Change & Resistance

“Legal World” in Heterotopy of Homelessness

2007-05-19T01:24:00.000+02:00

Maria Mendel
Uniwersytet Gdański

The presentation refers to the research work conducted under the umbrella of European Commission project called “The Homelessness Agenda”. In the light of heterotopic perspective in which its subject is rooted, this presentation locates itself in the filed of ‘pedagogy of place’. Such place-conscious or place-based pedagogy means always pedagogy which is full of sensitivity about pre-scientific space, which is based on educational interruption of dialectical relationship between human-being and his world that never exists externally, behind of him.
The text is focused on the issue of homelessness as social institutional practices that are always ritual in their essential meaning regarding to the changes in the individual or the social subject.
One of the analytical categories taken into consideration in the research mentioned above is ‘Legal world’.
I will present selected parts of the analysis concentrating on the ritual processes which constitute the heterotopy of homelessness and create possibilities of change of this category in both individual and social dimensions.
The pedagogical work on rituals creating the heterotopy of homelessness could brake the vicious circle of social reproduction of privileges and marginalisations, and might significantly change current conditions of social life.

Social change in transition system

2007-05-18T11:10:00.000+02:00

Miron Kłusak, Instytut Politologii UG

main theses:
Inevitability of authoritarian system breakdown
Adequacy problem of structural changes
Economic conditioning of political changes
Strains and social conflicts in new political structures
Properties of social change
Political consequences of social tension

Abstract:

Transition from monopoly to freemarket system meant necessity of structural changes. The freemarket economy started conditions for making choices. However, freedom resulted in inequality and social, economical and political conflicts. A society shaped in monopoly conditions was not adjusted to competition and private property. New changes did not bring new ideas. Building of new model of society demanded fundamental structural, political, economic and social changes.

Image of a New Woman. Visualization of Polish social transformations at the beginning of the 1950s and the 1990s.

2007-04-25T08:50:00.000+02:00

Natalia Pater
University of Gdańsk

Establishing socialism after Second World War and democracy after 1989 constitute a turning points in the modern Polish history. Social transformations seem to result among others in the attempt to redefine social roles, determined by the adopted ideology shaping a new political system.
Emancipation and equality of women incorporated either in socialist or democratic ideology, although following different patterns were supposed to improve a broadly understood women welfare.
The image of a New Woman from the 1950s and 1990s is commonly known. This popular image is, however, usually limited to verbal discourse created by the needs of political and ideological campaigns. Therefore, it would be worth examining visual representations dating form those periods and compare or contrast them with the verbal texts. Bearing in mind that verbal language plays a role of superior system defining all kinds of social interactions. Whereas visual discourse associated with private sphere and related to entertainment used to employ less formal and bureaucratic forms of communication which makes its transmission more reliable.

Productive Resistance and Deliberative Fictions: Statecraft in the Age of Corporate Globalization

2007-04-24T00:35:00.000+02:00

M. Lane Bruner is currently Associate Professor of Critical Political Communication and Graduate Director of the doctoral program in Public Communication at Georgia State University in Atlanta, Georgia in the United States. He is the author of Strategies of Remembrance: the Rhetorical Dimensions of National Identity Construction, and Market Democracy in Post-Communist Russia (co-edited with Professor Viatcheslav Morozov of St. Petersburg State University, Russia). Professor Bruner is also the author of over education. Over the last decade, the East-European system of education has experienced through a wide-ranging modernization.

"Resistance is futile," or at least so we are told by the Borg in various Star Trek episodes, by Douglas Adams in The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy, by characters on television shows like Doctor Who and Lost in Space, and on British television series such as Space: 1999. Like the theme of US filmmakers who brought us The Truman Show and The Matrix, which focused on individuals living in world's they thought were real but in fact were fabrications, one wonders why the notion of the futility of resistance has been such a persistent theme in Western science fiction over the last few decades.

It is a well known fact that capitalism absorbs and commodifies dissent, and that consumer culture oftentimes is a direct threat to notions of informed citizenship and public deliberation. It is also well known that a wide range of neo-liberals argue that "market democracy" is the highest form of human political achievement, and that, while resistance may not be futile, it is, at least in "advanced" market democracies, unnecessary. After all, what IS there to resist when one enjoys freedom of religion, freedom of speech, freedom of travel, freedom of assembly, etc?

And what good can be achieved from large scale political resistance? Those familiar with political history know that "revolutions" tend to replace one form of domination with another, as particular factions within a given polity claim to represent the interests of all (when they do not), and that "rebellion" is usually a term relegated to those moments of mass political dissent that are ultimately crushed by the powers that be. In light of such observations, is "resistance" futile? What might "productive resistance" even look like in the New World Order, and, even if forms of productive resistance were possible, how might citizens of the world be taught to engage in such resistance?

The essay I propose for inclusion for the International Conference on Social Transformation is an attempt to explore these questions in light of the global collapse of communism, the consequent global rise of neo-liberalism and religious fundamentalism, and the ongoing processes of "nation-building" around the world. Drawing heavily upon contemporary critical rhetorical theory, discourse theory, and radical democratic theory, and drawing upon contemporary political events in locations as diverse as Venezuala, Russia, Iraq and the United States, I will provide a working definition for "productive" resistance, theoretically complicate such terms as "deliberation," "phronesis," and "democracy," while simultaneously anchoring my prescriptions for progressive political action in the New World Order in concrete economic analyses of the historical relationship between classical republicanism, finance, and empire.

Peripheral normativity: literacy, English, and the persistence of hidden inequality in a South African township

2007-04-24T00:33:00.000+02:00

Jan Blommaert
Institute of Education, University of London

This paper reports on research conducted in schools in poor townships in the Cape Town area of South Africa. Despite considerable efforts by the post-Apartheid government in building a more democratic education system, the deep inequalities of the past persist. They articulate themselves at a deeper level, however: that of literacy norms and practices and accents in English. Pupils in the township school are taught in English because of a widespread belief in the upwardly mobile potential of that language. The specific variety of English they learn, however, is a strictly local variety that responds to subordinate social class norms, different from the status norms of English. The same goes for their literacy proficiency: we see ‘hetero-graphic’ norms, rather than ‘ortho-graphic’ ones. These sociolinguistic skills, consequently, do not provide any upward mobility and thus perpetuate existing structural inequality.

Prisons as Educational sites

2007-04-24T00:30:00.000+02:00

KARIANE WESTRHEIM is Research Fellow at the Department of Education and Health Promotion, University of Bergen, Norway. Her research interests include critical pedagogy, critical multiculturalism and education in marginal contexts. Her current PhD work focuses on the educational foundation of the Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK).

This paper is based on a qualitative study with four informants who have been sentenced to years of imprisonment because of their links to the PKK (Kurdistan Workers Party), an armed guerrilla who waged war against Turkey between 1984 and 1999. In the aftermath of the 1980 military coup in Turkey, the Turkish left was prosecuted by the Turkish military. During this wave of mass detentions, 1790 suspected PKK members were captured, substantially more than from any other single Kurdish group1. The imprisoned members the party continued their political work from inside the brick walls. There are still more than 20 000 political prisoners in Turkish prisons. The informants in this study, who were imprisoned at various stages of the struggle, and in various prisons, emphasise the crucial role education and personal transformation played for political prisoners. This article also highlights how education in prison contributed to the overall struggle of the PKK as well as for the struggle of the Kurdish people.

1 McDowell 2000, p. 420

The Roles of Education in the Transformation of Society - The Case of China

2007-04-19T11:01:00.000+02:00

He Gan
Jagiellonian University

The functions of education in China varies at different historical stages under different social structural conditions or when society transforms. In ancient China, the scholar class helped in building up a fedual society that stressed on wisdom and lasted over 2000 years. Under Mao’s leadership, education was simply a tool of politics...This study of sociological education will follow the Weberian tradition of comparative macro-analysis of social phenomena and Margaret Archer’s historical and structural comparison of state educational systems, which has been hailed as a landmark to account for characteristics of national education and the processes of change they have undergone, to discuss the roles of education in social transformations in a trend cycle. It will make a historical comparison and analysis of the properties of the structural conditioning of each stage, within which the education behaves and plays its roles, such as what are the development levels of each stage, where and how the social strains developed, whether the institutional relations are harmonious of conflicting…etc. and how they exerted their influences on the role of education; second, how education interprets those situations and what action patterns they adopt as response to them, what changes have been made, and what subsequent roles it played, and how it led to the following changes and third, the relation between them.

A reflection on the development of education in China would give us a deeper understanding and more thorough enlightenment and provide more opportunities for informed, rational life and sound practice in the post-modern age.

Constructing of „us”, constructing of „them”

2007-04-19T10:32:00.000+02:00

Łukasz Stankiewicz
University of Gdańsk

In this paper I would like to analyze the emergence of “Solidarity” movement in Poland from the perspective of Ernesto Laclau’s and Chantal Mouffe’s theory of hegemony. I would like to emphasize the process of construction of two opposing camps, namely the “Solidarity” and the communist camp. Creation of “Solidarity” linked many diverse and often contradictory demands and ideologies, but also retroactively, changed the way, in which the history of Poland after the end of the World War is perceived. This change allows us to see all isolated acts and cases of resistance against the communist regime as a manifestation of a single historic force, which, in the end, was able to manifest fully in creation of the “Solidarity” and later, in bringing down the communist regime. Vis-à-vis that force, and at the same time, another historical actor – the communist regime, has been given its ultimate shape. My main thesis is, that the idea of Polish constant opposition towards the communists, as well as the perception of the communist party as an “alien” regime, devoid of any legitimization is an effect of the hegemonic process, which has structurized the political field in the early 80s. Although the link of equivalence, connecting the demands of diverse social groups has vanished with the advent of neoliberal policies of the nineties, this dichotomic split remained, and was in some ways aggravated as a result of a democratic political struggle.

The Lisbon Strategy – chance or threat.

2007-04-19T10:27:00.000+02:00

Magdalena Bezmaterny
Monika Dulska
Anna Fiedorowicz
Monika Kołodziejczyk
University of Gdańsk

The aims of The Lisbon Strategy, signed in 23/24 March 2000, are supposed to modify the situation of Europe at the global market and make it capable to compete with the USA successfully. The Strategy influences such areas as European economy, education, employment, environment, transportation, telecommunication and the IT sector significantly. The Strategy is to promote liberal solutions both on national and supranational ground.
The conference speech would be based on the Power/knowledge relation in The Lisbon Strategy project, which the authors did at one of their university courses. There, the analysis concerned on how power shapes discourses in force and vice versa, how legitimate knowledge foster the hegemonic power expansion. We find the issue immensely important especially in terms of its selective potential, which obviously is not stated in the document of the Strategy.
At the conference we would like to demonstrate particular parts of The Lisbon Strategy, those which attracted our attention in terms of their assumed progress-leading role which is not necessarily beneficial for all the social groups of the European Community.
Summarizing, the work is focused on the hidden assumptions of the Lisbon Strategy. The conclusions of our analysis suggest that the project is derivative of the dominant economic discourse which shapes our social reality, hence it reinforces its hegemony. The analysis is based on the power discourse introduced by Michel Foucault.

Kant Out Hobbes In: Return of the Political to School

2007-04-19T10:10:00.000+02:00

Marcin Boryczko

The conscious and intelligent manipulation of the organized habits and opinions of the masses is an important element in democratic society. Those who manipulate this unseen mechanism constitute invisible government which is the true ruling power of our country.
Eduard Bernays

The problem I would like to deal with is widely understood, the consent of the governed in the democratic states. What is symptomatic of post-communist countries is the process of constructing people’s consent after the fall of eastern block. With the benefit hindsight the revolutions of 1989 turned out to be the common quenching of the thirst for democracy with the drink from the Lethe, the river of producing forgetfulness. On closer inspection, this process resembles what Pareto defined as the elite circulation. Empire cannot fall.

In my presentation I would like to analyze the problem of legitimization of power in contemporary post-communist states in which, as I believe, political practice seems to indicate the renaissance of the significance of political myth. The functioning of these countries confirms the thesis of the end of the end of politics. The symptom of this phenomenon is doing democracy in terms of consensus instead of participation. It turns out that the solving problems of the state might constitute necessary and sufficient condition for the legitimization of power. The strategy of ruling in this type of power instrumentalization and ‘the ruling for the people’ requires broad consensus, as far as common consent is concerned. In political practice this means that actions of the democratic governments results from the alleged consent of the governed to the current actions of the governments. A consensus can be reached in reality of instrumentalized politics by means of myths which will account for the actions of the governments.

During my presentation an attempt will be made at specifying the role of the school in the process which I have described above. This will be discussed in macrostructural dimension. I would like to pose the problem in a following way: how does the school participate in the process of producing social conditions of constructing consent. In our age the question of reproduction should be extended to the question referring to the distribution of knowledge at school. What makes this distribution possible is the functioning of myth at the school level. These myths, in term, constitute the consent reproduction condition on the ‘democratic’ basis.

Learning to learn in a reflective practitioner's framework

2007-04-16T10:55:00.000+02:00

Doina Irina Simion
University Politehnica Bucharest
Romania

This contribution is an account of changes at personal and home teaching
situation level (HTS) throughout the span of fifteen years, based on both
questionnaire surveys and naturalistic insights regarding EFLT practice. The history of some incremental changes has been reviewed in some teacher relevant areas such as classroom management practice, teaching skills and the teacher knowledge base. The source of the investigation came within a reflection based self–development project designed to lay the ground for personal teaching epistemology.

The background to the above experiential continuum has been personal and group exposure to the communicative approach in English Language Teaching triggered by participation in the British-Romanian sponsored project entitled PROSPER. One of the main gains of the project was that it had allowed most participants to develop strong self efficacy beliefs based on both mastery experiences and social modelling.

The interpretation framework looks at the role played by Prosperese acquisitions in changing the HTS occupational development approach against such change resistors as conservatism, need of stability, control and certainty. A point is made on whether the HTS approach to management requires–in the face of the Bologna process challenge–a continuation of the same incrementalistic development approach or a switch to deep-going re-engineering.

Men, depression and postcommunism.

2007-03-19T11:32:00.000+01:00

Dariusz Galasiński
University of Wolverhampton

In this paper, I shall explore the relationship between masculinity and depression in Polish postcommunism. More particularly, I am interested in how men diagnosed with major depressive episode experience themselves and their illness in the context of the changes of the systemic transformations Poland after 1989, and particularly its labour markets.

I shall demonstrate that despite the particular context of mental illness, my informants draw upon the neo-liberal discourses of work, introduced in Poland immediately after 1989 as the dominant economic ideology. I shall then argue that positioning postcommunist changes explicitly in the stories of mental illness not only hinders recovery, but, importantly, potentially forecloses the possibility of resistance to the ‘performance-based’ model of masculinity

In conclusion I shall offer some comment on the relationship between macro-economic discourses and those of lived experience.

Education for the state of exception

2007-03-02T14:28:00.000+01:00

Leszek Koczanowicz
University of Lower Silesia of the Association
for the Advancement of Education (DSWE TWP)

The point of departure of my presentation is the perspective on modernity developed by Italian philosopher Giorgio Agamben. He claims that modernity reduces an activity of human beings to “bare life” stripping them of any traces of dignity and protection by law. The other side of the same process is permanent “state of exception” that is a characteristic feature of contemporary politics. If this diagnosis is valid, and unfortunately a lot of current politics confirms it, we should re-think our educational strategy. Perhaps education should not be about the appropriation of positive ideals but rather about the preparation for the worst. Educators would be obliged to provide those in their charge with instruments for the resistance to this threat. For this reason it is necessary to discuss extensively in the educational theory the aims and means of confrontation with the contemporary politics and the ways of changing it.

Learning in local communities. Case study of southern and western territories in Poland

2007-02-24T20:16:00.000+01:00

Ewa Kurantowicz
Dolnośląska Szkoła Wyższa Edukacji TWP, Wrocław

1.What helps an individual in their striving to become empowered are, undoubtedly, transformations which take place in modern culture and society. On the one hand, processes of individualisation, globalisation and life experience in the risk society strengthen individualism, but, on the other, are not only an impulse to announce „the end of local communities”, but a strong impetus to change thinking on (local) community and its development. How is it possible to conduct a debate on communities (especially - local ones) among the accompanying debates on globalisation, detraditonalisation, deterritorialisation, individualisation, etc.?

