Murals make (Our) history: paintings on the wall as media of cultural memory. Interpreting the current state of Warsaw’s commemorative murals

Author(s): Ilija Upalevski / Language(s): Polish Issue: 4/2017

The aim of this paper is to closely examine the ways in which the outdoor mural as a form of art has been used for commemorative purposes in the context of the Polish capital. Drawing on content analysis this paper will argue that regardless of their democratic potential and potential to act subversively in the public domain, the commemorative murals in the case of Warsaw are predominantly reflecting the official narrations/representations of the past and thus reproducing the state-supported, nation-centered, male-dominated perspective of history. Referring to Wulf Kansteiner methodological instructions, the paper introduces the notion of “secondary” memory makers in order to describe the position the mural makers are occupying in the field of Warsaw’s cultural memory. It will also be argued that mural makers, by adapting their works to the demands of the cultural institutions responsible for the memory production and dominant discourses of memory from mainly pragmatic reasons, are forgoing a fair portion of the democratic and subversive potential of the murals. As such, the paintings on the walls are, intentionally or not, further involved in more complex state-sponsored strategies of nationalizing the public space

Pogranicze kultur. Serbowie i Chorwaci

Author(s): Stanisław Gulak / Language(s): English,Polish Issue: 2/2017

The Balkans are called “the thumbnail of Europe” because there focused various ethnic groups with different customs, traditions and different religions on their area. An example of a conflict between such peoples can be the Serbo-Croatian relations. Analyzing the individual elements of the culture and identity of the Serbs and the Croats, undoubtedly we can see many differences. These differences, sometimes actually considerable and not allowing to the agreement, can help us understand why these two neighboring nations acted so often against each other. On the other hand, it seems to me that history has got a large impact on these relations. Despite the differences, even considerable ones, it is possible to build relationships based on mutual respect and trust. The fact that different languages are spoken, that different religion is confessed, whether one identifies with other cultural circle, does not mean that we should become enemies. The European Union’s motto is “Unity in diversity” which means that we do not need to be the same to be able to communicate. And yet, the experience of the reciprocal differences allows to derive from other cultures and improve our own culture.

Economy and culture. The framework of reflection in the debate on the countryside

Author(s): Maria Wieruszewska / Language(s): English Issue: 4/2017

This essay illustrates the tensions between the market economy and the democratic culture with reference to the situation wherein Polish villages faced the challenges of a new political and economic system after 1989. The author stresses the important role of assumptions derived from the theoretical basis of economics and sociology. She points to the “hidden role” that they play in the debate on the opportunities for rural communities to adapt to the requirements of modernity. The author challenges the view, quite widespread in sociology, according to which the rural community is insufficiently organized as a civic society, and that its situation is a result of a collision between the system of values governing traditional local cultural resources of agricultural villages and modern market rules. She demonstrates that democracy cannot be treated as an end in itself, but should be treated as a method of defence of civil rights and a guarantee of participation in public life. The author believes that villages [local communities] form an “indirect link” in which individuals come into contact with institutions of their society, and in which the principles of social coexistence are first developed on the basis of community ties. This leads to the conclusion that neither the territorial [local] basis nor the process of “growth” of local institutions. Linked in the long term with structures such as family, neighborhood, church, and nation, create an opposition to civic culture. History shows that successful countries have managed to reconcile the market economy with democratic principles. On the other hand, we can observe that the more the market economy dominates, the fewer family farms. It seems that the survival of family farms, and thus also the restoration of the cultural traditions of thePolish countryside, might require overcoming the “alienness of market and culture.” The market, accompanied by the adjective “social”, is therefore more appropriate for the implementation of the idea of democracy and meeting the expectations of sustainable development in the Polish countryside.

Реалізація державних та обласних молодіжних програм клубними закладами Вінниччини

Author(s): Oksana Zhalyuk / Language(s): Ukrainian Issue: 1/2012

This article describes the activities of cultural clubs in Vinnytsia region on the realization of measures to implement state and local youth programs. The suggestions to improve the effectiveness of this work are given.

