation in the ethnic relations of the early modern Transylvanian plain. Drawing on resources from the era, it describes the processes of the population history of the Principality of Transylvania. Research into the early modern Antitrinitarian bishops’ records, provides answers to many questions that have fallen into oblivion. In addition, explorations into records of villages provides insights into the early modern ethnic image of some micro-regions and the transformations that took place there.

Interculturalitatea – „o naţiune, o limbă, o ţară”

Author(s): Cristina Poiana / Language(s): Romanian Issue: 3/2014

The concept of interculturality has developed since 1950 in the international community as an attempt to bring this policy and diplomatic communication as close as possible to the individual, in the area of direct interaction. This development which first gained ground in the U.S. moved quickly and adapted easily in Europe where democratic systems proved to be a fertile environment for its development. What pushed this forward was on one hand the importance attached to it by the individual and its role in decision making, and on the other, the legitimate diversity of opinion and freedom.The concept of „nation” had already been compromised by radical nationalist ideologies that were trapped by the idea of the borders bounded state. Throughout this period interculturality was constrained,as policy and conceptual evolution

NATIONAL IDENTITY IN A WORLD IN MOVEMENT

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Author(s): Mariselda Tessarolo / Language(s): English Issue: 1/2018

National identity allows one to be typified before others, it is indispensable for simplifying and organizing the large amount of stimulation coming from society overall. The displacement of large numbers of individuals poses questions on the stereotypes relating to national characteristics. The media (TV, newspapers, Internet) play an important role in spreading stereotypes by creating, supporting and bringing information that is often not correct to the attention of public opinion. The media also construct “mythical” social images and categories that often become rooted in individuals’ ways of thinking. This occurs more easily when the people one comes into contact with belong to populations that are not sufficiently known through literature, cinema, tourism, but only through immigration. Stereotypes are thus predominantly negative because they ride the waves of “invasion panic” and “job loss” that strengthen a feeling of belonging in local individuals, and also activate claims leading to a process of making other nationalities inferior. The economic crises of this historical period do not help to meet others with a personal engagement aimed at understanding, but rather at rejection. A point of contact might be found through the recognition of the culture of others, allowing the fears caused by “diversity” to be dispelled.

NATIONAL IDENTITY IN ROMANIAN PSYCHOLOGICAL STUDIES

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Author(s): Anca-Olga Andronic,Răzvan-Lucian Andronic / Language(s): English Issue: 1/2018

The national identity and the psychological specificity of the Romanian people have been approaches of interest from the beginning of psychology as science in Romania. Constantin Rădulescu-Motru imposed it as a distinct theme in the 1930s, since then it constantly returned to attention. In the context of celebrating the centenary, the approach to describing national characteristics in terms of psychological features has become both current and desirable. The paper presents succinct approaches of some authors from the 20th century (Dumitru Draghicescu, Constantin Radulescu-Motru, Mihai Ralea), as well as a cognitive-experimental approach (Daniel David, 2015). In addition, they outline an approach that goes beyond the boundaries of psychology, thus contributing to the theme of national identity in Romanian cultural space.

SEMIOTICS IDENTITY, SOCIO-ECONOMIC DEVELOPMENT AND SECURITY IN CONTEMPORARY INTERNATIONAL SYSTEM

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Author(s): Cezar Teclean,Florin BUȘTIUC / Language(s): English Issue: 1/2018

This paper analyses the relationship between identity and level of socio-economic development and security in contemporary world system. In this context, we will demonstrate the hypothesis that the degree of socio-economic development is directly proportional to the consistency and visibility identity for each country in the world. The impact identity assessment pursues one main objective: quantifying the degree of convergence between propensity identity, security and socio-economic development. This work is an empirical study which uses original data on the national mottos, economic parameters and socio-economic complexes indicators disaggregated by states of the world. Our findings suggest the existence of a spatial interdependence between the consistency of national identities, socio-economic development and security status. We attempt to demonstrate that their arrangement with each other maps out a community-wide asymmetry, resulting in a segregated organization of the international system, generating an asymmetric World with more identity-development-security speeds. At the same time, the deficit identity converges with development and security deficit.

