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Bratislav Ivanov's new book is dedicated to the values and traditions of the Japanese culture. Already in the early twentieth century, French scientist Henry Dumolard draws attention to the fact that the Japanese people are guided by their logic and draw conclusions that are often incomprehensible to Europeans. To understand the Japanese people, we need to know the values that form the core of their culture. A key to their understanding is the geographical environment, mythology, religion, and Japan's history.
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This modern translation of all the surviving literary compositions ascribed to Liudprand, the bishop of Cremona from 962 to 972, offers unrivaled insight into society and culture in western Europe during the "iron century". Since Liudprand enjoyed the favor of the Saxon Roman emperor Otto the Great, and traveled to Constantinople more than once on official business, his narratives also reveal European attitudes toward the Byzantine Empire and the culture of its refined capital city. No other tenth-century writer had such privileged access to the high spheres of power, or such acerbic wit and willingness to articulate critiques of the doings of powerful people. Liudprand's historical texts (the Antapodosis on European events in the first half of the 900s, and his Historia Ottonison the rise to power of Otto the Great) provide a unique view of the recent past against a genuinely European backdrop, unusual in a time of localized cultural horizons. Liudprand's famous satirical description of his misadventures as Ottonian legate at the Byzantine court in 968 is a vital source of information on Byzantine ritual and diplomatic process, as well as a classic of medieval intercultural encounter. Readers interested in medieval European culture, the history of diplomacy, Italian and German medieval history, and the history of Byzantium will find this collection of translated texts rewarding. A full introduction and extensive notes help readers to place Liudprand's writings in context.
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Evliya Celebi was an enlightened man in a variety of ways who believed in equality, freedom of thought and intellectual debate, and found all of these things present in Islamic societies. Over the course of his travels, he wrote ten volumes detailing his adventures. ‘Seyahatname’ – Book of Travels – is a unique and important text, representing one of the few accounts of the 17th century and the Ottoman world from the perspective of a Muslim. These are not just factual accounts, Evliya had a great imagination and just as important as his journal entries were the imaginative storytelling that ran alongside, elaborating, exaggerating, and fantasizing. Through his stories, we are prompted to think more imaginatively about our own travels and journeys to other cities. This 17th-century Muslim traveler can sometimes seem narrow-minded and yet this same man can stand in St Stephens Cathedral in Vienna and be moved by the music he hears. Sometimes these encounters lead to nothing but sometimes they lead to stories which are so deeply felt, and so universally melodic that they leave echoes which can still be heard and felt today. In 2011, the year which would have been his 400th birthday, Evliya is being paid homage as UNESCO’s Man of the Year.
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The book concerns the fundamental questions set by the founder of Bulgarian sociology Ivan Hadjiiski: Where are we coming from? What have we gone through? How far have we reached? Where are we going? Sociology is a science in which the person puts his imagination and heuristic potential. Sociology is a craft, in the practice of which the outcome depends on the mastery of the techniques and methodologies, the correct observance of rules and procedures. Sociology is a business that requires certain resources and also can reproduce or increase them. Sociology, however, is something else; it is not only a knowledge of society, but it is a public activity. It loses its meaning beyond the public realization or changes it if this realization does not correspond to the scientific credibility.
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Prof. Georgy Fotev is a Bulgarian sociologist. His scientific works are in the areas of theory and history of sociology and the disciplinary fields of modern sociology. The focus of the research interests of G.Fotev is the nature of sociology as a multiple paradigm science. Another major theme in the works of Georgy Fotev is the dialogue as a base and horizon of multiple paradigm sociology. Georgy Fotev has publications in the fields of historical sociology, sociology of politics, ethnosociology, the crisis of legitimacy, sociology of values, etc. His books "The long night of communism in Bulgaria" and "Bulgarian melancholy" throw light on the dramatic fate of the Bulgarian national society. Georgy Fotev was Minister of Education and Science (1991 - 1992). He is professor emeritus of New Bulgarian University. In 2003 he was awarded the Distinguished Service Award from the American University in Bulgaria. Mankind is shaken by a multitude of uncertainty. There is an increasing perception that uncertainty becomes permanent. The focus is on the existential, social, political, economic, global and other basic varieties of human uncertainty. The author explores the fundamental conditions of human uncertainty and the main forms of her manifestation and experience. The phenomenon is seen in the light of the new science of chaos and complexity in the context of the risky society/world, in terms of catastrophic consciousness and the conditions of crisis types. Particular attention is paid to trust as a fundamental social attitude and condition against decadent attitudes and nihilism.
