“Original democracy”: A rhetorical analysis of Romanian post-revolutionary political discourse and the University Square protests of June 1990

Author(s): Ioana Literat / Language(s): English Issue: 08/2012

In the aftermath of the contested Romanian anti-communist revolution of December 1989, the National Salvation Front (NSF), led by Ion Iliescu, emerged as the country’s provisional government. Amidst increasing suspicions of the revolution having been a strategic coup d’état orchestrated by the neo-communist NSF, in June 1990, protesters gathered in Bucharest’s University Square demanding the removal of the NSF government. To maintain the narrative rationality of the story of an authentic revolution, and to thus legitimize his claim to power, Iliescu employed a set of rhetorical tactics meant to reaffirm his commitment to democracy and to antagonize the emergent sphere of civic activism, while simultaneously reigniting deeply-entrenched class struggles. Through his political discourse, Iliescu managed to shift public perceptions of democracy, legality, and moral purity, by reframing unconstitutional measures, employing the redemptive rhetoric of revolutionary heroism, and strategically using the familiarity of communist rhetoric to ensure the public’s continued allegiance.

“PEISAJUL ETNIC” – UN CONCEPT PROBLEMATIC

Author(s): Ioan Augustin GOIA / Language(s): Romanian Issue: 8/2011

DerAutor analysiert parallel das Konzept der Kulturlandschaft, das sich im Laufe desXX-sten Jahrhunderts konturiert hat, und den Begriff der ethnischen Landschaft,der von einigen Forschern aus dem deutschen und angel-sächsischen Kulturraumvor kurzer Zeit vorgeschlagen wurde. Er hebt die Komplexität des KonzeptesKulturlandschaft hervor; eine Kulturlandschaft wird von zahlreicher Faktoren undderen historische Wechselwirkung charakterisiert. Diese sind: bestimmtenatürlichen Bedingungen, die Beschäftigungen der Bewohner, verschiedeneArbeitstechniken, eine gewisse soziale und gesellschaftliche Organisation,juristische und administrative Verordnungen, verschiedene kulturelle Einflüsse inihrem zeitlichen Ablauf sowie die Mentalität der Bewohner. Gerade dieseKomplexität der Faktoren führte den Autor zu der Behauptung, dass dieEinführung des Begriffes „ethnische Landschaft” eine zu einseitige, eingrenzendeBehandlung der Problematik der Kulturlandschaft suggerieren würde, auch wenndie Absicht der bertreffenden Autoren eine ganz andere war, nämlich dieNuancierung und Bereicherung des Begriffes der Kulturlandschaft. Der Autorvorliegender Publikation stellt die Behauptung auf, dass im Falle vonBevölkerungsgruppen deren jahrhundertlangen gesellschaftlichen Tätigkeitein einklar abgegrenztes Gebiet kulturell geprägt haben, das Bewusstsein der lokalenIdentität dem Bewusstsein der ethnischen Identität vorangeht. Es besteht also dieGefahr, dass diese lokale Identität durch die Verwendung eines solchen abstraktenund vagen Konzeptes wie die „ethnische Landschaft“ abgeschirmt, manipuliertund politisiert wird. Weil aber auch die ethnischen Aspekte in der Kulturlandschaftberücksichtigt werden sollen, wird vom Autor der Begriff „ethno-zonaleKulturlandschaft“ vorgeschlagen, um auf diese Weise die Problematik desKonzeptes der Kulturlandschaft zu erweitern.

“Plastic Migrants” and Deprived Livelihoods: Re-settlement and Forced Migration

Author(s): Maheshvari Naidu / Language(s): English Issue: 2/2016

“Voluntary” out-migration is anything but voluntary or driven by “free” volition. Forced migration and displacement in turn draw the gaze to the complexities and fraught realities imbricated in certain compelled contexts of “displacements” and movements of people and their livelihoods. The paper works through the prismatic lens of sense-making theory in attempting to reveal how a group of internally displaced people in Zimbabwe endeavour to reconstruct their displaced lives. Seen through a sense-making lens, each displaced individual is understood as moving through space and time and interacting with other (displaced) individuals and certain scavenged material and emotional artefacts or relics which to rebuild and assemble a material (and emotional) shelter or dwelling place, while simultaneously attempting to assemble order in a world of political complexity, immense uncertainty and continuous change. Adopting a micro-analytical perspective and focusing on “space” (as opposed to “place” or home) allows one to see space as a socially and discursively constructed aspect of the displaced person’s experiences. Working through the narratives of a sample community of twelve participants living at Caledonia settlement in Zimbabwe, the paper problematizes and “troubles” the notion of subaltern agency within the context of displacement. The qualitative data elicited, in turn reveals the layers and multiple tiers of both visible deprivation as well as (in)visible agency embedded in the actions of the displaced people.

