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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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This article presents the situation that prevails in „temporary” sanctuaries known as humanitarian zones, or colloquially speaking – refugee camps managed by UNHCR in sub-Saharan Africa on the example of Kenya. The invention of refugee camps as a kind of modern refugia is increasingly being criticized in the world. „Protection” and „aid” provided there consist in controlling and keeping their residents alive without giving them the opportunity to live independently. This system is quite convenient for both host countries and the whole so-called humanitarian industry operating according to marketing logic. The system removes the burden of dealing directly with refugees from host countries and the humanitarian industry hasa kind of market of suffering and excluded refuges which legitimize its existence. It justifies the question whether the camps really provide security and help that they promise? Refugees get voluntarily to the refugee camps, but why in that case do they have a sense of imprisonment when they are there? Why the international refugee protection system that promised sustainable solutions can not solve their problems? Why do refugees in the camps often feel that they are in a trap, from which it is difficult to escape? In the text I refer critically to the existing ways of providing protection and assistance to refugees. I underline the significant discrepancies between the declarations on the part of humanitarian organizations and results of their actions. I suggest rethinking the humanitarian aid system called the „International Refugee Regime”, entangled in contradictions and helpless in the face of the suffering that he promised to remove.
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Muslims in Switzerland are the third largest religious group. However, they are not legally recognized as a religion. The Swiss state is confronted with the necessity of their integration and the problem is constantly present in politics. It is a fact, that the regional differences between Muslims and other religions in Switzerland are very large. The results of referendums regarding the acceptance of the Muslim religion have been in the past only negative. The best example is the initiative and referendum „stop of minarets” in 2009. From a legal point of view, the presence of Muslims in Switzerland provokes many challenges for the Swiss state, because the systems of these two „worlds” are fundamentally different: Muslim law is based on the Islamic religion, while the Swiss Confederation is a democratic state of law and as such is based on the will of society. Recognition of Muslims as a religious minority can take place within the framework of Swiss direct democracy only in the referendum, which is currently impossible.
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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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. Since early times, Muslims have speculated on the nature of Revelation and the Divine Speech. This has resulted in Muslim scholars developing divergent approaches to this problem. With the constitution of the orthodoxy, the former school became dominant and it postulated that the Quran is the Word of God dictated to Prophet Muhammad through the angel Jabrail. However, during the last decades in Iran emerged scholars, such as Abdulkarim Soroush, who proposed new approaches to understanding and interpreting Revelation. This paper discusses the hermeneutical project put forward by Soroush by discussing his article on the “Expansion of Prophetic Experience”. In this article, the author argues that his modern hermeneutics is radically different from orthodox theology and problematizes that the idea that the Quran as a human creation brings about other implications outside theology, such as for instance opening the Muslim thought and liberating it from scriptural readings.
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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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The article presents the main groups of scientific explanations of jihadist terrorism, focusing on the one fundamental cause of this phenomenon. The author discusses sequentially the explanations based on: 1) religious, 2) psychological, 3) political, 4) socio-economic causes. Then he attempts to select the explanations with the greatest explanatory power. For this purpose he confronts the explanations firstly with available empirical data and then with „the fundamental problem of specificity”. The confrontation with the latter screens out the explanations that are too general and overlook the specific qualities of the jihadist terrorism.
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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 of how rising atavistic nationalism will affect democracies worldwide is an essential one of our time. In this paper, I focus instead on conducting a comparative historical analysis of atavistic nationalism in two unrecognized states: North Cyprus and Taiwan. I argue that the democratic crisis of our times is, in its essence, economic and has been precipitated by the failure of democracies to build domestic capacities to support democratic values. Furthermore, I posit that engaging populaces at the local political level will prove essential to preserving democracies around the world. I conclude by underlining that atavistic nationalism is indeed a significant threat to regional and global peace and requires further co-operation on trade and governance, and should be engaged at the local level. Lastly, I suggest that co-creating local cultures that will act to soften atavistic nationalism, which feeds off the perception of threats and fear.
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This paper is based on the research related to the immigrant players in the national football team and the formation of national identity in Germany. Recent analyses reveal that the success of an immigrant player in the national sports team has been regarded as a useful factor to attract public attention to the contribution of immigrants to the progress of the country. During the matches, discourses coming from the fans depending on the result of the game. They target immigrant players as a scapegoat in the situation of loss. Indeed, this is visible in parallel with the increasing strong critics in the media against these immigrant players. In this paper, the case of Mesut Özil in the German National Football Team is analyzed. The case study offers evidence of whether the success of immigrant players has been an important factor for their inclusion in the national identity in Germany.
