Elections as an Institution of Trust: Features of Functioning in the Context of the COVID-19 Pandemic

The article is devoted to identifying the features of the functioning of elections as a democratic institution in a pandemic. Based on the constructivist approach and the method of comparative analysis, the author attempts to conceptualize elections as an institution of trust and to characterize the electoral practices used by European countries in the electoral process. Based on the research of D. Coleman, N. Luhmann, R. Putnam, P. Roseanvallon, P. Shtompka, I. Krastev, F. Fukuyama, D. Gambetto, the author, despite the ambiguity of the concept of “trust”, concludes that it is essential role in the relationship between government and society. Mistrust means the alienation of society from the social sphere, lack of faith in justice, a feeling of uncertainty and a threat emanating from government institutions. Trust creates a moral environment in society that promotes development and effective problem solving. In an atmosphere of trust, various voting options are possible, which are not disputed by citizens, and elections become the most important indicator of this trust. Pandemic restrictions have left a significant imprint on electoral practices; nevertheless, there is an obvious trend towards the active introduction of remote electronic voting, which has not yet reached perfection, but is a strategically priority in the ongoing election campaigns. At the same time, increased requirements are imposed on the safety of the electoral process, its normative regulation, openness and publicity.

ORTHODOX MONASTERIES OF UKRAINE CENTERS OF EDUCATION AND PREPARATION OF WOMEN FOR SPIRITUAL AND MORAL EDUCATION OF CHILDREN (XIX EARLY XX CENTURY)

The article reveals and analyzes the leading trends in the preparation of women for the spiritual and moral education of children of this period, reveals the main purpose, process, content and objectives of training. It is highlighted at which monasteries of Ukraine at that time there were women’s educational institutions where girls were prepared for the spiritual and moral upbringing of children. The historical digression clearly shows us that for centuries the centers of spiritual education, culture and education were Orthodox monasteries. In the XIX - early XX centuries. at the monasteries of Ukraine there is a rapid development of educational institutions for girls, mostly of spiritual condition. The first such institutions were: a school for orphans of the clergy at the Odessa Michael the Archangel Monastery (1844) and a theological school for girls of the clergy at the Lebedinsky Nikolaev Monastery (1859). At that time, monastic educational institutions were divided into two categories. The first category included institutions under the “patronage” of the Empress Mary, the second - schools that were subordinate to the Holy Synod, under the management of the diocesan elders and the care of local clergy and the abbess of the monastery.These educational institutions differed in goals, organization of internal regulations, curricula, staff, rights of officials and material support, but had a common goal: to give girls an education that would meet their purpose: on the one hand, to act as a wife, and with another is to become an educated mother who raises her children in a spiritual and moral environment and a housewife. Thanks to the “Statute of Women’s Diocesan Schools” of 1868, graduates received the title of “Home Teacher”, which gave them the right to teach.It is important to emphasize that the first monastic women’s theological educational institutions were planned as three-class -with a two-year course of each class. The compulsory subjects that the girls were to study included: the Law of God (short catechism and sacred history), church singing, reading, Slavic and Russian languages, short grammar, arithmetic (up to the “triple rule”), short Russian history and geography, teaching needlework and housekeeping. The main task of the monastery school was to educate the heart and will, which should strive for good. The life of the soul is determined by the heart and concentrated in it, and the will, directed to good and guided by conscience, is the basis of the moral character of man. Good upbringing indicates successful learning.

Features of the organisation of theatrical activities among rural schoolchildren

The definition is given, upbringing possibilities of theatre activities are identified; their main form is children's association. Theatre association is seen as an upbringing environment where pedagogues and children solve a set of tasks of children’s upbringing and socialising in the process of theatrical activity. Particular attention is paid to the fact that, when organising theatrical activities, one should take into account the peculiarities of the region, the societas and the specifics of rural school. Rural school often assumes the functions of additional education for children and adults; it is the centre of cultural and leisure activities for the whole population. Problems when organising theatre activities for rural children are considered; it is also noted that setting up a theatre group in a school helps to overcome the socialisation difficulties of rural children. A number of favourable factors, positively influencing the organisation and development of children’s theatrical activity, their socialisation, include close ties of school and societas, closeness of children to nature, development of interaction of children with parents, with fellow villagers, rural spiritual and moral environment, development of integrative connections. It is noted that theatrical activity in a number of rural schools is a system-forming one, i.e. it unites the activities of all actors, it contributes to the integration of general education and additional education of rural schoolchildren. Peculiarities of the content, forms, methods and technologies that can be used when organising theatrical activity of rural schoolchildren are considered.