Typy motywacyjne przezwisk studenckich

Author(s): Irena Mytnik / Language(s): Polish Issue: 1/2012

The proposed research project explores the structure of nicknames functioning in a microcommunity of young people connected with academic environment. It also aims to present and describe multiple ways of creating nicknames, the influence of media and mass culture promoted by it. It also touches the subject of foreign elements, mainly English, penetrating the everyday language of young people.

Na styku kultur

Author(s): Małgorzata Oleszkiewicz / Language(s): Polish Issue: 1/2017

The paper was presented during the panel at the Museum Section of the Polish Ethnographic Society: Europeanness in a Museum. Museum in Europeanness. The panel was held during the scientific conference entitled: What Kind of Reflection on Culture Is Needed in Europe Today? Challenges, Dilemmas and Future Prospects in Wroclaw 22–23 September 2016. The text focuses mainly on the permanent exhibition in the Museum of European Cultures in Berlin entitled: Cultural Contacts. Living in Europe. The description of the exhibition is an attempt to bring closer to people the employees’ vision of Europe , which is demonstrated by the selection of objects and the structure, arrangement and decoration of the exhibition. Europe is shown through the contacts and processes that take place at the point where cultures meet which has historically shaped the cultures of regions, states, and nations and today may determine but also raise questions about European identity. The vision of Europe at the Museum of European Cultures is also evident in the way the Museum works on the dissemination, continuation and further expansion of its collections, which is illustrated by one of the Museum’s latest purchases – the sculpture “Conchita Wurst on the Crescent” by Gerhard Goder.

Obcy w muzeum

Author(s): Katarzyna Barańska / Language(s): Polish Issue: 1/2017

Man is understood here as homo acsiologicus and values are the basis of all human decisions.There is a need to confront the challenge and question the legitimacy of museum work inpost-migration societies, which consist of a conglomerate of different values and meanings.An example illustrating the problems that can arise here is activities undertaken by somePolish museums working with an important minority group which is the Roma people which is still not assimilated into Polish society. Basic categories of Romani culture (such as time, space, esthetics and language) are regarded here as contradictory with values typical for majority society (eg. Polish society).

Pozaeuropejskość w europejskim muzeum

Author(s): Anna Nadolska-Styczyńska / Language(s): Polish Issue: 1/2017

This article concerns ethnographic museums which posses in its collections non-Europeanartifacts. The author discusses contemporary trends of ethnological museology and describes the expositions of selected European museums. Then, she discusses permanent ethnographic exhibitions, presented in Polish museums, concerning non-European cultures.The author gives a preliminary comparison between them and analogical expositions fromWestern Europe. She concludes that Polish permanent ethnographic exhibitions presentingnon-European cultures do not differ materially from exhibitions performed in other European countries, and Polish organizers try (at least to some extent) to implement the ideas of the New Museum, although the volume of their collections represents only a few percent of the resources of the largest museums in Europe. Unfortunately, only two Polish museums display today permanent ethnographic exhibitions of non-European cultures. Others, despite having their own collections, do not make them available to the public at present. They offer a limited number of temporary exhibitions that are, most often, prepared with artifacts from foreign, private collections. The author concludes with a question about the possible causes of such a state of affairs.

Wkład etnograficznego muzealnictwa na wolnym powietrzu w Polsce w europejski dorobek tego typu placówek ochrony dziedzictwa kulturowego

Author(s): Jan Święch / Language(s): Polish Issue: 1/2017

The author, as a special feature of Polish open air museums, recognizes extensive expositions presenting different foreign and ethnic groups. He also provides the typology of these special exhibitions. Polish museums, in the author’s opinion, may constitute an example for foreign institutions especially the arrangement of peasant cabins’ interiors. Great attention paid to ethnographic details, efforts made to imitate “life”, interiors changed in accordance with ritual year give Polish museums exceptionally high standard which is rarely found inmost European open air museums.

Some remarks on memory and heritage in Europe

Author(s): Zdzislaw Mach / Language(s): English Issue: 52/2018

The text concludes the contributions of the volume, accentuating the general reflections on European heritage which can be found described herein by the articles’ authors. The conclusion refers to the general ideas of Europe with its specific values and the concepts of democratization, dealing with collective trauma as well as various narrative strategies used in the process of heritage invention and social use. Finally, a significant example of heritage interpretation is provided and focused on in the form of the #heritage exhibition held at the National Museum in Kraków. Special attention in this case is drawn to two contradictory paradigms of heritage interpretation, while the exhibition becomes a symbol of the complexity of the present debate on European identity in contemporary Poland/Europe.

