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The article is focused on the analysis of stylistic originality of Mykola Bazhan texts of the 1920-30s. The texts are considered in cultural and ideological context of this period, which is a result of a mixture of two artistic and philosophical platforms: avant-garde and socialist realism.
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The interruption of Japan's foreign relations, which has lasted since the beginning of the 7th century, was interrupted by the signing of the treaty of Kanagawa and the seizure of power by the emperor Mutsuhito, who called his reign the Meiji period, or „Enlightened rule.” It was during this period that the foundations for modernization of today's sophisticated Japan were laid. Japan begins to open up to the world, but it retains its independence, combining tradition and modernism in all segments. The journey and the exchange of ideas that have inspired many literary works, not only by the French writer Pierre Loti, on whose work this paper is partially based, then artistic ideas and artefacts, aim to explore the author of this paper, which focuses on the presentation of elements of Japanese art and culture at the Exibition Universelle in Paris, 1867. The analytical-comparative method used in this paper shows the remarkable place of Japan in the cross-section that transported silk from the Mediterranean to East Asia, which has become a symbol of the connection between East and West and metaphors for various myths and legends from previous periods, and today the link between western and eastern cultural development models, whose proximity and distance are constantly changing, leaving a strong mark on all societies.
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The paper discusses the phenomenon of Americanization of European universities in a historical perspective, referring to the critical comparison of higher education in Germany and the United States, conceived by Max Weber after the experience of his stay at American universities in 1904. In accordance with the subject and goal, the paper is divided into several thematic units that include the historical context of European university development, defining the research question, the historical and theoretical context (his trip to the International Congress of Arts and Sciences in St. Louis and defining two of Weber's key theoretical concepts (rationalization and bureaucratization) which are necessary for understanding his analysis of higher education), consideration of Weber's most important work on this topic (Wissenschaft als Beruf), and presentation of the conclusions of our analysis. The paper provides an overview of Weber's comparison of two university models: (a) the American model, which he sees as market-oriented, democratized and meritocratic, and (b) the German model, which he sees as critical, holistic and humanistic. Despite the prevailing opinion in modern Weberology that Weber was an apologist of the way in which American higher education works, in this paper we try to show that Weber in his deliberations offered a far more balanced view of the situation at universities in the two countries (United States and Germany), and that he managed to show different aspects, i.e. the advantages and disadvantages of these two, in many respects different, models of higher education and academic communities derived from them. Although the paper deals with a part of Max Weber's legacy and in that sense with a discussion that is part of the history of sociological ideas, the basic ideas that Weber argues in it have not lost their relevance in contemporary discussions on higher education reform in Europe.
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The thesis on the project “Shkupi 2014” which includes the period between 2007 to 2017, is a period of the “beginning” an authoritarian cultural orientation commissioned by the regime, populist, one-sided or even ethnocentric, with questionable identical direction on the national sense (ancient versus Slavic identification of the Macedonians), which at the end of 2017 started to be displayed as a bad cultural policy that run for almost a decade. Parallel to this, we have corruption affairs for the realized cultural projects and uneven cultural development initiated by the state leadership in the country: favoring the Macedonian culture versus the Albanian and other cultures in the country. The exaggeration of the exclusiveness of the ancient culture of the Macedonian people, transformed into state and political capital, as well as the display of the common history of the Macedonians with the Bulgarian as the exclusivity of the Macedonians from Macedonia, brought disagreements with two of Macedonia’s neighbors. This was also reflected in the country's foreign policy, and therefore Macedonia had some sort of mild but sensitive isolation for these ten years. These problems that have arisen with the erratic cultural policy of Macedonia in the past period not only provoke interest from the aspect of making doctoral work, but can contribute to finding a lot of positive directions in defining the determinations of state authorities for building a more efficient and more humane society in the Republic of Macedonia. As we emphasized that the development of cultural policy in the period from 2007 to 2017 had an impact on the social developments of Macedonia, not only internally, but also in an external plan, that is, in an international dimension, especially with the countries of neighboring Macedonia, primarily with Greece and Bulgaria, and in addition to Albania, Kosovo and Serbia. In order to analyze it more deeply and to elaborate such a complete topic, it is certainly necessary to perceive several other issues, and in particular: -the sociohistorical context of the research problem. -the direction, orientation, and development of this topic should have scientific identification with the following questions, beginning with an elemental expert question of the study: How wise it is to look for roots in Ancient Macedonia if we do not respect the present? as well as similar issues related to the topic, are the subject of consideration in this article as well.
