We kindly inform you that, as long as the subject affiliation of our 300.000+ articles is in progress, you might get unsufficient or no results on your third level or second level search. In this case, please broaden your search criteria.
It is the merit of this book to offer an alternative to this type of rural history, allowing a breathing space for narratives which, by going beyond the mere anecdotal, would connect the trajectory of the Romanian peasantry to macro-social processes of a larger theoretical scope.
More...
Amongst the few books that document the often dramatic changes currently taking place in village communities in eastern and south-eastern Europe, this book is unique. The outcome of a collaboration between photographer Petruţ Călinescu and anthropologist Ioana Hodoiu, it offers a rare insight into the fastchanging realities of villages in Maramureş, repudiating the common notion of village communities here and elsewhere as rural backwaters that have missed the train of globalisation. Călinescu and Hodoiu have worked in the area since 2010, documenting village life and following the inhabitants abroad, especially to Paris, where the latter are employed as construction workers and domestic servants. Operating in tandem - Călinescu shooting photographs and Hodoiu doing the research and interviews - they have co-produced a book that offers a dispassionate insight into the destiny of certain rural communities that have been involved in labour migration to the EU. The book is excellent in that it has eye for visual detail, observing the money-fuelled changes in material culture for example, without casting facile value judgements over what is often in the view of outsiders a betrayal of tradition and travesty of good taste.
More...
Without the slightest exaggeration we can say that in ancient Israel a complex system of social security was regulated. If that system worked as depicted by the words of Moses and its efficiency are altogether other problems that can make the topic of new research. The disadvantaged categories the Old Testament refers to are not basically different from the persons that make today’s social politics topic, which are: the poor, orphans, widows, emigrants and the sick. Besides, a pericope through Deuteronomy bears the name The Rights of the foreigner, the orphan and widow. It is worth noting that in the Biblical text, the issue of protecting the disadvantaged transcends historical eras. It is found, thus, in the lamentations of the rightful Job, in the thoughts of Solomon and even in the words of our Savior. An everlasting issue to solve which modern approaches should not exclude, in our opinion, is the perennial parts of early Hebrew culture.
More...
The present paper aims to determine the influence of EU member countries’ economic development on their citizens’ pro-environmental attitudes, using a Cluster Analysis, a Principal Components Analysis and a series of multiple regressions. In this sense, we have used the results of the 2012 survey on the „Attitudes of Europeans towards building the single market for green products”, as well as the 2012 statistical information referring to EU member countries’ economic development, provided by Eurostat. Using multiple regression analyses, we have outlined a significant influence of macroeconomic variables, such as: the employment rate, tertiary educational attainment, GDP per capita, human development index value, unemployment rate, share of gross value added in services and share of employment in services on European citizens’ pro-environmental attitudes.
More...
More than ever doctors are beginning to recognize that beyond impeccable professionalism shown to the patient, equally imports became part of communication, and in one century of the Internet, the most effective communication process moves online, in the social networks. It is important for doctors to develop a personal brand because a reputation, passed with internet speed can only have a positive effect. In a century in which patients make the decision to see a particular doctor, largely based on recommendations and research the forums online discussions, doctors are beginning realize the importance of a strong presence, constant and reliable environment through online networks social priority.
More...
The balance between surreal and real mental space has not yet been discovered in the cognitive sciences. It is definitely time for us to get used to the idea that mental space is not something impossible, unreal, but a different kind of reality. Moreover, the interdependance between the mind and the physical world cannot be dismissed as both physics and philosophy have demonstrated that one cannot exist without the other.This dissociative identity is mean to make up for an indiviual’sinability to express himself in the world in which he is living. The actor assumes this new identity in order to have his inner self from his personal failures and adops an image which gives him safety, surrounded by imaginary friends while looking for a family to provide a sense of fufillment.
More...
The historic province Banat covers a variety of landscapes from Romania, Serbia and Hungary, which shows the cohabitation of a mixed ethnic population, each with its own identity and particularities. In this multicultural context, the messages were transmitted through decorative elements of the traditional costume. This paper analyzes the symbolism of the traditional costume from Banat County, decrypting many messages that communicate important elements about the social identity and culture of Banat’s people. In the actual European context, each historical region tries to preserve its national culture, aspects of their identity, shown inclusively through the iconic elements such as traditional costumes specific to each region, which gives a perspective of the main regional features. The methodology used in this micro study is accomplished upon observation and semiotic analysis. The study concludes that Banat’s traditional costume has in the national and international context, an unique symbolism, which promotes the multicultural identity of the Banat Region.
