The Relationship between the State and Universities in the Czech Lands 1849–1939

This text summarises the results of extensive research into the relationship between the state and universities in 1849–1939, i.e. between the so-called ‘Thun reform’ and the closure of Czech universities by the Nazis. The focus is on the state’s respect for the privileged position of universities and the monitoring of tensions arising from the clash between legislation and the universities’ day-to-day operations, resulting mainly from satisfying the economic needs of universities on the one hand, and the interpretation of the responsibility and discipline of their academic staff towards the state and society on the other. The research shows the advancing erosion of the so-called Prussian (Humboldt’s) concept of an autonomous national-oriented university and the difficult search for a democratic alternative in interwar Central Europe’s unstable political and economic conditions.

System of Zemstvo Elections According to Regulations on Zemstvo Institutions of 1890 in Estimates of Russian Periodicals

The article is devoted to the little-studied issue of the reaction of the Russian periodicals to changes in the zemstvo electoral legislation in accordance with the Regulations on zemstvo institutions in 1890. The positions of the leading conservative (“Moskovskie vedomosti”, “Grazhdanin”, “Russian Review”, “Russian Bulletin”, “Novoye Vremya”), liberal (“Novosti”, “Nedelya”, “Bulletin of Europe”, “Russian Thought”, “Russkie vedomosti”, “Sudebnaya Gazeta”) and populist (“Russian wealth”, “Novoye Slovo”, “Severny Vestnik”) editions. The attitude of periodicals to key changes in the system of zemstvo elections is shown: the establishment of estate electoral meetings, the privileged position of the nobility, a change in the order of representation from peasants, the deprivation of voting rights for Jews, a change in the procedure for approving members and chairmen of zemstvo councils. The authors argue that certain provisions of the new electoral law did not suit both conservative and liberal and populist publications. At the same time, there was no single approach within each of these groups. Some conservative publications in their proposals and criticism were close to the liberal ones (“Novoye Vremya”), and vice versa (“Novosti”, “Nedelya”). In general, each of the editions focused mainly on individual changes, criticizing or supporting them, as well as proposing their own versions of their changes.

The Pull of Paris

Chapter 2 concentrates on the complex role Paris has played for worldwide women writers. This spot has long occupied a privileged position in the literary world and is an undeniably important place for the authors in my study, many of whom have studied, built careers, published their works, and taken up permanent residence here. The metropolis serves as an inspiration for a number of the texts they compose, and it figures in their written works in interesting ways that often reveal the authors’ conflicted relationship with it. In the end, a majority of these writers convey a connection to the French capital, indicating a sense of belonging—or a desire to belong—within the city. They have become aware that they will forever be perceived as foreigners in Paris, and have occasionally suffered from a precarious status tied to financial challenges. They nonetheless celebrate the possibilities that accompany their position at the margins of this central literary location that they have come to embrace as a promising space. It is deeply significant that, in a number of instances, they do not express the same sentiment with respect to France as a whole. It is equally meaningful that, instead of proclaiming patriotic sentiments, these writers often articulate a more profound identification with the European continent than with the nation they inhabit.

Solidarity and The Politics of Redress: Structural Injustice, History and Counter-Finalities

This paper examines Nuti’s accounts of structural injustice and historical injustice in the light of a political dilemma that confronted Young’s work on structure injustice. The dilemma emerges from a paradox that can be stated simply: justly addressing structural injustice would require that those subject to structural injustice enjoy the kind of privileged position of decision-making power that their being subject to structural injustice denies them. The dilemma thus concerns how to justly address structural injustice. I argue that Nuti’s account is currently unable to provide an adequate theorization of how to address this dilemma because it lacks an account of political solidarity, but also that her account provides important resources for dissolving a dispute between two competing theories of solidarity in a way that facilitates the articulation of an account of political solidarity that is adequate to addressing the political dilemma.

Collective Autonomy: Why Groups Fight for Power and Status

People experience “collective autonomy restriction” when they believe other groups want to restrict their own group from freely expressing its social identity and determining its behavior. We review emerging research on the negative consequences of collective autonomy restriction for well-being, as well as its implications for group members’ motivation to fight for their place within social hierarchies. We propose that group members desire two resources tied to having a favorable position within the social hierarchy – structural power (i.e., the ability to influence and resist influence from other groups) and status (being positively valued and perceived as moral by others) – because they believe that having power and status are necessary to secure their group’s collective autonomy. We hypothesize that group members anticipate that other groups might restrict their group if they lack the structural power to resist outside influences, or if they are perceived as negative or immoral and worthy of restriction. We apply this power and status perspective of collective autonomy restriction to predict (1) when disempowered groups are most likely to fight against (vs. tolerate) their disadvantaged position and (2) when powerful groups are most likely to relinquish power and acknowledge their transgressions (versus defensively maintain their privileged position).

