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Keywords: EU as Exporter of Democratic Values;
The role of the European Union in the promotion of democracy in its wider neighbourhood can be assessed at different levels, from the broad sweep of the history of Europe through the centuries, to the contemporary history of the European Union as a set of norms, values and institutions, and finally down to the technicalities of democracy promotion programmes. The substance of the EU’s role is bound up with the paradigm of ‘Europeanisation’, which has a strong normative democratic content, and at the same time relates to the empowerment of the EU institutions. There are certainly inhibitions in the system holding the EU back from playing this role, which come from particular sensitivities of individual member states. These reflect a whole collection of syndromes, ranging from different proximities and historical experiences in relation to the various neighbours, to different European visions and world views. The divergences represented by these syndromes sometimes make it difficult or impossible for the EU institutions to pursue active foreign policies, including democracy promotion.
More...Keywords: fuzzy cognitive maps; disruption; resilience; business continuity; management; decisions; dependency; interdependency
Operational resilience refers to the ability of an organization and its management to prevent disruptions from occurring as well as the aptitude to react quickly to and recover from a disruption of primary business and relative processes. Such scenarios pertain to human-centric collaborative commerce systems. The playing field thus encompasses complex socio-technical-economical systems, risk-crisis management and expert judgments in multi-actor and multi-criteria fuzzy decision making circumstances. Fuzzy cognitive mapping lends itself particularly well to these circumstances and has already been successfully investigated in a wide range of applications, from ecological system modelling to knowledge processing. Operational resilience and business continuity management are a further two ideal applications for FCMs (Fuzzy Cognitive Maps) and are proposed and discussed in detail in this chapter.
More...Keywords: competitive advantage, tour operators activity; business;
The purpose of this article is to identify opportunities for providing competitive advantage of travel agency in the contemporary business environment. Gives specific proposals for achieving them relating to diversify product offerings and adding additional consumer value; changes in management of this specific type of activity; automation of business processes; design of additional activities; image building and others.
More...The first part of the book presents three main themes which, as a whole, are intended to bea framework for more specific descriptions in its second part. In the first chapter, entitled Realgardens against the myths, the author shows selected examples of landscape designs and discusses theirutilitarian functions, their role in the religious cult, the mythical, symbolic and metaphorical contextswhich have directly affected either programme assumptions of the gardens or a treatment of certainfeatures of the landscape. The cultures of Egypt, Mesopotamia, Greece and Rome are discussedin these respects. The author addresses the intellectual foundation of English and sentimentalgardens to clarify their strong ties with the ancient understanding of the landscape, describing onthis background meaningful features of Arcadia park near Nieborów. The chapter concludes witha discussion of selected solutions in Little Sparta — a garden founded by Sue and Ian Hamilton Finlaynear Edinburgh, Scotland. The second chapter, entitled Gardens of Imagination, discusses literarydescriptions, abstracted from specific landscape implementations. Several examples of literaturefrom different historical periods are invoked, with an emphasis on the role of sensuality. The authoranalyzes the fragments of the Egyptian Book of Gates, the epic of Gilgamesh, the Bible, Divine Comedyof Dante Alighieri, Charles Baudelaire’s Flowers of Evil. The third chapter, entitled The gardensof thought, raises general epistemological issues, first: in terms of the philosophical proposals forovercoming the fear of death, and second: in terms of theory of art viewed from the perspective of thetwentieth-century crisis of the great narrations.The common theme of all the chapters is the Garden of Eden, whose main intentional “function”is to overcome the fear of death. This issue is discussed in the context of eschatological, agnostic,and nihilistic intuitions, organized according to their relationship with specific gardens (Chapter 1),with the literary themes (Chapter 2), and finally with the abstract contemplation on the conditionof mankind and its representation in contemporary art (Chapter 3). Such a structure, inspired byHegel’s description of the history of the Absolute, makes it easier to present the problems of gardensfrom various perspectives — specific relations with nature, aesthetic experience and thought of purelyintellectual character. This approach, on the one hand, serves the clarity of argument by avoidingexcessive complexity of description, and on the other, shows the complexity of the concept of “garden”,resulting from the build-up of different meanings over the millennia.
