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The article seeks to ascertain whether and to what extent the state policy of “care” and “protection” of the family, woman-mother, children and youth in the period of socialism in Bulgaria is the result of the paternalism and populism typical of the Bulgarian socialist model.
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The article is dedicated to one aspect of the long-lasting life of the Cyrillic alphabet, namely the use of Cyrillic script as base for the Slavonic book publishing in its initial period from the end of the 15th – the 16th centuries. The main goal is to illustrate some peculiarities in the grapheme inventory, and to point out the cultural-historical functions of the early printed Cyrillic, the major of which was the preservation and the reproduction of the religious and spiritual identity. Supplementary, but not less important functions were the creation of cultural communities, the integration of the Bulgarian written legacy in Europe, its cognitive, moral, entertaining function, and others. The statement is subjected to the pursuit of shaping historically the relation between alphabet and identity, which should be realized as value, especially in the year of the Bulgarian presidency of the European Union, and the Cyrillic as one of its symbols.
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The problems concerning research, preservation and management of Bulgarian cultural monuments in Romania have attracted the attention of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and particularly the Embassy of the People‘s Republic of Bulgaria in Bucharest for many years. The Art and Culture Committee, the Bulgarian Academy of Sciences and other institutions are also involved in solving of these problems. Although many meetings of political and cultural leaders of various fields and the exchanged diplomatic notes the targeteted specific measures have not been achieved. The first reason for this is the lack of coherence, systematicity and organization and the lack of persistence, flexibility and purposefulness in solving of these problems by the People‘s Republic of Bulgaria.The second reason is the „special line“ of the Romanian government towards Bulgarian cultural interests and monuments. Remarkable in this aspect is the case of the Bulgarian School „Hristo Botev“ in Bucharest, which accordingly to the new architectural planning, were destroyed in February 1988 with an old Bulgarian church on Str „Kalarashilor“ (present-day „Cornelius Coposu“ Blvd.).
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Social transformations, the rapid development of scientific and technological progress, the change of the ruling regimes pose many challenges to the modern citizen. An average person is often not ready to psychologically resist rapid changes, and tries to adapt to them in a different way. In terms of fleeting social changes, we can observe an increase of interest towards religion in certain categories of population, because in a faith in God, people are trying to find spiritual support, protection and answers to the challenges of the present time. In view of this, studies of the transformation of religious consciousness in the conditions of socio-political transformations acquire a special relevance.
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This is a review article of a collection of essays entitled Trauma and Public Memory, edited by Jane Goodall and Christopher Lee.
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Russia has always been making efforts to define itself, since the rule of Peter I, and even earlier, by comparing itself to Kievan Rus and the Grand Duchy of Moscow. Russia has always managed to revive itself as a country, though always different, but the question remained – was Russia the East or the West, or was it something else, no matter how old it was? In all respects, Russia is Europe and its place is in Europe but the way it is governed always pushes the country toward the East.
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The post-war situation confronts the Turkish population in Bulgaria with the challenges of both the strained relations between Sofia and Ankara and the assimilation-led policies of the communist ideology against the minority. This publication examines the attempts of the Bulgarian Communist Party to build a new view of life among the Turkish women in Bulgaria through the mechanisms of education and culture. By pursuing its goal of depersonalizing the influence of religion at the expense of emancipatory perceptions of women’s active participation in social and political life the state harnesses totalitarian propaganda in order to change the value orientation of the Turkish women. The striving for modernization of the life of the Turkish women is also in compliance with the specific tasks and problems of the simultaneously pursued minority policy in the country.
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The proposed text does not attempt to present in detail the transformations pertaining to the Bulgarian Turks that have taken place in the state system and the society in Bulgaria since November 10, 1989. Rather, it attempts to explore a phenomenon which, at first glance, undoubtedly resembles nostalgia, but reveals, after a more thorough looking into it, the Bulgarian Turks‘ memory of the repressive party line of the totalitarian state and its culmination - the policy of forced assimilation, cynically called „revival process“. Also, the new reality of the Transition evokes a certain perception of the totalitarian regime, not in regards to its construction, normative or services, but in regards to its everyday life expressed through work realization, education, organization of public spaces, etc.
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Islam provides a perfect environment for the fast development of the Sharia law and the customary laws despite strong secularization efforts and pressure exercised by the government authorities. The Ottoman Empire was a multicultural society based on the principles of the Sharia law. The abolishment of the caliphate in Turkey and enforcement of the monogamy model of a family through the Kemalist revolution penalized the parallel Islam activities. After the collapse of the Ottoman Empire the millet system survived in Syria with its legal pluralism. Polygamy is currently on the rise in Syria as many men left the country or got killed in the fighting. The mass influx of Syrian women to Turkey results in the growth of parallel Islam de facto polygamous marriages in Turkey. The refugee women are looking for protection within the Sharia law family model, and the living law bypassed the Kemalist positive law secular principles. The same trend is visible in the countries that received many Muslim women that were claiming to the UNHCR their well-founded fear of persecution due to alleged transgressing of traditional social mores in their countries of origin. The same individuals sought later support and protection within the informal and effective parallel Islam networks in the resettlement countries. The legal pluralism is on the rise in the traditionally secular cultures due to the mass migration of single women preferred by the selection systems and resettlement criteria as agreed between UNHCR adjudicators and immigration authorities worldwide.