“Playing catch up”. The notion of needing to accelerate a country’s progress towards a civilised paradise – the Bulgarian version (a proposed entry for a dictionary of peregrinating ideas)

Author(s): Grażyna Szwat-Gyłybowa / Language(s): English Issue: 14/2014

This paper outlines the main stages in the process through which the notion of “needing to catch up” (a belief that the country was in need of accelerated development) became incorporated into the idea of Bulgarian national identity. Since the mid-19th century, Bulgarians have tended to rely on the notion of “needing to catch up” as a way of conceptualising their place among “the civilised nations,” a concept they regard with varying degrees of desirability. I use the concept of “needing to catch up” in the sense of a culturally and politically functional standard or template, which nonetheless cannot function as an independent concept since it belongs to different systems of ideas with their various economic, geopolitical, religious, psychological and cultural aspects. Inseparably wedded to the idea of “needing to catch up” is the idea of “retardation”, which was floated in discussions on the Bulgarian condition even before the Bulgarian state emerged as a political reality. As the national movement grew in strength, these inferiority complexes morphed into their mirror image: a belief that Bulgarians were capable of catching up with Europe in terms of cultural advancement. From the early fascination with the cultural achievements of the “enlightened nation” felt by the so-called “Orthodox Enlightenment” thinkers, through a replication of the Russian discourse, this line of reasoning culminated in Marxist ideology (including propaganda between 1945 and 1989) and the post-1989 politics of persuasion. The bell may be tolling for the time-bound idea of “needing to catch up”, a notion which has exhausted its potential to excite intellectual conflict or struggle, and has very possibly resulted is a self-poisoning of the cultures which indulged in it, only to become doomed to dull, infantile repetition.

“Pygmies and Sleeping Giant”: Thomist Personalism in the Social and Political Thought of Gilbert Keith Chesterton

Author(s): Maciej Wąs / Language(s): English Issue: 1/2018

The aim of the text is to uncover and describe personalist elements of Gilbert Keith Chesterton’s nationalism and distributism. First part of the text is concerned with clarifying basic notions, so—with explaining the meaning of the terms “personalism” and “Thomist personalism,” and presenting the most basic intellectual framework of Thomist personalist philosophy, which is done by the means of analyzing the thought of Thomist personalist par excellence—Jacques Maritain. The second part of the text concentrates on the analysis of Chesterton’s ideas, proving—consequently—that he was a social thinker, that his notion of nationalism corresponds in a striking manner to Maritain’s concept of social life, and his distributist views—to Maritain’s concept of the common good. The text ends with several general remarks that aim at establishing certain possible advantages this analysis might produce.

“Read-To-Write-Tasks” in English for Specific Purposes Classes

Author(s): Galina Kavaliauskienė,Jelena Suchanova / Language(s): English Issue: 4/2010

At university level students face demanding tasks of reading an enormous amount of professional materials in English. Writing various assignments is another challenging part of higher education. Online activities are the priority for conducting assignments at tertiary level. Students usually start doing the English for Specific Purposes (ESP) course before learning subject-matters of the future profession, i.e. in their first year. The cornerstone of the ESP is unfamiliar lexis and numerous concepts of subject-matter. In order to succeed, students need to develop proficiency in reading professional texts and writing skillfully on relevant subject issues. The aim of this paper is to study, first, learners‘ attitudes to online reading of professional materials as well as to writing various assignments online and, second, to examine learners‘ self-assessment of proficiency in these skills. Our research employed brief written surveys designed in accordance with the standards in Social Sciences, which were administered to the students doing the ESP course, and the verbal data obtained during individual interviews intended to assess learners‘ success and achievements throughout the academic year. The respondents were the students specializing in psychology at Mykolas Romeris University, Vilnius, Lithuania. All the participants were unanimous in the importance of writing and reading skills for the ESP tasks. 100% of respondents support reading professional materials, and 80% of respondents support exercising online writing. Self-assessment of reading proficiency demonstrates that 90% of students believe they possess very good or good skills of reading, and 70% of learners are sure of their good skills in writing. Respondents’ performance in these skills is less impressive. Some recommendations towards perfecting students’ proficiency in “read-to-write-tasks” are suggested. It is important to help learners develop better rates of reading and learn to employ metacognitive strategies in writing.