2.A short history of local communities in southern and western Poland from the perspective of the history of places (taking into account „effects” of transformation in recent years on these territories). What arguments from the perspective of transformations of local communities are in favour of their marginalisation and self-exclusion and, in contrast, oppose such diagnoses?

3.Learning in local contexts: from local education to learning community. The concept of learning community undermines the exclusivity of traditional factors which are the reason for social inequalities and the access to learning. They are as follows: social class, owned property, sex, age. It introduces and reveals new factors connected with social stratification such as: time, place, space and finally local identity. To what extent does local community become a new form of social integration by the means of widely understood social learning?

4.Presentation of points 2 and 3 will be based on the results of my own empirical research and of other researchers of microterritories in this region.

Exhibiting post-communism in contemporary (east) German history museums

2007-02-24T20:13:00.000+01:00

Dr Fiona Smith
University of Dundee

Examining the cultural practices of two museums of contemporary history in the eastern Laender of Germany, the paper explores some of the diverse visual and material cultural practices which constitute sites of contemporary engagement with the communist history of eastern Germany, the GDR state, and the period of restructuring since 1989/90. The paper explores how the museums exhibit the socialist period and, through public debates and diverse uses of these museum spaces, offer cultural spaces through which discourses and practices of post-communism can be examined. Their roles as spaces of remembering and forgetting in relation to both national and individual/ collective experiences of socialism and post-socialism are examined to analyse the museums as entangled spaces in the complex memory politics of post-unification/post-socialist Germany.

Science, Human Rights and Social Transformation

2007-02-24T00:23:00.000+01:00

Judith Bessant,
Professor Youth Studies and Sociology,
RMIT University, Melbourne.

Social movements engaged in processes social transformation encounter all kinds of impediments, from inertia through to the mobilization by groups whose interests will be affected by success on the part of those agitating for change. The movement to enhance the civic and human rights of children and young people faces in most societies special challenges given the near total exclusion of children and young people from the kinds of civic forums and resources other social movements have had available.

In this paper I consider the role of intellectual and scientific work that play a role in maintaining the subordination of young people. In ways analogous to the emancipatory struggles by women, blacks and gays, bio-medical theories and empirical research have been used to position those who will benefit from civic emancipation as ‘defective’, ‘deficient’ or ‘naturally inferior’ to those possessing civic rights and are deemed to be normal.

I pay attention to what some recent neuroscientists are doing to confirm what has long been ‘known’ about ‘the young’, namely that they are ‘troublesome’, ’rebellious’, even ‘criminally incline’ in terms of a basic proposition: their brains are different. Using neurological non-invasive scanning technology some neuroscientists now propose the ‘adolescent brain’ doesn’t complete development until humans are in their early twenties. These latest ‘facts’ are now used to ‘explain’ why young people are different enough to warrant special treatment like their exclusion from activities that mark out normal adult capacities like voting, drinking alcohol and driving.

In this paper I argue firstly why this research needs to be treated with skepticism. A critical analysis of what is problematic about this new ‘brain science’ is provided. I then situate this research in a longer history of scientism which has seen scientific research used again vulnerable groups like Afro-Americans, indigenous peoples and women. Finally I argue that why we should not fear authentic science, and why human rights advocates always need to be on guard against scientism when it is used to reinforce prejudice and ill-treatment targeting groups who lack significant civic protection of basic human rights.

Flexible figures in Discourses of University Governing

2007-02-08T23:34:00.000+01:00

Anna Bjuremark
Linköping University

A new political governance of University Institutions took place in Sweden in the middle of 1980´s. The “New Public Management” is made by means of talks about freedom and characterized by the removal of the locus of power, from the knowledge of practicing professionals to policymakers. Each university was given the opportunity to organize its own graduate education, whereas the goals were still in the hands of central governance. A contemporary discussion was whether research is sake of politics, if politics instead should provide conditions for the research on the researchers own terms, or if research is a question for the markets needs. Through persuasion and political technologies individuals are expected to be able to govern themselves in their own way, but at the same time, according to implicit intentions of state representatives. The measurable and quantifiable becomes highly valued. What is materialized may be seen as new governing discourses and related practices mutated from historical thinking in earlier days.

The point of departure in this paper is to reflect on how some of these conflicts are considered in policy texts. The purpose is to analyze and give perspectives with special attention to motives for governing, and how they are legitimized in policy documents. The paper also aims at an understanding of the significance of political representatives (within University Boards), the importance of “external” recruited chairpersons and “internal” academic members, as well as the strategies of knowledge production and the techniques and forms of influence. The analysis will try to make visible the constitutive power of governing discourses in policy documents over time, how they eventually mutate and find new form of possibilities.

Reproduction, Empowerment and External Studies. Few Remarks on Higher Education System in Poland

2007-02-08T00:53:00.000+01:00

Piotr Stańczyk
Uniwersytet Gdański

Commercialization of as many as it is possible spheres of social life advances – higher education system is not an exception but there are still some relic of social system – cost free studies. The problem appears if we realize that this relic is some kind of differentiation of students and it is form of discrimination also. The analyses of external and regular studies resulted in defining the following “four steps of constructing ascendancy” - (1)by paying taxes part-time student participates in maintaining the educational system. (2)But if he/she wants to benefit from it, he/she will have to bear additional cost of tuition fee. It would mean that part-time student bears double cost for (3)less complex educational services and, as if it is not enough, (4)he/she economically supports system out of which he/she is alienated in Marx’s sense.

So there is a question: (1)Who are external students, people who are determined to participate in alienating educational practice? (2)If it is necessity to start external studies? (3)How is participation in this alienating educational practice motivated?

External studies are, in most of cases, necessity depending on: (1)socio-economic distance between parents of both groups of students – regular students’ parents more frequently take higher positions in social stratification structure; (2)educational distance between parents – regulars’ parents are better educated; (3)educational failures of external students at earlier levels of education.

External students are highly motivated to get master degree to get better (in theirs beliefs) job and get chance for “better life” in the same time they are forced to study at much worse condition.

The most important remark is that economical context has dominated thinking of educational processes. Studies only has meaning if it leads to so called “better life” and that “better life” is commonly defined with material prosperity. Academic liberty and personal progress are in danger with principle of free market.

The Reflections of Popular Culture: A Multiple Case Study

2007-02-08T00:43:00.000+01:00

Serap Yilmaz,
M.A. student
University of Adnan Menderes
Aydin, Turkey

Meltem Cengel
M.A. student
University of Adnan Menderes
Aydin, Turkey

Mehmet Ali Icbay
Ph.D. student
Middle East Technical University
Ankara, Turkey

Popular culture is the global and superficial culture that postpones the conflicts of ordinary life and thus creates artificial happiness. Mass communication tools are the ways to spread this popular culture. Television as a type of mass communication is the mostly utilized way of broadening the popular culture. It aims at manipulating the middle class and consumption-driven viewers through the different kinds of programmes. These programmes produced mainly in the western world such as the United States, the United Kingdom or France are directly exported to the third world countries or adopted to the social norms. The goal of these exported or modified popular TV programmes is to create an artificial joy culture which leads the children in this contemporary world to copy the discourse embedded in these TV programmes. The influence of popular culture thus can be traced in the educational system, especially in the non-formal curriculum, such as the end of term activities, which include student speeches, songs and dances. The primary aim of this ethnographic study is to investigate the influence of popular culture in the end of term activities. Further, the study seeks to answer the role of class difference in shaping the level of popular culture in students’ lives. The participants are the students who attend three different schools, one in the lower class, one in the middle class and one in the upper class, in Aydin. The end of term activities as well as the rehearsals that the students prepare are recorded. In addition to the recordings, the researchers take field notes during these activities.

Key word: popular culture, the end of term activities.

Education Reforms in Post-Communist Poland and Latvia

2007-02-08T00:02:00.000+01:00

Lynn W. Zimmerman, Ph.D.
Associate Professor of Education
Purdue University Calumet

In his Prison Notebooks Antonio Gramsci (1971) examined the role of intellectuals in a society. He contended that societies and intellectuals are interdependent, based on social, political, and economic needs. He goes on to say that the dominant group in a society needs intellectuals who support and maintain the needs of that group. He asserted that the complexity of a society can be determined by the breadth and depth of education and the amount of specialization required, stating that “school is the instrument through which intellectuals of various levels are elaborated” (p. 10). If that is the case, then each new regime must institute education reforms which contribute to the intellectual transition.

The purpose of this presentation is to examine data from a qualitative research project about education reforms in post-Communist Poland and Latvia. The project focuses on how pre-service English teachers in Latvia and Poland perceive their roles as future teachers in the particular context of their societies, in order to examine their expectations and perceptions in the socio-political context of their respective countries related to recent education reforms in each country. The narratives yielded four primary thematic categories: needs of society; educational philosophy issues; social changes and impact on education; and role of government in education.

The purpose of the project, whose participants were university students who have lived during the time of transition in their countries, is to look how the changes in society and education reflect shifts in their consciousness of themselves as future educators. According to Shea (1996),

One of the problems of living in a period of transition comes from the dissonance created by an episodic shift away from older meaning systems and our inability to react with any kind of sensibility or coherence to the fragmentary new symbol systems that strike our bewildered consciousness (p. 40).

This project seeks to determine how this dissonance manifests itself, and how the participants, as university students wanting to become educators themselves, fit into Gramsci’s (1971) strata of intellectuals.

On the societal level, the political and economic shifts in both countries has decreased the need for vocational education to train workers for industry, and brought about a need for more academic education to teach citizens how to live in a democratic society and how to work in a service-directed economy (Bollag 1999; Pachocinski 1997; Kwiek 2001; Soros Foundation 2001; Hamot 1998; Zachariev 1999). There is also the need for the knowledge and skills in order to participate in a unified Europe (Snoek et al 2003; Kwiek 2001; Scott 2002). Philosophically, there has been a shift away from the narrow and instrumental role that education played under the previous system to a role that is meant to promote social, political, cultural, and vocational competencies that are necessary for the individual to carry on a successful life individually, socially, and globally (Pachocinski 1997, p. 8).
These changes highlight what Eisner and Vallance (1974) refer to as a curriculum which recognizes that “individual development and the quality of the social context are interdependent” (Eisner and Vallance 1974, p. 11).

The new economic and political systems in Latvia and Poland created a need for a shift in curriculum development, moving away from the essentialist education of the past which focused on learning specific knowledge and skills to a more progressive curriculum which recognizes that learning is dynamic and which focuses on the learner. This study sheds some light on the effect that the reforms are having on education in both countries, and how the reforms reflect and inform the intellectual transition in the new regimes.

‘Current men’ and contemporary ethical education

2007-02-07T02:22:00.000+01:00

Vikki Pollard
PhD Candidate
Faculty of Education
Monash University
Melbourne, Australia

In 1872, as Professor of Classical Philology at Bale University, Friedrich Nietzsche presented a series of five lectures titled “On the future of our educational institutions”. Presented as a report of a conversation Nietzsche overheard as a young man, these lectures pose questions which remain remarkably applicable for modern education. In the first lecture one of the characters, an ex-teacher and philosopher, argues that the educational system is purely utilitarian and aims to produce ‘current men’. What did he mean by ‘current men’? The aim of this paper is to explore this question in relation to contemporary educational theory. How is the aim of producing ‘current men’ critiqued in modern educational literature? What can Nietzsche’s critique teach educationalists about an ethical education? I will be arguing that an ethical education is one that enables creativity and resistance.

Child Play and Toy in two Generations: “Upon a Childhood History”

2007-02-07T02:07:00.001+01:00

Ruken Akar Vural, PhD.
Adnan Menderes University, Faculty of Education,
Aydın-Turkey

Hasan Akbulut, PhD.
Cinema-Television Department of Communication Faculty of Kocaeli University, Kocaeli-Turkey

Müslime Güneş, PhD.
Adnan Menderes University, Faculty of Education,
Aydın-Turkey

Erinç Erdal, PhD Student.
Middle East Technical University, Faculty of Arts and Sciences,
Ankara-Turkey

The aim of this study is to define historical evolution of child play and toy within two generations in context of socio-economic and political conditions in Turkey. Due to this aim, two periods of time were determined. These periods of time are consisted of 1950-1960: Government of Democrat Party and 1990-2000: Post 1980 period. The reason of deciding on these periods is since the two periods were determined by political, economic and cultural turning points in Republican Period. The period between 1950 and 1960 is young Republic’s passing to multiparty system from one-party state, meanwhile departing from her basic ideology; getting acquainted with American assistance and Marshall Plans and moreover, choosing her political side in the international area.

1950’s also witnessed a mass migration from rural to urban areas and as a result, population growth and emergence of indigenous bourgeoisie in big cities. This period is also considered as changing perception to childhood. Between period 1990 and 2000, a new middle class was emerged with free market economy and liberal values, state’s responsibility over public life was decreased and the understanding of social state was weakened. After the breakdown of USSR, United States turned into the biggest power in every areas and globalization was accepted without questioning. In communication filed, one-channel broadcast left its place to multi-channel broadcast; new technologies such as computer, internet, and mobile phone came into our lives. This short ten-year period changed the understanding of child, childhood and child play by means of human conception.

In this study, interviews will be conducted in order to determine forms, types and structures of child plays and toys within specified periods and to analyze changes in the course of time. The sample of this study will be consisted of 20 narrators from different age groups (50-60 aged above and fewer than 16 aged). Oral history interviews to the people between 50-60 ages and semi-structured interviews to the people fewer than 16 ages will be conducted in this study. The draft of interview forms were developed by researchers and after presented to expert opinion, needed corrections were done. Digital voice recorder will be used, photographs will be taken during the interviews and camera recordings will be taken where necessary. On the other hand, after getting individual permission, narrators’ childhood photographs will be taken and examined. Interview recordings will be coded by the researchers individually to strengthen reliability of the research. The categories will be ultimately generated after all data analysis, and relevant categories will be organized under the research questions.

Keywords: play, childhood history, oral history

Change and Resistance in European Higher Education. Technologies of Discourse of Academic Institutions in Poland

2007-02-07T02:01:00.000+01:00

Kamila Biały
University of Łódź,
Institute of Sociology

Towards the end of the XX century, starting from the late ‘70s, a failing economy, inflation, and rising unemployment shift the political balance to the right, that is, to the new right, based not upon land but upon the market. Like all other ideologies of the twentieth century, neoliberalism promises paradise on earth. It considers itself to be the emancipation project of all human beings based on the unlimited capacities of science and technology and the corresponding rules of free market global economy, which are supposed to facilitate their unrestricted development. And like most Enlightenment ideologies, although it uses the language of reason and science, it is actually driven by faith.

The shift one can observe in today’s higher education from the Humboldtian notion of the university, claimed increasingly obsolete for a knowledge society, to one that operates under market pressures is part of the processes described above. The notion of “the enterpreneurial university” is based on the assumption of a coexistence between ethical and intellectual values, such as truth, ethics, authority, autonomy, the freedom of research and teaching, critical potential, scientific risk and economic and technological values, such as utility, efficiency, calculation, accountability, flexibility and innovation.

In the shift I see, contrary to supporters of the coincidentia oppositorum, a disproportion between ethical and intellectual values on the one hand and economic and technological values on the other. This disproportion can be revealed with the use of Critical Discourse Analysis (CDA). Furthermore, the analysis of the processes of changes in academic institutions, conducted from that particular perspective, makes visible opaque relationships between language and ideology, to be precise, it may disclose an ideological function of the system of higher education in maintaining neoliberal status quo as well as illuminate the attempts of resistance to that, using CDA’s terminology, universal order of discourse.

In my presentation this approach will help me to see an academic institution as a sheer enterprise where four major strategies play a major role: production, finance & law, human resources and marketing. I will analyse in terms of technologies of discourse a few examples, taken from the Polish academic institutions, that in my view represent the new language of the university.