LANGUAGE OF DIGNIFIED HUMANITY

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Author(s): Indira Y. Junghare / Language(s): English Issue: 1/2018

In today’s world of information technologies, conflicts between intellectual traditions of educated urban elites and common people, inclusive of powerless minorities, have become intensified. Helpless humanity has been subjected to mistreatment by elites with power to make policies and laws, which do not necessarily serve the needs of the majority of people. Additionally, the language of modernity, marked by competitive consumerism and heightened capitalism, has widened the existing divides between multiplicity of dialogues related to categories of gender, race, ethnicity, religion, creed, age and origin of birth. All divides, both individual and collective, have made the universe unsafe, leading to increased violence in thought, word, and action. In a world of strangers, humans are deprived of their innate dignity. This paper will discuss social inequality related to the phenomenon of elitism and the problems it poses to democratic society. Since elitism is a byproduct of education, the paper will explain the role of education and its relationship to elitism. An attempt will be made to reconcile the nature of elitism and education with the philosophical concepts of human being and the humanity’s language of dignity that transcends languages of all isms. Finally, the paper calls for quality educational programs, which focus on teaching ethics of diverse humanity through analytical thinking infused with valid reasoning supplemented by pragmatics of non-violent inter-cultural communication. In order to protect the innate dignity of all-inclusive humanity, a balanced and eclectic cosmopolitanism is recommended.

LOST IDENTITIES! BUILDING AND DISMANTLING SOCIAL INTELLIGENCE NETWORKS IN ROMANIA

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Author(s): Patrick RUS / Language(s): English Issue: 1/2018

Social intelligence approach provides a useful theoretical framework for looking at various social intelligence processes within society that can be initiated and developed in two complementary ways: actor-initiated process from top down and emergence social processes from bottom up. One the one hand, one of the actors that can initiate this process is the state. In this case, state institutions are supporting and maintaining the emergence and development of social intelligence processes within society. On the other hand, various agents within society (i.e. citizens, private firms, NGOs, so on) are the product of social intelligence emergent processes through their interactions. By this position paper we propose a complementary social intelligence approach. Our focus is Romania, a small state that provides interesting historical examples of both social intelligence processes. Our study is in a great measure descriptive, but in the second and third part, it provides an explicative and predictive viewpoint by the social mechanisms identified. Thus, in the first part of the paper, we present our theoretical framework based on social intelligence approach and the idea of network approach. We argue that there is a co-determination relationship between the concepts, social intelligence viewed through the agency lens and network approach viewed as structure. In the second part of the paper, we provide two examples of social intelligence processes. As a state-initiated process we provide Haret-Gusti social intelligence networks approach and as an emergent social intelligence process we provide at the enterprise level, the examples of MICA COMPANY BRAD and MARMOROSCH BLANK BANK. In the third part of the paper, we investigate a social mechanism that act as a mediating process that play a key role in dismantling of social intelligence networks. In this sense, we provide two study cases by which we explain the dismantling of social intelligence emergent networks within society. These will underline the orientation risk toward future in building social intelligence resilient networks within society.

NATIONAL IDENTITY, NOURISHED FROM THE ROOTS OF HISTORY

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Author(s): Adrian Lesenciuc,Ioana Miruna Popescu / Language(s): English Issue: 1/2019

Perhaps the most concrete perspective of national identity is the historical one, because this perspective departs from real events spent in the past to bring their echo to date. For the formation of the Romanian nation and the Romanian State the reference moments are marked by large-scale national speeches, that make the transfer of the identity concepts from the elite to the masses. To capture the way in which the national feeling in Romania was propagated vertically (from intellectuals to peasants), the way in which he transformed from ethnic identity into national identity, is the quintessential way in which the national identity was born. Strengthening a relationship with the past, gradually led to the genesis of Romanian ethnic consciousness, which materialized in the unification programs of the Romanian nation. The analysis of messages transmitted by the elite in the past, who had succeeded to anime the entire Romanian population and led to the unification of all Romanian historical provinces, is important because this is the way we can have the image for what represents the contemporary speech regarding National Identity.