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Inside the New Europe, proposed to reorganize based on cosmic principles instead of some arbitrary decisions, it’s possible to create five administrative-territorial unities, with grouping of the existent national states, -enclaves and –exclaves, of which functioning follows a damped harmonic oscillator model, taking part in the forming Eurasian Continental Unity. The Carpathian Chain being the terrestrial projection of the Constellation Draco/Dragon, with the included Ecliptic Centre represented by the Rosia Poieni Peak in the West-Carpathians, results of course the forming around it the Central-East European Territory, bordered by the Baltic Sea to the North, the Mediterranean Sea to the South, the Black Sea and the rivers Nistru-Bug to the East, and by the limits of the Central-West European Territory (former German-Roman Empire) to the West, with which together are forming the New Central Europe, surrounded by the West-, North- and East-European Territories, each of them with Northern- and Southern parts. Thus, the Central-East European Territory, called DRAKYA according to the Constellation, is separated by the river Danube-Drava in North-Drakya=DAKYA and South-Drakya=TRAKYA. DAKYA is relatively simple to realize, extending the V4 Association of Czech-land, Poland, Slovakia and Hungary with ROMANIA and MOLDOVA, respectively including the intercalated small teritories, but TRAKYA is more difficult to border inside the Mediterranean Sea. The coordinating centre of DAKYA results of course by cosmic criteria, through realizing of the new spatial town ROSIA POIENI, with residential and agreement zones on the surface, and with production and communal services in the depth, including a transatomic work too. A similar coordinating centre is possible to realize in TRAKYA at the Olympos Mountain, which is the projection of the Thuban, first star of the Constellation. In this conception, the functioning of the whole system is proposed with a periodicity of 5 years, started in 2020 with DRAKYA and TRAKYA, and from 2030 following with our western neighbours, and in order the West-, North- and East-European territorial ones, so in the next 100 years will be functioning the complete system with its mechanism based on equality, equilibrium and harmony, making certain the long-term evolution, after 2120 in cicles of 30 years. This transition from the „bulk” or atomized Europe to the proposed new structure, coincides with a transition process to a higher level of our consciousness, through a cosmic thought in general, inclusive in our renewed architectural and urbanistic thinking. In Europe’s restructuring based on cosmic principles, after their outside positions, ROMANIA and MOLDOVA will have a central position and coordinating role, with the possibility to catch up – or exceed – the more advanced European countries, restructuring their slender infrastructure and settlement network, as a result of their better situation in the domain of resources. In the realizing process of this grandious programme, a prime role will have the institution INCD-URBAN-INCERC, with its complex profile, able to coordinate on long term
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The author provides general characteristics for over a hundred of archaeological sites of the Golden Horde time on the territory of the Volga Bulgaria, such as forts, unfortified settlements and necropolises. He studies history of their research, area of distribution, topography of some sites, stratigraphy and chronology, archaeological material, and historical context of their emergence and development.Archaeological research of 19th—20th cc. detected at least 330 settlements — both fortified and unfortified. Best studied are forts, i. e. remains of towns and fortresses. Yet, only a small part of archaeological forts can be identified as historical towns mentioned in written sources. Thus, the article first studies towns known from written sources (with Bilyar and Bulgar as the largest ones), then the forts that emerged in pre-Mongol period and continued to exist over the Golden Horde time, and then the forts emerged during the Golden Horde time and unfortified settlements, and last — necropolises of late nomads on the territory of Bulgar Ulus. Necropolises left by the settled population are considered in parallel with the respective settlements.