Хофстедов модел националних димензија

Author(s): Bojan Prodović,Biljana Prodović Milojković / Language(s): Serbian Issue: 1/2018

In order to emphasize the importance of a full understanding of the impact of national culture, it is necessary to include all its dimensions at the same time in the analysis. In addition to the existence of numerous classifications of the dimensions of national culture, which are used as the basis for individual research, although far less present (such as: Trompenar, Scan, Hola and Schwarz, Klakon and Strodbeek, and others), the paper focuses on the analysis of six dimensions of national culture, set by the Dutch author Gert Hofsted. His model is the most famous model that deals with the research of cultural differences in different countries. In addition to the description and explanation of the above-mentioned six dimensions, the paper presents an analysis of the value dimensions of the Serbian national culture, its significance and the real state, in an attempt to systemically and holistically explain the existing deviation and its features. The unique combination of Serbian national culture implies high power distances, high avoidance of uncertainty, collectivism and femininity. In its characteristics, the Serbian national culture is closest to the countries of Latin America and, to a lesser extent, the Latin countries of Europe. The theoretical elaboration of work, precisely because it is based on the use of older secondary sources, which lacks the empirical basis, is the greatest of its disadvantages. Hence the work has an exploratory character, as a support for the preparation of future empirical research by one of the authors in the following period.

Motivation for assistance activities among hospice, missionary and sport volunteers

Author(s): Jacek Śliwak,Beata Zarzycka,Józef Partyka / Language(s): English Issue: 1/2018

The aim of the study is to analyze motivation for undertaking activities to help others by people involved in various forms of volunteer work. We analyzed two sources of mo-tivation: moral endo‒exocentrism and the value system among three groups: hospice, missionary and sports volunteers. The study involved 173 people between 16 to 77 years of age, 59 giving service in a hospice, 63 in missionary activities and 51 as sports volun-teers. We applied the Moral Endo-Exocentrism Questionnaire (MEEQ) by Karyłowski, Górski and Wasiak and the Portraits Questionnaire (PVQ) by Schwartz. The study showed higher levels of exocentric than endocentric motivation among the three groups of volunteers. However, the intergroup value preference comparison revealed 7 values which significantly differentiated hospice, missionary and sports volunteers: Tradition, Hedonism, Success, Power, Self-Directing, Stimulation and Universalism.

CULTURA ORGANIZAȚIONALĂ ȘI MANAGEMENTUL CULTURII – NECESITĂȚII DE MANAGEMENT MODERN

Author(s): Mirela Dogaru / Language(s): English Issue: 30/2017

Currently, the knowledge and cognitive resources of the Organization were turned into relevant strategic factors for maintaining competitiveness. On the other hand, the cognitive dimension is an essential element of the organizational culture. An important part of the management culture is and to protect the Organization and employees toward the myriad challenges to which it is subjected, in internal and external organizational environment. Thus, the management culture can be regarded as the basic component in raising the competitiveness of organizations.

Ke stavu péče o německé kulturní dědictví v českém pohraničí na příkladu Chomutovska

Author(s): Stanislav Děd / Language(s): Czech Issue: 1/2018

This discussion highlights the unsatisfactory state of care for local German cemeteries in the Czech borderlands, a topic that deserves attention not only in the context of the Czech-German relations, but also in the context of the celebration of 2018 as the European Year of Cultural Heritage. The author served as a director of the Regional Museum in Chomutov (Komotau), a town in north-western Bohemia. Against this background, he reflects on the causes of this dire state, pointing to the insufficient performance of the relevant Czech authorities in the protection of cultural heritage. Furthermore, he presents positive examples of civic engagement towards Czech-German reconciliation.

Style życia młodzieży przejawiającej zachowania ryzykowne w kontekście orientacji społecznych i kulturowych

Author(s): Joanna Dworakowska / Language(s): English Issue: 2/2018

The presented paper refers to the lifestyles of youths manifesting risky behaviour. Lifestyle in this paper is understood as a category of evaluative and cultural orientations of the respective group of youths. The first part presents the understanding of the concept of lifestyle available in the subject-matter literature. In further considerations, the perspective of values accepted and pursued by socially maladjusted youths or those at the risk of maladjustment have been selected and discussed. The following paper is of an analytical and descriptive character.

