Ethnoregional Separatism in Europe: Disintegration vs. Integration?

Having been in the 2000s far from the spotlight of the news, European separatism is gradually returning to the information fi eld, which is partly due to the alerting reports from Scotland and Catalonia. The paper attempts to answer the following questions: what is the nature of the ethnoregional separatism in the EU, how does disintegrational agenda cohabit with the European integration dynamics, and what are the prospects for European separatism. The review of the theoretical framework within which ethnic and regionalist separatism exists is followed by the analysis of the empirics gained from diff erent European regions claiming independence or autonomy, such as Scotland, Catalonia, Flanders, Brittany, and many others, in 2000–2021. The author attempts to demythologize the widespread misconception about separatism as a potentially deadly threat to the EU nation-states or the European unity. The research is situated within the constructivist view towards ethnicity and the symbolic practices employed by the separatists; this paradigm is complemented by the institutional approach to the EU governing bodies and practices. The author comes to the following conclusions: currently, disintegrative projects within the EU nation-states cannot be successful, because of the position of the EU and the member states, and due to the uncertainties in the ethnic regions themselves (however, Scotland makes for an important exception, because of Brexit). Most separatist cases in the EU are either of instrumental or of a pure autonomist nature and do not enjoy any support from the integrational grouping that is not ready for the troubles the “internal extension” might cause. Moreover, if in the late 20th century, a discernible trend for decentralization and devolution was present, now the pendulum took the reversed direction, or at least remains unmoving; the author observes the trend for recentralization or at least for the freezing of the current fragile balance.

Achievements in breeding cereals with durable disease resistance in Northwest Europe

Breeding cereals in Northwest Europe for durable resistance has made an important contribution to control of almost all economically significant diseases and pests of wheat, barley and oats. Durable resistance to fungal diseases is largely polygenic and quantitative, with the important exception of mlo resistance to powdery mildew of spring barley. Resistance to powdery mildew of winter wheat, spring barley and spring oats, brown rust of winter barley and Septoria nodorum blotch of wheat has been especially effective and durable. Resistance to Barley yellow mosaic virus and orange wheat blossom midge has used single genes which have so far been durable. Plant breeders are increasingly producing varieties with high or moderate resistance to all the most important diseases, and have successfully combined durable resistance with other traits which are important to farmers and end-users, including high yield, marketable grain quality and desirable agronomic properties.

A functionally conserved STORR gene fusion in Papaver species that diverged 16.8 million years ago

The STORR gene fusion event is considered a key step in the evolution of benzylisoquinoline alkaloid (BIA) metabolism in opium poppy as the resulting bi-modular protein performs the isomerization of (S)- to (R)- reticuline which is required for morphinan biosynthesis. Our previous analysis of the opium poppy genome suggested the STORR gene fusion event occurred before a whole genome duplication event 7.2 million years ago. Here we use a combination of phylogenetic, transcriptomic, metabolomic, biochemical and genomic analysis to investigate the origin of the STORR gene fusion across the Papaveraceae family. The pro-morphinan/morphinan subclass of BIAs was present in a subset of 10 Papaver species including P. somniferum (opium poppy) and this correlated with the presence of the STORR gene fusion with one important exception. P. californicum does not produce morphinans but it does contain a STORR gene fusion that epimerizes (S)- to (R)- reticuline when heterologously expressed in yeast. The high similarity of the amino acid sequence linking the two modules of STORR along with phylogenetic gene tree analysis strongly suggests the gene fusion occurred only once and between 17-25 million years ago before the separation of P. californicum from the other Papaver species. We discovered that the most abundant BIA in P. californicum is (R)- glaucine, a member of the aporphine subclass of BIAs. Only the (S) isomer of this compound has previously been reported from nature. These results lead us to conclude that the function of the STORR gene fusion is not exclusive to morphinan production in the Papaveraceae.

