scholarly journals Latin as a cultural Identity: a central European Case.

Author(s):  
Piotr Bering

Central Europe entered in the sphere of Christian and Latin Civilization later than the Western part of the continent. As a result, the new members of this community had to import most of their ‘cultural goods’, but the imports were in a relatively short time recognized as their ‘own’. This general process can be testified to by the stage plays. The use of Latin lasted in Central Europe much longer than in Western Europe and coexistedwith the native languages, including in the theatrical output. The theatrical output is significant in this respect as it presents, among other sources, the mutual relationship that existed between Latin and the native language.

Author(s):  
David Sorkin

This chapter details how the Jews of the Holy Roman Empire constituted the central European region of emancipation. Some historians would contend that the Holy Roman Empire's “archaic, traditionalist constitution created a society that tolerated religious and ethnic differences to a far greater degree than the more centralized states of Western Europe”; in other words, “early modern central Europe was a pluralistic, complex society more tolerant of differences than England, France or Spain.” Whether this observation is accurate or not, it concerns toleration, not parity. Jews in the Holy Roman Empire fell behind Jews to the east and west in their political status. They gained neither collective corporate privileges nor the civic rights of emerging civil societies. To be sure, their juridical equality in the courts of the Holy Roman Empire marked a significant elevation in status. The Court Jews' extensive individual privileges were also an elevation in status, yet only for a miniscule elite. In sum, Jews in the Holy Roman Empire did not keep pace with their brethren east and west, thus making the transition to emancipation, when it came, a painful rupture.


2007 ◽  
Vol 40 (1) ◽  
pp. 81-106 ◽  
Author(s):  
Thomas A. Baylis

In a period in which ‘‘strong’’ and even ‘‘presidential’’ prime ministers have arguably become more the rule than the exception in the major states of Western Europe, most prime ministers in the new democracies of East Central Europe appear to have been relatively weak figures. This article investigates the reasons for that relative weakness in the ten East Central European countries, which together have had 87 prime ministers in the 16 years since the fall of Communism. It evaluates several possible explanations: party system weakness, the institutional structure, elite recruitment patterns, and policy constraints. It then seeks to explain several notable exceptions to the prime ministerial weakness rule.


2017 ◽  
Vol 21 (02) ◽  
pp. 1750013 ◽  
Author(s):  
ERIC RUGRAFF

This paper questions the nature of the foreign direct R&D investments in Central Europe. Do the affiliates of the multinationals still undertake adaptive R&D? Have they recently engaged in innovative R&D activities in their Central European affiliates? Because patents result from the firm's investments in basic research and applied development, we consider patent data as a good proxy of the firm's genuine inventive activity. We build a sample made of the 10 multinationals representing the most active R&D investors in the Czech Republic — the Central European leader as regards of foreign direct R&D investments — and in the major foreign direct R&D sectors — electronics, electrical equipment, machinery and motor vehicles — and assess the recent evolution of their patenting activity. We suggest that (a) even these major R&D investors still only marginally apply for patents in their Czech affiliates; (b) there is no under-evaluation of the innovation activity of the Czech affiliates due to a geographical separation of inventions — in the Czech Republic — and patent location — in Western Europe; (c) the researchers working in the Czech affiliates are still not sufficiently oriented towards innovation activities to be integrated in the patenting-oriented international teams built by the multinationals. Foreign direct R&D investments in Central Europe remain mostly production supportive and associated with the international exploitation of technology produced in the Western headquarters and affiliates. Despite the strong engagement of the Czech government towards foreign direct R&D, real innovative R&D increases very slowly.


2018 ◽  
Vol 14 (1) ◽  
pp. 7-22
Author(s):  
Verita Sriratana

Abstract Virginia Woolf and Karel Čapek produced direct responses to the British Empire Exhibition in the forms of – in Woolf’s case – a scathing essay entitled ‘Thunder at Wembley’ and – in Čapek’s case – a (P)OstModernist travelogue later published as part of ‘Letters from England’ translated into English in 1925 and banned by the Nazis as well as the Communists. This research paper juxtaposes modernity in Central Europe with its ‘Other’ – that in Western Europe – by exploring Woolf and Čapek’s durée réelle between 1910 and 1924. It offers an analysis of Karel Čapek’s (P)OstModern legacies, placing Prague right on the modernist centre stage. The socio-political contribution of Central European regional modernism in Čapek’s work is increasingly vital to the contemporary Europe of Brexit and refugee and migrant crises, and beyond.