More...Keywords: utopia;utopia and dystopia;utopia and heterotopia;dystopian film;dystopian city;topography;urban space;urban space and place;
Monika Rawska’s chapter focuses on two modern movies "Equilibrium" (dir. Kurt Wimmer, USA 2002) and "Inception" (dir. Christopher Nolan, USA—Great Britain 2010) with an analysis of the city spaces depicted in these films. Progress is the basis of the analysis. Progress is the impulse pervasive in utopias and it is an important motivator for human actions presently perceived as negative—imperialism, colonialism, racism. Margaret Mead’s notion that Utopia should be seen as a historical category while revealing an essential ambivalence is well summarized in her work, “One man’s dream is another man’s nightmare”. This is also represented in select films depicting a new society with a visual representation of order. For example, in Libria and architect’s city both of which were created with a positive and beneficial premise, though over time they became a burden for the characters. Change in perception of reality is one of the significant elements in dystopian narratives, that are also present in film adaptations, in what Ludmiła Gruszewska-Blaim calls a „utopiacrime”. Libria is depicted as the only city in the world in the film, "Equilibrium". Libria is a dystopian cityfortress contrasted with the surrounding Nether and an appropriated enclave space of Offenders. It functions as a simulacrum of the past at a time before the war. The film vision of the future is an intertextual collage of conventional representations of the totalitarian organization of both space and society. Dream city is the creation of an architect couple in the film, "Inception". It is a very different space, imagined and fictional and it perfectly captures the impossibility of utopia as revealed by its very name that means non-space. Reality, which the couple created for themselves, demonstrates an interesting tension between the architectural utopia and the solitary eutopia as well as a conflict of planner vs. wanderer (as described by Michel de Certeau). In both movies the city space becomes a threat in spite of its projected function as a safe and/or familiar space. In "Equilibrium", it imposes on and disciplines its inhabitants as tools of the state. In Inception, the city is the accumulation of the protagonists’ entire world and it turns unto its own ruin, a memory maze swallowed by the sea.
More...Keywords: real exchange rates; current accounts; competitiveness; Euro Area;
Euro Area member countries are still suffering from negative effects of the crisis period. Increasing economic imbalances have become obvious in the Euro Area since the start of the monetary union. Differentials in productivity, inflation and unit labor costs were indeed very persistent (Comunale and Hessel 2014). Economic and debt crisis highlighted their existence and impropriate economic policy mix has even intensified their negative implications. Economic imbalances are obvious not only among different countries (e.g. rising disparities between core and periphery) but also within particular member countries of the Euro Area (Gruber and Kamin, 2005). In addition, we can observe clear contagion effect among the European Union member countries. Disturbances and distortions are fairly transmitted on both intra-country and cross-country levels (Berger and Nitsch, 2010).
More...Keywords: Armed conflict studies; Sanctioning regimes; International relations; military policies;
Ozbrojené konflikty sú realitou ľudského pokolenia od jeho samého počiatku. O ich vývoji, charaktere, priebehu a výsledkoch existuje nespočet spísaných strán. Z týchto strán je zrejmá jasná tendencia pristupovať k ozbrojeným konfliktom ako menej a menej žiadúcim elementom dejín, a to nielen zo strany účastníkov. Postupná transformácia ozbrojených konfliktov, po období mechanizácie a industrializácie spojená s posunom väčšiny vyspelých štátov z modernejdo postmodernej fázy, vyústila v potrebu individuálnych národov, ako aj medzinárodného spoločenstva ako celku, zasahovať do nich a predchádzať im nielen ako druhá strana, ale aj ako strana tretia, predovšetkým v kapacite nevojenských nástrojov.
More...Keywords: Czech literature for children; Fairy tales; 1990s;
It is not possible to describe the position and the form of fairy tale in the Czech literature for children and youth of the past two decades without returning to transformations of the Czech literary scene immediately after 1989. The 1990s in the Czech literature for children and youth were a turbulent period influenced by social changes brought about byde–monopolization and fragmentation of publishing activities and also by the chance of open confrontation with the international book production featuring top as well as trivial and utilitarian works. The new national production of that period remained in the shadow of edition returns to the time–tested books from the golden collection of the Czech literature and also returns to the banned authors of the previous period. Quantitatively, catchy translations prevailed on the book market.