Communist State Administrative Structures

Communist models of state administration constitute a type or “family” whose core logic and design differ fundamentally from Western standards of rule-bound, impartial, and transparent administration, at arm’s length from political control. The most significant feature of communist-type administration is the Communist Party’s aspiration to merge politics and administration in all spheres of society. The so-called nomenclature system of cadre appointment ensures that politically reliable administrators occupy the influential positions within state and local administration, the military and security sector, state-owned enterprises, associations, media, cultural life—and the Communist Party organization itself. The central nomenclature system branches out into new pyramids at lower levels, where local managers appoint cadre. The linchpin of this system is the personnel dossier, which collects the individual administrator’s political and professional evaluations and follows the individual throughout their career. A second distinguishing feature of communist administrative structures is their web-shaped complexity. Under the principle of democratic centralism, communist administration is shaped like a sheaf of hierarchical strings of command, which are all controlled from the center and monitor and influence each other. At each level, hierarchical steering takes precedence, but horizontal controls are encompassing. Administrative managers—including regional and local governors, company directors, media heads, and university chancellors—are appointed by and under their superiors’ command. Simultaneously, they are under supervision by regional and internal Communist Party organizations. A third key feature of the communist administrative model is the practice of wide-ranging secrecy. In communist administration, vital rules, decrees, and instructions can be secret, for the eyes of security-screened cadre only. For example, throughout history, the structure of nomenclature systems has been kept secret. Little is known about how they function. An important exception is the former East Germany, where historical research on many aspects of communist administration has made singular progress based on the archives, which were opened for research after democratization in 1989–1990.

The Value of Value Capture

Gamification, roughly the use of game-like elements to motivate us to achieve practical ends “in the real world,” makes large promises. According to Jane McGonigal, gamification can save the world by channelling the amazing motivational power of gaming into pro-social causes ranging from alienation from our work to global resource scarcity and feeding the hungry (McGonigal 2011). Even much more modest aims like improving personal fitness or promoting a more equitable division of household labour provide some license for optimism about the ability of gamification to improve our lives in more humble but still worthwhile ways. On the other hand, Thi Nguyen has argued that there is a dark side to gamification: what he calls “value capture.” Roughly, gamification works in large part because it offers a simplified value structure – this is an essential part of its appeal and motivational power. However, especially in the context of gamification which exports these value schemes into our real-world lives, there is a risk that these overly simplistic models will displace our more rich, subtle values and that this will make our lives worse: this is value capture. The point is well-taken. The way in which number of steps taken per day can, for an avid user of “FitBit,” displace more accurate measurements of how one’s activities contribute to one’s fitness is a compelling example. If I become so obsessed with “getting my 10,000 steps” that I stop making time to go to the gym, jog or do my yoga/pilates then that is not a net gain. However, there is an important range of cases that Nguyen’s discussion ignores but which provide an important exception to his critique: value capture relative to behaviours that are addictive and destructive. Here I have in mind things like alcoholism, drug addiction, and gambling addiction. With these kinds of activities, value capture can not only be good but essential to a person’s well-being because (and not in spite of) of its displacement of the person’s more rich, subtle values. Interestingly, the point is not limited to cases of addictive behaviour, though they put the point in its most sharp relief. Any situation in which making rational decisions one by one can leave one worse off than “blindly” following a policy which is itself rational to adopt also turns out to illustrate the point, thus further expanding the role for value capture as itself a force for good. The more general point is that certain kinds of sequential choice problems carve out an important and theoretically interesting exception to Nguyen’s worries about value capture. In these kinds of choice contexts, value capture not only does not make our lives go worse, it may be essential to making our lives go better.

Using Opinion Polling Data to Replicate Non-Experimental Quantitative Results Across Time and Space: An Exploration of Attitudes Surrounding School Desegregation and Resegregation Policies

A renewed call for replications has emerged in social science research. An important form of replication involves exploring the extent to which findings from a given study hold in other contexts. This study draws on opinion polling data to replicate key findings across time and space based on an original study in one location analyzing attitudes toward public school assignment policies. The replication finds that many of the original findings hold, though one important exception reflects the changing context. We note that the increasing availability of relatively inexpensive methods of quantitative data production facilitates replication and comment on how the temporal interval between the original study and the replication may influence the extent to which findings replicate. We argue that largely successful replications help to clarify the conditions under which findings replicate, and that sociologists are in the early stages of determining which strategies work best for replicating which findings.

Global land cover trajectories and transitions

Global land cover (LC) changes threaten sustainability and yet we lack a comprehensive understanding of the gains and losses of LC types, including the magnitudes, locations and timings of transitions. We used a novel, fine-resolution and temporally consistent satellite-derived dataset covering the entire Earth annually from 1992 to 2018 to quantify LC changes across a range of scales. At global and continental scales, the observed trajectories of change for most LC types were fairly smooth and consistent in direction through time. We show these observed trajectories in the context of error margins produced by extrapolating previously published accuracy metrics associated with the LC dataset. For many LC classes the observed changes were found to be within the error margins. However, an important exception was the increase in urban land, which was consistently larger than the error margins, and for which the LC transition was unidirectional. An advantage of analysing the global, fine spatial resolution LC time-series dataset is the ability to identify where and when LC changes have taken place on the Earth. We present LC change maps and trajectories that identify locations with high dynamism, and which pose significant sustainability challenges. We focused on forest loss and urban growth at the national scale, identifying the top 10 countries with the largest percentages of forest loss and urban growth globally. Crucially, we found that most of these ‘worst-case’ countries have stabilized their forest losses, although urban expansion was monotonic in all cases. These findings provide crucial information to support progress towards the UN’s SDGs.