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The constitutional changes of 1989 in Kosovo, in addition to physical, political andpsychological pressure, exerted social pressure through job dismissals. Job dismissalsbecame a “normal” process, becoming a common way of exercising social pressure.In all these impossibilities in front of which a whole society is placed, self-organization oropposition through self-acting is expressed.In this course, the collapsed life on every sphere, and precisely this collapse burdened evenmore the daily life of these citizens, imposing reflection on these inabilities.While therepressive state was exclusive, degrading, and denigrating for a category of the society,precisely this category got self-integrated through resistance, which can not be calledotherwise but self-organization.In this flow, many subsequent developments came to the fore,such as the comprehensive mobilization of the society, so that individual tasks became selfvoluntarycollective duties and obligations.To this society, faced with such a situation, Solidarity was undoubtedly imposed in every areaof life, having the course from similarities, and “solidarity that comes from similarities is atits maximum when the collective conscience completely wraps up all our conscience andcomplies with it on all points” (Durkheim, 2004).
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In the context of constant population aging, digital technologies are required especially for communication and geriatric care. However, before a large-scale deployment could be implemented, the general technological acceptance level should be assessed. The paper aims to descriptively analyze the perception of aging adults on mobile technology. Based on Technology Acceptance Model (TAM), the variables considered are emotional attachment on technology, actual use, perceived ease of use, perceived usefulness, and behavioral intentions. Methodologically, a set of semi-structured interviews have been conducted. The results show that although individuals love their mobile devices and although they perceive them as being useful, the devices are not easy to be used and there are numerous concerns regarding technology. Paradoxically, while they claim the like owning smart devices, they consider them too complex and intrusive.
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Ontario’s action plan for seniors recognizes that seniors have health and education needs, among other needs (Gouvernement de l’Ontario, 2017). To partially meet these needs, we have proposed an innovative gerontagogical approach by combining two existing concepts: narrative gerontology with digital storytelling. Thus, by this new concept of Digital Narrative Gerontology, we give seniors a special place for the elaboration of the message they wish to bequeath to other generations, by creating together their life testimonies in digital form easy to share, while mutually acquiring new digital skills and exploiting the benefits of narrative gerontology, such as well-being, aging well, resilience and wisdom, but also informal and intergenerational learning. Communication was important on two levels: between the elder and the researcher during the oral narration and the creation of the digital narration in a relationship of mutual trust as well as in the form of digital testimony with a key message to transmit, during the broadcast of the digital narration. This research also made it possible to respond to the curiosity of the elders for new matters in a reassuring framework, adapted to their level, while respecting their learning pace and the choices of knowledge that they wish to acquire. Seniors were proud to share their digital creation with those they had chosen, thus opening the space for discussions, exchanges, emotions and the open door to a new intergenerational “narrative” and social interactions - sources of learning.
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The increase of computer-mediated communication use and the aging population has led to a renewed interest in online communities and social networks for active aging and social support in daily living. However, a systematic understanding of the design recommendations in Senior Online Communities is still lacking in scientific documentation. The aim of this paper is to identify the design recommendations used in online communities that support active aging. In addition, this paper highlights some of the benefits of using online communities by older adults. Twenty-three papers published between January 2015 and May 2020 in English-language, peer-reviewed publications, met inclusion criteria. The review presents a set of recommendations for designing online communities to enhance older adults’ social interactions. A process that aims for “engagement” is suggested to strategically guide the design of Senior Online Communities: Interacting – Sense of Belonging (Role-playing, Storytelling, and Legacy) – Engaging.
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The role of media and communication technologies in increasing the quality of life of the elderly is today a key topic in academic and policy debates. This article discusses findings from a study into the way public policy frames the role of technologies in later life. The aim of our study was to critically investigate the policy discourses on ‘old age’ and on the role of digital ICT in fixing challenges associated with ageing. Our focus was on digital inclusion policies of the UK and Italy, two countries experiencing similar trends in population ageing but different ICT diffusion patterns. We found that an age-based understanding of digital technology use was quite common, as was an enthusiastic embracing of the role of digital ICT in the implementation of Active Ageing and Information Society goals. We also found that the understanding of the role of digital technology and its relationship to (old) age has been changing over the last decade, starting to reflect social complexity as ICT diffusion increases among older age groups.