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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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Over the last decades, the Strandzha region suffers a serious demographic crisis and the outflow of population results in significant change in the local culture. The empirical data of the current research is based on fieldwork in villages of Fakia (Central Strandzha, Sredets Municipality). The aim is to give a picture of the current condition of the folklore and religious culture through symbolic and specific phenomena. Enyova bulya custom is widely spread in Strandzha region and is conceived as an accent in the Enyovden (Yanovden) celebrations that take place on the 24th of June and is one of the main summer feast days until the ’60s of the 20th century. Enyova bulya is associated with fertility, maiden's transition and the well-being of the settlement community. Today, the custom is disconnected from the context of the festive life of the researched community as far as the world view of the main actors has been changed. Main doers are elderly women, the time of the celebrations is not exactly fixed thus the sacredness of the actions is automatically degenerated. A conclusion can be made that the custom nowadays has the characteristics of a tourist attraction in some aspects. Keeping the celebrations is perceived as a need to declare local identity and local diversity. The transformations in the religious culture of the researched community can be analysed in a similar direction. St. Modest cult (celebrated on December 18) is seen as “typical only for Strandzha region”. In the past, the cult is related to the local livelihood – livestock-raising and agriculture. For example, in Fakia village is believed that the woman that gives out ritual bread first will be the first to finish harvesting. Today, as a result of drastic changes in livelihood, the cult exists as a characteristic of local religious culture – grounds for the local dimensions of cultural identity. Anyway, ritual practices serve the local identity. Searching a motivation in tradition keeps alive a local peasant community in process of dramatic demographic and social crises in Strandzha region.
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The article presents religious practices and politics of memory, related to the cult of the “new martyrs” (“martyrs of totalitarianism”) in the Catholic Church in Bulgaria after 1989. The paper is based on terminological apparatus and methodology in the field of anthropology of memory and anthropology of religion, and describes the procedures of beatification of Blessed Eugene Bossilkov (beat. 1998) and bishops Fr. Kamen Vichev, Fr. Pavel Dzhidzov, Fr. Iosafat Shishkov (beat. 2002), Fr. Fortunat Bakalski, Fr. Rafael Peev, and others. The objective of this study is to elucidate major moments related to the institutionalisation of the cult, the processes of construction of sacredness, the creation of new religious practices, the commemoration practices, and the places of memory. The study explores the elements of the veneration of the “new martyrs” in Bulgaria, the connection between cult and history, and the issues of memory and the policies of memory as a form of heritage. The observations and the examples are obtained through field research and interviews conducted in several settlements in the Diocese of Sofia and Plovdiv and the Diocese of Nicopolis (primarily the towns of Plovdiv, Rakovski, Ruse, and Belene, the village of Oresh, and the city of Sofia). Relics, testimonies of martyrdom, stories of miracles, hagiographical and iconographical innovations, commemorational festivities, places of memory, related to the “new martyrs” – all of these are analysed through the prism of processes of invention of cultural-historical heritage, renovation of confessional identities, and creation of reworking models of traumatic memory in the period of socialism. The article looks for answers to the following questions: What is the character of the totalitarian martyrology in Bulgaria? How are the confessional consciousness of the Catholic communities and the character of their religious culture being transformed through the religious cults of the “new martyrs”?
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The measures for limiting the distribution of COVID-19 that have been undertaken by the state during the last months affected many institutions and people engaged with the preservation of local cultural heritage, both tangible and intangible. The article discusses the official policies towards the community centres (chitalishta) in the current complicated situation caused by the pandemic crisis. Additionally, it utilises direct observations in the field, in the media and in internet milieu, and interviews with community centre workers and representatives of communities that are successors of cultural heritage. Based on concrete examples, the study offers a general and up-to-date picture of preservation practices, developed on local level, such as the ethnographic collections at the community centres, the non-professional groups for folklore, and different initiatives related to the popularisation and socialisation of cultural heritage.
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This study is developed within the framework of the research programme Cultural Heritage, National Memory and Social Development. Without setting the goal to exhaust thoroughly the question, it starts with a survey of the cultural policy of the Bulgarian state towards the Bulgarian communities in Ukraine, Moldova and Romania before the epidemiological situation of the COVID-19 pandemic was officially announced in Bulgaria. Afterwards, in comparative perspective, the author presents the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on the Bulgarian state policy aiming to delineate the different points of view to the current situation. She notes the first reactions to the “new reality” and identifies some suggestions for coping with the pandemic crisis.
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Scientific life, conference report
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