Western-Style Arabic Music Video Clips and Emirati Youth Changes

2007-02-07T01:54:00.000+01:00

Maher Khelifa & Adel Jendli
Zayed University,
Dubai, UAE

Recently, Arabic satellite channels increasingly broadcast Western-style Arabic video clips (AVC). Although the song lyrics are in Arabic, they seem to promote foreign lifestyles and behaviors that depart considerably in content and in style from conventional Arab and Islamic shows that take into account viewers’ values and culture. This study examined the degree of Emirati exposure to and acceptance of these programs; examined the psychosocial impact of these programs on viewers, especially the impact of these shifts in content on traditional values, cultural identity; and family TV viewing habits. The study was conducted using a survey research on 360 young UAE male and female viewers. As hypothesized, results indicated that UAE viewers are frequently exposed to these programs, especially young females. Viewers tend to watch music videos out of: boredom, interest and entertainment, lack of better programs, and to keep up with latest videos, songs, fashion and style trends. Contrary to the study hypothesis participants’ identity, values and culture did not seem to be changing at the core by the content of these videos although they acknowledged that AVC normalized and altered their perception of indecent images. Participants who choose not view these programs reported varied reasons for their abstention including that these programs are blindly modeled after western shows, are harmful, and are against fundamental religious beliefs, values and morals. In line with the study hypothesis, results further showed that these programs greatly affect family TV viewing habits as these shows are not family oriented.

Sexual education – girls still invisible

2007-02-07T01:50:00.000+01:00

Lucie Jarkovská
Faculty of Social Studies,
Masaryk University,
Brno, Czech Republic

The social transformation of the Czech society after 1989 meant in some respect a return to conservatism in social representations of gender. In the educational filed we can see that in lack of programs focused on promoting gender equality. Czech educational praxis is therefore characterized by nonreflexive reproduction of gender inequality and what more, there are moments that can be seen as explicit lessons of stereotypical masculinity and femininity.

It was proven in many researches that girls tend to be less visible part of the classroom (for example Sadker & Sadkern, 1994). However, there are school subjects and topics which are perceived by common sense as girls’ domain. Among these we can count sexual education lessons. It is believed that sexual education is more a „girls' thing“, that girls are more concerned about the topic and are more involved. The paper reveals this believe is a myth and shows how the discursive practices leave the girls out of the discourse and make them more silent and less involved in the discussion about sexuality than they are in any other subjects in school.

The author argues that sexual education, which is not gender sensitive and is not reflecting gender inequalities, is reproducing gender hierarchy and contributes to inscription of the gender inequality into girls' and boys' bodies. The process of incorporating of gender inequalities fortifies the girls’ invisibility in other subjects and spaces.

The author shows how such a paradox influences the symbolic space of schooling.
The paper is based in a particular outcome of an ethnographic research that was conducted in the 6th grade of elementary school in the Czech Republic and which focused on gender aspects of education.

key words: sexual education, gender inequality, gender socialization

Family or cultural patterns of life? - changes and conformity between three generations and intergenerations transmission.

2007-02-07T01:45:00.000+01:00

Marzanna Farnicka
Uniwersytet Zielonogórski

Main ideas: motherhood, fatherhood, development tasks, early adults, change and asynchrony between three generations, transcultural and transgenaration transmission.

Main theses:
This review is from the research about the influence of culture changes onto perception of age- appropiatness behaviour among young Polish and their families. This is a performance pattern of timing of doing development tasks in each generation.

Abstract:

The aim of this article is to indicate changes between three generations (young adults, their parents and grandparents) in perception pattern of timing of doing development tasks (Havighurst). The results show great conformity between three generations in perception orders, age, importance and frequency each of this events. In this research we can see specific difference in perception between all generations and specific asynchrony common in the all groups which consists in including events into this development period such as the choice of the job or getting emotional and economical independence of parents and exclusion the birth of another child in the period. We can see changes in aims and values in each group and factors of them such as close to each other, material and family status, origin (a city or a country).
In general, this research asks the question about the influence of cultural changes onto perception of age- appropiatness behaviour among young Polish and their families. Especially because changes in this country and in the world are going on.

Mediation, social Change and Life Long Learning , based on the Universal Principles of Adult Education.

2007-02-07T01:24:00.000+01:00

By: Dr. David Silvera

In his book “The little book of wisdom” the Dalai Lama wrote on the ripple effect, saying: ”If an individual human being eventually become a nice, calm, peaceful person, than it automatically brings some kind of positive atmosphere, and you have a happy family”.

He continues to say: “Happiness comes from kindness. Happiness cannot come from hatred or anger”.

Regarding the effect of happiness not on individual but a group of people, he wrote: “Genuine compassion must be acting on the basis of respect, and the realization or recognition that others also, just like me, have the right to be happy”.
“Compassion compels us to reach out to all living being, including our-so called enemies, those people who upset or hurt us”.

The relationships between the State, Civil Society and the Citizens have changed, as the democratic ideology and practice prevails. It was the American president, Richard Nixon who said: “After an era of confrontation, the time has come for an era of negotiation”.

One may still face violence – usually, at the beginning of a conflict. At the end –to end peacefully a conflict, one may have to talk, to negotiate, to come to an agreement.
This is the social change that modern society has to adopt.
Many of the patterns and processes which characterize conflict is one era also characterize it in others. Conflicts are universal –and so are the the dealings with them.
Negotiation by methods of mediation is the answer to modern era relationships, individually and collectively, between the state and the civil society.

Universities as sites of Transformation and Resistance: An Australian case Study

2007-02-07T01:15:00.000+01:00

Rob Watts,
Professor of Social Policy,
School of Global studies, Social Science and Planning
RMIT University
MELBOURNE, AUSTRALIA

In all Anglo-American societies there is a long and honorable tradition constituting a discourse of ‘academic freedom’ and promotion of the liberal university as a source of critical thought and the voice of social conscience. Yet what role do contemporary universities actually play post-September 11, 2001 a time some (Sitsky 2006) characterise as a ‘new dark age’? Such a point of view points to an ethico-political culture of synthesised fear, manufactured intolerance, and widespread complacency as governments generate endless and complacent talk about the need for security, freedom, self-reliance, the values of the market, and the peculiar kind of rationality said to characterise the market. This Australian case study examines both the shifts in university culture and practice and the politics of contemporary universities and universities in a time of major transformation. It explores the effects a combination of new state policies, the commercialisation of intellectual practice and certain long standing ‘constructive schemes’ specifically in at work in the social sciences and more generally in ‘academic discourse’ (Bourdieu 1997) have had on what some call the ‘enterprise university’. Avoiding nostalgia for a defunct mythic ‘golden age’ were sites of a ‘politics of freedom’ the paper argues long standing habits of mind and intellectual practice continue to obstruct the potential development of universities as sites of democratic education (Giroux 2004).

AUTHOR
Rob Watts is Professor of Social Policy at RMIT University. He is author or co-author of books like Foundations of the National Welfare State (1987), Arguing About the Welfare State (1992), Making Groups Work (1996), Discovering Risk (2004), Abuse of Trust (2005) and Sociology Australia (1999;2003;2007) and States of Violence (forthcoming)

Emirati (Arab, Muslim) Women: Their changing views on marriage

2007-02-07T01:13:00.000+01:00

Ann Barrell, M.Lit. & Dawn McBride, Ph.D
Zayed University (United Arab Emirates) and University of Lethbridge (Canada)

Less than 35 years ago, people of the United Arab Emirates (UAE) lived as nomads who traveled by camel across the desert looking for food and ways to earn an income. Today, rapid urbanization and significant government reforms are fueled by the recent discovery of oil. One of the many consequences of this is that the Emirati people (who are Muslim) have experienced significant cultural changes as they adapt to a new, urbanized lifestyle. In the last few decades, the government has become increasingly active in supporting women’s freedom to acquire an education and employment outside the home. As professors of post-secondary female Emirati students, we listen to stories of how difficult it can be for the families of our students, and for society in general, to adapt to the radical changes in women’s roles. In this context of rapid cultural change, it is women who are fundamentally changing the social landscape of the country. It is this change that forms the basis of our current research and this paper.

Over the past four years we have undertaken a series of research studies to investigate the beliefs of university Emirati women as it relates to marriage, family, their careers, and their culture. Through the use of surveys (n=200 participants in various surveys) and 19 focus groups, we have begun to identify the beliefs, values and challenges associated with women’s changing role in the UAE society.

The heightened necessity of cultural sensitivity throughout this research required the development of an innovative approach to collecting data using focus groups. This involved the use of fictional short stories written by a local Emirati. This procedure proved to be highly effective and could easily be adapted to other cultural settings where the moderator is outside the cultural mainstream. Details of this unique focus group methodology will be discussed.

The results have yielded rich data related to women’s views on their changing roles in marriage, family life, and in having a career. One predominant theme, which was revealed in the focus groups, was the challenge women faced in separating their country’s cultural beliefs from Islam’s practices. This research is of significance to practitioners in diverse fields, including educators and those in the helping fields. Special reference will be made on increasing one’s cultural competence in teaching Muslim women and in supporting their quest to have a strong family life and a successful career. The results will be highlighted with ample use of examples from the research data, as well as video clips. This presentation will be delivered in a culturally sensitive manner designed to shed light on how the changing Muslim Emirati women’s roles are central to the transformation of their remarkable country.

Polish Language and Foreign Language Policy in Postcommunist Poland: New Educational Challenges

2007-02-07T01:09:00.000+01:00

Dr Łucja Biel
Department of Translation Studies and Intercultural Communication
Institute of English
University of Gdansk
Poland

The paper discusses the current language policy (unilingualism) and shifts in attitudes towards foreign languages under political and economic transformations. Owing to frequent contacts, Polish was to a certain degree affected by Russian in the Communist era. In the late 80ties and the 90ties an unparalleled number of borrowings from English entered Polish, in line with the global trend. In the mid 90ties it was felt necessary to protect Polish against the growing imperialism of English; hence, to protect the national identity in the globalisation process. As a result, the Polish Language Protection Act 1999 was adopted, imposing an obligation to use Polish in legal transactions (contracts), press advertisements, product descriptions, etc. The purist attitudes stem to a large degree from the historic experience when Poland was without a state for 123 years and restrictions on the use of Polish were regarded as a threat to the national identity.

The high impact of English on Polish is also due to the fact that English has become the dominant foreign language learnt in Poland. In the Communist era Russian was a compulsory language at primary and secondary schools (it is spoken by ca. 23% of Poles). In the early 90ties the prestige of Russian was declining rapidly; it was no longer an obligatory subject and a large number of Russian teachers had to requalify. The shift in foreign language preferences is well visible in the discrepancy between the number of pupils learning English and Russian at primary and secondary schools: English (4m), German (2m), Russian (0.4m). It is also worth noting that in the period of 2000-2004 the number of pupils learning Russian further decreased by more than 50%, even though it is relatively easy for a Pole to learn Russian. This trend is confirmed by the choice of a foreign language at the secondary school graduation examination: 76% English, 18% German, 6% Russian, 1% French. Therefore, the Western languages are chosen by 94% of students, symbolising Poland’s redirection towards the West. The popular approach “you have to know a language of your enemy and of your friend”, where German was officially supposed to be a language of enemy and Russian was a language of friend, is no longer applied. What counts are prospects on the job market.

Knowledge of foreign languages is an important skill in Postcommunist Poland in light of the high inflow of foreign direct investments, in particular business process offshoring. Being one of the largest markets in the EU, the Polish market is attractive to foreign investors due to its low labour costs, access to well-qualified and young human resources. Poland’s accession to the EU means increased contacts with other official languages and gives access to the Single Market with ca. 500 million consumers. Furthermore, Polish is an official language of the EU and under the principle of multilingualism all relevant legislative and other texts have to be translated into Polish, increasing the demand for LSP translators. The article will analyse other political, economic and cultural changes that generate the demand for translators, in particular LSP translators and teachers, and require changes in university-level language education.

The examination of the Turkish youth’ life satisfaction according to their just world belief, level of political participation and orientation

2007-02-07T01:05:00.000+01:00

Mediha Sari, PhD student;
Fulya Cenkseven, PhD.;
Ruken Akar Vural, PhD.

Life satisfaction can be described as the individual cognitive assessment of his life in such a way that it includes everything (wide-ranging) (Pavot .et al, 1991). According to Pavot and Diener (1993), the judgment of self-satisfaction is based in the comparisons between the self-imposed criteria and the perception of the life conditions. It is believed that the Turkish youth’ just world belief, their level of political participation and their political orientation play a significant role in shaping their life satisfaction which is described as the individual assessment of each aspects of his life. The Just World Belief hypothesis states that people believe in a world in which people get what they reserve and deserve what they get. The Just World Belief has been found correlated with a number of variables, such as power distance, authoritarianism, conservatism, depression, and psychological well-being, among others. The political participation is the political activities at which citizens aim to selecting governmental authorities, and to directly or indirectly have an impact on their activities (Nie, Verba & Converse,1989). The political participation namely is the ruled citizens’ act of joining in the process of ruling. Research findings show that the level of political participation in youth is low (Borre, 2000; Brown, 2003; Dixon, 1996; Dudley & Gitelson, 2003; Erdoğan, 2003; Flanagan, 2003; McAllister & White 1994; Soule, 2001; Torney - Purta- Amadeo, 2003; Wilkins, 1999).

In this study, the Turkish youth’ life satisfaction is examined on the basis of their just world belief, the level of their political participation and their political orientation. The study seeks to answer the following questions:
1.Is there any significant difference in the Turkish youth’ life satisfaction according to the level of their just world belief?
2.Is there any significant difference in the Turkish youth’ life satisfaction according to the level of their political participation?
3.Is there any significant difference in the Turkish youth’ life satisfaction according to their political orientation?
4.Is there any significant relation among the Turkish youth’ life satisfaction, their just world belief and level of political participation?
The participants of the study consist of the youngs who are 18-25 ages either university students or not in Adana and Aydin, Turkey. Life Satisfaction Inventory by Diener, Diener, Emmons, Larsen and Griffin (1985), Life Satisfaction Scale by Emmons, Larsen and Griffin (1985), Just World Scale by Rubin and Peplau (1975), Political Participation Questionnaire and Right-Left Orientation Scale by Cuhadar (2006) are used as data collection tools.
Key words: life satisfaction, just world belief, political participation, political orientation.

Hiring God: Religion and the Market Economy in Romania

2007-02-07T01:03:00.000+01:00

Sorina Chiper
Al. I. Cuza Univesrity of IAsi

One of the changes in post socialist Romania has been the visibility of the church as an institution, and a renewed interest in religion. Whereas the communist ideology had been atheist, the new nation, after 1989, defined itself as Christian. Paraphrasing Bruno Latour, it seemed that we had never been communists, and in the initial draft of the Constitution, the Orthodox Christianity had been declared as the official state religion.

During the so-called “transition period,” the Orthodox Church had to face various controversies over the involvement of church leaders with the Secret Police (Securitate) and over the construction of the Orthodox Cathedral of the People. Political leaders have also made public appearances in religious contexts, capitalizing on the trust that Romanians have in the church to build political capital. On the other hand, religious institutions have been increasingly involved in the social.

My presentation will be a case study of a monastery in North East Moldova. Using the framework of anthropology, I will analyse the hybrid forms of religiosity and market economy, the types of entrepreneurship and creative interpretation/deviation from monastic rules that have made possible the setting up and management f a profitable business in the printing industry. Particular questions that I will address are: what types of networks are shaped when one of the persons involved in business management is a monastic? What are the conditions of possibility for the emergence of such a hybrid form of doing business? What discoursive moves have been invoked in promoting the business? What do work ethic, professionalism, obedience and sacrifice mean in such a mixed context?

“Collective stories” – Or: How social work could help to remember and educate for heterogeneity

2007-02-07T01:01:00.000+01:00

Susanne Maurer,
University of Marburg,
Germany

In societies which increasingly tend to privatize and individualize the risks of existence it makes sense to reconstruct the collective dimension of the social – taking into account those multiple and complex differences of origin, belonging, experience and opinion. The “new collective” has to consider heterogeneity. The “new solidarity” has to be built in spite of it, even through the recognition of it. Thus I would like to strengthen the perspective of a “heterogen collectivity”, be it in the context of social movements and political activism or in the context of education and social work.

Institutions and practises of education and social work already carry experience and knowledge which could support and enrich critical movements of resistance and transformation. This paper will especially highlight the quality of social work (its institutions and professionals, procedures and practises) as society’s memory of social conflicts. The history of social work is not only telling individual stories of neediness on one side and (more or less) helpful support on the other. Modern social work is part of the new capitalist bourgeois society where class relationships were (and still are) at risk. It’s also part of the collective efforts of organizing one’s own existential needs and finding ways to build solidarity for the weak and marginalized. These collective efforts came historically out of very different contexts – the working class movement, the women’s movement and also some other currents of the new Civil Society.

