Designed as an interdisciplinary scholarly examination of the present-day identities and histories inside and outside the former Yugoslavia, this book explores relationships with the social, political, cultural and historical 'facts and fictions' that have marked the pre, peri and post-war dynamics of different parts of the region. Moreover, this innovative collection further studies the connections that the nations which comprise the former Yugoslavia have with the world and the actors and processes of transformation that are implicated in those relationships both within and beyond the region. The individual contributions address the social, political and symbolic processes by which competing histories and identities are continuously re-imagined and reconstructed, whether in the personal narratives of migrants, in ICTY courtrooms, in spaces of religious worship or in the offices of politicians. Collectively, the contributors show that while nationalism is still a relevant force other social dynamics and the narratives about them have a significant influence on individual countries as well as the region as a whole. The result is an extremely evocative volume that is an important read for students and scholars of political, social and cultural issues in the former Yugoslavia.
COBISS.SI-ID: 32825181
The article explores some of the issues that have arisen in the discourse on pharmaceutical cognitive enhancement (PCE), that is, the use of stimulant drugs such as methylphenidate, amphetamine and modafinil by healthy individuals of various populations with the aim of improving cognitive performance. Specifically, we explore the presumed sizes of existing PCE user populations and the policy actions that have been proposed regarding the trend of PCE. We begin with an introductory examination of the academic stances and philosophical issues involved in defining PCE. We then focus on an examination of the population sizes of presumed current PCE users that have been listed in the academic literature on PCE, on presuppositions, which have been problematized by some authors as based on anecdotal or misinterpreted survey data. We follow this with an empirical examination of a potential PCE user population in a national context (students at the University of Ljubljana in Slovenia). We then proceed to examine the regulatory options proposed in the academic literature to address PCE, finally comparing them with an empirical overview of the policy recommendations on PCE produced in the multinational context of several national ethics advisory bodies (EABs) in Europe. Our main conclusion is that there is still little debate among the national EABs on what type of public policy responses, if any, are needed to address PCE in European countries, and that the issues they do address are similar to those discussed and proposed in the academic articles on PCE.
COBISS.SI-ID: 32151389
One of the basic questions in cultural heritage studies is the relationship between accepted definitions of national cultural heritage and social power. In the case of Slovene popular music heritage, however, things are more complicated. Namely, the whole field is poorly organised, which means that the most influential work on Slovenian popular music heritage is not done by the institutions that are at least nominally in charge of this segment of the countryʼs cultural heritage, but by different popular music enthusiasts - i.e. the ones that are, for the most part, not related to established positions of power in society. Yet, this does not mean that the work of these enthusiasts is not important. After all, in the context of the lack of institutionalised contributions, it alone defines what Slovenian popular musicheritage is. To determine what kind of picture of Slovenian popular musicheritage this work portrays, its most important segments (all monographs,expert and scholarly articles, schoolbooks, and film and television documentaries that address aspects of Slovene popular music) are analysed. Results show that the publications cover mainly urban and alternative music genres. While this is interesting, there is at least one problematic side effect in this respect - namely that in this way, the music enjoyed by the majority of Slovenians is almost completely left out of the analytical focus. This means that not only is the picture of Slovenian popularmusic emerging from these accounts rather biased, but also that many problematic elements of this music are also left out of critical analysis.
COBISS.SI-ID: 32148061
The article analyzes the orientalistic and self-orientalistic representations of the Assassins, originally a nickname for the Islamic sect of Nizari Ismailis that gained an almost independent currency in western popular culture. The analysis is grounded on a the following selection of past and contemporary western historical-fiction literature: Vladimir Bartol’s Alamut from 1938, translated into French in 1988 and into English in 2004; Judith Tarr’s Alamut series from 1989; James Boschert’s Assassin’s of Alamut of 2010, the first book of his Talon trilogy; and, finally, Scott Oden’s Lion of Cairo from 2010. The main thesis of the article is that in the selection of novels we can find a re-orientalization at work, one that enables not a negative disqualification, but rather a positive identification with this Oriental Other par excellence.
COBISS.SI-ID: 32973149
In the context of the Third Balkan War fought out on the territory of former Yugoslavia, this paper discusses the conflict in Bosnia-Herzegovina from the perspective of the emerging theory of social - i.e. human - mimicry. In the context of a model on which the action is based, this form of mimicry comprises the interplay of a variety of diverse social deceptions between a mimic and the recipient operator(s). Such deceptions can be defensive or aggressive, ideological or pragmatic, individual or collective, as well as implemented with varying degrees of intention and consciousness. In circumstances of strife, the specific ethnic and religious structure of Bosnia-Herzegovina lead to diverse forms of ethnoreligious mimicry on the part of all three main actors – Bosnian Serbs, Croats and Bosniaks. On the one hand, examples of (predominantly) defensive ethnoreligious mimicry were established at the pragmatic level; while on the other the aggressive exploitation and abuse of religious models - all of which were, in themselves and by definition, mute - was also exposed at the ideological level. Whilst the animation of mute religious models intensified the conflict, peace could only be established when this phenomenon lost its value.
COBISS.SI-ID: 33104733