More...
Purpose–The investigation of relationship between professional and family life of managers from Romania in terms of time allocated to these aspects. Design/methodology/approach – This study was conducted on 111 managers from Arad County (56 men and 55 women) from various fields of activity. Findings – The results support the idea that leisure time decreases after taking over the position of manager. Practical implications/originality/value – There is no significant association between gender and the amount of leisure time. Although we expected women to report less leisure time after taking over the top management position (and men more leisure time) this situation cannot be reported. Explanations: 1. there are differences but they could not be depicted through the manner the data were collected 2. Women managers get help from other people (parents, in-laws, husband, housekeeper) after taking over management positions.
More...
The aim of this research paper is to develop a model for the integration of ethics and Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) into the company strategy as a source of competitive advantages. CSR is an organization's obligation to consider the interests of their customers, employees, shareholders, communities and to consider the social and environmental consequences of their business activities. By integrating CSR into the corporate strategy and stakeholder management, organizations can ensure that the increasing of shareholder value doesn’t overshadow the need to behave ethically to their stakeholders. The research is based on the theoretical framework that supports a thesis of beneficial impact of the development and implementation of CSR plan: by planning out CSR as part of a corporate strategy, companies can achieve the ultimate goal of creating both social value and corporate value.
More...
Extensive research has been conducted looking at the links between culture and management. Studies have examined, among other components of the managerial activity captured by power distance, individualism, etc. However; these studies assume the existence of a national culture, something largely absent in most countries that are dominated by the cultures of their various ethnic communities. Different cultures perceive the benefits differently,found significant differences between cultures in perceptions and organizational/ Managerial practices. Our modest contribution is structured in two parts: the first part concerns the presentation of the Hofstede model and analysis through this model on some African societies, the second reserved for discussing expose in socio-cultural characters that influences the African Management and limitations of the model of cultural dimensions of Hofstede and conclusion.
More...
The analysis of labour market in an economy emphasizes the linkage between the unemployment level and the economy structure with its organization and leading mode, and the context of its growth and development. Numerous empirical analyses of unemployment show that a significant part of its level cannot be explained by the oscillations of overall economic activity, on short term. The structural unemployment and that determined by the transparency level are causes of existence of a permanent unemployment. The paper analyzes the process of jobs creation simultaneously with job destruction and emphasizes how the structure of economic activities suffer positive or negative changes during economic cycle.
More...
One of the most significant aspects of Leos Carax’s film Holly Motors is the “baroque” representation of the human body. Through the monstrous bodies imagined in the spirit of the cruel aesthetics of the Belle Epoque, Carax offers a new perspective upon the human corporeality. The aim of this paper is to explore the connection between space and a pulsating chain of physical hypostases in Carax’s work. I will analyze the manner in which the ever changing body is related to a specific setting and how it contributes to the construction of a poetics of space. The French director restructures the Darwinian evolution theory and founds an inverted history of the body, in a dramatized chronology. Referring to a decadent era of the old motors, Carax imposes a repeated resurrection of the human flesh and blood, an idea which appears at the end of each episode of his film. I will try to demonstrate that Carax’s deconstructed human body is the recipient of space changing, an aspect that is at the heart of his poetic film and which proves its Nouvelle Vague’s inherited qualities. I also claim the existence of a connection between deconstructed perceptions and narrative development in a story that attempts to express the tragedy of fading technological entities through a fragmented and therefore frightening tragic poem about postmodern mankind.
More...
Professor Hans Abbing is an artist, but also a sociologist and an economist. He lectures at the University of Amsterdam and at Erasmus University in Rott erdam. He is also the author of the famous book: Why are Artists Poor? The Exceptional Economy of the Arts (Amsterdam UP 2008).
More...
Review of: Simon May. Love: A History. New Haven: Yale University Press, 2011. [Istoria iubirii, translated by Dana Ionescu, Bucureşti: Nemira, 2014]
More...