Besides its normalizing and affirmative, its repressive and controlling aspects social work stands also for concepts which try to understand, respect and integrate “difference”, and which are perfectly aware of heterogeneity in society in both aspects – unequality and diversity. One could also say: Social work is historically connected with the collective attempt to reduce unequality and make diversity - or choice - possible.

By recognizing the quality of social work as a “memorial site” of social conflicts, productive effects of social change as well as surrender and loss will come into sight. Remembrance of former struggles and awareness of their institutional consequences could open up new perspectives for resistance and transformation.

Revolutionary Colors

2007-02-07T00:50:00.000+01:00

Natalia Kovalyova
UT Austin

A recent wave of regime-changing uprisings in the Eastern Europe was a topic of much discussion while the events were unfolding and their commonalities generated a sizeable amount of scholarly work that defined them as a “second wave of post-communist electoral revolutions” (Tucker 2005). Apart from being close in time, these pro-democracy movements were centered about fraud in elections organized by the administration: as a result of seriously mishandling of electoral procedures and vote counting, mass protests took place; after some period of time, the incumbent president resigned and/or election results were overturned, and the leader of the opposition became a new president. Yet, in a very strict sense of a word, the term revolution does not apply to those events as they have not produced any long-term consequences and social changes. Rather, the term revolution in their regard identifies that the movement was successful in “overthrowing the current regime” (Tucker 2005, p.2).
This paper examines one such movement – the “Orange Revolution” of 2004 in Ukraine – using a collection of news (776 stories) captured by in October – December 2004. The sources of the news include the BBC, CNN, Deutsche Welle, The New York Times, Los Angeles Times, Washington Post, The Times, The Financial Times, and news agencies (Associated Press and Reuter). The analysis uses a close reading of texts focusing in labels mentioned, actors or interested parties identified, and perspectives employed in order to gain insight into versions of the Orange Revolution that were presented to the (international) public.

Border-Oder-Other. On dynamics of mental change in context of formal change based on example of Polish – German border on Oder line

2007-02-07T00:37:00.000+01:00

Anna Suska,
Elzbieta Okroy,
Ewa Okroy,
Krzysztof Leszczynski

Mental mapping of border inhabitants is still subject to many important, unanswered questions. Although many classical publications were issued regarding perception of place, little of them deals with change of that perception. What deserves thorough study is not only the change itself, but the triggers of such change in perceiving space as well – especially relations to physical and functional (both formal and informal) change of the environment.

The example of Oder line is significant and interesting for many reasons, among which the most important are the genesis of populations on both sides of the river, former political system that conducted in specific security policy in this area, multicultural and dynamic environment which is crucial for successful discourse analysis as main methodology for this research.

The research places this change in specific economical and political situation and focuses on dynamics of visible (human, capital) and invisible (forces triggering change, hidden ideologies, values and symbols) flows. Of major importance are change „triggers”, which have different forms and ways of occurence. Mental space constructed by inhabitants and meanings transmitted by institutions remain also in certain relation, which defines cultural transmission and strategies of domination and symbolic power. It is therefore crucial to shift the analysis of change from the point of view based on „how something functions?” to „what it means?”.

Critical theory and Post Soviet legacies: rights and wrongs of capitalism

2007-02-07T00:06:00.000+01:00

Rasa Baločkaitė
PhD Sociology
Kaunas University of Technology

Session: The missing language? Marxism and Social Critique after the Fall of Berlin Wall

The capitalist system, since its very beginning in Western Europe, had its proponents and adversaries as well. The fundamental critique of capitalist system was developed by Marx. Marx coined terms of alienation, commodification, false consciousness and false needs that provide an illusionary substitutes from real freedom, emancipated consciousness, subjectivity and self actualization. Later on, the Frankfurt school and critical theory (“Dialectic of Enlightenment” by Adorno & Horkheimer, “One dimensional man”, “Eros and Civilization” by H.Marcuse etc.) debated the totalitarian nature of free market and culture industries that produce “one dimensional” man, deprive individuals of their subjectivity, train and socialize them as consumers, manipulating their sexuality, so that individuals only serve the needs of the market. Critique of the late capitalism was continued by many others, like Baudrillard, who blames the vices of contemporary western society and consumerism.

While in Western countries, the critique of capitalism has century long traditions, the Eastern block was rather unaware of discontents and inadequacies of late capitalism. After collapse of the Soviet regime in 1990, in Eastern Europe, “West” was found as a new source of legitimacy - capitalism was perceived as only alternative, while former critique of the capitalist system was associated with the Soviet propaganda.

Eastern European societies have been captured by dilemma: on the one hand, fostering transition from authoritarian political regime and planned economy towards liberal democracies and free markets, on the other hand – maintaining critical attitudes. How, then, critique of capitalism is possible in Eastern Europe and where it comes from?

Surprisingly or not, the cultural critique of capitalist system first came from the intellectuals of elder generation. Here, R. Grigas, A. Mikelinskas, O.Baliukonyte, V. Kubilius. M.Martinaitis, A.Juozaitis, J.Aputis are to mention, among many others. Although there was no formal school or trend of social thought, they represented certain conservative perspective towards development of late capitalism. The analysis of their critique of capitalism unveils striking similarities with the Frankfurt school: blaming consumerism, commodification, lack of substantive choice options, stupidifying mass culture and culture industries that deprive individuals of their subjectivity by fostering and then, satisfying false needs and enslaving individuals into never ending circle of consumption.

The critique of late capitalism and consumerism in post Soviet Lithuania, in contrast to critical theory in Western world, was met with contempt and deprecation, and the critics themselves accused of intolerance, arrogance, anti liberal attitudes, sentiments towards totalitarian past, or even compared to Ku Klux Klan (KKK). The texts, containing critique of late capitalism and consumerism, were published in Lithuanian cultural media during 1995-1998. Although they have never been gathered into substantive edition, they represent rather a consistent trend of social cultural criticism and illuminate the development of the social thought in Lithuania.

Searching for a new sense of location – East German identity and Ostalgie

2007-02-06T23:54:00.001+01:00

Dobrochna Hildebrandt-Wypych PhD
Adam Mickiewicz University

The paper takes its point of departure in the phenomenon of East German systemic change that gave way to various practices of reconstructing collective memories and reworking the past experiences of the ‘nonexistent nation’. The unidirectional and asymmetrical process of German integration delegitimated GDR1 culture and produced – after the euphoric beginning – the sense of loss and dislocation among the New German States inhabitants. The new phenomena of ‘East German identity’ and Ostalgie can be perceived as the collective attempts to re-legitimate these lost personal experiences, symbols and rituals – all ‘positive memories’ of the GDR. As M. Blum puts it, since the mid ’90 ‘mementos from the former GDR have suddenly become en vogue2. The paper argues that this outstanding comeback of GDR relicts is not – as some claim – merely the glorification of the past based on resentments and negation (East German identity as Abgrenzungsidentität3 – ‘a fencing identity’). It is located not entirely in the past, but also in the present and future; it constitutes an attempt to overcome ‘the destabilizing juncture between the old and the new, between a stable and recognizable past in a well defined nation state and a presently evolving culture that is in the search of foundational myth’4. ‘The memories from the past can also function as modes of adaptation to the culture of a new (Western) capitalism, as well as counteractions against uniformity of global culture and economy. The idea behind the re-construction of East German identity can be more then just a negotiation of the past; it can also function as challenge to a uniformity of global world, a way out in the blurred and unpredictable future.

1 German Democratic Republic
2 Blum M. (2000), Remaking East German Past: ‘Ostalgie’, Identity and Material Culture, The Journal of Popular Culture, Volume XXIV, 3/2000. p. 229-253
3 Pollack D. (1998), Ostdeutsche Identität. Ein multidimensionales Phänomen, w: Meulemann H. (red.), Werte und nationale Identität im vereinten Deutschland. Erklärungsansätze der Umfrageforschung, Opladen
4 Jozwiak J.F., Mermann E. (2006), The Wall in Our Minds? Colonization, Integration and Nostalgia, The Journal of Popular Cuture, Volume XXXIX, 5/2006, p. 780-795

Unemployment and responsibility

2007-02-06T23:48:00.000+01:00

Sylwiusz Retowski
Szkoła Wyższa Psychologii Społecznej

Apart from levelling system and economic differences between Poland and Western Europe, the last dozen or so years of free market transformations in Poland have brought about also negative effects – often on an unexpected scale. Mass unemployment affecting millions of people and the phenomenon of homelessness can be the examples of such negative effects. Perception of one’s own responsibility for seeking (taking up) a job seems to be the key problem among unemployed people in Poland. Most of these unemployed are people who have lived in a communist system (before 1989) in which for many years they had no chance to take full responsibility for their lives. The psychological analyses have shown that the determination of four typical ways of coping with life problems, i.e. the application of so called Brickman’s responsibility model (1982), helps to explain better the behaviour of unemployed (or homeless) people in Poland. The oral presentation will present the basic principles of Brickman’s model with reference to people that are unemployed or at risk of unemployment, as well as the results of the research concerning long-term unemployed and young adults living in the areas where big state farms had once been situated.

A STUDY OF CHANGE, RESISTANCE AND SOCIAL TRANSFORMATION AS PROJECTED IN INDIAN WRITING IN ENGLISH

2007-02-06T23:46:00.000+01:00

by A.C. SHARMA and ANIL SARWAL,
Senior Lecturers in English,
D.A.V. COLLEGE, Sector 10, CHANDIGARH. ( INDIA)

Change, resistance, adaptation and transformation are irresistible ingredients of human society. They open new vistas of knowledge. In this paper we have made a modest effort to introduce some of the visionary ideas of writers in English who have mirrored and projected the Indian social fabric with authenticity.

The introduction of English in India way back in the 17th century did have an impact on the literary renaissance in India. Later, the study of English literature stimulated the regional literatures. New paradigms came into being.

In this paper we trace the progressive evolution of the Indian writing in English beginning with the work of Raja Rammohan Roy who highlighted the plight of widows, darkness of superstition, ignorance and backwardness to the present day authors trying to establish their identity in the scheme of things in the globized world. This trend is seen to a great extent in the contemporary Indian writing in English including the diasporic writing. In this journey, we trace the works of other prominent authors such as Rabindra Nath Tagore, Aurobindo Ghosh, Sarojini Naidu, Mulk Raj Anand, Kamla Das, Ved Mehta, R.K. Narayan, Khushwant Singh, Nissim Ezekiel, Dom Morris, R.K. Narayan, Amitav Ghosh, Vikram Seth, Arundhiti Roy, Ruskin Bond and many others like Salman Rushdie, V.S. Naipaul, etc.

Our conclusion is that Indian Writing in English has realistically and faithfully captured the Indian consciousness and it definitely had an impact on the social milieu, thereby giving a veiled direction to the Indian independence struggle and at the same time exerting a much wider influence on many other countries of the world still struggling for freedom, democracy, equality and justice.

Changing language changing thinking: considerations on the implications of the Bologna process concerning the ubiquity of the English academic style

2007-02-06T23:33:00.000+01:00

Margaret Percy

Queen Mary University of London

In an article on the Bologna Process published by the Higher Education Academy, Lomine states interestingly and unequivocally,

“It was clear from the outset that the British system would have little to do to adapt and comply with the Bologna principles” One could add that accommodating to the norms and vagaries of the English language was not one of the things they would have to do, nor would any change in the English academic style required in articles and papers for international publishing or presentation at a conference such as this.

“In Western culture the chief alternative to objectivism has traditionally been taken to be subjectivism…..thus according to the dichotomy that our culture would foist upon us, we would be left with only a radical subjectivism”, lament Lackoff and Johnson (2003), concerned to promote more peaceable ways of communication.

“When one puts objectivity in parenthesis, all views, all verses in the multiverse are equally valid”, proposes Humberto Maturana (1985), refusing to participate in the dichotomizing activity of western academia.

The paper will discuss the changes implicit in the shift from various languages, multiverses, into the accepted language and format of English which Edward De Bono indicates as being good for description but not good for perception. The format imposed by English language academia requires changing mind sets, changing the thinking and perceiving of those whose languages may give more room to perception not to mention the logical-positivist requirement of writing from the traditional objectivist stance which may no longer be ecologically sound.

Students as Journeymen between Cultures of Higher Education and Work.

2006-12-05T22:44:00.000+01:00

A comparative European project on the

transition from higher education to work life.

Lars Owe Dahlgren, Madeleine Abrandt Dahlgren Håkan Hult, Helene Hård af Segerstad, Kristina Johansson, Linköpings universitet, Sweden

Gunnar Handal,Kirsten Hofgaard Lycke, Berit Karseth, Tone Dyrdal Solbrekke, Oslo University, Norway.

Tomasz Szkudlarek, Maria Mendel, Astrid Meczkowska, Malgorzata Cackowska, Anna Struzynska – Kujalowicz, University of Gdansk, Poland.

Manfred Bayer, Tarek Lababidi, University of Duisburg-Essen, Germany

In this symposium the question of the feasibility of higher education in relationship to the demands of work life is addressed. The research is undertaken in a comparative context of four European countries. Sweden, Norway, Poland, and Germany.^¹ Students as Journeymen Between Communities of Higher Education and Work (The 5^th Framework Programme, HPSE CT-2001-00068). In–depth interviews make up the data bank. Data are gathered among freshmen and seniors within Psychology and Political science about equally distributed over the four countries. The senior students are also interviewed after their first year of work life experience. To summarise the overall result of the project, professional programs in higher education as well as classical liberal arts studies still seem to produce a discipline-based identity among the students. Where notions of a professional role is developed, this seems to be accomplished during the later, sometimes applied, parts of the studies. The structure of the studies is sequential rather than integrated when it comes to disciplinary and professional knowledge. In this symposium, the issue of learning in transition between higher education and working life is addressed from different theoretical, methodological and empirical aspects against the backdrop of the Bologna process.

The transition from higher education to work life –

a theoretical framework for research

Berit Karseth, Madeleine Abrandt Dahlgren, Astrid Meczkowska,

Lars Owe Dahlgren, Håkan Hult

The first contribution of the symposium aims at developing a theoretical framework for research on the transition from higher education to work life. It sets out to do so, taking its point of departure in four discourses discernible in the literature about higher education and worklife. The analysis will focus on how research, higher education and worklife and their mutual relationships are constructed in these discourses. The first discourse concerns the call for knowledge production as a joint enterprise between universities and the surrounding society. The second discourse comprises the call for new research perspectives on the relationship between higher education and work life. The third discourse is the call for contextualising the research on higher education within the experiences of the students and problematises the notion of effects of education as a set of abilities developed within the students. The fourth discourse constitutes the call for an alternative pedagogy of transition between higher education and work life, arguing that the scholastic traditions do not meet the requirements of the process of transition between higher education and work life. Generic skills, like flexibility in relationship to change, capacity for co-operation and communication as well as foreign language skills, and intercultural competence and are other dimensions that should be included in the aims of higher education.

Discourse Analysis in Comparative Studies: Between Phenomenography and Hermeneutics. The example of discursive construction of professional limits in pre-service university training of the psychologists

Tomasz Szkudlarek, Maria Mendel, Astrid Meczkowska, Malgorzata Cackowska, Anna Struzynska – Kujalowicz, Kristina Johansson

The article presents the methodology applied in the project. A combination of phenomenography (individual conceptions of professional knowledge and skills, data concerning motivation, etc), discourse analysis (knowledge construction, transmission and power relations in institutional settings), and social hermeneutics (general understanding of the social contexts in the respective countries based on the insiders' knowledge of the researchers themselves) has been used. The rhetoric that is used by the students in the descriptions and argumentation in this case point to a discursive formation operating within the academia which we have called ‘a discourse of limited professionalism’. It is composed not only from discrepant expectations and academic offers, but also from discursive strategies operating within the institutions that discourage the students from their initial motivation and which form their new expectations, adapting them to the situation in which massive enrolment into higher education clashes with employment limits imposed by professional associations.

The strategy of data collection and subsequent interpretations presented in the paper, passing from phenomenography, through discourse analysis towards general, hermeneutical understanding of the phenomena, is typical of the whole Journeymen project. The proposed paper illustrates the methodology of the project using one of its findings as an exemplary ground.