Seven threats to thinking about ethics

‘Seven threats to thinking about ethics’ discusses the seven threats to ethical thinking, looking at ideas that destabilize one when one thinks about standards of choice and conduct. In various ways, these ideas seem to suggest that ethical thought is somehow impossible. They are important because they themselves can seep into the moral environment. When they do, they can change what people expect from each other and themselves, usually for the worse. How big are the threats of the death of God, relativism, egoism, evolutionary theory, determinism and futility, unreasonable demands, and the false consciousness?

HISTORICAL AND PHILOSOPHICAL ROOTS OF THE DEVELOPMENT OF TRADITIONAL VALUES

This article analyzes the historical and philosophical roots of the development of traditional values that contribute to the spiritual and moral environment of Eastern people.

Democratic legitimacy, political speech and viewpoint neutrality

The purpose of this article is to consider the question of whether democratic legitimacy requires viewpoint neutrality with regard to political speech – including extremist political speech, such as hate speech. The starting point of my discussion is Jeremy Waldron’s negative answer to this question. He argues that it is permissible for liberal democracies to ban certain extremist viewpoints – such as vituperative hate speech – because such viewpoint-based restrictions protect the dignity of persons and a social and moral environment of mutual respect. According to Waldron, well-drafted narrow hate speech bans are not democratically illegitimate, and they do not undermine systemic democratic legitimacy – that is, the legitimacy of a democratic political system. In contrast to Waldron, I will argue that democratic legitimacy requires viewpoint neutrality to respect persons as thinking agents. I will defend a civil libertarian doctrine of viewpoint neutrality, and this doctrine requires that citizens in liberal democracies ought to have a legal free speech right to do moral wrong – that is, a legal right to express and defend any political viewpoint or idea, even if it is morally wrong to express, or expose others to, such views. It will be argued that any viewpoint-based restriction on public discourse (including narrow hate speech bans) is democratically illegitimate, and that such restrictions undermine systemic democratic legitimacy.

Memory of Three Generations: Evidence of the Ministry of St. Luke(Voyno-Yasenetsky) in the Front-Line City of Tambov from the Grozdov Family Archive