More...Keywords: Slovak-Ukrainian cross-border cooperation;
This chapter offers an analytical review of Slovak-Ukrainian relations on the intergovernmental level with the aim of identifying their impact on crossborder cooperation between regional and local actors on both sides of the common state border. It looks at exploring opportunities and obstacles for Slovak-Ukrainian cross-border cooperation generated by the interactions of governmental actors on the inter-national level. It analyses policies, perception and practices of national actors who have been shaping the agenda of bilateral relations between the two neighbouring countries since their emergence on the map of Europe as independent states after the split of the Soviet Union and Czechoslovakia. In addition, this text tries to explore the impact of the EU as an exogenous supranational actor on the bilateral regime of Slovak- Ukrainian relations and consequently also on cross-border cooperation, especially in the context of Slovakia’s accession to the EU in 2004. It also examines the impact of Slovakia’s EU membership on its national approach towards Ukraine, including how it has been influenced by the legislative framework for the EU’s relations with/and policies towards Ukraine.
More...Keywords: body: supernatural: vagina dentata: decorporalization: monster;
The aim of this article is to study the relationship between the supernatural and the representations of the body in neo-fantastic francophone short stories (by J.-P. Andrevon, J.-P. Bours and A. Dorémieux). My hypothesis is that the classic 19-th century fantastic literature was the fantastic of the appearance of the body (e.g. spectral), while today, with the dominating motifs of decorporalization, we can speak about the neo-fantastic of the disappearance of the body. In both cases, the body is the main producer of the supernatural, although presently the isotopy of this motif is based on regressive dynamics. Moreover, this article examines the cases of monstrous bodies in neo-fantastic literature, particularly vagina dentata as the source of the supernatural. It also analyzes the metaphorical and metonymical function of the body.
More...Keywords: biological life; cell; organism; ecosystem; sex; symbiosis; altruism; antropogenesis; evolution
A concise introduction to the latest knowledge of the world of living beings, highlighting the links between biology and physics, chemistry, geology and broadly defined humanities. The author, responding to the fundamental questions of today’s science, describes the phenomenon of life at all subsequent organizational levels: from the earliest forms of biological life, through the structure and functioning of cells, development, anatomy and the functioning of multicellular organisms, to unique relationships between organisms, like symbiosis and altruism, and the position of man in nature. The richly illustrated book, written in a clear language, free of scientific jargon.
More...Keywords: international business; international economics; international management; international marketing; international finance
The volume has 22 chapters organized in four thematic parts: the first part includes elements related to the world economy system in the context of international economic relations, international organizations and global governance. The second part looks at the international environment and how this influences the international activity of a company. The third part focuses on the organization that operates at international level and how specific activities are conducted (negotiations, contracting, management, marketing, foreign trade operations, risk management and others). The last part, the fourth looks at recent challenges in the internationalization, such as innovation, technology, intangible economy and lobby.
More...Keywords: laughter; black irony; limit-experience; unknown; death; eroticism;
Laughter is a real "limit-experience", in Georges Bataille's work: it is a practice of the body coupled with a movement of thought that continues in and extends to the language itself. It is a tragic, black laughter, as opposed to Bergson's blank, innocuous laughter, of a paroxysmal moment of protest introducing the bursting into the text and into the characters. While shaking their bodies with uncontrolled jolts, he testifies to the stirring up of the commonplaces of their thoughts. Unmeasured and uncontrollable, major, sovereign, he releases the energies. Pure expenditure, like tears, it arises during transgressive moments of excesses, ecstatic and thanatic, dissolves the limits of being, ensures communication with the Other by opening on the unknown, the impossible, the non-knowing.
