Apparatchiks in Action
The review of: Képes Könyv 1968-1979 (Picture Book 1968-1979) by Gyula Gazdag; Ars Longa Series Pécs: Jelenkor Kiadó, 1994,109 pp.
More...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.
The review of: Képes Könyv 1968-1979 (Picture Book 1968-1979) by Gyula Gazdag; Ars Longa Series Pécs: Jelenkor Kiadó, 1994,109 pp.
More...
The dynamics of socio-economic changes has brought a number of changes and significantly influenced space in recent times. Cities are growing and occupying new areas. Spontaneous and unplanned urbanization is often the sign of our times. Chaotic appropriation of space has become a problem both in Poland and in the world. Therefore, in space management it is important to pay attention to areas that can be reused in the process of revitalization. The purpose of this article is to analyze the concept of revitalization in the context of the functional changes that took place in cities in the past centuries, with a particular emphasis on postindustrial areas in Poland. Additionally, the question of whether revitalization is an opportunity to preserve and protect cultural heritage is discussed.
More...
The paper aims to provide description, analysis and explanation of creation of a cult of personality in the collective memory, concentrating on the objects of popular culture connected to the cult, with nostalgia or “imagined nostalgia” embedded in them. The term “imagined nostalgia” refers to the sensation of nostalgia towards things that never were, things we never had etc. The cult treated is the cult of the Yugoslav president Josip Broz Tito (in office 1953-1980). Such an embedding of nostalgia is done with the goal of accelerating the commerce, but has an effect not only on the commercial sphere. Its effects are investigated using the example of the souvenir store which forms a part of The Museum of Yugoslav History complex. The souvenirs sold in this store are examples of how heritage can be used with the purpose of maximizing the profit but also how this process creates an alternative product, other than financial gain – it establishes a specific idealized view of a person, in this case Josip Broz Tito, which also leads to an idealized view of the things he symbolizes, such as a time period, ideology, political system etc. The paper also looks into the reasons that cause people to look back at Tito’s rule as the “golden era”, in connection with the things that may be lacking in their lives nowadays.
More...
This essay discusses three Polish films from the last 10 years: Bailiff (Komornik, 2005), directed by Feliks Falk, Edi (2002), directed by Piotr Trzaskalski, and Silesia, directed by Anna Kazejak-Dawid, which is the first part in the omnibus film Ode to Joy (Oda do radości, 2005) of which the two remaining parts were directed by Jan Komasa and Maciej Migas. The main methodological tools are the concepts of neoliberalism and bare life. The article argues that the fall of communism led to the neoliberalisation of Polish society and the production of bare life. The aforementioned films attest to these changes and offer an assessment of them which conveys a specific ideology. By focusing on the construction of their narratives and characters, the article attempts to establish its main features and offer its explanation.
More...
War, as the most severe form of social crisis, leads to numerous changes in the personal and social aspects of the lives of individuals who are involved in it. The aim of this research is to determine the role and significance of religiosity for the individual, along with the social behavior of Vukovar’s Catholic population while they managed the war crisis situation (Homeland War in 1991). The research was conducted with the application of qualitative methodology: grounded theory methodology (paradigmatic model of Strauss and Corbin), in-depth interviews (12) and narrative analysis (72 publications from the collection of books about the Homeland War in Vukovar). The results, however, indicate that among the population, which primarily belongs to traditional church religiosity, a special form of personal, beyond the ritual, religiosity occurred, conditioned by the specific circumstances which the people found themselves in Based on the developed substantive grounded theory, it is evident that people primarily practiced an individual personal relationship with a Transcendent being (God), which had a positive role in the population’s confrontation with the new circumstances, thus strongly affecting their personal and social behavior. Practicing such a relationship enabled them to achieve secondary control over their lives, as a substitute for the inability of primary control, thus developing spiritual strength to ease and cope with the social crisis/war situation.
More...
Chief of Staff Deputy Commander of the Drina Corps of the Bosnian Serb Army. Appointed Commander of the Drina Corps on 13 July 1995.
More...
This article discusses the role of the former communist party elite (the nomenklatura) in the Bulgarian post-communist media landscape in relation to media ownership and the origin of media outlets’ capital. The spotlight is on Bulgarian journalists’ perceptions explored in semi-structured interviews with media professionals from the capital city, Sofia. The findings indicate that Bulgarian journalists are strongly interested in, and concerned with, the influence of members of the former nomenklatura and their informal networks on the Bulgarian media landscape and particularly on the way Bulgarian media in Bulgaria have been owned and financed since 1989.
More...
