Lidé města

The Sugar Factory in Gorna Orechovitsa and its Subsidiary Factories as a Separate Settlement

Marek Jakoubek — Wed, 01 May 2024 00:00:00 +0200

This contribution aims to describe the history of the Czech sugar factory in Gorna Oryahovitsa in Bulgaria. It presents the annotated transcript of an archival document written by one of the company’s high-ranking employees in the early 1930’s. The document contains comprehensive information about both the establishment of the sugar factory and its later development and operations. Thanks to this document, this contribution serves as a first introduction to the phenomenon of the largest sugar factory in the Balkans in its day, serving as a springboard for further study. The transcription is preceded by a short introduction into (the study of) the history of the Czech Gorna Oryahovitsa’s compatriot community, accompanied by a review of existing literature related to the topic.

44. ročník konference American Indian Workshop (AIW). Ancestral Shadows: Ethnocultural Encounters Carried in Body and Mind

Tadeáš Dufek — Wed, 01 May 2024 00:00:00 +0200

Konference American Indian Workshop slouží jako místo setkání evropských amerikanistů zabývajících se domorodými Američany již přes čtyřicet let. V současné době během čtyř dnů nabízí přes padesát příspěvků ve dvou paralelních panelech a bohatý doprovodný program. 44. ročník byl organizován týmem Judith Kádárové z katedry amerických studií na univerzitě Eötvös Loránd v Budapešti a proběhl v termínu 28. 6. – 1. 7. 2023.

The Problem with Reflexivity

Lucie Chaloupková — Wed, 01 May 2024 00:00:00 +0200

This article presents reflexivity in its various meanings and forms as it appears in anthropology and social sciences. During the second half of the twentieth century in these fields, it became both an inspiration for various theories of the functioning of social phenomena, but also a part of anthropological methodology: in the era of the reflexive turn, it served as a critique of the situatedness of the production of anthropological knowledge, which was supposed to unmask the personal influence of the researcher on the resulting form of the texts. Although the contribution of this stage to the understanding of the meaning of the textuality of anthropological works cannot be denied, I see its “normalization” as part of anthropological methodology as problematic. If we focus more closely on the functioning mechanisms of reflexivity and self-reflection, we will come across certain paradoxes. In this paper, I focus on various criticisms of reflexivity, through which I try to approach the essence of the problem of using reflexivity. Emphasis is placed on the debate on reflexivity as a pivotal mechanism in the organization of late modern societies as described by theorists such as Giddens, Beck, Lash or Archer. These theories are confronted with the concept of “speech” as understood by constructivist approaches such as discourse analysis, which view all meanings as variable and constantly constructed by linguistic means in ordinary speech. I further show how reflexivity is unmasked by the opponents of reflexive modernization theory as a rhetorical strategy used to legitimize the status quo. This example serves as an illustration of the illusory nature of reflexivity and the possibility of its misuse.

Fixed in Motion: Reflexive Identity of Young Volunteers

Ondřej Hrubeš — Wed, 01 May 2024 00:00:00 +0200

This paper combines the framework of collective and reflexive volunteering with emerging adulthood theory in order to investigate volunteer work in communities as a source of reflexive identity. In the theoretical part, it looks into the concept of identity from the reflexive modernization perspective, volunteer communities, and emerging adulthood. The empirical part is based on qualitative biographical research with an emphasis on the position of sociological romanticism. It analyzes six biographical interviews with young adult volunteers and with one focus group that four of them were involved in. The outcomes indicate that volunteers in the age of emerging adulthood incline to communities and to shared identity, no matter how their life situation pushes them to reflexive behavioural patterns. After reviewing their life course as a set of important milestones, they interpret their volunteer and community experience as a biographically passing but indispensable chapter in life. This experience persists in their personal identity in the sense of a fixed point that can help them choose their next path in life.

Voluntary Service to the Country. Interest in Joining the Czech Active Army Reserve in Times of Crisis

Jan Bubanec — Wed, 01 May 2024 00:00:00 +0200

This article focuses on the motivations of candidates for service in the Active Reserve or for completing Voluntary Military Training. In the context of the ongoing war in Ukraine, people’s interest in service is sharply rising. Thus, the main research objective is to shed light on the motivations for serving in the military in the context of the proximity to potential threats, for which I used the qualitative research methods of semi-structured interview analysis, participant observation, social network analysis, and secondary data. In this article, I provide an overview of the existing research and introduce concepts through which the Active Reserve Institute can be perceived, especially the concepts of responzibilization and that of reserve soldiers being transmigrants. This article is the output of a completed bachelor thesis on the topic. It contains a cross-section of this work and its findings, which show the need for new motivation categories and how the presence of potential conflict affects the perception of defense in the eyes of society.

Daniela Stavělová a kol.: Tíha a beztíže folkloru. Folklorní hnutí druhé poloviny 20. století v českých zemích.

Zuzana Jurková — Wed, 01 May 2024 00:00:00 +0200

A review of the book by Zuzana Jurková.

Zita Skořepová: Hudební světy české Vídně. Menšina a identita v 21. století.

Jana Tomková — Wed, 01 May 2024 00:00:00 +0200

A review of a book by Jana Tomková.

Luděk Jirka: Rivnenská oblast a její menšiny. O historii etnických vztahů na území bývalé Volyně.

Marek Jakoubek — Wed, 01 May 2024 00:00:00 +0200

A review of a book by Marek Jakoubek.