scholarly journals Political Crisis in France: «Gilets Jaunes» and the End of the «First Period» of the Emmanuel Macron’s Governance

2019 ◽  
Vol 65 (2) ◽  
pp. 101-135
Author(s):  
E. O. Obichkina
Keyword(s):  
Point Of View ◽  
Political Crisis ◽  
Consumer Society ◽  
Specific Situation ◽  
Spontaneous Movement ◽  
French Society ◽  
Current Crisis ◽  
Digital Revolution ◽  
European Elections ◽  
Modern Capitalism

The article analyzes the current political crisis in France, the most striking manifestation of which is the «gilets jaunes» (yellow vests) movement. The current crisis is partly a consequence of the protracted identity crisis at both extremes of French political spectrum, resulting from a long period of relatively conflict-free alternation of left and center-right parties in a relatively favorable economic environment that accompanies the development of a consumer society and a social state. This model, which can be called «consumer democracy», has failed with the onset of the global economic crisis. The «stepsons» of modern capitalism, who are used to relying on social guarantees from the «welfare state» persistently reject the neoliberal recipes favorable among elites for dealing with the crisis. A wave of «gilets jaunes» protests seems to be contingent on the specific situation that emerged in France during the presidential elections of 2017 and the beginning of the era of Emmanuel Macron, who aims at restructuring French society and economy. Its main feature is the growing public disbelieve in and simultaneous collapse of both political parties that occupy and divide the French political Olympus at the time of power transition. Macron’s supporters enjoy an absolute majority in the Parliament without any meaningful opposition capable of opposing the president. It allows for a rapid rate of reforms but produces a backlash from society that perceives the situation as a violation of the dialogue between voters and legislators. Dissatisfied people without any hope to be heard join the ranks of the mass spontaneous movement of «gilets jaunes», triggered by the introduction of the so-called «environmental» tax. This movement can be viewed from different perspectives – political analysis can be complemented by historical anthropology, because the spontaneous nature of the protest resembles the anti-tax uprisings of the 17th-18th centuries. From a philosophical point of view, it seems to be a reaction of outsiders to deep social transformations associated with the pauperization of the middle classes, globalization, waves of migration and the digital revolution. The government’s response – revocation of the law that triggered the movement and the launch of «big national debates» – led to a relative decline in the activity of «gilets jaunes», but the main reason for the downturn is preparation for the upcoming European elections, which could be used as an opportunity to voice their discontent with the president and to return the civil protest in the electoral channel. The «gilets jaunes» movement hardly has any political future, but its experience, social potential and methods can be used in future protests, since its main agenda has not been exhausted – reconciliation of the neoliberal economic policies with the interests of the disadvantaged part of French society.

What Kind of Firms Has Investment Programs in the Crisis Times and What Kind of Barriers Do They Face?

2009 ◽  
pp. 100-110 ◽  
Author(s):  
A. Yakovlev
Keyword(s):  
Manufacturing Firms ◽  
Point Of View ◽  
Current Crisis ◽  
Doing Business

The paper considers the behavior of Russian enterprises during the current crisis using the data of the latest survey of 1000 manufacturing firms. Special attention is paid to features of firms planning big investment for the next 12 months. The links between current investment plans, previous investment in 2005-2008 and other factors are shown. Finally we analyze the most important barriers for doing business from the point of view of investors.

Movie Envy

2019 ◽  
pp. 70-80
Author(s):  
Olivier Asselin
Keyword(s):  
Point Of View ◽  
Digital Revolution ◽  
The Past ◽  
Current State ◽  
Movie Theatre ◽  
The Relationship

“Canadian cinema.” The term may appear self-evident but is problematic. First, one may question the value of national approaches to culture, especially here, in Quebec and Canada, where the debates over the Nation seem interminable, and especially now, in an era of globalization. Next, one may question the value of media-centered approaches to culture, especially when the successive waves of the “digital revolution” have blurred the boundaries between technologies and among artistic practices. Rather than try to survey “important” fiction films for theatres in Quebec or Canada, this essay adopts another point of view to examine the presence of cinema in Montreal museums over the past few years by focusing on three singular exhibitions. It may well be symptomatic of the current state of film in Quebec and Canada—but also, paradoxically, everywhere else—and says much about the relationship between medium and nation, the expansion of cinema beyond the movie theatre, and the internationalization of culture.

