Around the Bloc: More Iraqis Decide to Leave Czech Republic
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Refugees keep finding reasons not to stay in country known for its anti-migrant sentiments.
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The paper looks at the major issues underlying devolution in the United Kingdom, i.e. a process whereby the historically diverse areas and regions constituting the seemingly uniform state have been slowly striving for independence, along with the formation of local, regional and even national identities. Hinging on the idea of ‘multicultural citizenship’, the paper seeks to analyse the ongoing public discourse centered on the gradual transfer of centralized London-based power to local and regional bodies across the UK. This discourse forms the pivotal background of devolution, overtly pointing to the idea of the so-called ‘new opening’ of the entire British political scene, clearly promoting the notion of strengthening the position of Scotland, Wales, Northern Ireland, and English regions as increasingly autonomous geographical and cultural areas as part of a weakening monolith by the name of the United Kingdom. Resting almost entirely on historic tensions between British identity and Scottish identity, it is made clear that the Scottish public debate has basically neglected the issues of the assimilation of its cultural minori¬ties with the ‘post-devolution’ reality. The devolution discourse stems from the rancorous debates and polemics which have taken place throughout the three hundred years of the Scottish and English Union, covering several social and political contexts, including the growing demands voiced by the SNP. Indeed, it has a major impact on the formation of Scots’ national distinctiveness alongside Scotland’s gradual emergence as a separate part of the British Isles.
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Some historians say up to three Nazi trains vanished near today’s Czech border as the Red Army advanced in 1945.9
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Russian police say members of far-right Ukrainian group caught with cache of smuggled weapons.
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Modernity is the age of the ideology because there is no supra-human authority which we could call to absolutely legitimate a certain value as being the supreme one. In this context, the ideologies of liberty have already won the war against the totalitarian ideologies, even the religious one, due to the freedom of conscience, the freedom of expresion and freedom of speech. In the totalitarian politics regimes (regardless of their political color) an anti-modern control has been exercised over the production of symbolic goods. In such regimes, only those who produced the symbolic goods, tha did not contradict the official ideology, had the right to express themselves. The ideological decision makers in the comunist period played an important role in a scandal triggered in 2008. It was a political, cultural and artistic scandal wich arrested mass-media’s and public opinion’s attention:a cultural institution belonging to the Romanian state, ICR, was wrongfully accused of public pornography and anti-semitism through the display of natzi symbols. The debate centered on questions such as: what cultural values are representative for a national culture, who establishes what is representative for national identity, who is entitled to decide upon what is and what is not art. In this paper i have tried to present an antimodern mechanism wich latently or silently block and censures the freedom of speech.
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Similar to the intellectuals of his generation, Dimitrie Gusti has encountered the fascist trap within his life history since the 1920s when Benito Mussolini took over the power in Italy. However, Gusti avoided slipping into this trap ever in his life. Certainly, it is a well-known fact that some members of the Sociological School of Bucharest have become legionaries, while others fancied the communist or fascist movement. The fundamental feature of the Sociological School was that it allowed all the young intellectuals – legionaries, socialists, nationalists or Europeanists – to cooperate within the research teams as long as they were preoccupied by the Sociology of the Nation and the Monography of the Romanian villages.In this study I intend to demonstrate that Gusti provided the diligent young people with a scientific alternative, while they were tempted by the political extremes of that time: communism or fascism. I shall prove that Gusti has never proposed or supported a fascist model of development, even though the Romanian sociologist declared that he was impressed by Mussolini’s fascist movement. On the contrary, Gusti has permanently promoted the raise of the Romanian nation based on the model proposed by philosopher Saint Simon, according to whom the scholars have the mission to stimulate local communities, or to influence public policies.I used the method of representative biography, as well as the oral history interviews conducted by professor Zoltán Rostás with people who participated at the monographic campaigns coordinated by Gusti in 1925-1931 and during 1935-1943. The analysis reflects that Gusti’s School and the members who remained faithful to his sociological conception rather competed with the Legionary Movement. Being close to the regime of Karl II, Gusti’s School envisioned a Social Monarchy for the second part of the 1930s, being focused on uplifting the living level of the many, of the Romanian peasants.
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Research on Communism from Romania went through a period of radicalism and Manichaeism. Those who were pushed aside by the regime became judges of the phenomenon, and its beneficiaries have adopted a variety of discursive strategies, from the public exposure of the past to rewriting their own past. Thus, furthermore, Communism was assessed in either the nostalgic manner, designed to rehabilitate it, either through the lens of militant anti-Communism, both perspectives leading to the failure of any dialogue. Unfortunately, the anti-Communist militants with visibility have Bolshevized their speech; they have reinterpreted the facts in the light of the new class struggle with everything that happened in Communism. For this reason, I consider it necessary to revaluate how we report in relation to Communism, and, as a result, the use of qualitative methods (in particular the interview and the biographical method). Such an approach is primarily useful because it’s a form of rehabilitation of the individual. Because the old regime ignored him, operating only with templates as well as „multilaterally developed socialist society „, the „new man”, and more, the individual existed into a kind of undercover. The life story takes us to what happened with the individual beyond the iron curtain of the official speech. Secondly, the qualitative research brings with it information which does not appear in the documents because the regime recorded only the purposeful stride towards the utopian Communist society and passed under silence the essential elements of real life. Therefore, a symbolic reconstruction of the Communist society only from documents would result in a projection of a society as the Communists wanted to be seen and not as it was in reality.
