scholarly journals Transforming Alyosha into Superman: Invented Traditions and Street Art Subversion in Post-Communist Bulgaria

2014 ◽  
Vol 6 (1) ◽  
pp. 56
Author(s):  
Bozhin Traykov

On June 17th 2011 graffiti artists transformed the West side of the Monument of the Soviet Army (MSA) in Sofia, Bulgaria. MSA comprises part of a spatial environment where the invented traditions of the Bulgarian state interact and compete. The art of provocation challenges those invented traditions and opens up the potential for alternative readings and discursive practices of the past and present, contrary to the official political and NGO discourse. As such it subverts ideological symbols in a fashion similar to the carnivalesque. The graffiti art provides the potential to reevaluate, bridge and connect a violent past with an equally violent present, as well as pose questions about the future. It signifies the presence of history and politics in everyday life.

2018 ◽  

What does it mean to be a good citizen today? What are practices of citizenship? And what can we learn from the past about these practices to better engage in city life in the twenty-first century? Ancient and Modern Practices of Citizenship in Asia and the West: Care of the Self is a collection of papers that examine these questions. The contributors come from a variety of different disciplines, including architecture, urbanism, philosophy, and history, and their essays make comparative examinations of the practices of citizenship from the ancient world to the present day in both the East and the West. The papers’ comparative approaches, between East and West, and ancient and modern, leads to a greater understanding of the challenges facing citizens in the urbanized twenty-first century, and by looking at past examples, suggests ways of addressing them. While the book’s point of departure is philosophical, its key aim is to examine how philosophy can be applied to everyday life for the betterment of citizens in cities not just in Asia and the West but everywhere.


2021 ◽  
pp. 92-105
Author(s):  
V. Rozumyuk

The article examines Serbo-Croatian conflict in the XX - early XXI centuries. The history of the formation of the Serbian and Croatian statehood is analyzed; the reasons for the confrontation between two close Slavic peoples are determined and the evolution of their relationship is highlighted; clarified the determinants that determine the antagonistic nature and demonstrative cruelty of the Serbo-Croatian confrontation. The formation after the “Patriotic War” of 1991-1995 of two parallel “worlds” was stated, as a result of which the Croatian and Serbian communities hardly intersect in everyday life. Constant quarrels and fights on ethnic grounds, burning of flags and desecration of state symbols have been and remain daily occurrences from the very beginning of reintegration, and war criminals convicted by an international tribunal are perceived by the two communities as national heroes and defenders of the Motherland. It points to the gradual aggravation of interethnic confrontation in Croatia and the growth of xenophobic sentiments, which has been observed recently. The conclusion about the failure of past and modern attempts to establish Serbo-Croatian cooperation in building a common future has been substantiated. It is emphasized that the Serbo-Croatian conflict does not look exhausted, not only because of the heavy burden of the past, which causes mutual accusations and long-standing hatred. Attention is drawn to the fact that this confrontation is primarily about the future - about the fate of various national projects. The mirage of “Greater Serbia” still tempts a significant part of the Serbs, who are hatching revanchist intentions, while the Croats are determined to defend their won independence. Accordingly, under certain international conditions, the confrontation of political ambitions in the Balkans can easily flare up with renewed vigor, once again confirming the reputation of this region as a “powder keg” of Europe.


Author(s):  
Wei Xiao

With the advent of a new era, universal social changes pose new challenges for the art of sculpture. In terms of cultural content and practice, sculpture needs to keep pace with time. Chinese sculpture should participate in the global processes of modern sculptural development, guided by the literary and artistic concept «do not forget the past, absorb the foreign, look into the future». Not only should it receive inspiration and stimuli for development from the West but find its voice, preserving Chinese cultural tradition and Chinese national spirit.


Author(s):  
Agata Bachórz ◽  
Fabio Parasecoli

This article examines the future-oriented use of the culinary past in Poland’s food discourse through a qualitative analysis of popular food media (printed magazines and TV). We analyze how interpretations of food and culinary practices from the past are connected to contemporary debates. We contend that media representations of the culinary past co-create projects of Polish modernization in which diverse voices vie for hegemony by embracing different forms of engagement with the West and by imagining the future shape of the community. We distinguish between a pragmatic and a foodie type of culinary capital and focus on how they differently and at times paradoxically frame cultural memory and tradition. We observe the dynamics of collective memory and oblivion, and assess how interpretations of specific periods in Poland’s past are negotiated in the present through representations of material culture and practices revolving around food, generating not only contrasting evaluations of the past but also diverging economies of the future. Finally, we explore tradition as a set of present-day values, attitudes, and practices that are connected with the past, but respond to current concerns and visions of the future.