Zmiany stanu cywilnego we współczesnej Europie – kierunek przemian oraz ich determinanty

Author(s): Adrianna Szwarc / Language(s): Polish Issue: 3/2017

The main aim of the following paper is to determine the most significant factors that have contributed to marriages and divorces over the years, including such phenomena as re-marriages, separations, cohabitations or single living. Over the years, a decrease in the number of marriages and growth in the number of divorces can be observed. Although marriage is reported to be one of the most important values in life and is still the most popular choice, living in a non-marital relationship or living alone has notably increased recently. It can be determined by a variety of social, demographical or institutional factors that originated in Europe in the 50s of the 20th century, not only such as living together before getting married, social acceptance of divorce and re-marriages but also a greater independence of women or having more important goals in life than getting married in the future. These changes may lead to selecting these forms of life that suit particular individuals most, regardless of the established social norms.

Praktyki pozametropolitalne: uczestnictwo w kulturze w małym i średnim mieście

Author(s): Tomasz Szlendak,Wojciech Goszczyński,Malwina Krajewska / Language(s): Polish Issue: 2/2019

The article develops the research on cultural participation in small and medium sized towns in Poland by extending and verifying the already available ethnographic explorations that had been carried out by Wojciech Burszta, Izabella Bukraba-Rylska and others. The comparative data used in this article were gathered in six Polish towns and cities (Dobrzyń, Obrzyck, Rawicz, Ostróda, Grudziądz and Elbląg) in 2017. The “post-extended” concept of cultural participation is employed as a theoretical framework in the study: it is a new proposal that conceptualizes cultural practices. Our research has proven that the thesis concerning institutional participation in culture is still valid: among our research participants, there is little interest in institutionalized cultural practices. We have also found that “relational” function of participation in culture continues to be significant, people continue ascribing an important role to television viewing, while the readership rates are continuously low. It has been discovered that the new digital forms of access have not yet changed cultural practices in non-metropolitan areas. In addition, the article presents the first segmentation of people participating in culture in small and medium sized towns.

Rozrachunek z pokoleniem ’68 w tekstach autorów generacji ’85

Author(s): Michał Stefański / Language(s): English,Polish Issue: 01/2019

The objective of the paper is analysis of the phenomenon of settling scores with the West German generation of ‘68 based on selected literary, (auto)biographical and essayistic texts of the authors belonging to the generation of their children, so called generation of ‘85. The article also aims to examine the process of building generational identity. The main fields of settling scores are: new concepts of family, anti-authoritarian education, sexual revolution, ideology, the past and politics. Apart from mostly negative there are also some ambiguous and ambivalent evaluations in which the generation of ‘68 is not only criticized, but also admired and envied. Text analysis shows the multidimensionality of the problem of settling scores with the generation of ‘68 and leads to the conclusion that through confrontation with the generation of their parents, the authors of the generation of ‘85 try to determine their own value system and to create their own generational identity. With its strong identity, the generation of ‘68 is a contrast plane for the generation of ‘85 that allows their self-definition. The research perspective presented in this paper refers to the field of generational research (Generationenforschung) and is based on the methods of close reading, which focuses on the immanent text analysis and wide reading, which is oriented towards analysis of the historical and cultural aspects represented in the texts.

Selfie jako zwierciadŁo współczesnej kultury. Recenzja: Magdalena Szpunar, Kultura cyfrowego narcyzmu. Kraków: Wydawnictwo AGH 2016

Author(s): Katarzyna Lorenc / Language(s): Polish Issue: 2 (10)/2017

WEDDING AS A GENERAL PATTERN OF CELEBRATION IN SERBS

Author(s): Žikica Simić / Language(s): English Issue: 02/2019

In this paper, the author deals with the contemporary festive culture of the Serbian people reflected in various forms of irrationality – above all immodesty, uncontrollability and wastefulness. The author shows how a wedding, as the main Serbian custom, becomes a general pattern of celebration and how this model is transmitted onto all other holidays – both private (family and personal) events and those collective events such as national and local holidays (religious and state holidays).