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Prvi dojam današnjega čitatelja koji uzme u ruke djela Antuna Gustava Matoša svevremena je vrijednost njegove umjetnosti i paradoksalna aktualnost njegova novinarstva. Kao zaljubljenik u estetsku formu, larpurlartist i poklonik svjetske kulture Matoš je stvorio univerzalne estetske oblike onkraj povijesnih stilova u kojima je pisao i ideja koje je zastupao. Pjesme poput Utjehe kose ili tekstovi poput pripovijetke Camao i putopisa Oko Lobora estetski su jednako vrijedni danas kao i u času svoga nastajanja ili bilo kojemu drugom vremenu. Ono što je doista čudno to je današnja privlačnost Matoševih novinskih feljtona u kojima se bavio pitanjima onodobne hrvatske kulture i moderne civilizacije. Jedan je razlog privlačnosti Matoša–feljtonista u samome Matošu. Matoš je i u novinarstvu bio umjetnik, i to umjetnik polemičkih kalambura, humora, jezičnih igara i karikature, a sve po načelu, koje je i sam istaknuo, da se bolje novinarstvo već stopilo s literaturom. Drugi je razlog u nama. Mi smo se početkom 21. stoljeća u mnogim političkim i gospodarskim prilikama, od loše privatizacije do pristupanja novoj nadnacionalnoj zajednici, stranoga vlasništva i iseljavanja (danas visokoobrazovanih ljudi) vratili u Matoševo doba. Tako je neodoljiva umjetnička privlačnost Matoševih feljtona dobila čar začudne aktualnosti.
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The subject of this paper is nationalism as a direction of political thinking, where the idea of the nation is the dominant principle. The main Polish nationalist political parties of the recent 25 years include: National Revival of Poland, Polish National Community and National Party „Szczerbiec”. The main German nationalist political parties include: National Democratic Party of Germany, The Republicans, The Right, Pro NRW (North Rhine-Westphalia). Far-right parties in Poland and in Germany are against the European Union and the process of European integration. The nationalist parties in Europe fear economic and cultural globalisation, multicultural- ism, immigrants, Islam, materialism and consumerism that – in their opinion – threaten their respective nations.
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Social memory is one of the footings of human identity. Collective memory helps not only to understand the past but also the present. Difficult postwar situation related to the inflow of the displaced from Eastern Borderlands and other parts of the country, has created problems of identity to the people who were foreign to that area. Polish culture, customs, traditions and administrative organization has been built from the ground up, in a situation of uncertainty and fear. The state propaganda narrative specialized in speaking of historical justice and return of Poland to its former borders. Moreover, in the Polish People’s Republic everything that related to the former Eastern Borderlands was subject to confabulation and political censorship - this piece of Polish history for many years did not work at all in the minds of average citizens. The past displaced to Lower Silesia began to be “discovered” after 1989, both in the German cultural heritage and Polish customs.
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This article addresses issues which can be seen in the manifestation of ethno-nationalism in rock music. Concepts of nationalism and patriotism are illustrated by references to the literature on the subject. Polish national ideology is formed, for example, on a pragmatic concept of nationalism. A new direction in this work is an examination of pop-nationalism of rock music on the example of the Polish band “Horytnica”.
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Lęk przed złożonością świata, przed nowym i nieznanym, znalazł dzisiaj desygnat, na który może być ukierunkowany: uchodźców i migrantów. Również wielu wierzących znalazło się w tej licznej, usposobionej ksenofobicznie, części społeczeństwa. Zresztą nie tylko od wierzących, lecz i od ateistów słyszymy głosy o potrzebie zachowania „chrześcijańskiego charakteru naszej cywilizacji w obliczu islamskiego najazdu”. Dla obu tych grup ów „chrześcijański charakter naszej cywilizacji” to co najwyżej pozbawiony treści frazes, kryjący za sobą wyobrażenie chrześcijanina jako człowieka, który nienawidzi muzułmanów i homoseksualistów. Wspomniane lęki wykorzystują przede wszystkim politycy o nastawieniu nacjonalistycznym i populistycznym. To oni przejmują obecnie władzę w krajach Europy Środkowo-Wschodniej, starając się przekształcić raczkujące demokracje liberalne w państwa autorytarne. Ta tendencja wzmacniana jest zarówno przez tzw. Państwo Islamskie, jak i – przede wszystkim – przez Rosję, czyli podmioty prowadzące antyzachodnią wojnę propagandową, wymierzoną głównie w Unię Europejską. Możliwe, że za strachem przed utratą tożsamości kulturowej w obliczu napływu migrantów kryje się faktycznie przeświadczenie, że nasze społeczeństwa utraciły swoją tradycyjną tożsamość, nie określając jeszcze nowej. W wyniku globalizacji państwa narodowe tracą bowiem na znaczeniu, osłabia się także świadomość własnej tożsamości kulturowej społeczeństwa. Można by oczekiwać od religii, że w takim czasie niepokoju i niepewności wytworzy jakiś rodzaj systemu immunologicznego, odpornego na wirusy strachu i nienawiści. Nie byłoby natomiast wielkim zaskoczeniem, że silne zeświecczone społeczeństwo takiego systemu nie wykształci. Ale czy faktycznie katolickie Polska i Słowacja różnią się istotnie w tej kwestii od laickich Czech?