scholarly journals Holy Synod and Political Crisis of Interregnum

2020 ◽  
pp. 340-358
Author(s):  
M. S. Belousov ◽  
T. V. Lebenkova
Keyword(s):  
The State ◽  
Point Of View ◽  
Political Crisis ◽  
Public Authorities ◽  
Coup D'etat ◽  
Everyday Activities ◽  
State Apparatus

The features of the development of the dynastic crisis of the interregnum of 1825 through the prism of the functioning of one of the key public authorities - the Holy Synod is discussed in the article. An analysis of the literature allows us to conclude that in modern historiography, the events of the oath to Grand Duke Konstantin received conflicting estimates. It is noted that as a result there were several interpretative schemes of what happened in the capital on November 27. An appeal to the workflow of the Synod makes it possible to assert that from the point of view of the logic of the functioning of the state apparatus, a coup d’etat took place. An analysis of everyday activities, the key bureaucratic formulas in the protocols leads to the conclusion that the bureaucratic reaction to the oath to Konstantin did not correspond to the established traditions and was distinguished by haste and internal contradictions. This was reflected primarily in the decisions of November 27: the Synod decides on the oath, relying on oral reports from the synodal members, but the next day duplicates its own decision, referring to the jurisdiction of the Senate. Moreover, a comparison with the events of December 12-14 shows that the accession to the throne of Nikolai Pavlovich was carried out in accordance with the order established in the previous century and was distinguished by deliberate legal accuracy and consistency.

Clustering of towns and villages for centralized wastewater treatment

1995 ◽  
Vol 32 (11) ◽  
pp. 85-95 ◽  
Author(s):  
Hassaan A. Abd El Gawad ◽  
J. H. C. Butter
Keyword(s):  
Wastewater Treatment ◽  
Wastewater Treatment Plants ◽  
Point Of View ◽  
Wastewater Management ◽  
Specific Situation ◽  
Master Plan ◽  
Operation Costs ◽  
Treatment Technologies ◽  
Centralized Wastewater Treatment ◽  
Number Of Treatment

In 1993 the Governorate of Fayoum completed its master plan for wastewater management. The master plan presents a staged implementation schedule for the development of wastewater facilities for the Governorate, covering needs up to the year 2020. The targets are ambitious: in order to meet sanitary health standards, nearly two million people (or 60% of the total population) living in 70 towns and villages would need to be served with sewerage systems. Providing all these areas with separate wastewater treatment plants would be impractical. The centralization of treatment at a limited number of treatment plants for clusters of towns and villages has advantages in terms of manageability, cost and environmental protection. In the master plan the configuration of these clusters is presented. For that purpose a stepped approach has been developed: an approach in which aspects such as construction and operation costs of the facilities, existing infrastructure, the geography of the governorate, environmental impact, alternative treatment technologies and phasing of implementation have been considered. An important element of the stepped approach is an analytical model with which - from financial point of view - the optimum size of a cluster can be estimated. Variables of the model are sizes of towns and villages, distances and treatment technologies. The output of the model is a set of general design criteria which has been applied to the specific situation in the governorate. The model has contributed to the establishment of the Master Plan for Wastewater: a plan now used by the Fayoum Sanitation Department as a framework to initiate new projects and to direct the activities of other agencies working in the sanitation sector in the governorate.

scholarly journals The Phenomenon of a Thing in the Transformational Manifestations of Mass Culture

2021 ◽  
pp. 48-54
Author(s):  
V. Petrenko
Keyword(s):  
Mass Culture ◽  
Information Society ◽  
Modern Society ◽  
Educational Process ◽  
Point Of View ◽  
Philosophical Methodology ◽  
Consumer Society ◽  
Main Question ◽  
Physical Thing ◽  
First Time