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Although it is one of the building blocks of sociological analyses, the concept of symbolic boundaries has been undergoing a second revival over the last twenty-odd years. Following in the footsteps of theoretical and empirical work by Michèle Lamont, researchers have been rethinking the potential of symbolic boundaries for additional fleshing out and elaborating in areas that have proven to be most productive. In general, its development moves in both significant scientific directions, toward enabling the transformation of basic premises into a sequence of research questions and linking them to appropriate methods, so as to include a significant portion of social reality empirically. Additionally, there are also theoretical aspirations to expand it from within, developing different aspects of it on an abstract level so as to establish a base categorical schema that would either serve to synthetize existing literature or, even more importantly, to focus further research. Of equal importance is also the attempt to compensate for the limitations of the concept of symbolic boundaries (Lamont 1992) by combining it with another, believed by its advocates to be complementary to the former, that of social relationships (“double objectivity” – Bourdieu and Wacquant 2013), in order to simultaneously examine both the social and mental structures of social differences and social stratification.
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The purpose of the article is to conceptualise the phenomenon of modern popular culture as a cultural practice of creating meanings. Methodology. General scientific research methods were applied: analysis and synthesis were used during the review of the main studies of popular culture theorists, by virtue of using systematic method, popular culture was reviewed as a whole, with the coordination of its components, comparative methods was used to collate the features of popular culture with others. The scientific novelty is that the definition of popular culture has been clarified from the perspective of modern Ukrainian cultural studies, considering the meaning-creation processes of its makers. Conclusions. Popular culture is a type of modern culture that recognises the importance of the ordinary, mundane, while everyday life is perceived as an important component of cultural formation. In everyday life, meaning-creation occurs when popular culture makers are not trained specialists, but rather ordinary people, consumers of cultural products, who imbue them with feelings and emotions, give them meaning, based on their own opinions and customs. Such vision allows us to move from a simplified view of the hierarchy of "high" and "low" cultures to a more complex multi-layered picture of the functioning of modern culture.
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Georgia has over 525 indigenous grape varieties,which is roughly 1/6th of the world’s total grapespecies. Approximately 40 varieties are officially grownfor commercial viticulture production. While Georgianwine has been known locally for centuries, its globalconsumption is a relatively recent phenomenon.
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The aim of the article below is to present the phenomenon of the subculture of seducers – ‘pickup artists’, whose activity began in the United States and mainly thanks to the Internet, appeared all over the world, including Poland. The presence of the seducer subculture is the result of the changes that took place in post-modern times and is part of Ulrich Beck’s concept of ‚risk society’. The article describes the main features of the PUA community, which has its own way of describing (language) and a world of values, which allows it to be perceived as a kind of subculture, as well as the contemporary masculine movement that meets certain expectations of men in the sphere of building intimate relationships with women. The history of the deve-lopment of the pickup artists phenomenon as well as the controversy related to the activities of the seduction community are also presented. The very pattern of the seduction process, which was taken from one of the seduction textbooks, is described using the dramaturgical concept of the interactionist Erving Goffman, which depicts the seducer as an actor and describes the seduction process as a theatrical performance.
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Aim: This research aims to understand the value of individuals having several inherent cultures and explore their specific needs and skills to improve managing cultural challenges in the work environment. The emerging conceptual framework of reaching ‘The New Cultural Normal’ demonstrates opportunities for dealing with cross-cultural situations not only internationally but especially intra-national.Design / Research methods: Based on insights and narratives of bicultural employees collected through 18 interviews, several vital categories emerged followed by the attribution of each to a corporate setting and considering which has the most substantial influence on that category. As biculturalism is an extreme form of coping with cultural diversity, the interviewees represent vital experts in coping with culturally diverse challenges.Conclusion / Findings: The emerging concept of reaching ‘The New Cultural Normal’ describes the process of attaining the status of full integration of biculturalism among organizations. It will help each corporate setting level, defined as bicultural employees, colleagues, supervisors, and the company, to enhance their awareness of dealing with cross-cultural situations.Originality / value of the article: This study provides a beneficial starting tool for shaping the future workplace where more inclusion and contentment will lead to qualitative improved team outcomes thus increasing corporate performance and can even result in long-term societal changes.
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Martial arts practiced all over the world today are the heritage of warrior cultures simultaneously in the areas of physical and symbolic culture. This study includes 20 selected symbols found in the Western world and Eastern Asia. In the multi-faceted phenomenon of martial arts, today they are assigned different meanings, not necessarily identical for the same symbols. Attention was also paid to the evolution of symbolic content – to semi-symbols and single symbols, to complex ones. Areas of reflection are exceptions from mythology, literature, mass culture and sports culture, where the names and logos of various martial arts organisations operate.
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Throughout this article, the role of myths as part of organizational culture is emphasized. Myths, similarly to cultures, diverge according to the type of organization. In the paper, opposing types of organizations are distinguished on the basis of their attitude to power and to environmental issues. The objective of this article is to analyze the core myths exploited in organizations for motivational purposes in order to identify the conditions for their positive or negative impact on both organizational efficiency and employee wellbeing.