Conceptions of professional responsibility

- From senior student to novice worker

Tone Dyrdal-Solbrekke, Oslo University

This paper discusses contemporary notions of professional responsibility among students in their ‘journeys’ from higher education to work. Examining issues of professional responsibility, as experienced by graduate students in Law and Psychology in their final term of study and after one year at work, provides a basis for identifying factors critical to formation of conceptions of professional responsibility. Using Steven Brint’s sociological concepts of ‘social trustee professionalism’ and ‘expert professionalism’, as an initial backdrop, the main discussion in the paper draws on the moral philosopher Larry May’s conception of professional responsibility as ‘legitimate negotiated compromises’. The results suggest that although there are substantial differences between the two programmes, the students’ conceptions of professional responsibility in both groups reflects elements ‘in between’ ‘social trustee professionalism’ and ‘expert professionalism’. Moreover, the findings show that conceptions of professional responsibility do not change profoundly in the ‘transition from senior student to novice worker’. However, it becomes evident that the novice workers’ conceptions are negotiated and renegotiated - contingent on the professional roles and positions they are expected to take on, their daily tasks and by the values, norms and practices of their new work contexts. In line with Larry May, I highlight that conceptions of professional responsibility must be understood as legitimate compromises in a ‘web of commitments’.

Professional programmes and employability as cultural practices

Berit Karseth, Madeleine Abrandt Dahlgren, Astrid Meczkowska

The expectations on universities to enhance the employability of graduates are at the very core of the contemporary European policy debate on higher education. It can be argued that employability is strongly connected to the global knowledge economy, and that there is a belief that discipline specific skills are significant different from broader employment-related skills. The aim of this article is to shed light on some aspects of this issues by investigating students’ visions on what they perceive as important competences in order to become a professional. The data is based on interviews with psychology students from three different programmes in three different countries. We analyse the data against the backdrop of three discourses of employability discernible in contemporary research and policy, as placed within 1)a disciplinary discourse, emphasising the cognitive dimension, 2) a cultural discourse, emphasising Bildung, and 3) the Bologna discourse, emphasising economic competetiveness. The disciplinary discourse viewing employability as something close to the disciplinary knowledge is supported by the students in all the three programmes. Secondly, we address the relationship between educational programmes and the profession and argue that the institutional discourses mirror the relationship between a particular educational programme and its profession situated within a specific national context.

Approaches to learning among senior students and

novice professionals in psychology and political science.

Gunnar Handal, Kirsten Hofgaard Lycke and Helene Hård af Segerstad.

This paper focuses on students’ approaches to learning in higher education and in work life. So far most research about learning has described learning in these two contexts separatly. The specific aims of this article are to identify approaches to learning reported by informants as senior students and as novice professionals, to analyse these learning approaches in relation to the different contexts (education and work) and the different programmes (psychology and political science), and to relate the results to different discourses of learning in higher education and work life.

The results indicate that students and novice professionals report using quite different approaches to learning. Reading texts from the disciplinary field and writing assignment papers are dominant and favoured approaches to learning at the university. These approaches are very rarely reported by the novice professionals who rather ask colleagues for information and advice. Partly similar and partly different approaches to learning can also be identified between disciplines and programmes.

Students’ approaches to learning may be understood in relation to differences in contexts for learning. Differences between education and work are discussed in relation to what is the primary activity in each of these two contexts, the type of competence that the persons involved are expected to master and the dominant discourses of learning. Differences between programmes are also discussed in relation to the degree of alignment between the higher education learning.

1 ^{Sweden, Linköpings universitet, Norway, Oslo university, Poland, University of Gdansk, Germany, University of Duisburg-Essen.}

Oppositional Politics and the Logic of Rhetorical Tropes in Social Movement Discourse: The Case of Poland’s Solidarity Movement

2006-12-04T00:49:00.000+01:00

Tomasz Tabako, Ph.D., Professor of Rhetoric and Communication Studies, University of Iowa

MAIN THESES: The paper proposes a troppological approach to the rhetoric of popular protest, including the rhetoric of Poland’s Solidarity movement as it developed in the 1980s. More specifically, the paper (1) examines the role and function of tropes (such as metaphor and irony, among others) in oppositional discourse. (2) It presents a framework for the analysis of social movements, exploring the manner in which the rhetoric of a mass social movement tends to develop over time—in a tropologically patterned way. (3) It discusses the example of Poland’s Solidarity to show how the action of tropes is made manifest in the movement’s rhetorical biography. The paper’s more general claim is as follows: In this age of accelerated globalization on the one hand and the emergence of fundamentalisms and anti-globalization activism on the other, it is crucially important to have a better understanding of how the engines of social change, namely, social movements, operate; the tropological approach offers an informative insight into this link between social change and movement discourse.

ABSTRACT: Social movements, such as Poland’s Solidarity, are for the critic what elementary particles running through the accelerator are for the physicist: under the critic’s eye, the compressed dynamics of movements are studied to reveal the anatomy of change itself. With this in mind, the paper offers a tropological approach to the theme of change and resistance in general and to the rhetoric of popular protest (as made manifest in the rhetoric of Poland’s Solidarity movement as it developed in the 1980s) in particular. This approach stems from dissatisfaction with the existing frameworks for social movement analysis as presently available in political science, sociology, and communication studies, among other disciplines. Most social movement scholars have in large measure ignored a relationship between movements’ discursive (rhetorical) activities and social change. By viewing movements primarily as acts of the imagination, the paper locates much of the energy and potential for social change in movements’ rhetorical agency. Drawing on Vico’s concept of tropes (with metaphor and other tropes understood not as techniques of ornamentation but as modes of thinking) and Laclau’s theory of articulation (a meeting place of post-Marxism, psychoanalysis à la Jacques Lacan and deconstruction à la Jacques Derrida), the paper calls for a new branch of analysis--a tropology of social movements, one that identifies and describes some patterns of the rhetoric of mass protest as made manifest diachronically. Further, it investigates how the rhetoric of a movement brings together various, often unrelated social demands into a temporary unity, thus constructing a populist identity—“us, the people,” and while doing so, translating the discursive into the social and the institutional, thereby generating change. The paper suggests that a movement’s “formation-fragmentation” biography can be read as a chronicle of the movement of tropes, which discursively “edit” the movement’s accounts and constructions of social reality in a quasi-sequential way, from metaphor (inventing a new perspective) through synecdoche and metonymy (totalizing and universalizing political claims via the logic of “chain equivalence”) to irony (revealing gaps, contradictions, and a “lack” in the movement’s system of social knowledge). Inasmuch as this progression (if uninterrupted) falls into the scheme of a Weber-like/ideal model of movement evolution, the language games a populist movement is engaged in keep the movement’s political struggle open to a variety of discursive outcomes, including the collapse of the movement during any of its tropological stages. Consequently, in a poststructuralist fashion, the paper challenges a number of deterministic and essentialist assumptions about social change and the role social movements play in it.

In its application part, the paper explores the role of metaphor and other tropes in developing oppositional politics as embodied by Poland’s Solidarity movement. First, drawing on the work of George Lakoff and others, the paper discusses the power of conceptual metaphor in constituting political campaigns and catalyzing social change as paradigmatically embedded in Poland’s Committee for the Defense of Workers of the late 1970s. Developed with the help of “public poets,” the committee’s master metaphors helped to re-imagined reality by launching alternative vocabulary. They put the concepts of ‘freedom,’ ‘nation,’ and ‘the past in the context of the present’ in a new light and reinvigorated culturally significant myths, thereby neutralizing the newspeak of Poland’s authoritarian regime and undermining its claims to legitimacy. As an example, the metaphor of “freedom is your own genuine speech” facilitated the emergence of alternative and independent publishing circulation and the establishment of a free speech community within an authoritarian environment. Taken together, this and other metaphoric frames facilitated a spiritual takeover, a “charismatic coup”; they transformed the opposition into a legitimate challenger by effectively addressing people’s axiological hunger in a time of crisis. The remaining two sections of the paper will discuss the function of the rhetorical tropes of metonymy and synecdoche in the formation of the Solidarity movement in the early 1980s, as well as the operations of discursive irony in the process of Solidarity’s fragmentation in the late 1980s.

Image Making, the Creative Mind and Social Transformation

2006-12-04T00:47:00.000+01:00

Pip Cotton
The learning Connexion & Massey University

In recent decades there appears to have been a major escalation in people engaging with the ‘arts’, and there has been a corresponding expansion in arts related education. Reflecting local and global forces which have shaped adult education over the last two to three decades, the New Zealand tertiary system has seen a major expansion in private education providers. This paper reports on a doctoral study which focuses on a small group of students at a private training establishment known as The Learning Connexion (TLC). This school delivers a program entitled ‘Art and Creativity’ and has gained recognition nationally as something of ‘an alternative art school’, with very strong philosophical and practical elements which distinguish it from the mainstream. The study reveals that many of the people engaging with TLC do so as part of a major period of transition, reorientation or reframing in their lives.

As the project unfolded, a ‘systemic’ perspective emerged to structure the methodology, with an emphasis on conceiving knowledge production as processes involving interdependencies between brain, mind and culture. Different ‘art’ forms in this view can be considered to be distinct knowledge systems based on unique configurations of brain, mind, and cultural elements and processes. I draw on material from developmental theory, evolutionary theory, neurology, and the origin of image-making within the Upper Palaeolithic to justify this view. I also suggest that the key elements which ‘cohere’ to produce forms of knowledge, relate to concepts of symbolism, identity and memory.

When these perspectives are used to analyse the research participants narratives, strong elements of symbolism, identity and memory are revealed, which can also be described in terms of a persons ‘artistic style’. The analysis suggests that for the research participants at least, engaging in activities of image-making within the environment provided by TLC resulted in very positive psychological outcomes. It also suggests that within a highly fluid, complex, and rapidly changing world that many of us are now experiencing, periods of ‘creativity orientated education’ may be one important way of contributing, not just to individual coherence, but to some levels of general social coherence as well. Reflecting these perspectives, the paper concludes with consideration of the question: are we becoming ‘our own artists’ as an adaptive response to change pressures?

About the Need of Theological Reconception and Renewal

2006-12-04T00:37:00.000+01:00

Mirosław Patalon

The purpose of this address is to present the major elements of A.N. Whitehead’s philosophy (the oneness of reality as well as its dynamism and variability, the integration of apparent antagonisms and contradictions into a single whole, etc.) and the chief tenets of process theology (pragmatism, panexperimentalism, the relationality of God and other beings and their correspondence to the nature of the world, the atomistic concept of time) as the background for two examples of Polish theologians: Wacław Hryniewicz and Stanisław Obirek. Both of them deal with change issues in the context of Polish Catholicism still being one of the most important factors of socialization processes and at the same time characterized by a strong tendency to abide within the boundaries of ecclesiastical correctness. In the process perspective religious education is based on the idea of intertwining perspectives and maximally broad spectrum of worldviews since theology is construed socially. The examples of Hryniewicz and Obirek – although not connected directly with whiteheadian philosophy – display a number of points of convergence with this approach; the first one in his theological writings and the other in the practical dimension.

The future profession as a continuous learning or a will to be mobile:

2006-12-04T00:34:00.000+01:00

The future profession as a continuous learning or a will to be mobile:
political scientists and psychologists transition from higher education to working life

Sofia Evertsson
Department of Behavioural Science
Linköping University

Today some would argue that we live in a society and economy of knowledge and globalization. This has implications for universities as well as for working life in terms of what knowledge that is produced and the employability and flexibility. It is reasonable to assume that this discourse of employability and flexibility also influences the students’ perceptions of studies and work. Therefore, this study focuses on senior students’ transition from higher education to working life in order to explore how these two communities of practice, with particular set of boundaries and traditions, influence graduates’ notion of their future profession. Research has up until now described the transition in rather general terms, e.g. the graduates’ employment, the graduates’ position in working life in a more quantitative and structural way. Therefore, there is still only limited knowledge about how graduates construe themselves as professionals and how they experience their future career.

The design of the empirical study is longitudinal, where graduates have been interviewed on three consecutive occasions: the last semester before graduation, the first and then the third year in working life. The graduates’ comes from two different Master’s programmes at Linköping University, Sweden; Political Science and Psychology. The specific aims are to: (i) explore graduates’ notion of their future profession and (ii), to what extent this notion changes in the transition from higher education to working life. The data analysis is inspired by a phenomenographic analysis with interest to explore the variations in conceptions of the phenomenon as well as the possible change over time.

The analysis yielded a set of descriptive categories; the future profession conceived as a continuous learning, to master a tool-box, to fulfil a commitment, to search for a professional field, to be mobile, and to have a long term commitment.

The results indicate at the first interview occasion that the senior students envisage a positive and a secure professional future, where knowledge mostly is seen as something technical and applicable. As first year and three year novices in working life they meet different demands and opportunities, such as demanding and/or challenging work tasks, reorganizations in the work place, unemployment, feeling of not being skilled enough which affect their professional identity as well as their notion of their future profession. They point to the future profession as a need for being changeable and mobile or something that needs continuous learning. This implies that the encounter with working life creates a need for an employability that, to some extent, is based in the values from the knowledge and global economy.

Adequacy of civil society concept in reality of post – communist societies

2006-12-04T00:30:00.000+01:00

dr Rafał Riedel

This discussion paper deals with the problem present both in Polish as well as international social sciences literature concerning the adequacy of using civil society concept in analyzing the reality of post-communist societies.
In his analysis of social capital, it was Pierre Bourdieu who proposed to use the term political capital, when speaking about post-soviet societies. After him, many other academics: sociologists, political scientists, social psychologists developed the critics generating the whole new stream. The critical mass of the discussion was reached when Janusz Czapiński published his paper in “Nauka” (Science) entitled: “Poland – a state without society” (2006). This provocative thesis was formulated on the basis of rich and recognized research proving poor condition of trust and consequently inter-personal relations within Polish society.
This analysis comprises of synthetic view of major theoretical approaches on social capital and civil society, among them: Juergen Habermas, John Keane, Feliks Koneczny, Pierre Bourdieu, Robert Putnam, James Coleman, George Sorsos and Francis Fukuyama.
The opinions undermining the adequacy of using civil society as a concept and as a research tool in post-communist societies are presented, their argumentation put under critics. Major arguments and counterarguments are rooted in social survey results.
Author will support the opinion that to a high degree, Polish society as a transactional one, however this does not exclude it from the possibility of being analyzed with similar research methods as Dutch or American society.
The suggested problem is rather a result brought about by the fact that once civil society has become a “trendy” concept it gained so many theories that this category is so wide nowadays, that it represents much more rhetoric potential than scientific, explanatory power.
Conclusions formulated in the summary allow to free civil society idea from accusations of not being adequate in describing and understanding social processes in a society like Polish.

Immigrant Families in Transition: Consequences of and Alternatives to Dominant Representations

2006-12-04T00:16:00.000+01:00

Ramona Fruja
Michigan State University
College of Education and Department of Sociology

Depending on which side of the interpretative spectrum one stands, globalization can be the catch-all phrase for either great loss or positive world transformations—as the root of all modern evil, in terms of hegemony and homogeneity, or as the source for the more benign global discourses of environmentalism, human rights and social justice, or strives for more economic equity. However, such dominant narratives tend to crowd out alternatives and the immediate interpretations—that can manifest themselves both in the popular imaginary and in academic research—can also apply to specific aspects of globalization (like the unprecedented scale of world migration) and their implications for certain social structures (such as the family). For example, in 1965, the Immigration and Nationality Act in the United States, has been amended to remove national origin quotas as a basis for granting immigrant visas. Today, the largest immigration streams in the United States are of national origins that previous legislation has specifically banned or severely restricted from the country, based on their presumed inability to integrate into the perceived mainstream. American society currently experiences the highest immigration wave in its history, and the incurring changing demographics parallel post-colonial and post-communist changes in European demographics. These global transformations reflect on the complexities of families at multiple levels, connecting with issues of race, ethnicity, religion, language, class, gender roles, political affiliation and other cultural manifestations. What does it take to be considered an immigrant family when the popular images of this category, in the United States, involve a group from Mexico or of people who do not fit a “white” phenotype? What are the implications for immigrant families in the middle of sweeping transformations, when both the Western European and, to a greater extent, the north-American historical construct of the immigrant include representations of “hard work ethic” and the “model minority myth”? Questions such as these exemplify the ways in which immigrant families in the United States and Western Europe stand at the intersection of seemingly contradictory situations: they are increasingly present while they may remain disturbingly othered both by not fitting into an expected mold of the “traditional” family, and by deviating from the constructions of what an immigrant family should be. Drawing on studies on immigrant families, as well as personal narratives, this presentation will focus on the social implications of such processes of differentiation in the definition of the family in the context of global migration, especially as they pertain to the relationship between immigrant families and schools. This is a crucial aspect to the healthy growth of immigrant youth, as they negotiate their simultaneous roles in families, schools, communities, and in the new societies.