“Roma” labelling, identity politics and EU-integration: the case of Montenegro

Author(s): Sofia Zahova / Language(s): English Issue: 4/2018

The article makes an overview of the groups labelled as Gypsy/Roma and the minority policies related to Roma in present day Montenegro, and discusses how – in view of the processes in the region and in the course of the state’s EU-integration – the top-down approach of adopting definitions centred on the terms “Roma and Egyptians” and “Roma” have influenced the state politics of identity regarding sup- porting and promoting new identities, as well as reinforcing the label “Roma” and “Romani” for all communities considered of common (Gypsy/Roma) origin. Further on, the impact of the EU-integration discourse on legislation and setting up Romani and Egyptian organizations is discussed within the public policies sector. Finally, I discuss initiatives and resources for publishing in Romani language in a country where a great part of the groups considered being of Romani origin speak another language as a mother tongue. My main argument is that the minority protection EU-conditionality and the special focus on the rights of the Roma, have led to an “import” of Roma issues for “solving”, along with copy-pasting of activities that supposedly aim to flag Romani identity and language even though neither Romani identity nor Romani language are characteristic for all communities labelled as “Roma”.

“Sense and Sensibility” at an Event in Digital Media

Author(s): Claudia Chiorean (Talaşman) / Language(s): English Issue: 1/2016

For thousands of years, people have been talking about emotions, from Plato and Aristotle’stheories till Ellis’s cognitive theory. Plato believes that emotions disturb the mind and Kant argues thatemotions are diseases of the soul. Darwin integrates them into valuable adaptive behaviors and intoevolutionary species, while JP Sartre considers them a way of keeping consciousness awake. Emotionsconstitute a significant component, dynamic-human energy of the psychic system. It reflects thesubjective internal experience through social behavior, how to adapt to objective reality in which manlives. Current Man lives in a dense, predatory media environment; its adaptation to the objective realityis decisively influenced by the proximity media system. Reality of Media is contained in both thecognitive system, and in displaying the emotional and volitional, motivational symptom. Emotionsthemselves are processes in which the functions of consciousness are activated. They are the effect ofthe confrontation between the individual and the actual/presumptive needs of the environment.Emotions are pluritonal and they develop gradually. They are situational and they frequently occur as aresult of satisfied or unsatisfied biological needs. Consequently, emotions can be experienced only inthe cognitive context. Thus, we distinguish between provoked, evoked and anticipatory emotions.People are rarely surprised by the course of events. Normally, they try various methods to determinethe course of events, without expecting something in particular to happen. Depending on howadequately they predict and how close they are to the reality in progress, they build their optimalscenario for each situation. The affective element is essential (attraction or repulsion, fear or fear ofdomination, a motivating feeling or a blocking effect). Perception, representation or thinking is imagesof the objects. Affective processes reveal the suitability / opposites between the data subject and theexternal world needs. It reflects the relationship between the individual and ambience events.

“SEVDALİNKA” VE “İNSANLIK AYAĞA KALK” ROMANLARINDA BOSNA SAVAŞI’NDAKİ TOPLUMSAL YAPI VE İLİŞKİLERİN OLUŞUMSAL YAPISALCI ELEŞTİRİSİ

Author(s): Demet Yener,Cumhur Aslan / Language(s): Turkish Issue: 2/2018

The Bosnian war and genocide, which is one of the biggest tragedies in human history, has been a popular topic in various fields such as literature, poetry, novels, and cinema. The tragedies created by the war and the genocide have been critically subjected in numerous works. The Bosnian war includes both political struggles and cultural, ideological, and identity conflicts. The Muslim identity and its cultural background is an important theme in all the studies concerning the Bosnian problem. This paper first scrutinizes two novels written over Bosnian war and then they are compared to each other concerning cultural and ideological aspects. Moreover, the paper aims to analyze the different forms in which the religious, identity, and the ideological aspects of the Bosnian problem are handled, and also it contents to understand the differences in these distinct approaches. To this end, two novels, which approach to the problem from different agendas, an Islamic and a humanistic one respectively, are comparatively scrutinized.