ROMANIA'S CENTENARY AND YOUNG ROMANIANS' VIEW OF THEIR OWN IDENTITY

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Author(s): Irina Erhan,Florentina Hăhăianu / Language(s): English Issue: 1/2019

Starting from Erikson's idea that identity is a coherent self image made up of the goals, values and beliefs that a person is firmly committed to, our article aims to analyze how Romania's Centenary celebrations have succeeded in fostering in young people the belief in the grandeur of Romania's national values or annihilating the feeling of pride in belonging to a big nation. The main objective of our paper revolves around the way in which this anniversary event has succeeded or failed to strengthen the Romanian nation. We will equally address the hypothesis that the Centenary could represent that country project that is currently lacking in Romania. We will also employ the theory of the form without substance in our analysis, given the fact that the Centenary and the Romanian hospitality give a formal boost to Romania’s image. In our approach we will equally resort to the methodological instruments delivered by anthropology, since seen as a ritual the Centenary gave voice to two contradictory opinions, one attacking the national spirit and disavowing the symbols, rituals and national myths, the other defending them, but in a tedious and redundant rhetoric. For an interdisciplinary approach, the anthropological perspective will outline the premises for a qualitative psychological analysis. In an experiment, we need to make it clear that shaping a national identity among young Romanians is a process that can happen due to all the efforts put in celebrating the Centenary.

MYOPIA AND HYPEROPIA IN SHAPING CULTURAL IDENTITY

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Author(s): Ioana LEUCEA,Brândușa ȚEICAN / Language(s): English Issue: 1/2019

In this article our aim is to discuss the importance of cultural identity shaping and to raise the flag with regard to perceptive dystopias deliberately maintained by various actors through a colonization of the imaginary aiming to trigger the creation of certian cultural identities, more often than not in the logic of cultivating inferiority. We understand myopia and hyperopia in a metaphorical sense – as maladies that are perceptive towards a healthy perception we consider a road to success. From our point of view, cultural identity represents the critical emotional infrastructure for the development and survival of a nation who, if altered, can easily play the game of other actors and serve other interests.

THE CONCEPT OF NATIONAL IDENTITY AND ITS FALL UNDER THE SCHOOL OF CONSTRUCTIVIST THINKING. ARGUMENTS. IDENTIFYING THE ELEMENTS BELONGING TO THE CONSTRUCTIVIST APPROACH

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Author(s): Ioana Miruna Popescu / Language(s): English Issue: 1/2019

This paper aims to highlight the arguments for which the concept of national identity, a concept that has given rise to many debates, falls within the school of constructivist thinking from the perspective of international relations and security studies. The concept of national identity, which, by reference to the nations, captures the psychological and sociological aspects of the individuals from which the nations are formed, faces an evolution at European level, in the context of the re-establishment of the political realities amid accession and integration into European Union. Under the assumption that the social reality is not an objective element, outside the human action and perceptions, along with the assertion that the study of social reality is not independent of its object of study, it is created the framework for the questions, arguments and researches it assumes in its sphere of study of constructivism. From the perspective of constructivist conception, both the identity and the interests of the actions in the international relations are not predetermined, but they are defined by the interaction with the other participants. This way of seeing the reality has also led to emphasizing the concept of security community.

THE ROLE OF STATE IN SUPPORTING NATIONAL IDENTITY

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Author(s): Ioana Miruna Popescu / Language(s): English Issue: 1/2020

Securing the concept of national identity is one of the wishes of any state that is currently trying to secure its situation for the future. The community must be aware of its shared values, of the elements that define it, which it has the duty to preserve and pass on to future generations. Each member of the community is part of a whole. This whole has value from the perspective of the unit it represents, as well as from the perspective of its uniqueness. The need to function as a whole for those who have developed a group identity, a national identity, finds its answer in actions taken by the state to protect, support and develop the national identity. The speech present in the public space and promoted by personalities of the public life has a major impact and is a former of opinions and attitudes. In the material we will make, we propose to highlight the active role that the speech of certain public persons, representatives of emblematic institutions, plays in protecting and promoting the national identity.