Almost as good as Soviet cinema: Reception of Italian neorealism in Poland: 1946–56

With the onset of the Cold War, the cinema culture in the People’s Republic of Poland underwent rigorous transformation. One of its aspects was the new film import schema: most of the international sources dried up to be replaced, for the most part, by films from the Communist Bloc. However, Italian films constituted an important exception. This article investigates the critical reception of Italian neorealist films in Poland in the first decade after the war, focusing mainly on reviews published in Film, the most relevant Polish magazine dedicated to cinema culture. The first part of the article outlines critical debates on differences and similarities between neorealism and socialist realism. The latter part of the article focuses on the critical reception of Vittorio De Sica’s Ladri di biciclette (Bicycle Thieves) and Miracolo a Milano (Miracle in Milan), as evaluations of the Italian director’s cinema fluctuated during the Stalinist period and after the thaw.

Tomb Sculpture

Among the many genres of medieval sculpture that are still extant, tombs have long received particularly close attention because of their direct association with the bodies of specific historical individuals, which are very often (though not exclusively) those of the most prestigious members of medieval society. The most ubiquitous format in much of Europe was the effigy, which usually appeared as a recumbent figure set on a slab that also sometimes functioned as the lid of a tomb chest. The first known examples of the effigy date to the years around 1100 and seem to emerge in Germany; the format was quickly adopted in France, England, and elsewhere before becoming a dominant fixture of Gothic churches across Europe in the 13th through 15th centuries. Elaborate tombs with decorative programs were comparatively scarce in the earlier Middle Ages, with the important exception of the richly carved sarcophagi found in the Roman Empire during the 4th and 5th centuries, which appropriated a popular late antique format and replaced its Bacchic image cycles with new Christian iconographies. This tradition seems to have faded with the collapse of the Roman Empire in the West and the rise of new kingdoms across Europe, many of which produced little monumental sculpture (or at least, little that survives) before the 12th century. Thus, the emphasis placed in this article on the effigy and the period 1100–1500 reflects not only scholarly interest but also the patterns of production that can be observed elsewhere in the chronology of medieval European architecture and sculpture. While much of the formative scholarship on medieval tomb sculpture had been primarily driven either by biographical interests in the individuals they commemorated or by a teleological interest in tracing the stylistic evolution of forms from late medieval reliefs to free-standing Renaissance statues, more recent studies have turned to the political, theological, and social meanings of these powerful monuments. This discourse has largely centered on two entwined themes: first, the use of tomb sculpture to promote and ensure salvation for the dead, and, second, its role in shaping the ideals and ambitions of the living. Though these broad trends are shared across the field, the idiosyncratic nature of the material and the apparently bespoke nature of most monuments has led to a field defined by case studies, with relatively few attempts to synthesize pictures of the greater whole that move beyond highly localized geographic limits.

Jawność zewnętrzna postępowania przygotowawczego na tle art. 12 ustawy Prawo o prokuraturze

The aim of the following article is to discuss the issues of the power of the prosecutor to reveal information pertaining to ongoing preparatory proceedings in the light of the new regulations determined by Article 12 of the Act of January 28, 2016, the Law on the Prosecutor’s Office. The aforementioned regulation constitutes an important exception to the general rule of confidentiality of preparatory proceedings, which heavily informs the scope of the analysis. Moreover, the author discusses the relationship between Article 12 of the Law on the Prosecutor’s Office and earlier regulations regarding the revealing of information regarding preparatory proceedings included in the following acts: press law, law on access to public information, personal data protection act, supplemented with relevant regulations of the Criminal Code and Code of Criminal Procedure. In addition, the author discusses the consequences of the analyzed regulation for the interest of the criminal justice system, the interest of the public, as well as the interest of the parties in the proceedings, which has allowed her to assess the justification for that regulation and the necessity of implementing it in Polish legal system.