В статье анализируются материалы семейного архива Гроздовых, позволяющие проследить преемственную связь между четырьмя поколениями родственников, которые на протяжении всего трагического и противоречивого XX в. бережно сохраняли свои духовные традиции. Благодаря переданным М. В. Ганеевой (Гроздовой) в музейные собрания г. Тамбова фотографиям, рисункам, письмам, документам, дневникам открывается многоцветная эпическая картина, передающая весь спектр духовного мира интеллигенции времён Великой Отечественной войны в городе-госпитале Тамбове. Из этой коллекции наиболее информативным документом, особенно красноречиво свидетельствующим о Великой Отечественной войне, является дневник Вячеслава Тихоновича Гроздова, внука протоиерея Митрофана Гроздова и сына известного хирурга Тихона Митрофановича Гроздова, который и работал совместно со святителем Лукой (ВойноЯсенецким) в годы войны. На страницах дневника запечатлены истории повседневной жизни прифронтового города Тамбова, в который 19 февраля 1944 г. и приехал святитель-хирург Лука. Вячеслав Гроздов зафиксировал факты общения своего отца и святителя Луки, сделал записи об их совместных операциях и выступлениях на конференциях. Сам Вячеслав неоднократно присутствовал на операциях святителя и, будучи искусным в рисовании, помогал ему в подготовке рисунков и таблиц для докладов на медицинских конференциях. Благодаря записям дневника стало известно, что именно Вячеслав Гроздов выполнил карандашный портрет профессора, доктора медицины архиепископа Луки (В. Ф. Войно-Ясенецкого), датируемый 25 марта 1944 г. Дневники Вячеслава - это свидетельство о каждодневном подвиге врачей тамбовских эвакогоспиталей, о том, с какой человеческой болью приходилось сталкиваться. Помогая отцу в госпитале в качестве санитара, а также ведя зарисовки операций и госпитального быта, Вячеслав запечатлел картины, характеризующие события жизни архиепископа-хирурга в городе Тамбове. Кроме прямых указаний на факты общения Гроздовых с архиепископом Лукой, дневник содержит информацию, дающую необходимый контекст для понимания многих ситуаций тамбовского периода служения святителя Луки, а также - в целом - жизни города Тамбова в военные годы. Анализируя информацию из дневника, можно реконструировать и характеризовать духовно-нравственную среду города Тамбова во время архипастырских трудов святителя Луки по возрождению Тамбовской епархии в годы Великой Отечественной войны. The article analyzes the evidence from the Grozdov family archive which allows one to trace the continuity between four generations of relatives who carefully preserved their spiritual traditions throughout the tragic and contradictory 20th century. Thanks to the photographs, drawings, letters, documents, diaries transferred by M. V. Ganeyeva (Grozdova) to the museum collections of Tambov, we can see a multicoloured epic picture conveying the entire spectrum of the spiritual world of the intelligentsia during the Great Patriotic War in the hospital city of Tambov. The most informative document of this collection, especially eloquently testifying to the Great Patriotic War, is the diary of Vyacheslav Tikhonovich Grozdov, the grandson of Archpriest Mitrofan Grozdov and the son of the famous surgeon Tikhon Mitrofanovich Grozdov who worked together with St. Luke (Voyno-Yasenetsky) during the war. The pages of the diary depict the stories of the daily life of the front-line city of Tambov where Holy Hierarch-Surgeon Luke arrived on February 19, 1944. Vyacheslav Grozdov recorded the facts of communication between his father and Saint Luke, made notes about their joint operations and speeches at conferences. Vyacheslav himself was repeatedly present at the operations conducted by the Holy Hierarch and, being skilled in drawing, helped him by preparation of figures and tables for his reports at medical conferences. The diary entries reveal that it was Vyacheslav Grozdov who was the author of the pencil portrait of Professor, Doctor of Medicine Archbishop Luke (V. F. Voyno-Yasenetsky), which dates from March 25, 1944. Vyacheslav’s diary entries reveal the everyday self-sacrificial heroism (Russ.: podvig) of the doctors working in Tambov’s evacuation hospitals, and the enormous human pain he had to face. While helping his father in the hospital as an attendant, as well as making sketches of operations and hospital life, Vyacheslav captured pictures characterizing the events of the life of the Archbishop-Surgeon in the city of Tambov. In addition to directly indicating the facts of communication between the Grozdovs and Archbishop Luke, the diary provides the necessary context for understanding many situations throughout the Tambov period of St. Luke's ministry, as well as the wartime life of Tambov in general. Analyzing the evidence from the diary, one can reconstruct and characterize the spiritual and moral environment of the city of Tambov during the archpastoral labours of Saint Luke for the revival of the Tambov diocese during the Great Patriotic War.

Refugee filmmaking

The origins of this issue of Alphaville lie in collaborations between the Forced Migration Research Network (UNSW – University of New South Wales) and the Refugee Council of Australia, and in the inspiration afforded us by international colleagues and guests to Sydney (Fadma Aït Mous), Liverpool (Dennis Del Favero) and Lincoln (Hoda Afshar) universities. We have benefited from these academic alliances and invitations, but we also embrace the widest notion of hospitality, whereby the moment of arrival, the request for assistance and shelter, and subsequent decisions over citizenship and long-term residency are located in a moral environment of welcome and mutual learning. We trace and acknowledge our intellectual relationships here in so far as they have allowed us to articulate an emerging and shared recognition that refugee lived experience stands as the barometer for political civility and social health in our time.