2016 ◽  
Vol 73 (4) ◽  
pp. 308-325 ◽  
Author(s):  
Marie-Claude Proulx ◽  
Anne-Marie Martinez ◽  
Franco Carnevale ◽  
Alain Legault

The death of a child is traumatic for parents. The grief of bereaved fathers is inadequately understood since most studies on this subject have focused primarily on mothers. The goal of this phenomenological study was to understand fathers’ experiences following the death of their child. Interviews were conducted with 13 fathers whose child (aged 1–17 years) had died at least 1 and up to 6 years earlier, either from a life-limiting illness or unexpectedly in an intensive care unit in a pediatric hospital in Eastern Canada. The analysis indicates that fathers’ experience deep suffering after the death of their child and feel torn between the past and the future. Three major themes were identified: needing to push forward in order to avoid breakdown, keeping the child present in everyday life, and finding meaning in their experience of grief. Clinical implications for professionals working with this population are discussed.


2015 ◽  
Vol 3 (4) ◽  
pp. 28-38
Author(s):  
Elliot D. Cohen ◽  

David Hume is well known for his philosophical doubts about such things as whether there is an external world beyond our sense perception, and whether there are any rational grounds for believing that the future will resemble the past. But what would it be like to entertain such doubts in the context of one’s everyday life? In this paper, a fictional dialogue is provided in which a descendent of David Hume who brings such skeptical doubts to life, and consequently suffers from Generalized Anxiety Disorder (GAD), is counseled by a Logic-Based Therapy practitioner.


2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Crystal Nicole Steltenpohl ◽  
Jordan Reed ◽  
Christopher Keys

The internet allows people to connect with virtually anyone across the globe, building communities based on shared interests, experiences, and goals. Despite the potential for furthering our understanding of communities more generally through exploring them in online contexts, online communities have not generally been a focus of community psychologists. A conceptual, state-of-the-art review of eight major community psychology journals revealed 23 descriptive or empirical articles concerning online communities have been published in the past 20 years. These articles are primarily descriptive and can be organized into four categories: community building and maintenance (seven articles, 30.43%), community support (six articles, 26.09%), norms and attitudes (six articles, 26.09%), and advocacy (four articles, 17.39%). These articles reflect a promising start to understanding how we can utilize the internet to build and enhance communities. They also indicate how much further we have to go, both in understanding online communities and certain concepts regarding community psychology more generally. Community psychologists involved in practice and applied settings specifically may benefit from understanding online communities as they become integral components of advocacy, community organizing, and everyday life.


2016 ◽  
Vol 8 (2) ◽  
pp. 519
Author(s):  
Branko Banović

If we conceptualize reality as a large narrative we “build ourselves into” as social beings, and consider social activities and identities as narratively mediated, the full extent of the capacity of narratives in the creation, shaping, transmission and reconstruction of contemporary social identities, as well as the reproduction of the concept of nation in everyday life becomes apparent. The imagined Euro- Atlantic future of Montenegro demands certain narrative interpretations of the past, which, in latter stages tend to become meta-narratives susceptible to consensus. The linkage of significant historical events to the process of Euro-Atlantic integrations of Montenegro is preformed through different meta-discursive practices, most often through ceremonial evocations of memories of significant events from the recent as well as further history of Montenegro. In this context, celebrations of Statehood Day and Independence Day are especially important, as they serve as reminders of the decisions of the Congress of Berlin, the Podgorica Assembly, the antifascist struggle of World War II and the independence of Montenegro attained through the referendum held in 2006. The clearly defined key points, along with the logical coherence the narrative is based on, provide the narrative with a certain “flexibility” which enables it to take in new elements. Narrative interpretations of the past have a significant role in the reproduction of the nation, as well as the shaping and consolidation of a desirable national identity, while the established narrative continuity between the past, present and imagined Euro-Atlantic future of Montenegro emerges as the “official” mediator in the reproduction of contemporary Montenegrin identity in the process of Euro-Atlantic integrations. In order to fully comprehend this narrative, it is advisable to conceptualize it both in a synchronic as well as a diachronic perspective, as can be shown in two charts which, depending on the context, I have tentatively named “the sovereignty graph” (wherein the “end” of the narrative is a prerequisite for the beginning of Euro-Atlantic integrations) and “the identity graph” (wherein Euro-Atlantic integrations are conceptualized as a dialectic equilibrium of independence and non-independence).


Author(s):  
Gerry Van Klinken

Review of: Pieter Drooglever, An act of free choice; Decolonisation and the right to self-determination in West Papua. Oxford: Oneworld Publications, 2009, xviii + 854 pp. ISBN 9781851687152. Price: GBP 125.00 (hardback). Esther Heidbüchel, The West Papua conflict in Indonesia; Actors, issues and approaches. Wettenberg: Johannes Herrmann, 2007, iii + 223 pp. ISBN 9783937983103. Price: EUR 20.00 (paperback). Muridan S. Widjojo, Adriana Elisabeth, Amiruddin, Cahyo Pamungkas, and Rosita Dewi, Papua road map; Negotiating the past, improving the present and securing the future. Jakarta: Yayasan Obor Indonesia, 2010, xxxiii + 211 pp. ISBN 9789794617403. Paperback.


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