2015 ◽  
Vol 7 (1) ◽  
pp. 69-89
Author(s):  
Leonidas Donskis

Identity and memory are two indispensable keywords of society and culture when we deal with Eastern and Central Europe in terms of their modernity and its predicaments. Put in the context of politics and literature, they allow a point of departure in a study of yet another Europe, that is, Eastern Europe on the mental map of Western Europe. They serve as an important trajectory in the history of consciousness of a significant part of Europe that has yet to be tackled, grasped, and appreciated by the political, academic, and educational mainstream of Western Europe with its innumerable clichés and stereotypes over Eastern and Central Europe. No theoretical or empirical analysis would match the depths and originality of exploration of this issue which we encounter in the essayistic writings and fiction of two major Central European writers – namely, Czesław Miłosz and Milan Kundera. This study in the history of consciousness and also in politics and literature offers an interpretive framework for a European scholarly debate on Eastern and Central European sensibilities.


2021 ◽  
Vol 17 (1) ◽  
pp. 72-95
Author(s):  
Magdalena Nowicka-Franczak

Post-Foucauldian discourse and dispositif analysis, a methodological approach inspired by the work of Michel Foucault and developed in Western Europe, over the last decade has gained an increasing amount of attention from Eastern European researchers. Yet, this interest has not been accompanied by sufficient reflection on the post-Foucauldian perspective’s adequacy for studying power, governance, and subjectification in post-socialist societies. In particular, there is little criticism that would take into account the current discussion on Foucault’s ambivalent attitude towards neoliberalism. The goal of this article is to examine this line of criticism of Foucault’s late works and to point to its importance for dispositif analysis carried out in Eastern and Central European societies (e.g., Poland) in comparison to analyses carried out in Western Europe (e.g., Germany). I propose a number of methodological recommendations that aim at adapting post-Foucauldian research instruments to facilitate analyzing power relations in the post-socialist context; these include: an interdisciplinary combination of discourse analysis and an analysis of macroeconomic and macrosocial factors; an analysis of the practices of normalization in post-socialist societies with reference to the Center-Periphery relationship; introducing elements of semiology, anthropology of the contemporary and cultural identity analysis to dispositif analysis.


2018 ◽  
Vol 39 (4) ◽  
pp. 7-17
Author(s):  
Juraj Kalický ◽  
Jana Lasicová ◽  
Jaroslav Ušiak

CENTRAL EUROPEAN STATES FROM A CONSERVATIVE PERSPECTIVE IN THE PERIOD 1990–2004The post-communist transition of Central European States the V4 countries and their neighbours, when speaking about a broader Central Europe took place in the last decade of the 20th century until the years 2002 and 2004, when the V4 countries were allowed to access the EU and NATO. In this case, the term transition accounts for changes in the political status of states, a transi­tion period in which basic pillars of the state — political system, the market economy, replaced the centrally-planned economy, the security and agenda of human rights, were assessed by new criteria. It was a complicated process that had to be reflected from the perspective of science and research, but also it had to be accepted from the perspective of citizens who did not always perceive the changes in a positive way. Central Europe lacked public discussion, a space that was supposed to be dedicated to the supporters of integration, but also to opposing opinions in order to make transparent attitudes, objections, but mainly, to introduce comprehensible projects of further development. To­day many theoreticians from Western Europe view the absence of public discussion to be a serious lack of planning in the preparation period. Mainly future positive benefits were presented, liberalism as the best solution of economic problems was unilaterally preferred. Little attention was given to possible impacts of the other ideological or theoretical concepts, e.g., conservatism, which puts an emphasis on the important role of the state, traditions, paternalism, and other aspects, which could, at first sight, operate as controlling mechanisms, even barriers to liberalism and integration. At that time, conservatism seemed to be an outdated ideology. But in practice, the situation was different. Conservative parties, and particularly the conservative perspective of reality, became an essential way of problem solving. The article aspires to explain some aspects of the impact of conservatism on the positive process of transition and transformation in Central Europe.