Portal Indigenous languages on Wikimedia

Video-presentation about the portal “Indigenous languages on Wikimedia”- Wayuu community.The Wayuu or Guajiro language is spoken by about 400,000 indigenous people in the Guajira Peninsula between Colombia and Venezuela, and is the most widely spoken indigenous language in both countries. But this does not place the language in a privileged position; on the contrary, it is among the region's endangered indigenous languages, with less and less Guajiro children learning to speak, let alone write the language. There is currently no Wikipedia in Wayuunaiki language, so speakers have to access information through Wikipedia in other languages. Although there is no Wikipedia in Wayuunaiki, there is an "incubator" of Wikipedia and Wiktionary.The "Indigenous Languages on Wikipedia" portal aims to be a place to collaborate and add knowledge of the Wayúu culture to the Wikimedia projects, as well as a space for learning about the language, its culture, traditions, and history. The portal has 3 sections, (1) to learn the Wayuunaiki language, (2) to collaborate in Wikimedia projects, and (3) talk page. Knowing how difficult it is to collaborate on Wikimedia platforms, especially for projects in the incubator, we plan to use the portal as a bridge to reduce the learning curve and centralize efforts to create, modify and improve information in and for speakers of the language. Finally, we seek to promote a friendly online space dedicated to a safe and constructive community exchange in order to strengthen the confidence of the Wayuu community in the Wikimedia networks.

Religion in Latin America’s Public Sphere

This chapter investigates the role of religion in Latin America’s public sphere. For respondents, religion and politics share the space where power is traded. The privileged position is to challenge the economic order and to generate peaceful relations among the peoples and defend human dignity. Respondents dislike the use of that power to pursue a partisan agenda and to have a privileged voice over other persons. At odds with the laïcité project, respondents welcome religion in the public sphere when it challenges modernity to include the poor, and advocates for human dignity. Religion is cheered as a countercultural force. However, this acceptance of religion’s presence in the public sphere does not mean a resacralization of it. Respondents prefer to keep the differentiation of social functions.

The Breathing Body, Whistling Flute, and Sonic Divine: Oneness and Distinction in Bengal Vaishnavism’s Devotional Aesthetics

This paper studies complex narratives connecting the Hindu deity Krishna, his melodious flute, and the porous, sonic human body in the popular devotional sect, Bengal Vaishnavism. From the devotee–lover responding to Krishna’s flute call outside, envying the flute’s privileged position on Krishna’s lips, to becoming the deity’s flute through yogic breath–sound fusions—texts abound with nuanced relations of equivalence and differentiation among the devotee–flute–god. Based primarily on readings of Hindu religious texts, and fieldwork in Bengal among makers/players of the bamboo flute, the paper analyses theological constructions correlating body–flute–divinity. Lying at the confluence of yogic, tantric, and devotional thought, the striking conceptual problem about the flute in Bengal Vaishnavism is: are the body, flute and divinity distinct or the same? I argue that the flute’s descriptions in both classical Sanskrit texts and popular oral lore and performances draw together ostensibly opposed religious paradigms of Yoga (oneness with divinity) and passionate devotion/bhakti (difference): its fine, airy feeling fusing with the body’s inner breathing self, and sweet melody producing a subservient temperament towards the lover–god outside. Flute sounds embody the peculiar dialectic of difference-and-identity among devotee–flute–god, much like the flute–lip-lock itself, bringing to affective life the Bengal Vaishnava philosophical foundation of achintya-bhed-abhed (inconceivability between principles of separation and indistinction).

Return of the Ashes

The so-called second Eastern Crisis of 1839–41 came to an end with an intervention in Ottoman Syria on the part of the Quadruple Alliance (Austria, Britain, Prussia, and Russia) and the Ottoman Empire. Yet the intervention saw a fierce opposition from France and Mehmed Ali Pașa of Egypt, under whose control Syria was at the time. This chapter explains why and how Russia gave up her privileged position in Istanbul and agreed upon the 1840 intervention, and why France objected to the idea of Great Power intervention in the Ottoman world. It concludes by highlighting the intricate policies adopted by the Quadruple Alliance and the Sublime Porte to corner the French and Mehmed Ali. The latter two were indeed diplomatically persuaded in the end and even came to review their discourses over the ‘Eastern Question’.

La legitimación del privilegio en colegios de elite chilenos: De la responsabilidad social al discurso del mérito

Chilean elite schools have historically been spaces to ensure the homogeneity and intergenerational reproduction of privileged groups. This article presents a part of the results of an ethnographic research in two elite schools, aimed to answer how each one understands and legitimizes their privileged position. The results show how both institutions deal with privilege in different ways. In the first case, through its educational project, the school seeks that students understand themselves as privileged, and its legitimation is through involving them with the country's social problems as a “hallmark” of the school’s identity. The second school understands and legitimizes the privilege through processes of resignification, conceiving it as merit. The article then suggests a broader way of thinking about the transmission of privilege, where it is necessary to contemplate the dynamics of differentiation of the establishments in market contexts and also the socio-educational correspondence between the types of projects, the strategies and the internal divisions in the elites.