The research deals with a different understanding of things in the context of culture. An attempt was made to analyze the phenomenon of a thing through the scientific­methodological approach of Lacan, Marx, and Heidegger. The article also attempts to answer the main question: what does a thing mean in modern society, and what transformations of this concept took place in a historical perspective. The article analyzes such order of things in which things at different levels (physical, social, axiological, etc.) manifest themselves in different ways, as well as possess different qualities and characteristics, which gives us the opportunity to talk about a new understanding of a thing in the context of an information society, in which the physical thing is nullified and the symbolic thing appears. To distinguish these two concepts, we need to understand how the thing is realized in the desire, because the desire itself is the direction that motivates a person to make a choice, and this is what a person is deprived of the XXI century. The purpose of this article is a thorough consideration of thing in the context of mass culture. Designation of connections between human “I” and a thing in the context of the new information society. The relevance of this article consists in the fact that in modern Western societies there is a loss of the value of a thing as a value that is not only inside the thing itself, but also goes beyond the material world. This is primarily due to mass production and the emergence of a consumer society. The methodology: the author uses a systematic approach and the analytics is made from the point of view of materialism, existentialism, and psychoanalysis. The results: the author identifies ten points that characterize the thing in the context of mass culture. The emphasis is on mediocrity as the main agent of consumerism. A broad analysis of the subject is given in the context of social criticism of the USSR and Western societies of the modern type. The topicality. This article for the first time specifies a correlation between things in popular culture and mediocrity as an extra class phenomenon that significantly affects social processes. It also for the first time analyzes things on the basis of the fundamental philosophical teachings of the XX century and makes connection between Marxism, phenomenology and psychoanalysis, which for a long time have been considered methodological antagonists. The removal of this conflict leads to the discovery of new methodological studies in the field of culture, since they can study human activity from different sides (each with its own), but also closely cooperating with each other. Practical value. Research in this area using philosophical methodology gives us the opportunity to comprehend the concept of mediocrity and trace its connection with the thing, which in its turn opens up opportunities for us for a deeper understanding of the processes that began to take place after the Second World War. For a modern person, it is very important to ask yourself questions about the relationship between me and things. Questions like these are just as important in the educational process.

scholarly journals Institutional Provision of Destination Management in the Most Important and in the Crisis Period the Most Vulnerable Regions of Tourism in Slovakia

2021 ◽  
Vol 0 (0) ◽  
Author(s):  
Anna Michálková ◽  
Jozef Gáll
Keyword(s):  
Industry Concentration ◽  
Specific Situation ◽  
Employment Change ◽  
Regional Competitiveness ◽  
Current Crisis ◽  
Crisis Period ◽  
Obvious Advantage ◽  
Special Regard ◽  
Regional Component ◽  
Overnight Stays

Abstract The aim of the presented paper is to examine the specific situation in the institutional provision of tourism in Slovakia with special regard to the most important and in the crisis period the most vulnerable tourism regions, their identification is a partial goal of the paper. With regard to the current crisis period, the survey is supplemented by identifying factors of employment change, focusing mainly on the region’s competitiveness in tourism. The importance of regions is assessed in the article on the basis of potential for tourism development, further in terms of their importance for tourism in Slovakia based on tourism performance expressed by the number of overnight stays and on the basis of industry concentration of tourism measured by employment in tourism. We consider the most vulnerable regions to be those that reach the level of specialization in tourism (based on the localization coefficient) and it has a growing tendency. The research results show that the importance of regional competitiveness in tourism for employment change (which is a regional component) is very different despite the established destination management, it is even negative, and in the case of positive figures, it is without an obvious advantage over other factors analyzed in the shift-share analysis. Also, it is possible that the current crisis period caused by measures in connection with the COVID-19 pandemic will help to find endogenous solutions to fragmented destination management in the most important and vulnerable tourism regions, or legislative solutions related to the amendment to the Tourism Promotion Act.

scholarly journals Piękny czy dobry? Moralny wymiar upiększania ciała

2018 ◽  
Vol 4 (1) ◽  
pp. 131-144
Author(s):  
Karolina Napiwodzka-Bulek
Keyword(s):  
Moral Motivation ◽  
Point Of View ◽  
The Body ◽  
Consumer Society ◽  
Main Question ◽  
Contemporary Culture ◽  
Moral Good ◽  
Contemporary Reality ◽  
Contemporary Practice ◽  
Relationship Of