Intercultural Education between Social Change and Resistance

2006-12-04T00:11:00.000+01:00

prof dr hab. Manfred Bayer
Uniwersytet Gdanski & Universitat Duisburg-Essen Ed. & Social Sciences

After the World War IT there was an ongoing social change process in Germany, mainly due to the fact of a massive immigration, partly by refugees (mainly from Poland and Russia) and partly by migratory workers from Eastern and Southern parts of Europe.

This process has caused greatest trouble within the subdivided school system since neither the teachers nor the school administration was prepared for this enormous challenge.

Thus the setting up of the Deutscher Bildungsrat - an overall conference of progressive scientists and administrators from all German regions (Bundesländer) founded in the 19seventies - provided new curricula and methodologies for teacher training as well as for the different school systems.
What an enlightenment for our society!

This was the right moment for RESISTANCE: First of all, the Ministers of Education protested because of far too high costs for their limited budgets. Was there no other way as e. g. to remigrate the unnecessary foreign workers with their families? Or to invent national classes and special schools for migrant children, teaching them only in their mother tongue and repatriate them immediately after leaving school? Then new formations of conservative parents came with new regulations for protecting their own (German!) children against such a flood of undesired rivals. There were more uncounted social protest among the people, such as the famous "Ausländer raus!"

One of the very few positive reactions was the invention of an intercultural study module of 4-8 hours (but not any more) in the teacher education curriculum. This "innovative module" had to be implemented into heavily overloaded courses of studies at universities who had no qualified lecturers up to then for this purpose. This is why professors of traditional subjects entered long lists of protest against this "absurd invention" which seemed rather depriving students of their really needed, necessary qualifications. And so on, and so on ...

Because of this really disturbing resistance from various social groups against these obligatory courses for teachers and new school curricula for intercultural education this innovation had to be dropped - until something incomprehensible and horrible happened in the Netherlands:

The parallel social strata of disintegrated immigrants have been suddenly discovered in most European societies. The crucial question is now: Why did this happen?

Political Decisions and Their Social Costs. Estonia, Finland and Poland: Three Ways Out from Soviet Dominance. Comparative Case Study.

2006-12-04T00:06:00.000+01:00

Wojciech Woźniak
Department of General Sociology
University of Lodz

Estonia, Finland and Poland underwent the process of crucial transformation during past two decades. The political and economic situation of these three countries, as well as their pathway through the process of transition vary substantially. It seems that only the starting point for the changeover could be considered as similar to some extent. The common feature for all of them was unquestioned fact of Soviet dominance during the communist period. The dominance that lasted at least until the beginning of nineties and could be treated as a motive force for numerous political decisions undertaken during the transition period.
Obviously, the scale of subjection of Estonia, Finland and Poland towards their powerful neighbour varied substantially and the process of liberating from it lead to different outcomes. It could be stated that in many aspects it was costly and that the biggest price has been paid by those named sometimes in public debate and academic publications as “victims of transformation”. The paper proposed is an attempt to present how the political decisions “shaped” the process of transformation and directed to the current state of affairs in each of the countries. The special attention will be paid to the social costs of political actions experienced by the occupants of various positions of social ladder and to the social policy in a broad meaning adopted in Estonia, Finland and Poland. These countries were chosen because of the fact that nevertheless the similar staring points and challenges faced at the beginning of transition period, they all have adopted entirely different solutions in political, economic and social spheres. The insight into these processes with the comparative approach seems promising. It could lead to the exposure of some implicit or undefined aspects of political transformation. For example, in many cases priorities and the way of implementation of social policy could be explained by ideological and/or political premises of policy-makers. Nevertheless, this procedure could be also reversed and analyses of various social policy measures can explicate and prove hidden and unspoken reasons for some political actions.

The main base for the article will be research evidence collected and knowledge gathered during the realization of the PROFIT project (www.profit.uni.lodz.pl). PROFIT (full title: Policy Responses Overcoming Factors in the Intergenerational Transmission of Inequalities) is a multidisciplinary comparative research project financed by the European Commission under the 6th Framework Programme. Studies in a frame of PROFIT have been conducted in 8 countries and the main area of research interest was policy impact on the process of inheritance of social inequalities. Nevertheless, some part of empirical data collected during the research process referred directly to the above mentioned topic of the presentation.

Coming to Terms with the Communist Past: Mourning, Trauma and Nostalgia in Krzysztof Kieślowski’s film Blue (1993) and Ivan Golev’s novel Dany (2005)

2006-12-04T00:02:00.000+01:00

Teodora Atanasova
Georgetown University

Svetlana Boym’s The Future of Nostalgia and Charity Scribner’s Requiem for Communism are among the very few books in the field of cultural studies in the United States that have addressed the concept of nostalgia in the context of the post-communist transition to democracy. Boym freed the concept from the negative connotations that are usually associated with it, whereas Scribner showed that the communist system consisted of utopian elements, such as the socialist collective, which are worthy to be preserved even though the political system itself has lost all its credibility.
I will analyze Krzysztof Kieślowski’s film Blue (1993) and Ivan Golev’s novel Dany (2005) through the prism of Boym’s and Scribner’s theoretical approaches in order to demonstrate the important role that film and literature have played in the shift that has taken place in the discourse about the post-communist past in Central and Eastern Europe. Initially, discussions about post-communism oscillated between two diametrically opposed poles. On the one end of the spectrum were those who passionately supported the new democratic regimes. On the other end were all those who were unwilling to part with the security with which the communist system provided them.
In this paper I will argue that literary and cinematic works have generated a process of remembering the past by opening poetic spaces within which images of the past can be re-evaluated and reconstructed. In this way literature and film have acted as catalysts for a more critical and complex evaluation of the past. Blue and Dany will allow me to illustrate that the process of coming to terms with communism was a long and painful endeavor and therefore a lot of time will need to pass before the legacies of communism can be confronted, processed and transformed into assets for the future.

Poland in Northern Ireland, the artistic point of view

2006-12-03T23:58:00.000+01:00

SUSANNE BOSCH

Title of the paper: Poland in Northern Ireland, the artistic point of view
Suggested topic: New social structures, new social divisions

In 2002, the five countries with the greatest number of work permit holders in Ireland were Latvia, Lithuania, Philippines, Poland and Romania. Together these countries constituted over 40% of all work permit holders in that year. Following enlargement, Latvia, Lithuania and Poland became full members of the European Union, while Romania as a candidate country is due for entry in 2007.
A reasonably good source of information on the number of immigrants arriving in Ireland is the number of Personal Public Service (PPS) numbers allocated. There were 25,222 such numbers issued to Polish nationals in 2004 and 64,766 in 2005.
This paper would like to have a look at several aspects of work migration from an artistic point of view.

Poland in Northern Ireland
Migration profoundly affects the sense of place of local communities.
Working in Northern Ireland means living in a post-conflict society among two very strong communities.
How are the interactions between migrants and local communities? How are the polish migrant experiences in Northern Ireland?
How are the reception and perceptions of newcomers in Ireland since 1996?
If the work migrants return: What are the issues of identity and belonging among polish work migrants? How are migrant emotions affected in the context of changing status positions?

Art
Not only political- and social science are interested in migration processes. Migration as a subject also gets reflected in the works of artists, which try to find new ways for production and representation of this topic.
To what extend does the art fulfil meanwhile an important political and social role? Can art be “useful” in a civil society sense, if we are dealing with the real problems of migration? Or does the subject of migration help to re-vitalize old concepts of a national culture? Which cultural meaning and social effects has the topic of migration in Northern Ireland and for the extended EU?

This presentation will give several examples of artistic and media approaches to migrant communities in Northern Ireland, empowering a critical discussion about the approaches.

Internetfora and blogs by the polish community in Ireland: www.polskidublin.com www.gazeta.ie www.tpi.poznan.pl www.mojairlandia.pl www.dublinek.net www.obywatel.blog.onet.pl www.wodasodowa.blog.pl www.dublin.blox.pl www.tramyard.blox.pl www.spotlessmind.info www.sistermoon.blog.pl www.eire.blog.gazeta.pl www.irlandia.blog.pl

Spending the youth during the transition period. Life stories of young adults from post-socialist countries.

2006-12-03T23:56:00.000+01:00

Magdalena Rek
Institute of Sociology
University of Lodz, Poland

During last 17 years post-soviet societies have experienced deep changes. The transition from centrally-planned to free-market economy was accompanied by the emergence of mass unemployment, pauperization of diverse social groups and categories and growing inequalities in various spheres of social life. In consequence of transformation life opportunities of young generations have grown considerably, nevertheless this fact could not be treated as beneficial for all individuals who grow up during this period. Positive or negative assessment of social and economic changes depends on various factors, but particular attention should be paid to social policy schemes (in the field of education, labour market and welfare), as instruments to increase social mobility. Post-socialist states had to redefine their social policy regimes, which were unable to face entirely new challenges.
The presentation will be based on results of the PROFIT (full title: Policy Responses Overcoming Factors in the Intergenerational Transmission of Inequalities) research project, realized in the frames of 6th Framework Programme of European Union. The aim of the project is to conduct multidisciplinary comparative study on intergenerational inheritance of social inequalities in eight European countries. The outcomes can give and answer to the question about the most effective measures which can be used to improve social mobility.
One of the stages of the project was to identify the relative importance of different factors affecting social mobility of individuals.
The main empirical base for the presentation are in-depth interviews carried out in Poland, Bulgaria, Lithuania and Estonia with young adults (aged 25-29), who originated in low status families and live in middle size, economically deprived towns. Some of them inherited parents social position, but others experienced upward social mobility. The idea of the paper is to identify the determinants behind critical decisions concerning the transition from obligatory school to school of higher level, from school to work and from parental family to that established of its own. Of particular interest is importance of policies and informal networks (family, peers, significant “others”) at transition points in a life course of an individual.
Findings of the interviews will be supplemented by other data collected for the purposes of PROFIT project.

Change and Resistance: the discourse of post-communism: Who speaks and why? Company discourse- before and after 1989

2006-12-03T23:53:00.000+01:00

Magdalena Bielenia
Institute of English
University of Gdańsk

The aim of this research is to discuss the discourse of post-communism in the vocational setting. An attempt will be made to elaborate on the issue of business discourse before and after 1989. We will start with the concept of Language for Special Purpose and its classification with regard to some economic activities and their time caesura. The next issue will deal with the notion of discourse community. This topic will also be discussed with relation to the change of the system. The discourse within a company will be presented by taking into consideration the age, sex and education of the interlocutors. We will also try to find out how not only the speech itself but the ways people behave due to their political or economic background determine the performance of the studied companies. To highlight this aspect of this research we will quote the studies conducted in some international companies which are ruled by foreign managers. We will also try to compare the attitude presented by Polish managers with the ones shared by their foreign colleagues. The next aspect which will be discussed in this study is whether the state of post-communism discourse is the same within the researched areas of economics. Thus, some novel domains such as investment banking or venture capital which were absent before 1989 will be presented in this research. The aim of this part is to show whether even the new domains have traces of post-communism discourse. What is more, an attempt will be made to predict the potential scenarios of the discussed economic discourse in the future.

The Polish market of children’s picture books as a field of intertwined discourse formations.

2006-12-03T23:48:00.000+01:00

Małgorzata Cackowska
University of Gdańsk

Main thesis:

- The Polish market of picture books for children has changed into totally liberal, where economic capital dominates over cultural life.
- The low quality of content and form of picture books in Poland depends on a socially constructed power of mass aesthetic judgment and adults’ permission for the dominating mass culture.

Abstract:

The paper focuses on socio-cultural circumstances affecting present production of picture books for children in Poland in the context of the past (during communism conditions) and globalization. Picture book is therefore distinct as the first meaningful medium connecting a young person with culture and useful for identity-formation, while at the same time, the primary reader position is almost absolutely taken by adults. This is the main reason of researching all adult intermediators who have influence on the content, form I analyze the power/knowledge relations and discourse formations constructing the field of cultural production, distribution and re-production in children’s picture books' market. In accordance with P. Bourdieu’s concept of the field, I examine a relational network of diverse points of individual and inter-subjective concepts of significance in picture books and also aesthetic judgment (occurring in parents’, early education teachers’, children’s and artists’ (illustrators) reflections and experiences) and institutions represented by small- and large-scale editors and publishers from the Polish market of picture books. I based the study of mechanisms in the field and its subfields with its power mechanisms and relations of different points of view, on empirical material collected in Gdańsk and other places in Poland during the years 2004-2006. The methodology applied in the project consists mostly of phenomenography (interviews) and discourse analysis. It aims at understanding picture book construction, re-production and power relations among institutional (publishing houses) and surrounding cultural settings.

Production of Urban Public Space

2006-12-03T23:35:00.000+01:00

Production of Urban Public Space.

The case of Półwiejska Street Transformation, 1989-2006

Konrad Miciukiewicz

Institute of Sociology

Adam Mickiewicz University, Poznan

The paper is aimed at finding and interpreting the processes of structuring and restructuring contemporary urban public spaces on the case of Półwiejska St. (Poznań) transformation, 1989-2006. Półwiejska St., known mostly of the “Old Brewery” shopping centre and the minority demonstration called “the March of Equality”, has become the leading example of ongoing urban change in Poznań. The founding idea of the empirical research is to look at some of its transformations with particular reference to the processes of privatization, commercialization, gentrification and militarization of space, as well as to the site specific consequences of urban developments on the networks of human interaction. The author tries to answer questions concerning the production of semi-public urban spaces, the construction of the counter-spaces of city politics, cultural urban practices, and everyday life. These questions are to be answered on the basis of the empirical findings from press analysis and field work on Półwiejska St., where 30 in-depth interviews have been conducted.

Educating for the social change – a historical reappraisal of higher education sector in Nordic welfare states

2006-12-03T23:34:00.000+01:00

Dr Kazimierz Musiał

University of Gdańsk

Higher education is generally believed to equip students with a capacity for change. Not only do they possess the necessary qualifications to progress and succeed in the highly competitive modern society. The university graduates are trained to adjust to the changing needs of the labour market nowadays and they are more willing to practice mobility when looking for new jobs and challenges.

Through stipulating certain systemic solutions in higher education and organising the educational policy in a given way states influence their citizens’ ability to deal with the social change. Even though modern society seems to favour individuals with a strictly defined life purpose, it is often the experience of collective learning and the practice of free and open dialogue experienced during the study period at the university that makes it easier for the graduates to form creative communities. The longer the process of education with an experience of higher education, the more prepared the individuals are to collaborate towards peaceful solutions when encountering problems. Needles to say, they are better prepared to serve and participate in their community.

In the Nordic countries the long lasting tradition and practice of life-long learning and extensive access to higher education provide good foundations for preparing individuals to cope with the vagaries of modern societies. Furthermore, the whole idea of the Nordic welfare state being a progressive model of social engineering, it offered social change as an inevitable component of the social system. By providing good conditions for attaining higher education, the state has created a class of highly educated citizenry that was able to generate and support the social change and social engineering.

Dealing with the Nordic countries and the welfare state ideology is interesting as some authors considered their solutions as possible export goods to implant in Central and Eastern Europe after the fall of communism in the late 1980s. The missing component that often goes unattended has been the level of education that could guarantee a broad qualified dialogue and compromise instead of principal resistance.

This paper will ascertain the importance of higher education sector in the Nordic countries in the context of peaceful conflict resolution so widely practiced in these countries. It will be analysed to what extent their welfare state and public policy in general have stimulated or are a product of the expansion of higher education. Higher education as a means of social advancement and a means of fostering dialogue in a welfare state will be studied and the broad Nordic context considered.

Post-communism nostalgia in Poland. Nostalgia for Polish People's Republic

2006-12-03T23:30:00.000+01:00

Karolina Slovenko
University of Warmia and Mazury in Olsztyn

"Communism is haunting post-communist societies from the grave."

Piotr Sztompka

For last decade Poland has traveled the road from dictatorship to democracy, from monopoly to pluralism, from the status of a satellite country to a sovereign country, from the Warsaw Pact to NATO, from an economy of scarcity and a planned economy to a market economy and economic growth, from censorship to freedom, from closed borders to open borders, from state ownership to privatization.

