International Slavic Studies: Concepts, History and Evolution

This paper departs from the definition of Slavistics and reviews the history of international Slavic studies, from its prehistory to its formal establishment as an independent discipline in the mid-18th century, and from the Pan-Slavic movement in the mid-19th century to the confrontation of Slavistics between the East and the West in the mid-20th century during the Cold War. The paper highlights the status quo of international Slavic studies and envisions the future development of Slavic studies in China.

Bilateral relations between the Republic of India and the Republic of Serbia

The text outlines and analyses the relations between India and Serbia from the formal establishment of diplomatic relations in 1948 till the present. The author gives special attention to the political and economic relations between the two countries. In the context of political relations, the author discusses the meetings that took place at the highest level as well as the significance of the Non-Aligned movement. With regard to economic relations, the paper points to the importance of bilateral cooperation that has developed since the establishment of diplomatic relations and has intensified in the past few years, with concrete results being achieved.

Latino/a Sociology: Toward a New Paradigm

Despite the proliferation of significant scholarship on Latinos/as over the past four decades and the formal establishment of a Latina/o sociology section in the American Sociological Association in 1994, Latino/a sociology has yet to be systematically defined or fully developed. This essay isolates the underlying premises that mark this developing field. Latino/a sociology is grounded in the standpoints of Latinos/as and anchors its analyses in theories of race and racialization. Latino/a sociology also transcends disciplinary boundaries, incorporating developments in intersectionality, critical race theory, and postcolonial theories. Drawing from transnational perspectives—on migration, globalization, and the experiences of borders and borderlands—Latino/a sociology remains attuned to social processes across boundaries and is oriented to social justice and human rights. Here we propose a new paradigm for Latino/a sociology that moves beyond the Black-White binary to build more comprehensive understandings of race and racialization in the twenty-first century.

I AM THEREFORE ASKING YOU TO STOP WORKING ON THE MUSEUM. STANISŁAW SANKOWSKI’S WAY TO ESTABLISHING A MUSEUM IN RADOMSKO

In 2020, we are celebrating 50 years of the Stanisław Sankowski Museum in Radomsko, officially established on 1 July 1970. However, it was already from 1946 that Stanisław Sankowski, a history teacher, had been collecting documents and exhibits related to the region among the students of the First Secondary School in Radomsko. He appealed for them to be collected in the school newsletter and in 1958 in the ‘Gazeta Radomszczańska’ paper. The appeal was successful, and the collections started to grow. At that point there was no mention of a seat for the Museum, so initially, as approved by the school Headmaster, the Museum was housed in the school building. It seemed that it would find a home there for longer, particularly as the school was given a new building. When it turned out there was no separate room available for the exhibition, the school hall was adapted for the Museum exhibits. This, however, was not to the liking of the school authorities; the Deputy Headmaster, who, interestingly, happened to be a historian himself, forbid the works to be continued. For some time the Museum’s activity was suspended, yet finally S. Sankowski decided to move the collected exhibits to his own flat. Excursions, even from around the country, were invited to visit it. Meanwhile, S. Sankowski continuously tried to be allocated some facility where the Museum could be housed. The efforts were accelerated by the mention of the Radomsko Museum in a private flat in a programme on Radio Free Europe. Soon afterwards, the home for the Museum was found: initially, they were 3 rooms in the building of the town authorities, later the whole ground floor, while in the mid-1970s it was allocated almost the whole building of the former 1859 Town Hall. The Museum had enjoyed first successes even before the formal establishment; these were undoubtedly the finds that brought archaeologists to Radomsko and their subsequent discoveries. What needs to be appreciated, though, i s f i rst a n d fo rem o st t h e ed u cat i o n a l effo r t o f S. Sankowski and his promoting activities. Many years later, in 2008, the Radomsko Regional Museum was named after its instigator and creator.

Visser ’t Hooft, 1900-1985

God’s diplomat, the pope of the ecumenical movement, but also an acerbic theologian and a difficult person: this is how journalists characterised Willem Adolf Visser ’t Hooft (1900-1985). He was one of the best-known Dutch theologians outside the Netherlands and he left his mark on the world church. Even at an early age, he made profound efforts in support of international ecumenical youth and student organisations (Dutch Student Christian Movement, YMCA and World Student Christian Federation). He led the World Council of Churches during its formative stages (from 1938), and after its formal establishment in 1948 became its first general secretary, serving until 1966. To Visser ’t Hooft, the unity of the church was both an article of faith and a pragmatic organisation of church influence in a disunited world.

Sociology, Sociology and the Cultural and Creative Industries

Cultural and creative industries are now an established area of academic research. Yet, the welcome innovations that are associated with the development of a new field of study are also matched by confusions and conjectures. The term itself, ‘cultural and creative industries’, is the subject of extensive debate. It goes hand in hand with closely related concepts such as ‘creative economy’, as well as reflecting definitional struggles aimed at conjoining or demarcating the creative and the cultural. Many of these debates have been the subject of sociological research and research in Sociology. This collection considers that specific role of sociology, and Sociology, to the study of cultural and creative industries. The e-special issue collects articles ranging from early empirical and theoretical precursors to the formal establishment of cultural and creative industries as a field of study, to more recent work considering the coherence and usefulness of the category itself.

Anthropocene: To Be or not to be?

The growing interest related to the proposal of formal definition of a new geological period that has being called “Anthropocene” has introduced a buzzing dynamics in the scientific community, but its conduct is perhaps due to various interests involved in a discussion that has long surpassed the contours of the so-called “Geosciences”. Themes such as “Climate Change or Drift”, “Global Warming”, “Massive Extinction of Species” and “Loss of bio and geodiversity”, among others, are the wheel of a geomorphogenetic dynamics of anthropocentric origin, which leads the debate. But are the conditions for the formal establishment of a new morphosedimentary cycle following the Meghalayanian (Upper Holocene) Age? This work pursues a line of thought that seeks to answer these and other questions, based on the official position of the institutes that have the scientific competence for the formalization under consideration, and the formal criteria that should be considered for this purpose.

Reformy rzymskiego kalendarza – uwagi do badań nad prawem rzymskim

This article discusses the problem of reforms that affected the Roman calendar from its formal establishment up to the time of its formation to what we now know. The need to analyze that matter arose on the occasion of studies on the importance of age in Roman law and precise determination whether 1 year always meant 365 days.

THE QUEST FOR AUTHENTICITY: TOURISM EXPERIENCE IN A PROTECTED AREA OF NATURE

Authenticity in tourism has now been for many years a particular challenge for professionals in tourism studies. The concept itself is rather vague, but also useful in analysing the supply of selected tourist destinations. The focus of the paper is on the analysis of the elements of authenticity in the selected protected area of nature in Slovenia. As a case study, we chose the Škocjanski zatok Nature reserve, an urban wetland in the immediate vicinity of Koper. The restored and renatured area acts as green oasis and successfully defies various pressures on this sensitive environment already twenty years after its formal establishment. After conducting a field research and interviews with key stakeholders, we find out that the understanding of authenticity is important in order to preserve the biodiversity of the Škocjanski zatok Nature reserve and, consequently, its uniqueness (in the context of tourism development). This should also be the main guideline, and challenge at the same time, for the management in creating an adequate tourist offer.