The political and historical backgrounds in the countries that had to do with a Communist regime is very different in terms of previous government forms and gender politics. Historically, the Soviet Union created a social order based on equal political and economic rights for women and men in the public sphere. These policies were primarily driven by the economic needs of the state. Even so, the role and social norms were not the main reason for this politics, but the economic needs of the state. After the Communist regime collapse in Central and Eastern Europe a change came, a transition to democracy that also created an opportunity for Eastern European women to establish new groups and to mobilise other individuals with similar policy preferences to pressure the political establishment to take action on different gender issues. The Central European gender experience is vastly different is some key ways from the West. While Western women were trying to give themselves the choice to leave the home and go to work, the women of Central Europe were almost forcibly added to the work force.
More...
The article discusses the important changes in the Russian foreign policy doctrines that occurred in the beginnings of the 1990s, after the collapse of the Soviet Union. The Author argues that the officially claimed devotion to peacemaking and peacekeeping are in fact manifestations of the Russian imperial outreach. The model of international relations promoted by Moscow in fact resembles the American 19th century Monroe Doctrine. Thus, the foreign policy doctrine and the potential national conflicts in the post-Soviet territory may become triggers for Russian actions aiming at restoring the Russian Empire.
More...
The article is delivered in Ukrainian at the conference of the European Association of Science on Security and International Socio-State Programme of UNESCO "ADULT EDUCATION OF UKRAINE" September 14, 2014, in the press center of the Ukrainian News Agency "Capital" in Kiev (Ukraine). This sketch does not aspire to any attempts to analyze international relations in Europe. It is only an attempt to assess the present situation from the perspective of the experience of the European association of science safety, whose members include representatives from 23 countries of Europe, including Poles, Russians and Ukrainians.
More...
This study examines the reasons which led to the drastic moral crisis in our recent history. Post-communist transition brought about political extremism and anomic society dominated by chaos, violence and lawlessness. Thereby, all forms of civilised existence and ethical culture have been degraded. There are no preconditions for restoration of moral life styles in the circumstances of immense social chaos and war politics. In addition, neither civilised level of values nor moral culture are sustainable.
More...
After the fall of the Berlin Wall, all socialist societies in Europe entered a post-socialist transitional period. Nevertheless, their transit through the period has been different. Due to the Yugoslav crisis in the 1990s, Serbian transition has been both postponed and rough. This state, known as a “blocked transformation”, has prompted many unordinary situations, where some new capitalist phenomena have emerged side by side with the preservation of old, socialist elements. In the case of Serbian housing, the construction of new multi-family housing in the form of a condominium is such an example. The first private investments of this sector began in the early 1990s and boomed during the 2000s. The system of solidarity funds for housing construction, preserved from socialist Yugoslavia, existed up to the early 2000s. Although both types of housing construction have existed simultaneously, they have had different features, most notably the selection of new apartment dwellers. The proposed research aims to understand if this difference between the two mentioned types of new multi-family housing has influenced the newly formed communities in these buildings – how dwellers function as a community? The research “polygon” comprises two buildings in the city of Sremska Mitrovica, Serbia. The first example is the last multi-family building built by solidarity funds; the second one was built at the same time, but it was a private-investment project. The method used in the research is a survey that is shaped to cover the main issues about locally named “community spaces” - common spaces in condominium buildings and around it. The subjects of the survey are the dwellers of both buildings. The results of the survey are expected to present a noticeable difference in the opinions of the respondents. Using this method, this research intends to clarify if different procedures of the selection of dwellers influence the dwellers’ opinions and behaviours towards collective places. This clarification will be the foundation of new recommendations to improve the current state and regulation in condominium housing in Serbia.
More...
The article analyses diasporal identity in the contemporary Lithuanian theatre through the performance “Expulsion” directed by Oskaras Koršunovas. The performance is the most comprehensive analysis of portraits of emigrants from Lithuania. Hermeneutic and psychoanalytic approaches analyze the post-Soviet identity of the main character in the performance whose name is Ben in post-colonial discourse. A theory of post-colonialism reveals a hybrid identity accompanied by ambivalence and mimicry. East-West turn into an essential dichotomy in the performance. It defines the postcolonial and colonial state experienced at the same time in emigration by the main character. Diasporal identity developes through re experiencing stages of human development unable to get rid of infantilism which accompanies excessive self-analysis, narcissism and aggression.
More...
Conspiracy theory is a powerful explanatory model or a way of thinking, which influences many cultural forms and social processes across the contemporary world. Recent academic research into conspiracy theories provides a set of interpretations ranging from medicalization (social/political paranoids) to the concept of ‘popular knowledge’ as a specifically postmodern phenomenon. In modern and postmodern societies, conspiracy theories often motivate political action and social praxis, accompany the transformation of institutional and informational networks, and provoke moral panic and changes of identity. The paper deals with the role of conspiratorial motifs and themes in the formation and transmission of what is known as contemporary legend. The discussion of empirical data focuses on apocalyptic narratives about ‘the Beast of Brussels’. Proceeding from the memetic approach in folklore studies as well as the concept of emotional communities, I try to show how and why present-day conspiracy theories and practices of conspiratorial hermeneutics are inspired by particular combinations of emotional, moral, and epistemological expectations.
