Impact of Imperial Discourses on Changing Subjectivities in Core and Periphery: A Study of British India and British Nigeria

Eurocentric imperialism incorporated the non-European geographical region in the economic and political milieu of Europe and made the world a global whole. To Mitchel Foucault, the process started with endo-colonization of European people and advent of rational governance exercises experimented first in European states and later exported to non-western regions. The study aims to analyze the different outcomes of European governmentality in European core and non-European periphery and changing subjectivities and cognitions in non-European world with ruptures accompanied by European modernity. The theoretical frame and conceptual toolkit of Archaeology/Genealogy, Governmentality, Power/knowledge etc. are borrowed from Michel Foucault the postmodern historian of ideas. For analytical purpose, the concept of Archeological historicity is linked with World System approach as employed by Lenin and Immanuel Wallerstein. The analytical scheme is to describe events in longue durée from sixteenth century; record shifts in the core Europe, and parallel shifts in peripheral colonial/postcolonial world, to understand the material and discursive conditions of existence. The finding of research is that events and processes lead to different outcomes in core and periphery. A two-level comparison is made: the comparison of European Core with two peripheral regions, i.e., British India and British Nigeria and comparison of two peripheral regions incorporated in the world system as reservoirs of raw material and market

About the issue of analyzing two concepts

During the pandemic it turned out once again that European and worldwide cooperation is very important. The virus partially robbed the mankind of their basic rights, as well as peace of mind and security. In this situation, the geopolitical positioning of the EU is meaningful. It would be desirable if Europe acted as a mediator between West and East despite internal challenges. How the EU develops is particularly important for those countries that are on the European periphery and are striving to join the European community. This transformation process can be successfully mastered through education and future opportunities. The European role in the German-speaking discourse is analyzed using the qualitative and quantitative method. The data of the OWIDplusLIVE and DWDS corpora are alike. The DWDS corpus contains a wide range of adjectives that describe the concepts of Europe and solidarity in a more varied way. It is noteworthy that Europe is always referred to positively. According to the contextual analysis, it turned out that solidarity has been used more frequently in connection with the pandemic situation. Due to the differentiated analysis of Solidarity / Europe in the context of parties, it was found that people’s parties are increasingly using these concepts. It must also be mentioned here that individual challenges of the corpora can be overcome through complex approach. Deeper insights into topic-related statements and their explanation from the perspective of the overall social context in a contrastive comparison can open up a new, interesting analytical perspective.

Ivan Skušek Jr. and His Collection of Chinese Coins

Ivan Skušek Jr. (1877–1947), whose collection of Chinese and Japanese objects has been the subject of research and interest in recent years, can be considered the first collector of East Asian objects in the Slovene ethnic space to have built his collection systematically, examining and verifying the provenance, value, and significance of each item. His extensive collection can compare to Western European collections of East Asian objects while at the same time bearing a stamp of local uniqueness pertaining to the European periphery. Skušek’s legacy includes an important collection of Chinese money from all periods of Chinese history, which is introduced in this paper for the first time. A crucial distinction between this and other collections of Chinese coins is that evidence exists that tells us how Skušek collected the coins, and reveals a lot about his sources and advisors. It has long been known that during his stay in Beijing Skušek befriended many influential and knowledgeable people, including a Franciscan missionary, Fr. Maurus Kluge, who assisted him in assembling his numismatic collection. The paper presents the cooperation between the two in the light of a recent find––the original list and summary appraisal of the most valuable part of Skušek’s numismatic collection and Kluge’s letters to Skušek.

Profit rates and assets-price inflation in the Spanish economy

The paper provides an in-depth analysis of profitability in Spain between 1995 and 2014, showing that behind the asset-price inflation of the growth period and its corresponding macroeconomic imbalances, an underlying problem of capital valorization can be found. For this purpose, a study of various measures of profitability is carried out based on the concept of productive labor and highlighting the role of finance (interest rates and indebtedness). The evolution of the profit rate in previous years is also shown , together with a comparison with countries in the Eurozone, both in the most advanced areas and in the periphery. The paper reveals the large extent of the underlying profitability crisis, with a huge fall of profit rates from the late sixties, during the period of the housing boom, and throughout the subsequent recession. In addition, this drop in profitability stands out in relation to other economies of the European periphery. Hence, the study puts the rate of profit at the center of the debate on the Great Recession in Spain, despite its absence in much of the economic literature.

European Integration as a Determinant Factor of Macedonian National Identity

The concept of the EU normative power implies transformation challenges which project norms on the national level of European periphery. The research aims to assess extent the EU requirements contradict the Macedonian national identity and determine changes that either are perceived as imposed or reflect implicit European norms. Depending on the level of the EU engagement europeanization of national identity takes different forms ranging from institutional changes with the European mediators’ assistance (conflict settlement, the name issue) to the search of alternative national legitimation models apart from socialist Yugoslavia. Conditionality of explicit requirements that refer to disputes with neighbouring countries is integrated into national narrative in the form of sacrifice, which still is perceived as external pressure. Implicit norms like decommunization are more difficult to identify but imply a long-term deconstruction of national identity. Such deconstruction could provide not just prospects for the future of the Macedonian nation and state but allows to select and describe implicit European norms that are disseminated into the periphery. The article outlines conditionality between European standards and requirements and transformations in basic principles of Macedonian national identity.

On the prospects of European periphery parties

This article presents an analysis of the activities of three European parties: the European democratic party, the European Free Alliance, and the European Christian political movement, which currently occupy marginal positions in the political forefront of Europe. A brief historical overview of the emergence and formation of each of these parties is given, as well as their ideological platforms and membership base. The results of their participation in the European elections are considered and it is noted with which parties factions in the European Parliament the MEPs elected from these parties cooperate. In conclusion, an analysis of the future development prospects of these parties, including their possible coalitions with other European parties, is presented.

AUTOMOBILES AND TOURISM AS INDICATORS OF DEVELOPMENT IN SPAIN, 1918–1939

The development of motor vehicles and their mass production and consumption during the first decades of the twentieth century had significant economic and social effects. The developed Atlantic countries, world leaders in vehicle production, were the protagonists of the success of the car. However, the globalization brought about by the second industrial revolution drew in other countries on the periphery, thanks to transport technologies, telecommunications, and the media. Thus, the consumption patterns and lifestyles of the ‘centres’ and the ‘peripheries’ tended to become more uniform, especially among the urban population. This included an interest in travelling and leisure activities in general. The link between the use of motor vehicles and new tourism practices in Spain between 1918 and 1939 provides an excellent viewpoint from which both to analyse the country's economic and social transformation during this period and to relativize the degree of backwardness observed in Spain in other studies. In this respect, we provide evidence which shows that, despite being a country of the so-called European periphery, Spain had similar patterns of consumption of durable consumer goods, such as the motor vehicle, as other, more advanced countries. There is therefore room to reconsider what has been termed ‘Spanish backwardness’.