Village restoration in the Czech Republic

Abstract

The recent political changes in the Czech Republic have led to a major re‐evaluation of the role of the countryside. An extensive Village Restoration Programme is now underway, which is here described, with a detailed example from south Moravia. The holistic nature of the programme is notable.     

Residential property disparities in city districts in Prague,Czech Republic

City districts are often classified as ‘rich’ or ‘poor,’ a phenomenon that occurs within cities all over the world. While income inequality, wealth inequality, and other kinds of social inequality are frequently tracked, there is a surprising lack of research concentrating on how social inequality manifests as differences between parts of cities, especially outside of the U.S. That is mostly due to insufficient available data. In this paper, we propose a methodology for measuring the relative inequality between city districts by using the average prices of residential properties in various parts of the city, and assessing their relative difference. This approach has several advantages, as property listings are often readily available even in cities where income data is not. This methodology has potential for measuring developments in inequality in a much wider range of cities. As a proof of concept, we apply this methodology to property prices in Prague during the period 2003–2012 to identify a trend of either growing or decreasing inequality among individual parts of the city. We have found that during this period the disparity has grown only 5.97%, which means the overall growth of disparity between the city districts was negligible.     

Modeling and Prediction of Long-Distance Traffic Flows Through the Example of Road Transport in the Czech Republic

The construction of large-scale long-distance roads brings an irreversible impact on the landscape and therefore its careful and precise planning is very important. For this planning we use data on the intensity of traffic flows on existing roads and statistical tools for the modeling of planned traffic flows. The main objective of this paper is the modeling of the existing intensity of traffic flows on highways and expressways in the Czech Republic by determination of the optimal distance-decay function. On the basis of the resulting model and the resulting distance-decay function, it is possible to predict the intensity of traffic in the event of the completion and commissioning of new sections of highways and expressways. The subsequent analysis will allow us to make a qualified prediction of traffic intensity in the event of the completion of the R35 expressway, or after the completion of the R35 and R43 expressways. Besides the intensity on the above-mentioned roads themselves, the paper also predicts the expected reduction in traffic intensity on the busiest highway in the Czech Republic, that is, on the D1 highway between Prague and Brno.     

Public funding of culture in the Czech Republic since the fall of the iron curtain: contemporary dilemmas

The article deals with explicit cultural policy and its outcomes in the post-communist Czech Republic. In the first part, the authors look at the organisational and conceptual impact on culture of the transition from a centrally managed economy to a pluralist parliamentary democracy following the collapse of the Eastern Bloc. The cultural sector experienced privatisation, property restitution, commercialisation, globalisation, decentralisation and devolution, as well as the emergence of the private sector and the non-governmental non-profit sector (NGO). Although the process of societal transformation is now complete, certain key issues of cultural policy remain unresolved. The authors focus on three contemporary issues in theatre, namely: political intervention in the management of public cultural institutions, the persistent debate on funding through grant systems and the lack of trust culture professionals have in the creators of cultural policy. As a result, even though after 1989 it was expected that the private or NGO sector would dominate in the area of culture, there still exists a relatively dense network of public cultural institutions (contributory organisations) characterised by a resistance to proposed organisational and funding changes.     

The global,the ethnic and the gendered war: women and rape in eastern Democratic Republic of Congo

