Regional View on Housing of the Marginalized Roma Population in the Slovak Republic

The Roma ethnic group represents an integral part of the Slovak population. Thanks to their specific customs and traditions, in combination with social segregation, they have kept several differences from the majority of the population. These differences have also been demonstrated in the conditions and quality of housing, which are the basic indicators of the economic and cultural maturity of an individual, as well as the nation itself. The goal of this paper is to examine the issue of the Roma population in the Slovak Republic, with a focus on the area of housing. In the historical excursion, the authors present the arrival of the Roma to Europe and subsequently the present territory of the Slovak Republic. They point out the importance of the Roma issue and what has caused the conditions and factors determining the development and position of this ethnic group at the periphery of the majority. Using the data from the Atlas of Roma Communities from 2019, they analyze the demographic behavior and reproduction of the Roma population, which differs from the reproduction behavior of the majority population, as well as the territorial displacement of the Roma. In the following sections of the paper, the authors focus on examining the housing conditions of the Roma community in individual regions of the Slovak Republic and the programmes aimed at improving the housing situation of the Slovak Roma.

Women in science: the need for a global cultural change

This paper summarizes the talk given at this conference in which the cultural aspect of the low participation of women in science, mainly in STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics) areas, is emphazised. A few personal recollections will be presented and some some striking numbers to illustrate the current situation will be given. In addition, some thought provoking ideas on what is known as “neurosexism” are explicited and a tribute is made to three women that overcame the challenges posed to them in different times in history (including current times) and helped paved the way to the new generation. However, there is still a long way to go. The inclusion of women and of other relegated sectors of society in scientific and technological activities is an important pending issue which will be achieved when our society as a whole reaches the necessary cultural maturity.

Piccole zone di simmetria

If it intends to enhance awareness and to stimulate intellectual and cultural maturity, literature cannot ignore – and when it survives over time does not ignore – the great conquests of philosophical thought and the fundamental stages marked by the progress of scientific knowledge. A scientific result and a poetic result both represent an internally-ordered fragment of reality which moves and stirs us by the intrinsic beauty of the image that it evokes and its significance at the level of meaning. Both scientific and literary languages, each in its own way, tend to the decodification and representation of the external world. Imagination, intuition and rationality come together in creativity, in the construction of scientific models and of literary styles.

Rodin in Prague: Modern Art, Cultural Diplomacy, and National Display

Fin-de-siècle Prague, a provincial capital city in the Habsburg empire, was a site of Czech-German nationality conflict. In 1902 it was also home to the largest exhibition of Auguste Rodin's art outside France during his life. Due to the nationalism that enveloped Czech culture and politics, the Rodin spectacle was no mere display of modernism. National activists in the Manes Association of Visual Artists, including Stanislav Sucharda and Jan Kotera, designed the Rodin exhibition to advance Czech cultural maturity through cosmopolitan art and to convince foreigners of the Czech nation's singularity, unity, and progressiveness. Ultimately, though, the events surrounding the exhibition of Rodin's works in Prague projected Czech disagreement over the meanings of folk heritage and western progress for national identity. Still, the blending of modern display and cultural diplomacy strengthened French-Czech relations and in small but significant ways helped secure Czechoslovakia's creation at the end of World War I.

Making Plants a Way of Life2

Why do western Europeans have a greater appreciation of landscape plants and gardening than North Americans? This topic is explored by focusing on history and tradition, life styles, land area and climate. Can North Americans emulate the European awareness? The nursery industry is a part of our cultural maturity and should concentrate on leisure time activity, education, advertising and product improvement.