The paper sketches a possible history of cultural attitudes towards birth and gestation in the Western world, insisting on the growing empathy towards technologized bodies and technologized means of body generation. Exploring literary texts (from Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein or the myth of the Golem, as told by Gustav Meyrink, to Romanian texts on „the beauty without a body”) and filmic representations (Simone, Her), this study draws a connection between the deprecation of the idea of natural maternity and the raising appreciation of the idea of technologized gestation and generation, usually by a mothering father. In traditional paradigms, maternity was considered either a matter of sacred consecration, or close to a disease and so, consequently, the pregnant body was placed in a censored, disguised frame (heavy clothing, outfits fashioned to hide the changes in the body etc.). The modernist triumphalist representations of pregnant celebrities did not actually change the attitude towards maternity, but rather short-circuited the image of the perfect feminine beauty and the idea that the pregnant body is still a beautiful form to be represented. Equally deceptive, the two valuations of natural maternity and birth found a counterpart in dreams of non-maternal generation of humans. Certain myths speak about the possibility to create a being without the help of a mother; works of literature take this phantasm of a motherless birth to interesting details. This way, posthuman ethics, cloning technologies, cyberprosthetics, and disembodied entities figuring in popular movies are results of this constant cultural longing of cutting female physiology out of the generative picture.
More...
From the sugar cane plantations of White Zombie, through the shopping malls of Night of the Dead, by way of Shaun of the Dead and up to the merry-go-round style of Zombieland, we can follow a long stream of cinematic narratives which are animating and re-animating a fundamental question of humanity: what happens when we die. A possible answer comes from the undead bodies of humanity –zombies – as they offer multiple connotations and multiple significations. In our constantly transmuting culture, zombies, as perfect mutant monsters, have become themselves victims of a strange process of desecration. As zombies have become more than simply reanimated corpses or biologically infected creatures; in our post-human culture they can be warm blooded creatures (Warm Bodies) or cold as ice, like the Nazi zombies frozen from Bavaria (Dead Snow), they can be strippers or beavers, fueling a long debate about what it means to be undead in our imaginary world, making things even more complicated, and re-animating the unsolved and complex mystery of the dead bodies in visual culture. This paper is an attempt to further revive the discussions about these corpses of imaginaries, these cadavers of representation and to re-animate the debate on the mythologies of zombiefication. While asking questions about what it means to be dead flesh in our popular culture in which nothing remains lifeless for long, the author overviews the long cultural history of the zombies, from the de-animated and desecrated bodies in early zombie movies to the degradation and fascination of the superficial in the recent cinematic productions. The final argument is that, while some authors consider the new manifestations of the zombie narratives as expressions of a post-humanist culture, the zombie myth can be described as a manifestation of a completely new form of cultural behavior, that of the empty semiotic cadaver.
More...
This spe cial issue entitled Bodies in Between: Framing Corporeality in Cinema and Visual Culture foregrounds the role of the body in articulating and reflecting the changes in contemporary cinema and artistic practices, as well as the theoretical discourses they generated in the last decades.
More...
In Cinema 2, Gilles Deleuze establishes a circuit between the cinema, the body and thought. According to his theory, in several films that were made in the postwar era, “the body is no longer an obstacle that separates thought from itself, that which it has to overcome to reach thinking. It is on the contrary that which it plunges into, in order to reach the unthought, that is life.” The body forces us to think what is concealed from thought – life. By analyzing scenes from La vie d’Adèle (2013) by Abdellatif Kechiche, I will argue that in a cinema of the flesh, the postures of the body and its close framing – the aesthetics of closeness in filming the body – give cinema the possibility of constructing an image which is directly related to the means of direct experience and that the more profound meaning of the film is not predicated on the information given by script, plot, characters and action, but by the ability of capturing the passing of time within the body.
More...
Through a detour into the eruption conditions of what might be termed “techno-humanity,” this paper explores the effects on the contemporary narrative imaginary of a double-edged collective impulse towards figurations of the future as the consequence of the present. Following Margaret Atwood, whose “MaddAddam” series of post-apocalyptic novels are paired with two recent productions by David Mitchell (Ghostwritten and The Bone Clocks), we investigate this contradictory impulse (associated with a particular set of novelistic conventions) of “ustopia,” emerging from the reciprocal relation between utopian and dystopian thought. Given the current insistence on “posthuman” definitions of subjectivity, we postulate that ustopias cast a privileged light on the dominant mode of the “technopoiesis” that seems to inform the digital universe, and therefore on the co-evolution of technics and humanity, which we approach from the complementary perspectives of “bio-” and “cyber-” instrumentalizations of this co-evolution. Such an approach suggests that the genre of ustopia, rather than being dismissed as mere fantasy or as a consumerist recycling of the popular imaginary, should be construed as a foray into reality, projecting an “unfuture” that ceases to be virtual insofar as its present roots hauntologically foreshadow what is to come.
More...