The purpose of this study was to illuminate the perspectives of women who experienced sexual violence perpetrated in the warscapes of eastern Democratic Republic of Congo. Civilians are targeted for rape, loot and pillage yielding deleterious effects on the social fabric and the sustenance the community provides. The article is based on 11 qualitative semistructured interviews and 4 written narratives from women of reproductive age, recruited from organizations providing support post-sexual violation. The study departs from a larger ethnographic project investigating the phenomenon of war-rape. Thematic analysis guided the analysis through the theoretical lenses of structural violence and intersectionality. The women expressed total insecurity and a multitude of losses from bodily integrity, health, loss of family, life course possibilities, livelihoods and a sense of place; a profound dispossession of identity and marginalization. Pregnancies resulting from rape reinforced stigma and burdened the survivor with raising a stigmatized child on the margins of society. Perpetrators of rape were mostly identified as Interhamwe (Rwandan Hutus rebels) who entered Congo after the Rwandan genocide in 1994. Their goal, according to the women, was to spread HIV and impregnate Congolese women, thereby destroying families, communities and society. The women survivors of war-rape described experiences of profound loss in this conflict which has global, ethnic and gendered dimensions. Congo's conflict thus requires critical reflection on how local wars and subsequent human suffering are situated in a matrix of globalization processes, enabled by transnational actors and embedded in structural violence.     

Love your neighbor: Nazi soldiers and Femmes Fatales in Czech cinema

Analysis of popular culture can offer a better understanding of spatial representations prevailing in the everyday discourse than the insights inferred from official statements or mainstream scientific textbooks. Our everyday thinking about Central European space might be significantly different from representations outlined in texts written by intellectuals and politicians. In fact, there is a telling absence of common features among representations of different Central European countries in Czech films. These representations shape the process of meaning-making and they can help us better grasp the position of a country in relation to its neighbors too. Except for Germany and Slovakia, other actors from the immediate vicinity are virtually non-existent in Czech visual popular culture. While Germans are mostly male Nazi soldiers, Slovakia is described as an underdeveloped, mountainous territory with oversupply of beautiful, vivacious women. Data from 50 box-office hits and critically acclaimed movies produced during the last 20 years illustrate this argument. Such a systematic study of popular culture is not only more revealing than a simple focus on a few illustrative artworks, but it also increases the added value of discourse analysis that pays attention to predication and membership categories.     

Gracilitheca and Nephrotheca (Hyolitha,Orthothecida) in the Cambrian of the Barrandian area,Czech Republic

VALENT, M., FATKA, O. & MAREK, L., iFirst article. Gracilitheca and Nephrotheca (Hyolitha, Orthothecida) in the Cambrian of the Barrandian area, Czech Republic. Alcheringa, 1–10. ISSN 0311-5518.

Five orthothecid hyoliths, Gracilitheca mirabilis sp. nov., Gracilitheca triangularis sp. nov., Gracilitheca sp., Nephrotheca betula sp. nov. and Nephrotheca sp. are described from the ‘middle’ Cambrian Buchava Formation of the Skryje–Tý?ovice Basin in the Czech Republic. The new forms are based on about forty well-preserved external and internal moulds of conchs; opercula of all species remain unknown. Stratigraphic ranges and geographic distributions within the Skryje Tý?ovice Basin are established for all taxa.     

Geodynamic processes in the NW Bohemian swarm earthquake region,Czech Republic,identified by continuous gas monitoring

The time series of two continuously operating gas monitoring stations at Oldřišská and Nový Kostel located along seismoactive faults in the epicentral area of the NW Bohemian swarm earthquakes (Czech Republic) are compared with water level fluctuations in two boreholes positioned along these faults and with gas flux variations of a mofette at the Soos mofette field at 9 km distance. The seasonal trend of the monitored CO₂ concentration with a maximum in November and a minimum in March/April is governed by groundwater temperatures, superimposed in spring by soil temperatures. CO₂ concentration variations identified at Oldřišská are also reflected in gas flux variations in the Soos mofette and/or water level fluctuations of two boreholes. Variations in the gas monitoring recordings of station at Nový Kostel are also linked with variations at Oldřišská. In all data sets, diurnal variations generated by earth tides occur, reflecting a daily stress – fault permeability cycle. Additional stress interferes with this cycle. Significant, abrupt changes are attributed to geodynamic processes linked with seismic events, as revealed by local seismicity or by the transient of waves of a strong remote earthquake. Simultaneous variations of the gas concentrations in the Nový Kostel area and in the gas flux in the Soos point to an interconnected hydraulic conductive fault systems present in the northern part of the Cheb Basin. Sharp falls in gas concentration, during or subsequent to, earthquake swarms may reflect fault compression associated with impeded gas migration. However, gas variations also occur in periods without seismic activity, indicating changes in fault permeability were caused by local aseismic fault movements, as revealed by events with opposite trends in the gas recordings at Oldřišská, Nový Kostel and the Soos. Therefore, a mathematical approach to establish a correlation between seismicity and gas geochemical variations is not possible.     