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ociety is ageing at an unprecedented pace. In tandem, the number of technology-enabled solutions targeted at older adults continues to rise. It is therefore important to understand how to best communicate these solutions to seniors and facilitate use and adoption. To develop an understanding of what could be an improved strategy of communication and media content delivery for companies that provide older adults with technology-based solutions is the goal of this research. Aware of the potential stereotypes that may emerge towards the ageing population, this paper takes a special interest on ageism and gender to determine imbalances. With this in mind, this paper conducts an in-depth case study of the online presence of a company that developed a digital product for seniors that has been nominated for a Prize on Best Practice on Active and Healthy Ageing. Findings concerning the communication strategy of the company are extracted based on the analysis of their website and their five social media profiles. In total 120 posts were inspected, containing 120 text excerpts, 352 pictures, and 21 videos. Results show that the organisation sustains a continuous engagement with both seniors and the seniors’ organisations that use their product, privileging a relationship of close proximity. The representation of older adults is one that shows exceptionally happy and active seniors, who are surrounded by an aura of admiration. There seem to be no considerable differences with regards to gender.
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The question posed in the call “How the widespread of new technologies are changing the norms and practices of the later life?” was transformed in the main motivation to write the paper. LOCUS scientific research project addresses the subjects of Internet of Things, its impact in maintenaince and sustainability of Cultural Heritage and the important role of older generations to these operations. What the research team noticed is that sometimes it is the dissemination of technologies (and accompanying infrastructures) that promote their use and the creation of the need. And when the technologies do not exist, the infrastructures are compromised and/or nonexistent. It is considered that there is a before and an after period in the way in which the implementation of technological projects influences rural areas and older people. This also means that there is a high relevance in the second question of the call “How social actors, groups, institutions and mainstream media provide, spread or constrain ways of growing older via digital devices?” But also, a high importance of the project developed for the scientific knowledge advancement in the study areas (Communication, Technology, Sociology, Demography, Geography, etc.). The main conclusions of the paper are that digital technologies contributes to those Cultural Heritage maintenaince and sustainability, however, this is only possible with the mediation of oler people. Consequently, those people need to know or learn how to manage digital media and technology in order to contribute for the projects and technology development. Older people aim to participate in these projects and that also influences on their proficiency on technologies (on a win-win basis).
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Academic interests on the impact of media on individuals’ lives often highlight differences in knowledge across generations. The spread of disinformation and its potential impact on societies has added a new dimension to this process - the need to continuously improve media and information literacy (MIL). Thus, the older generations face greater challenges, as they need to acquire new skills more rapidly and on a larger scale. This article analyses interrelations between encouragement measures (implemented by media policy makers) and media literacy perception of middle-aged and older population in Latvia (aged 55 to 75). The research employs data of two national representative surveys (May 2019, 1017 respondents; August 2019, 1005 respondents) that include data on respondents’ perception of MIL and test their media literacy skills. The theoretical background of this paper is supported by literature that discusses age and generations in context of media and technology use (Aroldo, 2014), and the Ideological model of literacy (Street, 1984; 1994). Data shows that a higher proportion of middle-aged and older respondents, compared to other age groups, are not interested in MIL issues and evaluate their MIL competences as rather low, but in the everyday practice their ability to recognize and evaluate information is equivalent to that of other age groups.
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Mass surveillance programmes and the impact of new information technologies on privacy restriction are among the greatest threats and challenges faced by modern countries. This article aims to present the origins and functional vision of, and some critical remarks on, the Social Credit System (SCS) under development in the People’s Republic of China. The underlying research issue arising from the assumed objective was to respond to the following questions: What is the SCS developed in the People’s Republic of China? What are its origins? How exactly does it function? The following research methods were used to solve the research queries: the monograph method, the document analysis method, the literature analysis and critique method, and the analysis and synthesis methods. In view of the preliminary investigation, the author formulated the following research hypothesis: the SCS should be viewed in a broader sense than merely as a programme aimed at conducting mass supervision of the Chinese society and preventing threats of separatism, terrorism, and social riot (colour revolutions). It is one of the tools to shape a society based on traditional Chinese values and national identity: loyalty, harmony, integrity, and fairness ‒ a disciplined society which, along with a strong and innovative economy, will enable China to attain the status of global power, thus questioning the American “unipolar world order”. Although China is not a democratic country, the system’s success can contribute to implementing similar solutions in other Asian countries. Therefore, it appears justified to conduct studies focused on the SCS.
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The Karioti are a Greek-speaking ethnographic group from Bulgaria, a large part of which migrated to Greece in the 1920s. The hypotheses about the emergence of the migrant community in the village of General Inzovo as well as the factors influencing the emigration to settlements in Northern Greece (the Municipality of Eginio, Thessaloniki region, and the village of Trikala in Imathias) are diverse: social, economic, political and others. The new environment in which the Karioti settled had a significant impact on the community. Language, traditional clothing and cultural features are part of the external manifestations that distinguish them from other communities. By using certain specific elements in traditional clothing, the community demonstrates a desire to be distinguished among others and vice versa, by rejecting others it reflects a desire to join the urban community.The preservation of the musical heritage of the Greek-speaking communities in the three settlements has gone through several periods, which are not identical in the two countries. Contemporary folklore manifestations and the activities of the community cultural institutions in the settlements aim to preserve the local identity of the Karioti in Bulgaria and Greece.
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