More...
The article has the aim to introduce the current artistic portrait of the Balkan theatrical elite after the Balkan ethnic wars. The main focus is on the Croatian director Oliver Frljić, but also on the theatrical life of Serbia, mostly on Biljana Srbljanovic. The article analyzes the theatrical critic - the Serbian as well the Croatian - the government's position and the national relationships in the culture filed, looks for an answer of the question if the war's lessons have been learned.
More...
Acquiring citizenship in the country of resettlement is the ultimate step on the integration pathway of a resettled person. For people from countries of the former Soviet Union (fSU), we can see a great variety in patterns of citizenship acquisition and changes in migration policy governing the granting of citizenship. Russia is the main player in this field. As a descendant of the fSU, the country uses its right to determine whether or not to grant its citizenship to people in the new independent countries as a way of maintaining its influence on the post-Soviet and even the former Russian Empire regions. Russian citizenship was granted to m 8.6 million people between 1992 and 2016 (excluding the Crimean population), more than 92 percent of whom were from the fSU. Russia employs a range of different policies, starting with its compatriot policy for individual resettlement; then comes its not formally declared policy of issuing Russian passports for the population of non-recognised states (such as Transdnestria) and finally there is Russia’s policy of automatically granted citizenship for 2 million Crimean people. This paper explores the phenomenon of Russian citizenship policy and compares it with European or Eurasian policy governing fSU countries. It also discusses the implementation of this policy at both regional and global levels.
More...
In 1993, after the Soviet army’s withdrawal, the local municipal government of the tiny Latvian village of Mārciena had to take over a former residential district of the Soviet officers’ families, called Gorodok, and the infrastructure of the Soviet army unit that was located in the nearby forest. Over the past twenty years, the municipality has tried to find the best solution to protect the site from decay. Businessmen have attempted to raise the profile of the area, and all of the residents have reshaped their identities within the framework of economic and political developments taking place in the country. The purpose of the article is to examine these processes of making sense of the place called Mārciena from different points of view.
More...
The article examines the subject of post-Soviet military bases in Poland, and deals with two main issues: 1) presenting such sites as entanglements of place, materiality, military and symbolic elements in the process of creating commonality, and 2) regarding them as products of local “imaginings” and external touristic expectations. I look at how ways of constructing heritage are shaped and constructed through locals’ encounters with tourism. Following this, I claim that the defining criteria of what can be regarded as heritage relevant to accompanying transformations of original functions of military sites or post-Soviet military bases involve value, substantiality, and the passage of time. To elaborate on these research questions, I draw on data from two places where the Soviet Army was deployed: Borne Sulinowo, along with Kłomino, and Międzyrzecz, with Kęszyca Leśna. The differences in size, function, and proximity to bigger cities are factors that helped to determine the distinct ways in which the local people dealt with the Soviet military presence, and how the foreign military past can be used in the process of handling different types of tourists, those interested in nature, often well-preserved near the former military space, those interested in history and those following the trail of military issues (e.g. fortresses, bunkers, and fortifications). The sites for local inhabitants are where they live, for tourists they are places to see, and for some people they can be interesting spaces to set up military camps or fortresses.
More...
The main goal of this paper is to represent cultural, aesthetic and ethical importance, as well as to critically examine the ongoing reconstruction project of the Yugoslavia’s Secretariat for National Defense, that has recently been announced by the Assembly of the City of Belgrade on the basis of decision on adapting the building into a complex dedicated to the memory of Prince Stefan Nemanja. The clarification of the significance of the General Staff of the Armed Forces of Serbia and Montenegro will also move into direction of pointing out its aesthetic, functional and symbolic value of the attention that, due to all respects, should be paid to the necessity for consistent valorization and adequate future recontextualization of the only saved object of the architect Nikola Dobrović in Belgrade. Another important question, which has been actualized lately, is the reconstruction of the Federal ministry of Defense. The emphasis is also put on the influence of political ideology on architecture. Accordingly, the basic task on thematic frame shall be to reconsider and critically review the current issue of reconstruction and resemantisation of this building, which is the masterpiece of architect Nikola Dobrović.
More...
In the light of the dramatic events in political society in Serbia the author examines the most basic question of political theory of constitutionalism, i.e. how is it posible for a revolution to culminate in a viable form of constitutional government.
More...