Childhood in the rural areas of Chile,intergenerational and gendered perspectives

ABSTRACT

This article triangulates intergenerational (childhood, adulthood, and old age) visions on the social representation of childhood in rural areas of Chile. These visions were considered within the framework of identity constructs (perceptions, social behaviours, preferences, and ambitions) and were compared against emerging transformations in the spheres of family, and gender relations. A qualitative methodology was used to analyse 68 individual interviews (41 children; 21 women old age; and 6 adult women). It was concluded that, in a context of globalization, rural boys and girls use modern, urban symbols and conform to traditional gender stereotypes. In a familial environment, rural children have acquired discursive protagonism in alliance with older women, a reality that conflicts with the conservative vision of middle-aged adults who have poor awareness regarding the participation of children. Contrasting visions exist between adult women and seniors concerning the responsibilities assigned to children in general and, particularly, to girls.     

Embodied negotiations: identity,space and livelihood after trade zones in the Dominican Republic

In this article, I analyze socio-spatial processes of subject-making at the center of the restructuring of export industries. To do so, I develop the concept of ‘embodied negotiations’ to explain the spatial and corporeal experience of trade zone workers reproduced as migrants with the collapse of garment exports in the Dominican Republic. Drawing on ethnographic research, I examine ‘rural return’ as both a livelihood strategy and a discourse shaped by inter-related gender and racial ideologies of labor as well as the uneven transnationalization of rural and urban localities. I show how the negotiation of social position by subjects marked by race, gender and class is always also a negotiation of spatial position in and between localities structured through raced, gendered and class relations. Men's efforts to remain in urban areas as a form of social ‘whitening’ are compared to women's resistance to rural return as an attempt to stay in circulation as paid labor. Overall, I argue that feminist research on global production should be ‘spatialized’ by attending to livelihoods and practices of subject-making that emerge in parallel to export restructuring.     

Identity of non‐self‐evident nation: Czech national identity after the break‐up of Czechoslovakia and before accession to the European Union*

ABSTRACT. In this study the authors analyse Czech national identity after the break‐up of Czechoslovakia and before accession to the European Union. National identity is understood here as a construct consisting of several elements, four of which the authors analyse: territorial identity (localism, regionalism, patriotism, and Europeanism), the image of the nation – the cultural nation (ethno‐nation) and the political nation (state‐nation), national pride (in general, and in cultural performance and in the performance of the state), and love for the nation – nationalism (or more precisely, chauvinism) and patriotism. To create a more complex picture of Czech national identity the authors compare it with national identities in eleven other European countries. To conclude, the authors analyse the attitudes of Czechs toward the European Union, and national identity is used as an important explanatory element of the support for EU governance.     

The dragon versus the kangaroo: perceptions of Chinese and Australian influence and development assistance in Vanuatu

ABSTRACT

China’s engagement within the South Pacific has increased dramatically in recent years mainly through significant increases in development assistance. Development assistance is provided to address humanitarian needs but to also secure national interests of the donor. This paper examines the extent and nature of Australia’s and China’s influence in Vanuatu from the perspectives of the Ni-Vanuatu people using new data. China is perceived as having the most influence in the country despite Australia’s development assistance being viewed far more positively. Support for infrastructure is the most important factor contributing to a positive image for both countries. Perceptions of land grabbing are the main factor contributing to negative images. Regional differences in perceptions of Australia and China across Vanuatu also exist.     