The reaction to this is a nostalgia for…communism. As the process of market transition in Eastern and Central Europe (also in Poland) continues, the proportion of people who report that they favor the socialist system has grown. Nostalgia for the communist past is often defined as the feeling that life under communist rule is preferable to life under the democratic rule of the present. It is difficult to understand, especially difficult for people who fought against communism and rejected it.

Post-communism nostalgia can be in some part a kind of proof that the transformation process in this region of Europe is still unfinished and Poland (among other countries) has stood astride between socialism and capitalism. It can be also a result of the unfulfilled expectations of a new and better future for the newly liberated nations. Nostalgia for communism has important roots. First, it is the longing for safety. It is the longing for a situation in which the state assumes a considerable part of care for the fate of its citizens. And this whole ethos of the market economy is a challenge to be responsible for one's own fate, but at the same time it is also the reflection of large social groups, and the placement of these groups into greater risk. The source of nostalgic attitudes is the merging of economic and social status that has occurred in the course of transformation. Under socialism, many occupations enjoyed extraordinary social prestige, despite low salaries. The ongoing fusion of social and economic status gives those less financially successful a feeling of being deprived of both social position and of economic well-being. This hypothesis was verified through a series of interviews and through the analysis of alternative explanations of nostalgia, for example, theories claiming that post-socialist societies have been affected by collective amnesia. Post-communist nostalgia might have also substantive reasons.

In addition, nostalgia for communism in some part is a result of positive memories related with youth – for many Poles period of Polish People`s Republic is time of their childhood and youth. Time also relieves memories about situations in “real socialism”. This kind of subjectivism garble memory of communism past.

The communist regime can be preferred negatively, positively or fully – and people can become negatively, positively or fully nostalgic about pre-democratic life. At this same moment we can ask what role does nostalgia for the communist past play in consolidating new democracies in East and Central Europe, also in Poland? Do ordinary citizens feel nostalgic toward more than one aspect of life under communism? Toward what aspects of communist life do they feel most and least nostalgic – for the political, economic and other domains of their lives? It is also interesting and important to distinguish those who experience nostalgia from those who do not in terms of demographic, socio-economic and other personal characteristics.

The post-communism nostalgia is visible in some aspects of Central and East European life as politics, society, and culture. In Poland this nostalgia become also popular, become as a kind of style which gets new face. Reality of Polish People`s Republic comes back in films, some people collect things which are related with this period (siphon bottle, glass bottle for milk, old cards, medals, bank-notes, placard, etc) and they have more and more opportunities to visit museums (there is also Museum of Polish People`s Republic on the Internet, in close future in Warsaw will be Museum of Communism “Socland”), galleries (for example Gallery of Socrealism Arts in Kozłówka) or go to pubs, clubs where time has stopped and where they can listen to Bierut`s or Gomułka`s speeches, see sculptures, pictures and parts of TV programmes, films from those times, sit on old furniture and try orangeade, etc. People can also experience communism tours with “crazy guide” during which they visit places related with that epoch (even flat which is adapted to communism times), drive old car like trabant or fiat 125p and eat in milk bar. But for whom it is all? Maybe is it mainly offer for young people who do not remember communism period, some kind of nowadays quest, hunt for fashion?

Nostalgia for communism can be also perceived as “a burden and a problem”, one of the “unresolved problems” that will need to be dealt with in the future together with unemployment, wide gaps in social status, etc. Matter of post-communism nostalgia is complex. One thing is certain. The country without history is like man without memory. Memory about past is important for individuals and for whole society, and it should be use in a constructive way.

Political illusions in Poland from psychological perspective

2006-12-03T23:29:00.000+01:00

Jarosław Klebaniuk

Instytut of Psychology

Wroclaw University

Main thesis

Polish political scene seems to be divided in a way known elsewhere

This is illusion: the right-left division is non-existent in Poland

Voters are faced by a right-right choice

Mass propaganda is responsible for the phenomenon

Cognitive mechanisms’ perspective could be employed to explain propaganda efficiency

Some personality orientations are responsible for the acceptance of the right-right effect

Abstract

In the paper a short analysis of the main political parties’ practice of ruling, programmes and propaganda means will be presented. Than the right-wing bias will be described as a specific phenomenon of Polish politics. Some propaganda theories (cultivation perspective by G. Gerbner, spiral of silence by E. Noelle-Neumann) will be cited to explain the effect. Finally, some personality orientations (right-wing authoritarianism by B. Altemeyer, social dominance orientation by J. Sidanius and F. Pratto) will be drawn upon as possible psychological explanatory variables. The acceptance of the current state of political affairs is therefore the consequence of (jointly): exposure to the mainstream mass propaganda and some personality traits making the acceptance of political parties and socio-economic system easier. Some empirical evidence is available (and will be cited) concerning the Polish voter 2005 behaviour and preferences.

The above diagnosis could be subject to amendments as the political situation is ever changing (and some new theoretical ideas come up sometimes, too).

Urban and regional governance – post-communist or global condition of fuzziness?

2006-12-03T23:10:00.000+01:00

Iwona Sagan
University of Gdańsk

In recent years, political spaces are rescaled very intensively by a combination of multifold processes defined as globalization, economic, political and social neoliberalism, systemic transformations. The discussion is dominated by the themes of changing role of the state, of political (re)construction of the regional tier or the cities’ renaissance. The paper focuses on four main issues. First, the growing differentiation and fragmentation of social demands and, in a further result, of political scene makes the contradiction of particularity of interests and universality of principles imprinted in democratic system a specially complicated problem. Second, there is commonly expressed necessity of active participation of civil society organizations in governance practices. However the general conviction that civic organizations are the right actors to represent the community interests and the only social force able to balance the domination of neoliberal economy seems to hang in a political vacuum. Third, in the institutional approach the development possibilities are perceived as a result of not so much the capital accumulation but of the institutional embeddedness. The approach is not free of shortages and ambiguity stemming from a danger of separation of the power from the representation and from the responsibility. Still prevailing sectoral organization of institutional structures negatively influences the effectiveness of institutional transformation into the more integrative governance structures. Fourth, the problem of scale in relation to the ‘good’ and ‘bad’ governance is a problem of negotiating the right scale for evaluating the priorities of development.

Tuning to the rhythm of IT

2006-12-03T23:07:00.000+01:00

Tuning to the rhythm of IT : new temporal synchronizers and their effects on learning in vocational education

Ingrid de Saint-Georges
Home university: University of Geneva

This paper examines changes in learning and knowledge production resulting from Western societies’s tuning to « new synchronizers » of activities. Activities in industrial and post-industrial societies were very much organized by the clock. Information Technologies have created new synchronizers alongside clock time. In many social spheres, social activities are entrained today to the infinitely more rapid beat of computer devices, able to work to the nanosecond. Because of this built-in fast temporality, information technologies (IT), Hassan (2003) argues, have created a “buzz of flickering present” and raised “speed to a metaphysical status”, with consequences for social life as a whole. In the realm of education, in particular, the new synchronizers transform not only how we learn but also what is learned and how knowledge is produced.
The paper seeks to better understand the consequences of tuning to the pace of IT for vocational education. Theoretically and methodologically, it draws concepts from various discourse analytical framework concerned with social transformation and change: the Vienna discourse historical approach (Wodak, 2001), the nexus analysis approach (Scollon & Scollon, 2004) and the frame of social semiotics (Lemke, 2000). Empirically, it examines video-taped interactions documenting the work of apprentices and their co-workers in a Geneva car repair shop.
The study begins by contextualizing briefly the situation examined in its wider societal, historical and economical context. The world of the car industry constitutes a particularly relevant environment to study interrelations between time, work and learning. Its short history merges with that of modern times and the industrial revolution. It has affected modes of life and promoted new forms of organization of work (cfr. fordism, toyotism). It has also been at the forefront of the IT revolution when Fordism as a mode of production started to show signs of decline. The various temporalities associated with these technological changes traverse the local “timescapes” of the workplace examined (Adam, 1998). For example, apprentices are paid by the hour, and clock in and out of work. The corporation imposes strict guidelines regarding the time allotted to car servicing, diagnosis, parts replacement, etc.. Software used for diagnoses connect more and more car mechanics’ work to the IT revolution. In this context, the analysis consists in identifying different synchronizers to which apprentices align and to examine how they affect situated learning. It shows that while learning occurs, the various time pressures existing in the context constraint opportunities for learning and inquiry. It also make clear that while the apprentices and their co-workers develop coping strategies of time management, the interstitial opportunities left for learning and other non-productive temporalities tend to be reduced to a minimum.
On the methodological level, the paper insists on the importance of “opening up the circumference of discourse analysis” (Scollon & Scollon, 2004) and integrating historical sources when seeking to grasp the complexity of even a simple moment of learning. It also insists on the importance of not “flattening time” but analyzing the entrainment effect of various pace-setters (Scollon, 2005) when seeking to understand social issues. It finally questions which temporalities and which time-scales we should work on to “reclaim time” for learning and for critical inquiry.
References
Adam, B. (1998). Timescapes of Modernity. The Environment and Invisible Hazards, London and New York: Routledge.
Hassan, R. (2003). The Chronoscopic Society: Globalization, Time and Knowledge in the Network Economy, New York: Peter Lang.
Lemke, J. (2000). Across the Scales of Time: Artifacts, Activities, and Meanings in Ecosocial Systems Mind, culture and activity, 7(4), 273-290.
Scollon, R. (2005). The rhythmic integration of action and discourse: work, the body and the earth. In S. Norris & R. H. Jones (Eds.), Discourse in action: introducing mediated discourse analysis (pp.20-31). London and New York: Routledge.
Scollon, R., & Scollon, S. W. (2004). Nexus analysis: discourse and the emerging internet. London and New York: Routledge.
Wodak, R. (2001). The discourse-historical approach. In R. Wodak & M. Meyer (Eds.), Methods of critical discourse analysis (pp. 63-94). London: Sage.

Constructing the ‘Revolution’

2006-12-03T23:01:00.000+01:00

Constructing the ‘Revolution’: Social change, national commemoration and the management of accountability and legitimacy in Romanian political discourse

Cristian Tileaga
University of East London

This paper addresses the various ways in which the ‘Revolution of 1989’ has been represented and constructed by political leaders who were at the heart of the December events, during several relatively recent commemorative addresses in the Romanian parliament. A critical discursive analysis of political discourse based on ideological rhetorical analysis (Billig, 2004; Chilton, 2004; Chilton and Schaffner,1997) and insights from membership categorization analysis (Sacks, 1995; Eglin and Hester, 2003) was used. Several political speeches were analysed leading to the identification of a series of descriptive features: a) the idea of ‘revolution’ as a general, historical process and, b) essential stage in the development of a unified Romanian nation. These features were embedded in narratives of comprehensive political change and future of the nation. It is argued that their main ideological function is that of framing/reframing, controlling the various interpretations, public (categorical) reformulations of the event(s). It is also argued that such a discourse disconnects the ‘revolution’ from its controversial particulars and delegitimizes criticism. This is a preliminary attempt to critically examine the Romanian political imaginary regarding one of its most controversial historical events. Implications for a political psychology of social change, political legitimacy and representativeness are drawn.

On the Track of a Socio Cultural Learning Discourse?

2006-12-03T22:57:00.000+01:00

Brit Ballangrud,
Buskerud University College

Background for this paper is the newest reform in Norway “Knowledge Promotion”. As a part of the reform the government has made a special strategy for developing competences needed for implementing the reform. This strategy for competence development is described in a special document from The Ministry of Education and Research. "Competence for Development. Strategy for Competence Development in Compulsory Schools 2005 – 2008” (my translation) (Utdannings- og forskningsdepartementet, 2005).

This paper deals with a discourse analysis of the document called the “The Competence Strategy”. The aim of this paper is; An Analysis of “The Competence Strategy” in the Norwegian Reform “Knowledge Promotion” by a description of the discourse of collaboration and learning.

Norman Fairclough has developed a three dimensional model for his approach, Critical Discourse Analysis (Fairclough, 1995). This model will be used for analysing the text of the Competence Strategy document as a discourse. The first part will be a description of the Competence Strategy and its meaning. Linguistic elements will be used. In the next part some patterns in the text describing the discourse, will be presented. In the last part the meaning and the rules of the discourse practice will be discussed in connection with analysing the learning discourse in the text. By using Fairclough`s model, the Strategy will be described as a common foundation for collaboration, with new roles for different actors and special responsibility for the school owner. The learning activities are learning for meeting practical challenges in the reform, and developing schools as learning organisations through leadership. In the text it may be find patterns connected to the text as genre. The Strategy as a common foundation is resting on different discourses. Not very much is said about the schools and schools leadership. They have a very little position in the text, but the text emphasizes leadership in learning processes bridging the schools learning. The analysis shows that it is possible to read the text from a socio cultural position and find elements in the Strategy which harmonize with a situated perspective.

Discursive divisions in postcommunist politics. The case of right wing anticommunism in Poland

2006-12-03T22:52:00.000+01:00

Artur Lipiński,
Institute of Political Science, Kazimierz Wielki University, Bydgoszcz, Poland

The data strongly supports the existence in Poland of a profound elite cleavage based primarily on the political past and reinforced by corresponding links to organized religion. This cleavage concerns not only political elites but also the whole society. Anticommunism as the effect of the discursive construction of the enemy, was (and in fact, although slightly less salient, still is) an important topic in each electoral campaign, it played a significant role as a determining factor in coalition making processes, it influenced the activities of right-wing politicians and hence contributed to the unity of left-wing politicians who perceived anticommunism as a threat to their political position. The main idea is that conflicts over anticommunism were a crucial factor in the political conflicts during the years after the collapse of the communist regime in Poland.
My paper is going to be devoted to the one of the most significant conflicts permeating Polish society and dividing it in respect of attitude towards the non-democratic, communist regime. This division has shaped a public discourse, the construction of political and party system, and trajectory of most of the conflicts which ignited political struggles.
Anticommunism in contemporary Poland serves as a tool of depreciation of political opponents from the left wing. It is an exclusionary discourse which makes it possible to create or revive the division between "we" and "they" (the term “anticommunism” as such implies this division) and sustain the antagonism. If we accept the thesis that political discourse has three functions: creation of a positive image of oneself, creation of a negative image of the opponent and mobilization of support, we will see the cause of the political strength of anticommunism.
In the paper I’m going to study the content of anticommunism which is perceived as the outcome of intellectual, doctrinal, programmatic or broadly speaking discoursive activity of political subjects: parties, groupings and candidates. I assume that they are important actors pretending to control public discourse, to impose particular definition of reality and evaluation of status quo, to sustain, intensify and modify conflicts which have already existed within society. From this point of view, the presence, significance and character of anticommunism in the society is mainly the effect of discursive activities of political objects.
I also take premise that anticommunism should not be regarded as a cohesive, fixed phenomenon similar to a political doctrine, but rather as a loose set of ideas, which are rooted in the generalized rejection of communism. I’m going to analyze internal diversity of anticommunism which, on the most general level, manifests itself through four dimensions. I’ve distinguished: temporal orientation, emotional register, object of discourse and ontological dimension. A four dimensional discourse analytical matrix helps me to show that anticommunism not only tended to delegitimize left wing, but also served as an instrument of internal struggle among right wing agents.

Evolution of the Polish political discourse after September 2005

2006-12-03T22:43:00.000+01:00

Łukasz Orylski
Uniwersytet Gdański

In contrast with the economic indicators or the election pools, changes in the public discourse are not easy to grasp. Transformation process among the symbolic elites after the parliamentary and presidential election in Poland in 2005 caused the incorporation of the political ideas and statements, previously considered to be marginal, into the mainstream of the political life. The division between the “liberal Poland” and “solidary Poland” which has been created during the election campaigns seem to invalidate the distinction between post-communists and the successors of the democratic opposition’s tradition. In my opinion such situation can be described as a consequence of the previous hegemonic position of the “non-rightist” discourse as well as the tendency of the present government leaders to interpret the political reality as the creation of System which is antagonistic to the society but also deep-rooted in it’s structure. To what extend the evolution that has been remarked here screw the previous transformation? Can it create the new type of social engineering which aim is not to promote the consumer model of politics – as in the other countries with strong liberal traditions – but to create the fundamental philosophical conflict? Can the specific Polish conservatism become a source of inspiration for the organizations which similarly to the ones described by Claus Offe as the new social movements will concentrate on the issue of identity and “the world of life”, but understood in a completely different way? I would like to try to answer these questions during my speech.