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The article represents a study of the topography of the Golden Horde town of Azak, which has remained quite underresearched until present. In the 18th — first half of 20th centuries, the hillfort did not attract attention of the Russian historians and archaeologists. Nowadays the territory of the Medieval Azak is completely built-up and archaeological investigations of 20th — early 21th century have been conducted on separate sectors, mainly in the new construction zones. According to the results of research, one can determine the borders of the Medieval town at different stages of its existence. The author discusses different aspects of the economic development of Azak as well as peculiarities of urban development. He localizes various social, professional and ethnic population groups within the town’s territory, together with common buildings, sources of water supply, town necropolises, fortifications and so on.
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In the vicinity of Bilyar (“Great City”), the capital of pre-Mongol Volga Bulgaria, there are 249 archaeological sites referring to the 10th — first half of the 15th century. Of these, 59 date back to the pre-Mongol and the Golden Horde periods, while 20 archaeological sites refer exclusively to the era of the Ulus Jochi. The collapse of the Great City occurred in 1236. This fact is established by both written and archaeological sources and serves as another argument in support of the view that the coins with the name of al-Nasir li-Din Allah were minted in the 1240s. Recent studies have made it possible to localize the restored “Golden-Horde Bilyar”, where coins were minted in the second half of the 13th century, not on the site of the destroyed city, as was thought previously, but rather in the territory of the vast Bilyar III and the Toretskoye settlement sites located 3 km north-west of it. The number of settlements declined almost 3-fold — up to 8 persons per 1 sq. km, with a corresponding decrease in the population density. The changes in settlement patterns and material culture of the Bilyar area population, characteristic of the other conquered territories as well, reflects the process of provincialization of the former pre-Mongol centers.
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This article examines the problem of intercultural competence’ formation at the students in the process of initial pedagogical training. The author considers the problem of intercultural competence’s formation from the standpoint of the task approach, as one of the modern ones, ensuring the formation of all the constituent components of intercultural competence. This approach is ensured by the practical implementation and development of necessary knowledge, skills, and value attitudes as a basic component of intercultural competence
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Many years ago, Jacobs (1989) defined cross-curricular instruction as a conscious effort to apply knowledge, principles, and/or values to more than one academic discipline simultaneously. Today we know that when students see the connections between individual subject areas, the material becomes more relevant. There are many ways in which to integrate different subjects or content into a constructive holistic unit. The author presents an approach to mountain-oriented education that includes contributions from geography and physical education. Through the presentation of YOUrALPS (Educating Youth for the Alps: (re)connecting Youth and Mountain heritage for an inspiring future in the Alps) project results, the author discusses a cross-curricular approach in the school activities of both subjects when dealing with key issues viewed from different disciplinary perspectives. The author provides an educational vision through a proposal for effective teaching that aims to enable more successful learning and achievement by students. The proposal is based on cross-curricular investigations of the geography and physical education curricula (objectives, abilities, skills and competencies connected with the mountain-oriented topics of each discipline) and is enhanced with suggestions for integration either in indoor or outdoor activities. A survey of teachers who attended the Summer School on Mountain-Oriented Education (Slovenia, 2017) reveals that this type of integration requires – in addition to extensive planning and cooperation among teachers – a high degree of teacher commitment, which works well so long as there is high enthusiasm for the project.
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The first chapter of the book has multiple goals. It introduces the topics and the chosen title Geography of Barriers and discusses why it is important to study it. It shows how the above-mentioned accessibility of space, services and information depends on various types of barriers. Their influence on policies of accessibility in public space frames the whole book. Thinking about barriers is not limited to the dimension of streets or squares, but considers the broader meaning of barriers: in public buildings, institutions, services, websites, information systems, applications, etc. A barrier does not have to be material, it can be of social, communication, or technological nature. Our book distinguishes among three types of barriers. The first type is represented by those annoying material high curbs, missing guide, unlabeled earthwork, etc.—i.e., the barriers of our everyday life. When talking about examples of removing the first type of barriers, we already consider the second type—so-called political barriers one encounters in the introduction of policies of accessibility. The last type of barriers is devoted only peripheral attention, being represented by so-called post-socialist barriers, i.e., barriers stemming from the meaning of disability in a post-socialist society.