Before the NGO: Chinese Charities in Historical Perspective

Two decades ago, only a handful of NGOs operated legally in China. Today the sector is thriving. Even with the threat of new restrictions under the Xi Jinping government, private social initiative appears poised for even greater expansion in the future. To fully appreciate the significance of these recent developments, this essay presents a wider view of China’s long history of civic organisation, comparing the contemporary resurgence of NGOs to the historical development of private charities in the Qing and Republican periods. It finds similarities in the motivations of organisers and donors, as well as in the relationship between civic organisations and the state, but sees other developments, such as the capitalisation of the NGO sector and its ability to mobilise public opinion, as substantively new.     

Flirting in the field: shifting positionalities and power relations in innocuous sexualisations of research encounters

In the last few decades, an engaged and sophisticated discussion about the production of data and power relations has developed within feminist methodology. Positionality, i.e. the set of relations constituting informants' and researchers' subject positions, has been widely used as an analytical tool to account for the complicated ways in which data are co-constructed in fieldwork. Based on our own experience of fieldwork conducted in the city of Zurich, however, we argue that sexuality is underrepresented in this debate. First, reflexive writing on fieldwork has been reluctant to consider sexuality as a category in the same way, for instance, as gender or race. Second, even apparently innocuous sexualisations have a considerable effect on the constitution of data and are therefore worth including in the analysis. In this article, we examine how flirtation as a part of the participant–researcher relation has re-shaped the research encounters in our respective research projects. We discuss the complex navigations between conflicting rationales that it entailed for us as researchers, depict the minor and major shifts in positionalities that emerge from the flirtation and examine the reasons why we sometimes embraced flirtation and sometimes rejected it. The objective of the article is to further enrich feminist methodological writing, and to suggest to the reader the potential for including various shades of sexual performances, such as apparently harmless flirtation, into our reflections on data collection.     

Filipinos settle in the Canadian North: unsettling a gendered frontier

This paper explores how contemporary accounts of Filipino settlement in the Yukon articulate with the imaginative project of a ‘frontier Yukon.’ Since 2007, Whitehorse, Yukon has been as a prominent site of settlement for Filipino newcomers to Canada. This has been supported by the implementation of a new immigration policy–the Yukon Nominee Program (YNP)—inaugurated to address shortages in the territory’s service sector labour market. What happens, we ask, to frontier narratives when they are put into conversation with bodies, peoples, places, and collective experiences that they were never meant to narrate? We discuss how hegemonic notions of race, gender, and frontier masculinity are reworked and unsettled in emerging narratives of Filipino settlement. In working through multiple and contested notions of the frontier, we play on varying meanings of the verb “to settle.” Frontier mythologies seek to settle the disruptive potential of Filipino workers and families as they newly inhabit borderline spaces. At the same time, the hard work of “settling" into a foreign environment is set both within and against the hegemonic facade of frontier mythology. We find that while the examined discourses of arrival in the Yukon reinforce hegemonic accounts of the Yukon’s settlement, and obscure histories of settler colonialism through their celebration of multiculturalism and diversity, they also contain moments of ambiguity that “unmap” hegemonic frontier narratives.     

Gendered and generational experiences of place and power in the rural Irish landscape

The out-migration of young people from rural regions is a selective and highly gendered process suggesting considerable differentiation in the way young men and women identify with and experience rural life. Gender imbalance in rural youth out-migration has prompted feminist researchers to consider more carefully linkages between the gendered nature of rural space and place and the social and spatial mobility of rural young men and women. Based on 11 months of ethnographic fieldwork in a rural Irish fishing community, this article explores the gendered dimensions of rural youth experience. Theoretically grounded in the conceptual triad of gender, power and place, this article considers how young men and women experience ‘the rural’ as masculine and feminine subjects. Special attention is given to the ways in which relations of power in ‘the rural’ are articulated, contested and accommodated in the everyday lives of local young men and women. As well as highlighting the ways in which rural space and place is male-dominated, this article foregrounds other power relations at play in the rural. As part of this effort, I problematize male power and point to the ‘effectivity of girls as conduits of power’. I argue that subjectivities of intra-gender relations are a critical dimension of rural youth experience and cannot be overlooked in research on rural youth experience and emigration.     