More...Keywords: Eastern Ukraine; Russian aggression against Ukraine;
The War in Donbas: Realities and Prospects of Settlement // Geopolitical Aspects of Conflict in Donbas // Occupation of Donbas: Current Situation and Trends // Donbas: Scenarios of Developments and Prospects of a Peacekeeping Mission // Summary and Proposals: Peacekeeping Mission in Donbas: Western Experts’ Opinions // The War in Donbas: Probable Scenarios and the Line of Actions // The Conflict in the East of Ukraine: Expert Opinions and Positions // The “Donbas Component” of the Russia-Ukraine Conflict: Citizens’ Opinions and Assessments // The Strategies and Goals of Russian Intervention in Donbas // Some Aspects of Decisions in the Domain of State Law for the Occupied Areas of Donbas
More...Keywords: Climate Change; Croatian ecology;
Both the Government and citizens are concerned and interested in the climate change issue. The Governmentis already pursuing several strategies to reduce greenhouse gas emissions, thus allowing the Human DevelopmentReport to focus on identifying key gaps and to provide specific recommendations on “climate-proofing”human development strategies. In addition, the Report can help to address public concerns: in a recent survey, 8 out of 10 Croatians felt that climate change was really happening, and of that group, 4 out of 10 thought itworse than experts were saying. // While this Report is not meant to be a comprehensive overview of all aspects of climate change, it does reflectthe breadth and depth of research that has been done in many sectors to date, and it provides a link between aglobal phenomenon and the everyday human development issues facing Croatia. The research and analysis in thisHuman Development Report indicates that, while climate change is likely to pose serious threats to human developmentin Croatia, it also has the potential to bring several beneficial opportunities. The “climate for change” thatcurrently exists in Croatia will provide the country with the motivation it needs to rise to the challenge.
More...Keywords: tax evasion; illegal tax evasion; legal tax evasion; anti-abuse rules; new instruments in the fight against tax evasion;
Despite the fact that tax evasion has always been an interesting and repeatedly relevant economic and financial phenomenon, it has been insufficiently studied and researched in our theory and practice. At the foundation of tax avoidance (tax evasion) lies the taxpayer’s resistance to tax compliance and his intention to avoid any form of reduction of his disposable income. This is due to the fact that the tax represents a derivative public revenue that the country “takes away” from people who are subjected to its fiscal sovereignty without direct counter-service. If we start from the fact that paying taxes reduces the economic strength of the person who bears its burden, the human tendency towards tax evasion is quite understandable, provided that the extent to which the resistance to paying taxes will be manifested and realized depends on several factors, such as economic trends in the state, frequent changes in tax regulations and mentality of the people who are liable to pay taxes. In any case, tax evasion represents a serious and complex social problem that significantly undermines the economic and legal basis of society. It is a complex phenomenon that occurs both on the national and international level and causes serious consequences for the fiscal policy of the state, and the key reason for the occurrence of this phenomenon is most often found in the poorly developed economic system of the country with a loose mechanism that doesn’t ensure the implementation and observance of legal (especially tax) regulations. Tax evasion reduces the possibility for the state to cover the costs of using public goods, and from the tax payers’s point of view, it leads to an unequal and unfair distribution of tax liabilities, to an increase in tax rates and the resistance of taxpayers who, through tax avoidance, reduce thevolume of taxation and thereby create a vicious circle that is difficult to terminate. In addition, tax evasion is one of the main causes of stratification in our society, and with the spread of this phenomenon the strength and importance of economic justice and equality is being questioned, as well as political and economic efficiency. However, it is important to point out that not all actions of taxpayers which lead to a lower tax burden, or complete avoidance of paying taxes are sanctioned by criminal and misdemeanor norms, which is why in this paper, among other things, we will explain both illegal and legal tax evasion. Also, we will explain the criminal law significance of anti-abuse rules as legal measures that aim to reveal the behavior of taxpayers who have intentions to achieve illegal tax savings, and we will get acquainted with new international and domestic instruments in the fight against tax evasion.
More...Keywords: Walerian Borowczyk; Blanche; Juliusz Słowacki; Mazepa; adaptation
The author of this article discusses the problem of the film adaptation of Juliusz Słowacki’s dramatic composition, directed in France by Walerian Borowczyk, who was at that time banned from Poland. She reflects upon the play between eros and sacrum, which is very characteristic of the Polish director, but also very different than in Słowacki’s design. She also considers the following issues: change of name and title of the work; modification of historical and geographical background; ascetic scenery (one-dimensionality and lack of pageantry like in Giotto’s paintings); functioning of things (or rather – in Borowczyk’s case – almost lack of props) and animals – different in both works: literary and cinematic.
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