PERCEPTIONS OF NATIONAL SECURITY IN AMERICAN POPULAR CULTURE

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Author(s): Cătălin TECUCIANU / Language(s): English Issue: 1/2020

The association between national security and pop culture might seem puzzling at first as the former category immediately brings to mind connections with fun and fiction, whereas the latter is linked with serious analyses and real-life relevance. Nevertheless, as this paper will show, exploring the complexity of American popular culture with regard to national security does prepare the ground for an interesting investigation. After all, media such as movies, video games and books represent great channels through which stereotypes about the activities carried out by intelligence and law enforcement agencies are reproduced, reshaped and reinforced among the general public. Popular representations of espionage, mass surveillance, terrorism or enhanced interrogation techniques are just a few examples that deserve to be analyzed as far as the discourse on national security is concerned. Therefore, it is the aim of this paper to look at some of the aspects related to national security through the lens of American popular culture.

POLITICAL BOUNDEDNESS AND THE ROLE OF CARTOGRAPHY

Author(s): Anne-Christine Habbard / Language(s): English Issue: 2/2020

I will question the legitimacy of borders via its underlying premise: the supposedly natural boundedness of communities. Two avenues are usually used to show the legitimacy and necessity of borders: either as a way to protect and preserve the conception of the good and the values of an already existing bounded community; or as a way to create a democratic polity, the limits of which are required to uphold the rights of citizens. Either way, what is presupposed is that communities are and/or should be bounded. I will argue that the arguments in favour of political boundedness do not hold up to scrutiny, least of all in the form of territorial borders. This will lead me to a discussion on the precedence of the graphic gesture of drawing the line, and hence on the violence of boundary-making.

NON-PLACES OF MEMORY: SPACE, MATERIALITY AND FALSE CEMETERIES

Author(s): Łukasz Posłuszny / Language(s): English Issue: 2/2020

The article deals with the concept of non-place of memory (NPM). Author defines NPM broadly as entity which once created by people lost its perceptive properties as man-made, but at the same time kept it material basis. In the narrower sense of the definition NPM are places of murder and bodies deposition sites which are either unrecognized as such or haven’t been yet changed into places of memory. Analysis are based mostly on cases of Roma massacres in Poland which took place during II World War, and compared with history of burials and concept of cemetery. Transitions of NMP is then explained by using the Mary Douglas’ concept of anomaly.

Identitatea naţională între tradiţie şi modernitate

Author(s): Ovidiu-Dănuţ Soare / Language(s): Romanian Issue: 1/2009

When we talk about national identity, we talk about Europe, Europe in past and present times: yesterdays Europe, when the nations were formed – a period of national tradition – and today’s Europe, one of modernity and post-modernity, where the national identity is outlined in new ways. National identity can be practically defined starting with the language we speak, the place we live in, the clothes we wear, the food and last but not least, our religion; it can be understood as a continuous process of adhesion to certain historical, religious and linguistic values, all of those integrated in a national sphere. National identity allons for different interpretations and reinterpretations which come from the three spheres: historical, religious and linguistic. We cannot conceive a group, a community or a nation without tradition. It appears the very next day after a custom or a practice has been settled down. We are born in a family where we learn a language, we go to school to receive the required education and we are members of a Church. All those lead to the shaping of an identity, in our modern European space, a space from which we will never escape.

Obsesia identităţii româneşti la Nae Ionescu şi Vasile Băncilă

Author(s): Valentin Popa / Language(s): Romanian Issue: 1/2009

Interwar era in Romania and elsewhere in Europe has been an upswing of interest theory to the problem of nations and identity in Europe. In Romania, the first thinkers who have investigated the identity of the Romanian people stressed their Latinity, by discovering the neo-Latin character of Romanian. Nae Ionescu (1890-1940) highlighted historical affinities with the East and the Balkan area which determine the conclusion that the Romanian spirituality has little connection with the Western spirituality. Only the political construction of modern Romanian state is achieved after the model of Western Europe, particularly France. Vasile Băncilă (1897-1979) argued the time for increased efforts of theoretical knowledge of Romanian ethnic identity, but also for political building for affirmation of ethnic identity in culture by encouraging regional culture, a project that is still present in the context of achieving European unity.