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The movie “Dagger” filmed in 1999 is one of the most popular Serbian movies in the post-war period. The movie narrates the story of baby Iliya Yugovic who happened to be kidnaped by the Muslims ustasa in the night of the Christmas massacre in year 1941 and was raised as Ali Osmanovic. The main notion of the movie is that all the Muslims are Orthodox Christians who accepted Islam for personal material gain. To what extent the movie is significant for Serbian national interest is evident from the fact that it is presented every year on the Christmas Eve by all the private and public broadcasters in Republic of Srpska and in Serbia.
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Dvije opasnosti vrebaju Francusku u poslijeratnome svijetu. Prva je više ili manje neposredna; druga je vreba više iz daleka, ali je također neusporedivo tegobnija.
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The article deals with the biography of Vincas Kudirka, one of the leaders of Lithuanian National Revival in XIX century, written by Lithuanian-American scientist Vytautas Kavolis (1930–1996). It is stated that, instead of its overt focus on the person only, the biography, named Žmogaus genezė (The Origin of Man) (1963), actually deals with the whole social group, Lithuanian national movement, and its psychic life. It is argued that scrutinizing life-history of its leader Kavolis aims at disclosing the emotionality shared by the members of the movement. Therefore by its nature the biography is a work of social psychology. Such approach to Žmogaus genezė is based on two arguments. First, in his analysis Kavolis uses the psychohistorical method developed by American psychoanalyst Erik H. Erikson. The main presupposition of this method asserts that intellectual or political leader represents the collective psychic processes taking place in his followers. Second, attention should be paid to the fact that Vincas Kudirka is treated as a figure embodying collective psychic processes by Kavolis in his monographs Sąmoningumo trajektorijos (Trajectories of Consciousness) (1986) and Epochų signatūros (Signatures of Epochs) (1991), summarizing the scientist’s explorations in the field of Lithuanian studies.
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The Welsh identity is undisputable in national (i.e. ethnic), social, cultural and even economic dimensions however it is doubtful in political sphere because vast majority of the Welsh still cannot decide if they are more Welsh or British. The ’double identity’ dilemma was visible especially during devolution referendums voting in 1979, 1997 and 2011 when non–political motives were often much more determinative then the factor of belonging to the Welsh community in political meaning. Thus, answering to the question about devolution referendum role in shaping political dimension of Welshness requires thoroughly analyse of the mentioned referendums results as an evident figures of public support for establishing legal and institutional guarantees of maintaining and developing all aspects of national identity. In the article has been contained description how the Welsh relations to the idea of self–determination (in frames of the wide internal autonomy) have changed by last 35 years. An author shows also barriers and factors fostering this process.
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The paper presents an analysis of the portrayal of North Korea in the contemporary discourse of the two largest Japanese newspapers: the conservative Yomiuri Shimbun and the more left-wing oriented Asahi Shimbun. Analysed patterns and discursive practices in the two major national media outlets attempt to construct a certain notion of national identity, albeit through the use of different means and key ideas. Drawing on a post-structuralist understanding of language and discourse and theory of national identity based on the relational dichotomy between Self and Other, this study attempts to explain the construction of national identity in Japanese print media discourse, demonstrating the link between linguistic and societal practices. While Japan is portrayed as organised, democratic, rational and cooperative, North Korea is associated with discursive practices evoking irrationality, unpredictability and danger, often conveniently represented directly by Kim Jong-un. The newspapers tend to either stress the hard security aspect of the current status quo or emphasise harsh criticism of North Korea while simultaneously posing Japan as a victim. Furthermore, the findings suggest that the Self as well as the Other are rather fluid and context dependent. Given the link between Japanese politics and media, outlets with a high level of trustworthiness and credibility may significantly influence the readers’ perception of their own identity and security. Ultimately, this raises questions about the possibility of the country’s normalisation of its foreign and security policies.
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