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The aim of the article is to consider whether the mental mechanisms essential for the functioning of a myth, used effectively for many years in culture-creating activities (especially in the area of art and entertainment), can also be applied to the processes of cultural management. The hypothesis of such a possibility is based on the belief that the same properties of human cognitive architecture that account for the popularity of the form of myth are (or can be) used to shape specific attitudes and actions. In particular, this applies to such properties of myth as narrative communication, fiction, worldview referencing, concepts of agency, as well as counterintuitive imagery and primary metaphors. The article is a theoretical study based on a review of literature in the field of the theory of myth and cognitive science, discussing the perspective of the application of findings made at the intersection of these two domains in management theory and practice as well as potential empirical research in this area.
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Analysing the employees’ competencies is relevant both from the organisation’s and individuals’ perspective, because it allows – for example – to predict emerging competency gaps in organisations, design training offers tailored to the organisation’s needs and employees’ expectations, or to better match people’ professional tasks with organisational culture. One of the methods for obtaining information about competence requirements is the analyse of job advertisements published by the selected employers. This article focuses on the competence requirements set by employers representing cultural organisations. Its purpose is to showcase the competencies expected from the staff of cultural institutions in Poland from the perspective of job advertisements. The article presents the results of the analysis of 127 job advertisements published on the “Pracuj w Kulturze” webiste from the 31st of January to the 1st of February 2022. The analysis included the requirements regarding the following: knowledge (both formal and non-formal), skills and employee attitudes desired by the employers.
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Cultural institutions are exceptional spaces where time gains new meanings. By interacting with stakeholders, responding to the needs declared by potential recipients, and setting trends – they become active participants in the process of shaping and giving meaning to cultural heritage, of which one of the most important components is also time. Therefore, it turns out that employees of cultural institutions are responsible not only for managing themselves but for managing the processes taking place within an organization as well, moreover they are also obliged to closely observe the dynamically changing world.This text aims to diagnose and describe the importance of time – according to employees – in working in cultural institutions. To prepare the article, the author used the research conducted for the purposes of her thesis entitled Time management – aporia or utopia? In line with the adopted methodologicalstrategy, the method of narrative collage was used, consisting of collecting fictional stories from employees of cultural organizations. The analysis of the obtained research material made it possible to diagnose the challenges faced by cultural institutions, related to, inter alia, inadequate financing, failure of taking into account the individual needs and expectations of employees and chaos in the working time organization.
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The article deals with the topic of demotivation among the staff of Polish cultural centres. The aim of the paper is to explore the phenomenon from a humanist perspective. The first part describes the definitions of demotivation and the reasons it occurs. The research results were then presented. The answers obtained through an online questionnaire and interviews show that demotivation occurs in this group. The essential determinants of demotivation are elements of the internal environment of the organization.
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This article provides an urban legend plot analysis in the perspective of comparative studies on the example of a popular story of vanishing hitchhiker. A comparative analysis was conducted using the original versions of this legend in the United States and the variants appearing in mainland China. Research on the variability of this story was first carried out in the 1940s by American folklorists, Richard Beardsley and Rosalie Hankey, which constitute the foundation for further analysis of Eastern themes of this legend. The Chinese versions of the story analyzed in this article were collected on the basis of author’s own field research, including ethnographic interviews and netnographic research. The field work was conducted in 2016–2018 in mainland China, with particular emphasis on Beijing, excluding special administrative regions of the People’s Republic of China (Hong Kong and Macau) and Tibet.
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The main aim of this article is to examine multiculturalism as a specific policy of multi-ethnic states, and its essence and specificity. Multiculturalism can be considered as a policy aimed at preserving and developing cultural diversity in a particular state, as well as a theory or ideology justifying such policy. In the essence of multiculturalism lies the idea of the peaceful coexistence of different groups – ethnic, racial, religious, cultural, and other – within one state. The present study addresses the following research question: how multiculturalism obligations have been considered by state policy? In the course of the research, the answer to this question was achieved by analysing what multiculturalism is, and then – examining several theoretical approaches to this policy. As a result, the author concluded that multiculturalism can be a component of state policy only in states where the government actively promotes and protects the rights and interests of various cultural groups.
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The idea of cultural studies by Stanisław Pietraszko and the concept of “active culture” by Jerzy Grotowski were born at the same time. One can point to many similarities between them, despite the extreme difference in the languages in which they were formulated. Pietraszko’s theory is a classic concept of cognitive humanities, laying the foundations for thinking about culture as an autonomous sphere of reality requiring a specific field of science and a specific language dedicated to its study. Grotowski’s actions are an act of non-cognitive humanities, i.e. getting to know the world in non-conceptual categories of doing and experiencing. Despite this, and despite the lack of evidence of any direct contact or infl uence of both their creators on each other, there are visible similarities in their way of understanding culture: as “a way of living according to values”. Values are the central subject of consideration for Pietraszko, and activities for Grotowski. The explanation of this convergence, also referred to as Zeitgeist, can be sought in the rules of cultural creation. This is a process of internal change of the cultural order, and it manifests itself through the creativity of outstanding individuals.
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