The main purpose of the article is to point outsome relations between beauty and good in contemporary reality. The main question that arises here is as follows: is the relationship of beauty and moral good still relevant? The concept presented in the thesis refers to the ancient idea of kalokagathia. It stated that beauty is inseparable from moral good. As far as this ancient perspective is concerned, it can be treated as the background for contemporary considerations about the main issue of beauty and good. The article refers to the concept of aestheticization by Wolfgang Welsch. He defines aesthetics as the primary guiding value, where as experience and entertainment have become the guidelines for contemporary culture. Moreover, the thesis mentions the concept of the consumer society and new ethics of the relation to the body as it is described by Jean Budrillard. Then the narration of the article focuses on the following problem: in what sense can we talk nowadays about moral motivation for beauty treatments of body? One assumption leads to the case of looking after one’s body. Another point of view mentions the need of harmony which manifests itself in beautiful body. Eventually, the central question emerges whether contemporary practice of beautifying the body can be a part of the concept of the good life or not.

scholarly journals The personalistic concept of subjectivity in the philosophical heritage of I.A. Ilyin

2020 ◽  
Vol 8 (3) ◽  
pp. 9
Author(s):  
A. V. Vorokhobov
Keyword(s):  
Comparative Method ◽  
Phenomenological Approach ◽  
Point Of View ◽  
Current Crisis ◽  
Research Material ◽  
Consistent Model ◽  
The Subject ◽  
Classical Philosophy ◽  
The Absolute ◽  
Made In

Introduction. The relevance of the study of the concept of subjectivity in the work of I.A. Ilyin is connected with the fact that the center of the philosophical reflection of the Russian thinker is anthropological problems of a worldview nature, which is consonant with the developments of both domestic researchers and foreign thinkers in connection with permanent attempts to overcome the current crisis of understanding the human phenomenon in modern humanitarian knowledge.Materials and Methods. The research material is the work of I.A. Ilyin, related to subjectivist themes. The principle of historicism, concreteness, the method of reconstruction, the comparative method and the phenomenological approach are the methodological basis that makes it possible to optimally explicate the developments of I.A. Ilyin in the field of subjectivity.Results. It was established that the problem of subjectivity is a backbone for the philosophical system of I.A. Ilyin. Models of German classical philosophy from the point of view of I.A. Ilyin reveal their inconsistency, while the phenomenological approach requires supplementation from the standpoint of ontological realism. From the point of view of I.A. Ilyin, personality gains its concreteness through connection with the initiating personality of the Absolute.Discussions and Conclusions. The study allowed to carry out an explication, a constitution and an analysis of the concept of human subjectivity in the work of I.A. Ilyin. The originality of the understanding of subjectivity in the personalistic philosophy of I.A. Ilyin is made in the context of the thinker's creative reflection on the views of Kant, Fichte, Hegel and Husserl. I.A. Ilyin believes that a consistent model of the subject can be built only taking into account all anthropological constants, including both the rational and the spiritual components in their orientation towards the absolute Subject.

scholarly journals School History as a Method of Formation of Political Consciousness in Contemporary France

2015 ◽  
pp. 146-154
Author(s):  
N. V. Litvak
Keyword(s):  
Point Of View ◽  
Instructional Time ◽  
Political Struggle ◽  
Political Consciousness ◽  
French Society ◽  
Historical Sources ◽  
Ruling Elite ◽  
School History ◽  
School Teaching ◽  
Political Approach

The article discusses the attitude of the ruling elite in modern France to the school teaching of history, as the primary method of formation of political consciousness and outlook of the new generations. To achieve these purposes the complex of scientific and political methods is created. The programs are constantly changing, reflecting the general political struggle in French society, whose protagonists seek the arguments in support of their positions in history. In this context, the school programs are periodically in focus of urgent debates, and each their change is a compromise. The political approach is to form a state point of view of history, recorded in the programs required to study in schools. Those programs include a carefully selected set of topics, facts and personalities to be studied. In addition, the internal political struggle is coming not just about the form but the content too. In particular, for a number of years in the program a separate theme "Islam"is included, but not, for example, the theme "Christianity." However, supporters of the preservation of study of the Christian contribution to the history and the culture of France retain extensive relevant material included in a number of various subjects not directly devoted to Christianity. Informational approach to education is that the resources of the psyche and student's instructional time are very limited. The freedom of school teachers to refer to historical sources and even to interpret them within the broad framework is formally proclaimed. However, a program and a limited time to study it in conjunction with the responsibility of teachers for the results of their work, checked in exams, in fact does not leave them enough time to study an other point of view that goes beyond the official program.

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