“Siedem zegarków kopidoła Joachima Rybki” — pisarski rachunek sumienia na lekcjach języka polskiego w liceum

Author(s): Lucyna Sadzikowska / Language(s): Polish Issue: 25/2016

Gustaw Morcinek’s novel Siedem zegarków kopidoła Joachima Rybki is for hima sort of literary examination of conscience. In school practice, it can also be viewed as a road to a better cognition and understanding by a student of his/her surrounding reality. Reflection on the Silesian writer’s text may become a perfect means to make students aware of the universal nature of some issues and values. In Joachim Rybka’s closet, the clocks measure time giving a pretext for taking a trip down memory lane and recollecting adventures and characters possessing wordly wisdom. A S ilesian ditch‑digger is a distanced man and very candid. His long and well‑lived life gives him the right and privilege to have this attitude. He sees things that others do not want to notice.

“SOCIAL ECONOMY DAYS IN CLUJ”- CAMPAIGN FOR PROMOTING SOCIAL ECONOMY

Author(s): Alexandra Antonia Irimia ,Dolores Banc,Oana-Magda Vlădut / Language(s): Issue: 1/2015

“Social Embeddedness” Viewed from an Institutional Perspective. Revision of a Core Principle of New Economic Sociology with Special Regard to Max Webe

Author(s): Andrea Maurer / Language(s): English Issue: 4/2012

Starting by the very fact that Mark Granovetter's notion of "social embeddedness" became very successful by establishing new economic sociology in the 1980s yet it is argued that current economic sociology needs to work on a stronger connection to institutional arguments. It is shown that this can be based on new theoretical developments by linking micro and macro level. This article reconstructs Granovetter's attempt of working within an action-based framework that has strong ties to the work of MaxWeber as well as to some parts of new institutionalism. The particularity of Granovetter's approach is seen in his assumption that individuals' interests as well as their economic actions are socially embedded in "networks of social interactions" that influence the economic outcome. With regard to Max Weber and new institutionalism, it is then argued that Mark Granovetter omits to carefully consider both firstly how mutual expectations defined within social relations are affected by more general social expectations (the institutional framework) and secondly what kind of coordination problems are precisely solved by social relations through information or expectation. But this would be important for a more complex and more realistic picture of economy. Therefore, it is recommended to analyze the interplay of different social mechanisms-social capital, trust, legitimacy, hierarchy, social entrepreneurs-that work either through information in a network, group norms or generalized expectations in an wider institutional framework. In conclusion, a methodological suggestion is made by combining historical-empirical work with theoretical arguments.

“Socialist management” in Czechoslovakia - Conflict and Reconciliation

Author(s): Tomáš Vilímek ,Oldřich Tůma / Language(s): English Issue: 44/2017

“Spiritual Begging”: The Dichotomy of Ziyarat in Pakistan?

Author(s): Sheba Saeed / Language(s): English Issue: 01/2018

The article is based on years of researching begging in the context of South Asia around locations such as traffic intersections, bazaars and shrines. The central idea that it explores is how the practice of Ziyarat (Visitation), a contested ritual journey to the shrines of Saints, is actually a form of begging, albeit, on a spiritual level. It elaborates on the novel concept of spiritual begging and the relationship between such supplication in a sacred space and internal poverty using supporting notes from the field participants and illuminates the intra-religious pluralistic conflict which exists within Islam on this practice.

“Stand Up for Someone’s Rights!” The Nelson Mandela Rules

Author(s): Claudia Constantinescu / Language(s): English Issue: 1/2017

In 2016 the theme of the International Human Rights Day was “Stand up for someone’s rights today!”. The students of the Faculty of Sociology and Social Work responded to the United Nations’ campaign and stood up for the human rights of the offenders during their detention time and during their reentry into society following imprisonment. Debates with some of the imprisoned and the staff of the Bucharest‑Jilava Penitentiary, those who made the event happening, brought into light the Nelson Mandela Rules of December 2015. This article is about the amendments of the Standard Minimum Rules for the Treatment of Prisoners adopted by the United Nations 60 years ago (the so‑called Nelson Mandela Rules).The document was updated in December 2015 to reflect the new reality of imprisonment. The process of its implementation is ongoing within the Member States and they are technically assisted by the United Nations Office for Drugs and Crime.