Everyday Life, Social Change, and Cultural Revolution - Henri Lefebvre's Heritage

2006-12-03T22:37:00.000+01:00

Heinz Sünker

Henri Lefebvre, the outstanding representative of Western Marxism, analysed structures and contents of every day life (which is encompassing the Marxian critique of political economy) in late capitalism in the interest of answering the question of chances of real social changes, i.e. social transformations aiming at a real revolution - and not only the exchange of ruling powers/pseudoelites. The paper deals with Lefebvre's analysis of everyday life showing the relevance of the category 'ambiguity' for social anylsis.

In a second step the papers deals with analysing Lefebvre's perspective of a cultural revolution.It is shown that only the mediation of Lefebvre's analyses with the German concept of 'Bildung' may be able to solve the question of a real revolution.

Democracy, Education and Conflict: Rethinking the Place of the Ethical

2006-12-03T22:22:00.000+01:00

Carl Anders Säfström
Mälardalen university

Sharon Todd
Stockholm Institute of Education

One of the cornerstones of a democratic education is a basic notion of respect for others who hold different points of view from ourselves. Yet, within an increasingly divergent public discourse about values, rights, and equality, especially gender equality, democratic education needs to concern itself with practices that not only encourage respect, but that can negotiate through the very troubled relations that often afflict classrooms and schools. Models of how to encourage respect often centre on creating a conflict-free atmosphere through appeals to deliberation, dialogue, conversation, consensus, and/or a combination of these. Indeed, conflict is often perceived as not simply being counter-productive to dialogue and conversation, but as being indicative of communicative breakdown itself. In this way, conflict becomes the symptom of social ills through which recourse to some form of dialogue supposedly acts as the remedy. The idea of conflict has become so antithetical to democratic education that little has been written on the inevitability and importance of some kinds of conflict for legitimising the possibility of democracy itself.

The purpose of this paper is to explore the significance of cross-cultural conflict for democratic education and to propose an ethical orientation which seeks to make space for conflict as an integral part of learning democracy. The paper puts forth two ideas: a) that certain relations of conflict, particularly those identified by Chantal Mouffe (2005) as “agonistic relations,” are necessary for the very existence of democratic politics and can serve as starting points for reconsidering how schools situate themselves in relation to cross-cultural dilemmas; and b) that an ethical orientation to conflict requires the affirmation of the other as a form of hospitality through which democratic projects might be more fully realised.

Drawing on Chantal Mouffe (2005), Emmanuel Levinas (1969) and Jacques Derrida (1999), this paper discusses both the political and ethical dimensions of conflict in education. Specifically, Mouffe’s model of “agonistic relations,” which takes pluralism as a condition for politics, offers a unique perspective on how some forms of conflict might be reconceived as essential to democratic education. In wishing to extend her views, we build upon the notion of hospitality and the ethical relation to the other as expressed by Levinas and Derrida in order to highlight how agonistic relations demand a form of ethical response which lies beyond respect.

Through this investigation we seek not to provide a model of conflict resolution, but an ethical orientation to conflict that recognizes its centrality in the creation of a vibrant democratic engagement with difference. The place of the ethical is not in our view about a normative imperative of what we should do in order to reach consensus, but about how we live with the “endless betterment” of the state (Critchley, 2004) through the possibility of upheaval and disturbance that the ethical relation to the other brings.

Critchley, Simon. (2004) “Five Problems in Levinas’s View of Politics and the Sketch of a Solution to Them.” Political Theory 32, no. 2.

Derrida, Jacques. (1999) “A Word of Welcome” in Adieu to Emmanuel Levinas, trans P-A Brault and M. Naas, Stanford: Stanford University Press.

Levinas, Emmanuel. (1969) Totality and Infinity: An Essay on Exteriority, trans. A. Lingis, Pittsburgh: Duquesne University Press.

Mouffe, Chantal. (2005) On the Political. London: Routledge.

Change and Resistance in Minoritised Linguistic Landscapes

2006-12-03T22:12:00.000+01:00

Michael Hornsby

University of Southampton, UK

In many parts of Europe, minority and minoritised languages are currently experiencing higher profiles than ever before. At the same time, the use of these languages has spread from traditional strongholds (where, in many cases, it is in sharp decline) to use in domains never previously imagined. This paper aims to explore the nature of these transformations and the conditions which explain them. These can be attributed to the present period of globalisation and 'High Modernity' (Giddens, 1991) which 'seemingly paradoxically, produces both fragmentation and uniformization' (Heller, 1999: 33). The resulting struggles include treating minority languages as commodities, rather than an index of identity and the use of 'authenticity' (Gal & Woolard, 2001) in exercising control over how these languages are defined. Language commodification and the deliberate creation of sites are exemplified in one minority language situation, that of Breton, either in a symbolic way or in the constituting of linguistic Communities of Practice (CofPs). In this paper, I argue that the creation of Breton-language sites is a very different phenomenon from the much more visible commodification of the language but, being a grass-roots initiative, is more likely to hold the key for the possible long-term survival of the language. With the current higher visibility of the Breton language on the linguistic landscape, attitudes among young Breton speakers to its symbolic use is explored, focussing on their simultaneous appreciation and rejection of such changes. This situation is mirrored in many other minoritised language settings.

Remaking People and People’s Resistance in the Neoliberal Postsocialism

2006-12-03T22:10:00.000+01:00

Michał Buchowski

I will examine the way advocates of the neoliberal order in postsocialism try to impose new system of values that can reorient people’s attitudes towards social reality. These efforts are aimed, inter alia, at the creation of a ‘new person’ that neatly matches emerging market principles. On the one hand, the reconstruction of a person involves his/her de-construction as a member of a tightly- knit social network. On the other hand, it implies a creation of a person that perceives himself/herself as an individual that can be gauged and valued according to the principles of market economy. This already well-advanced process has profoundly modified everyday practices of families, communities, and collectivities of peopele working together. However, it also triggers resistance of ordinary people who want to preserve their time-honored values and their dignity embedded in past experience.

These phenoemena also ask for an analysis of the way the hegemony of those in power and intellectual elite stimulate everyday resistance of the subalterns and how this hegemony conditions the protests of politically organized movements. Opposition to the discourse of dominant culture assumes various shapes. It starts with the daily small disobedience, this ‘weapon of the weak’ (as James Scott put it), through which people neutralize disciplining efforts of the state. Resistance is also detectable in the nationalist and religious rebuttal of values perceived as endangering nation’s endurance (e.g. sovietization in the past or licentious Western lifestyle today). The opposition to the dominant practices and discourses was also expressed through spectacular actions of the youth protesting against oppressive communist state and through road blockades staged by anti-liberal ‘populists’ or anti-globalists’ demonstrations. This spectrum of modes and motives of resistance does not preclude the existence of patterned forms of its articulation.

Paradoxically, resistance can lead to the dialectical process called the ‘jujitsu of domination and resistance’ (Michael Kearny’s expression). In politics, jujitsu forms of domination (here, the disciplining discourses and practices advancing neoliberalism) mobilize the active efforts in self-defense which, in turn, provide the energy deployed in subalterns’ subjugation. By contesting dominant cultures those who contest changes, reinforce the negative images about themselves as stubborn and obliterating progress. I will discuss in what way this intricate social dialectics is presented both in political discourses and scholarly accounts

The promotion of knowledge

2006-12-03T21:49:00.000+01:00

Janicke Heldal Stray

Institute for Educational Research, The Faculty of Education
University of Oslo

The Norwegian school reform of 2006 is named the “Promotion of Knowledge”. In this presentation I want to explore the main trends in this reform, especially those concerned the construction of meaning making when it comes to the school as an institution for passing democratic values and virtues to the young. The Norwegian school reform must be understood both in a national and an international context, and the mediation between this two levels through “local adjustments”. My main question is how democratic citizenship is understood in this reform, and how democracy is connected to the concepts of knowledge economy, knowledge society, social capital and human capital in the Norwegian context. I am using critical discourse analysis as the tool for investigating these questions.

Polish changes 1990-2005 in Polish pop music lyrics

2006-12-03T21:44:00.000+01:00

Witold Jakubowski

University of Wrocław

Popular culture ceases to be treated as a ‘worse’ part of the cultural reality. It is a space in which people respond more sincere than in the questionnaires. Popular culture (understood here as the folk culture of post-industrial societies) is authentic, and in a spontaneous way comments on the everyday life.

Pop music is its important part. Dilemmas and uneasiness not only of the new generations are most often articulated there. Taking into consideration the fact that a lyrics is a text directed to a wide, heterogeneous public, it is naturally characterized by a high degree of simplicity. Pop music lyrics are cultural texts and thus they can be read as pedagogical texts.

Scholars claim that the choice of a theme by a pop singer gives it a definite place in the hierarchy of importance. As a result, if a lyrics deals with propaganda, it reveals at the same time that the theme constitutes an important problem for its author. The lyrics becomes thus an elaboration, a commentary on those aspects of reality that are important for the author. The interpretation of the texts reveals the meanings that are common for the receiver and the singer. An attentive listening of the texts makes it possible to understand what the younger generation wants to tell and this, in turn, are painful and accurate diagnosis of the reality. The lyrics reflect what is important for the young generation, what irritates them, what they live by, and what they give meaning to.

In my paper I want to give a picture of Polish changes in the political system as seen in the Polish pop music lyrics. I shall pay special attention to the context of changes that are accentuated there, which aspects of the changes are commented on and on the discussed consequences of the changes.

Resistance or Complicity?

2006-12-03T21:40:00.000+01:00

Resistance or Complicity?: Writing on Academic Publishing in the pre-1989 Czech Republic

Libora Oates-Indruchová, Masaryk University, Brno

Despite the attention paid to the censoring practices of state socialist institutions by post-state-socialist scholarship, academic censorship remains an under-researched area. Moreover, in the case of the Czech Republic there is little available written material on these practices from the pre-1989 era, because official censoring measures did not extend to academic publishing and censorship: this occurred in multiple unofficial and “undercover” ways. In my research, I draw mostly on interviews with academics who published during the so-called “Normalization” (i.e. 1969-1989) within official publishing channels and who are still today respected members of the academic community. That means that I excluded those who obviously condoned the repressive measures of the system (the “Normalizers” and “Party-liners”) and also those who expressed open resistance to the system by publishing in samizdat. Apart from the interviews having revealed an intricate texture of censoring and coping strategies, as stories they speak of self-censorship, self-fashioning, pain and resistance, among others. In fact, their nature was so rich, on the one hand, and so contradictory, on the other, that as research material they resisted the conventions of the academic writing mode. In my paper, I will focus on relating the issues of post-state socialist research on state-socialist censorship and reporting on such a project. I will propose that a non-traditional writing mode may help preserve the tensions inherent in the interviews, and instrumental in this process can be foregrounding of the relationship between the researcher (an outsider from the post-state-socialist times) and her informants (insiders of the state-socialist times and people with their reputations at stake in the post-state-socialist times), and of the research process.

The Paradox of Special Vocational Schools

2006-12-03T21:37:00.000+01:00

Alicja Sadownik

Institute of Education

University of Gdansk

The Paradox of Special Vocational Schools:

An Empirical Example of Post-communist Fossils in the New Social Structure

Special Vocational Schools appeared in polish communist reality as natural consequence of the obligation of work and the segregation politics in education. The Special Vocational Schools aimed to prepare good workers for state-owned industries and factories.

Obligation of work and politics of segregation, made the world of work very clear (especially for people with disabilities). The medical or psychological diagnosis of special disability determined the special way of life and work of the person with disability, for ex. here, in Gdansk, the blinds were producing scrubbing-brushes, the mentally disabled women were sewing the second-quality clothes in the “FALA” factory, and the mentally disabled men were cleaning and keeping in order simple tools in the Shipyard.

After the social change the factories were closed, the integration in education has started and the obligation of work as well as the chance for employment in state-owned factories, collapsed. But the special vocational schools survived. Who and what are the teaching now? Are they fossils of communism? How do the teachers define their mission nowadays? What do the students think about their special vocational education and their future? What does “mental disability” mean in post-communist context?

In my article I will try to answer and discuss these questions, by showing the results of my research. The tentative results of my research, as well as, the main theses of my article, are:

The Special Vocational Schools are teaching for the past, reproducing delusion of socialist structure of work and live. That is why, they gathered people, who are not adjusted to the new reality, students, whose families didn’t follow the transformation.
Most of the students of Special Vocational Schools are from very poor, alcoholic and long-term unemployed families. The students, asked about the future, answers: “What future? I have no chance for job with a special school certificate!”
The teachers exist in a schizophrenic logic. They claim they know, that their students have no chance for (well-paid) job and “normal live”, but they keep motivating them to learn and work.
The students, understanding that they are excluded and deluded by the system at the same time, concern on “here and now”; claiming they have “nothing to lose”, they become aggressive (even to each other) and starts risky games with the teachers, law and the police.
Slightly Mental Disability in post-communist context is strongly connected with poverty, long-term unemployment and felony.
The social change in Poland (and in polish system of education) is still at the beginning. We adjust our social, political and mental structures to new reality, as well as we accept and reproduce “paradoxical monsters”, post-communist fossils, like Special Vocational Schools.

New space for our children: discourses of NGO

2006-12-03T21:35:00.000+01:00

Igor Nosál, Ph.D.

Masaryk University

Faculty of Social Studies

Department of Sociology

Abstract

The rhetoric and practices of the governing state bureaucracy and political elites in the field of childhood and family life are often challenged by non-governmental activists and organization, which demand for more autonomy for children, their parents and families. The paper focuses on the discursive constructions of social space for children in the “alternative” sphere of NGO during last decade in the Czech Republic. Specifically it analyses discursive events concerning domestic space (of “home” and substitute home) and the space of school. It focuses on spatial aspects of social control over children. The focus on the production of the “alternative” knowledge/power and its linguistic aspects (in the tradition of Foucault’s discourse analysis and CDA) has to explore power relations, conflict and resistance in the discursive field of post-socialist childhood. It also analyses the role of NGO as actors of change/resistance in the processes of the post-socialist social change. It also explicates the discursive practices as the tool of maintenance/change of power relations in the post-socialist era. The discursive practices are applied not only to govern the children, which are treated as the object of the state or “alternative” policy, but also to govern their parents, families and intimate life.

Tourist trips of Poles to the post-communist East: (re)creating Other, (re)constructing Self

2006-12-03T21:28:00.000+01:00

Anna Horolets

The destinations of tourism are a matter of individual choices. Simultaneously, they are outcomes of (national) cultural politics and collective imagery of “other lands”. The interplay between one’s own “land” and “other lands” crystallizes the discourses of identity. The fashions replace some destinations with others thus the work on identity is carried out each time within new framework. Alternatively, different narratives are attached to the very same destination thus exerting different kind of influence on tourists’ identities.

In the paper based on a small scale qualitative research project I am going to address the issues of changing and ambiguous images of the post-communist “East” (e.g. Ukraine, Kyrgyzstan, Georgia) as a destination for young Polish tourists. The motivations of choosing post-communist countries as a tourism destination deserve attention and analysis. The narratives about travel routines as well as imagery preceding and accompanying the journey obtained in the course of in-depth unstructured interviews will be analyzed by means of discourse analysis. The memories of the past (tourists’ own as well as their families) will the studied. Moreover, the narratives about the journeys to the East will be contrasted with the narratives about the journeys to the West. I will present the analysis of bodily practices involved in traveling to the post-communist East. Special attention will be given to the images of the institutional and personal obstacles to traveling, as well as incentives to travel. Travel outcomes (in form of articles in travel magazines, diaries, web-sites) will be subject to analysis. The institutionalization and codification of the tourism to these destinations will also be an object of scrutiny.

The aim of the paper is to address the question of the construction of the Other and of the search of identities in the rapidly modernizing and Europeanizing (Westernizing) post-communist Poland. The images of the Self and the Other obtained and constructed during (repeated) journeys to the post-communist East of Poland will be the means of studying the processes of identity change as well as taping down the enclaves of resistance to change in the generation to which “real socialism” is still a personal yet fading memory.

An International Conference on Social Transformations and Education

2006-01-30T12:17:00.000+01:00