Remembering the German Past in the Czech Lands: A Key Moment Between Communicative and Cultural Memory

The objective of this paper is to document the ongoing shift from communicative to cultural memory of war and post-war events in the Czech Republic by using an example of a local struggle about a memorial for German inhabitants of a Czech town killed in June 1945. Thanks to an anthropological and social geographical approach based on interviews, family memory research, observations, and analysis of archive materials, it is possible to reconstruct the local and international sources of the post-1989 collective memory of the German past in Central Europe. This memory is still in constant conflict with the pre-1989 version of Czech national history which had contemptuously marginalized its German component. The communicative memory of the German past has entered the public space and tries to become a permanent part of the Czech cultural memory, but it is not a straightforward process, mainly due to the continuously strengthening nationalistic framing of memory within Central Europe.     

1954—1961年朝鲜实习生来沪培训述论

朝鲜战争后,根据中朝双方签订的经济及文化合作协定,大批朝鲜实习生于1954—1961年来到中国接受培训。中国有关部门、上海各实习工厂自上而下地构建起相应的组织管理体系,为朝鲜实习生顺利完成培训任务创造了良好的条件,并在日常生活方面对他们给予了周到细致的照顾,探索建立了一套行之有效的培训体系,使朝鲜实习生回国时大多具备了一定的专业技术能力,有的还在某些领域取得了突出的成绩,为朝鲜国民经济的恢复和发展培养了不可或缺的技术人才。     

Containing Kassindja: detention,gendered threats and border control in the United States

In 1996, the USA issued a landmark decision to grant political asylum to a young woman, Fauziya Kassindja, due to the threat of forced genital circumcision. The case, Matter of Kasinga, is now a cornerstone in the area of law known as ‘gender-based asylum.’ While the legal victory occurred during a watershed moment for women’s human rights, it also spawned considerable critique for reproducing colonial tropes of third-world women, cultural backwardness, and narratives of rescue. This article offers another perspective by examining key phases of the case that predate the final decision. I demonstrate how logics of containment shaped the case trajectory and outcome. Initially, the Immigration and Naturalization Service (INS) sought to contain Kassindja as a bogus asylum seeker through detention. However, once a powerful advocacy campaign exposed the violence of detention, the INS shifted their containment strategies to safeguarding the legal paradigm and circumscribing its legacy as a precedent-setting case. By focusing on the role of detention and the logics of containment, this article supplements cultural critiques of the case and provides an example of how gender and gender violence can be leveraged by state agencies and actors to reinforce border control and manage refugee/asylee populations.     

罗马共和国后期行省治理的弊端与规范

行省治理是罗马共和国后期政治生活的一个重要内容,直接关乎共和政治的运作与国家的命运。然而,在行省治理过程中,作为实际治理者的罗马官员滥用权力,通过多种途径大肆搜刮钱财,成为行省治理中的首要弊病。为遏制这种弊病,规范行省治理,罗马当局围绕着官员搜刮钱财现象,不断加强法律建设,呈现出立法条款细致化、诉讼程序固定化以及惩处严厉化的倾向。但是,行省治理制度中总督权力缺乏制衡,荣誉任职的传统观念以及税收体系的混乱等因素为罗马官员滥用权力、非法敛财提供了条件,而相关法律实践过程面临着距离、语言、时间与经济成本等实际障碍,且法庭充斥着腐败与偏见,导致治理局面未因法律建设的加强而得以有效改善。行省治理的失当从行省与共和国政治两个层面加速了共和政治的失序,推动了内战的爆发,进而加速了罗马共和国的衰亡。