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The concept of green infrastructure was born from the need to reconnect with the natural space, as a result of the benefits recognition it brings. This material analyzes how the concept of green infrastructure is defined, the evolution of green infrastructure in the urban environment and its components, with an emphasis on green spaces. The present material was developed within the project PN 23 35 06 01 - "Integrated computer-urban planning system for the assessment of blue green infrastructure at the level of municipalities and cities in Romania with a view to implementation in urban development plans. Case study: Râmnicu Vâlcea Municipality", financed by the Ministry of Research, Innovation and Digitization and carried out within the ECODIGICONS Nucleus Program.
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Along with the economic and social dimension, achieving ecological stability is one of the three dimensions of sustainable development. The aim of this research is to evaluate the status of research and practice in the field of green / urban green infrastructure, to find out the level of interest on this topic highlighted in recently scientific publications, what is the relation with other themes and what are these areas, and what is current state of acquired knowledge. Green infrastructure, urban green infrastructure and nature-based solutions are current topics that can be found both in European Union policies and documents and, increasingly, in international scientific publications. The number of references in publications on Google Scholar shows, on the one hand, that the maximum interest in this topic was reached in 2018-2019, and on the other hand, that there is still an increased interest in green / urban green infrastructure in connection with the following other topics: urban planning, public health, climate change adaptation, public participation, local governance, nature-based solutions, ecosystem services, metropolitan areas, social equity and environmental justice, biodiversity, GIS and remote sensing, and the Covid-19 pandemic. The analysis of scientific articles, books and reports from the last five years shows that urban green infrastructure is a subject of a multi- and trans- disciplinary nature. As for the current state of knowledge, scientific publications agree that a hybrid green-grey infrastructure can help avoiding possible conflicts in the context of urban space. Also, more and more attention is paid to inclusive planning and governance, for a balanced distribution of urban green infrastructure. Recent research shows that nature-based solutions should be integrated into urban planning and that policies should be created to stimulate the use of green urban infrastructure models through nature-based solutions.
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This study specifically analyzes the MENAT area (Middle East and North Africa plus Turkey) using images collected during self-funded on-site documentary studies to look at the public space. The analysis included Morocco, Algeria, Tunisia, and Egypt in Africa, and Turkey and Jordan in Asia. The analysis found out a gradient starting with well designed public spaces in the large cities, down to a lack of care for the public space, seen often as “no one’s land” in informal settlements and small cities. These contrasts between countries, within the same country and even within the same city are a common feature of the analyzed area.
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This article explores the concept of smart growth by examining its definitions, principles, and perspectives through relevant literature, EU policies, and international practices. It highlights the importance of smart growth in promoting urban sustainability, stimulating economic development, and improving quality of life. Additionally, it addresses the challenges and opportunities associated with implementing this concept across various geographical and social contexts.
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The book Beyond Anthropocentrism, i.e. Demand for the Impossible? The Questions of Culture and Other Questions in Social Theory and Practice of Conversation concentrates on man and his psycho-physical condition, taking special account to its ethical consequences for the world and himself. However, the book also tries to make him leave his privileged status. The monograph is divided into three parts. Chapter 1: Culture in Theory presents essential findings focused on the key term, “culture”. Chapter 2: Culture in Practice presents seven in-depth interviews conducted in the years 2020–2021 with the researchers representing a spectrum of different scientific disciplines: Ewa Bińczyk, Katarzyna Dembicz, Bogumiła Lisocka-Jaegermann, Joanna Ostrowska, Hanna Rubinkowska-Anioł, Jolanta Sujecka, Anna Ziębińska-Witek. In Conclusion, the fundamental problem of the posthumanistic (non-anthropocentric) vision of the world is paid attention to.
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