“Statistical Assimilation” in the Hungarian Kingdom 1880-1910

Author(s): György Kövér / Language(s): English Issue: 2/2016

During the existence of the Austro-Hungarian Monarchy the official censuses on the Cisleithanian side inquired about the colloquial or everyday language (Umgangssprache), whereas the Hungarian census focused on the „mother tongue” (Muttersprache). In the Hungarian Kingdom between 1880 and 1910, however, the relevant question changed. In 1880 it was formulated as “What is your mother tongue?”, whereas from 1900 onwards, probably in an attempt to reproduce the question formulated on the Cisleithanian side, it was “What is your mother tongue, that is, the language you consider as yours, the language in which you are most fluent and like to speak?”. Can it possibly be a pure accident that the ratio of those with Hungarian as their mother tongue happened to break through the magic 50% threshold value exactly in 1900, and that such ratio reached nearly 55% by 1910? The main question of this paper: what is the “statistical contribution” to these “results” considered as a “successful Hungarian assimilation”? The answer we try to give with the help “changing the scale”, it means on country and county level, both.

“Success stories” as an evidence form: Organizational legitimization in an international technology assistance project

Author(s): James M. Nyce,Cheryl Klimaszewski,Gail E. Bader / Language(s): English Issue: 16/2011

This paper looks at how evidence and success were constructed in Biblionet - Global Libraries Romania, an NGO-led, technology-based project in Romania. The main focus of Biblionet is to provide public access to computers and the internet in public libraries throughout Romania. Here, we discuss how project staff relied on one particular set of measures to legitimatize, validate and "sell" their project to audiences in Romania and in the West. This NGO tended to "demonstrate" success using relatively weak measures. Perhaps the most suspect of these were, paradoxically, appeals to" science," that is to say, "hard" numbers and and one-time, one-off inspirational "success stories" that would play well in popular media. Our research on the Biblionet program in Salaj County, Romania identified trends in information, technology, and library use which either fell outside of or were not captured by the NGO's quantitative metrics. This is despite the fact that these trends seemed to indicate a greater potential for this project's long-term success than the ones the NGO itself employed. This raises a number of issues that neither the anthropology of development nor the anthropology of science have taken seriously. In particular, this paper suggests that the role lay or folk notions of empiricism and "success" play in the legitimization and evaluation of NGO efforts requires more attention than it has received in the literature so far.

“Teorija” i “praksa” socijalnoga nauka

Author(s): Jadranka Brnčić / Language(s): Bosnian Issue: 15/2011

Pravda je stvar Države, a ne Crkve – tvrdi Papa. To je katolički argument ograničene vlasti izrečen jezikom teologizirane političke filozofije. Božanska ljubav da transcendira politiku. Za obojicu papa, Ivana Pavla II. i Benedikta XVI., prava revolucionarna uloga Crkve jest evangelizacija, mijenjanje kulture mijenjanjem pojedinca, što je, u svojoj radikalnosti – poziv na svetost. Ali, i dalje ostaje sporno, ili barem otvoreno pitanje kako se ova svetost ima očitovati u društvenom životu

“THE ECSTASY OF COMMUNICATION:” INTERDISCIPLINARITY, RELATIVITY AND OTHERNESS IN AMERICAN STUDIES

Author(s): Irina Dubský / Language(s): English Issue: 1/2016

The present study proposes to investigate the phenomenon of interdisciplinarity interpreted as a form of communication and exchange. Interdisciplinarity relies on different forms of otherness which is explored within the overarching context of postmodernism, being evaluated as an essential dimension of both the cultural and socio-political sphere. This multifaceted intellectual project may be placed within the vast perspective of cultural relativism, which, among many other things, entails a plurality of voices and narratives that admit to their own partiality, locality and limitation. An all-encompassing perspective on the interdisciplinary enterprise may be achieved if it is related to what Baudrillard terms “the instantaneity of communication,” which entails a redrawing of boundaries at all levels, the effacement of disciplinary frontiers being a particular illustration of this ample phenomenon.

“The Fear of Small Numbers”? (Re)constructing Identities of American and European Muslims

Author(s): Izabela Handzlik / Language(s): English Publication Year: 0