1987 ◽  
Vol 19 (9) ◽  
pp. 155-174
Author(s):  
Henk L. F. Saeijs

The Delta Project is in its final stage. In 1974 it was subjected to political reconsideration, but it is scheduled now for completion in 1987. The final touches are being put to the storm-surge barrier and two compartment dams that divide the Oosterschelde into three areas: one tidal, one with reduced tide, and one a freshwater lake. Compartmentalization will result in 13% of channels, 45% of intertidal flats and 59% of salt marshes being lost. There is a net gain of 7% of shallow-water areas. Human interventions with large scale impacts are not new in the Oosterschelde but the large scale and short time in which these interventions are taking place are, as is the creation of a controlled tidal system. This article focusses on the area with reduced tide and compares resent day and expected characteristics. In this reduced tidal part salt marshes will extend by 30–70%; intertidal flats will erode to a lower level and at their edges, and the area of shallow water will increase by 47%. Biomass production on the intertidal flats will decrease, with consequences for crustaceans, fishes and birds. The maximum number of waders counted on one day and the number of ‘bird-days' will decrease drastically, with negative effects for the wader populations of western Europe. The net area with a hard substratum in the reduced tidal part has more than doubled. Channels will become shallower. Detritus import will not change significantly. Stratification and oxygen depletion will be rare and local. The operation of the storm-surge barrier and the closure strategy chosen are very important for the ecosystem. Two optional closure strategies can be followed without any additional environmental consequences. It was essential to determine a clearly defined plan of action for the whole area, and to make land-use choices from the outset. How this was done is briefly described.


Energies ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 14 (12) ◽  
pp. 3415
Author(s):  
Bartosz Jóźwik ◽  
Antonina-Victoria Gavryshkiv ◽  
Phouphet Kyophilavong ◽  
Lech Euzebiusz Gruszecki

The rapid economic growth observed in Central European countries in the last thirty years has been the result of profound political changes and economic liberalization. This growth is partly connected with reducing carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions. However, the problem of CO2 emissions seems to remain unresolved. The aim of this paper is to test whether the Environmental Kuznets Curve (EKC) hypothesis holds true for Central European countries in an annual sample data that covers 1995–2016 in most countries. We examine cointegration by applying the Autoregressive Distributed Lag bound testing. This is the first study examining the relationship between CO2 emissions and economic growth in individual Central European countries from a long-run perspective, which allows the results to be compared. We confirmed the cointegration, but our estimates confirmed the EKC hypothesis only in Poland. It should also be noted that in all nine countries, energy consumption leads to increased CO2 emissions. The long-run elasticity ranges between 1.5 in Bulgaria and 2.0 in Croatia. We observed exceptionally low long-run elasticity in Estonia (0.49). Our findings suggest that to solve the environmental degradation problem in Central Europe, it is necessary to individualize the policies implemented in the European Union.


Human Affairs ◽  
2013 ◽  
Vol 23 (4) ◽  
Author(s):  
Magda Petrjánošová ◽  
Alicja Leix

AbstractIn this article we present a qualitative analysis of empirical findings from an international project on intergroup attitudes and contact in five Central European countries specifically concerning language use. The project concentrated on the interplay of intergroup contact and perception between the members of national groups in the borderlands between the Czech Republic and Austria, Germany, Poland and Slovakia. The open statements analysed here about the contact situations and the ensuing evaluation of the Others were collected as part of an online questionnaire (N=1959). After a short theoretical introduction we reveal the intertwined nature of construing language use: first in each specific borderland, then in the triads speaking together either in the native language of one of the groups (Czechs with Austrians and Germans) or with each speaking their own native languages (Czechs with Poles and Slovaks). Finally we highlight several effects we have observed as a result of being able to compare the situation in more than one neighbourhood, for instance, the effect of the different statuses of the languages involved, or the connection between the language used in contact and a feeling of proximity.


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