The changing identity of the Central European city: the case of Katowice

The issue of diverse identities imprinted on the urban landscape as the result of political changes and the struggle for power between different social and ethnic groups is analysed here using the example of Katowice, the capital and largest urban centre in Upper Silesia, Poland. Basing their conclusions on systematic investigation of the most important changes and features in the cityscape in five clearly distinct historical periods, the authors explore the conditions and mechanisms of the creation of the city’s symbolic landscape and its links with urban identity. They argue that Katowice represents a peculiar model of urban identity formation in Central and Eastern Europe that has to date not been researched in any depth, in which each successive historical period represents a rupture with the foregoing values and ideas and an attempt to make a new, lasting imprint on the material outlook of the city. The development of such a model of identity is the result of the complex interplay between the city’s changing geopolitical context and its economic and functional development path.     

Industrial spaces for grassroots creative production: spatial,social and planning facets

Former industrial premises provide material and symbolic resources for grassroots creative production, but planning is complex as these sites are transitory and excessive intervention may stifle creativity. This paper analyses the transformations of La Ribera (Bilbao), a mixed-use peninsula waiting to be redeveloped, where, in the meantime, creative-based grassroots projects have settled. Drawing upon relevant planning documents, documentary material and interviews with key actors, the paper explores (i) the spatial and built form advantages of these spaces, (ii) their impact on neighbourhood life and (iii) the contradictions faced in the planning process. The analysis suggests that spatiality plays a critical role, but it is threatened by market pressures, local governments’ interest to encourage the city's reputation and neighbours’ mistrust for the changes they may trigger. As a result, we contend that art spaces’ institutionalization in the neighbourhood is decisive for their sustainability, but the conflicts that arise for the symbolic appropriation of space should be considered. Regarding policy, governance approaches that preserve users’ autonomy and spaces’ built form and atmospheric qualities are rather suitable responses if they are part of a comprehensive agenda that includes local socio-economic conditions and neighbours’ aspirations.     

Remembrance as remaking: memories of the nation revisited

This article revisits Anthony Smith's landmark collection Myths and Memories of the Nation (1999) from the perspective of recent developments in cultural memory studies. It argues for a more clearly demarcated distinction between myths and memories which acknowledges cultural memory as a site of new experiential perspectives that often work against the authority of myths, seen as the unquestioned truths about the collective past. Drawing on studies of modern memory cultures, it presents a dynamic and generative model that construes memory in terms of cultural practices of remembrance. It shows that memory is not an unchanging legacy but rather a malleable resource for making shared stories about the past. Where Halbwachs (1925) presumed that social frameworks precede and shape memory, remembrance is presented here as a cultural force that helps to redefine social frameworks and to create links between hitherto unconnected imagined communities.     

Reversing the view of ‘political pilgrims’: re-examining Italian travelogues about China in the 1950s

Scholars often consider the mostly positive representations of China by Italian visitors in the 1950s as the false and embellished depictions of political pilgrims. This article challenges this oversimplified interpretation. Based on evidence from commonly cited travel accounts, this article argues that Italian writers’ leftist political sympathies did not necessarily lead to self-censorship or intentional embellishment of China, nor did the host country’s control and surveillance over foreigners simply make Italian visitors willing to cooperate or produce positive feedback. Putting these travel accounts in their social and historical contexts, the article shows that Italian intellectuals’ positive representations of China in the 1950s, as well as the severe criticisms that were raised in the 1960s and 1970s, were rooted in reality and reflected the radical changes in Chinese society and Sino-Italian relations over the course of the Maoist era (1949–1976).     

Cultural policy and revolutionary music during China’s Cultural Revolution: the case of the Shanghai Symphony Orchestra

This paper examines the relation between the cultural policy of the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) and the music of model plays (yangbanxi 样板戏), especially music produced by Western symphony orchestras, during the ten-year Cultural Revolution in China. It takes the Shanghai Symphony Orchestra (SSO) as the focal point of this historical episode. Model plays of the Cultural Revolution promoted communist and revolutionary themes. All aspects of their performance were examined for conformity to Maoist thought. This paper explores how the CCP’s ideology and its cultural policy were embodied in revolutionary music, using one of the model plays, Taking Tiger Mountain by Strategy, as an analytical case study. Most of the historical materials cited in this research are held by the SSO Archive. The SSO played a crucial role in creating and performing the music for Taking Tiger Mountain by Strategy. The academic value of its archive has long been overlooked. This paper provides a new perspective on the Cultural Revolution, one viewed through policies of a Western symphony orchestra, and it suggests that scholars apply the term ‘cultural policy’ more deliberately in future studies of the Chinese Cultural Revolution.     

Heritage down the chute: the demolition of Saskatchewan’s grain elevators

Hailed as ‘cathedrals of the plains’ and ‘prairie sentinels’, grain elevators are iconic of Saskatchewan, Canada. Yet with fewer than four hundred and twenty of the original 3300 still standing, Saskatchewan’s historic grain elevators are disappearing at an alarmingly accelerated rate. The loss of historic grain elevators is twice the average loss in historic fabric in Canada in a third of the time despite their being the most widely cited heritage structure by Saskatchewanians. This paper deciphers this dilemma through Nancy Fraser’s three-dimensional model of participatory parity, which serves to reconcile cultural, economic and political pressures on the heritage field and rebalances the field’s disproportionate focus on recognition. This model reveals how larger systems of representation and distribution are impacting official grain elevator recognition under Saskatchewan’s Heritage Property Act (1980) and proposes solutions to increase grain elevator preservation in Saskatchewan.     

元“月明沧海”琴的修复

"月明沧海"琴为上海博物馆藏品,元至正壬辰(公元1352年)制造。琴额部有两处木质缺洞,木质纤维素腐烂,蛀眼19个,额部其它部位漆颜色暗淡,琴左侧面下方、琴额背面均有缺损。对这件古琴制定修复方案,并开展清洁、处理蛀洞、分析灰胎、加固、补配、批灰、涂漆、打磨、做旧等保护修复工艺流程。结果表明,传统修复工艺与现代科学技术检测的结合,使此件文物的修复工作相当成功。     

‘Forgotten Europeans’: transnational minority activism in the age of European integration

This article examines transnational activism by coalitions of national minorities in Europe from the early 20th century to the present, setting this within the broader ‘security versus democracy dilemma’ that continues to surround international discussions on minority rights. Specifically, we analyse two organisations – the European Nationalities Congress (1925–1938) and the Federal Union of European Nationalities (1949–) – which, while linked, have never been subject to a detailed comparison based on primary sources. In so far as comparisons do exist, they present these bodies in highly negative terms, as mere fronts for inherently particularistic nationalisms that threaten political stability, state integrity and peace. Our more in‐depth analysis provides a fresh and more nuanced perspective: it shows that, in both cases, concepts of European integration and ‘unity in diversity’ have provided the motivating goals and frameworks for transnational movements advocating common rights for all minorities and seeking positive interaction with the interstate world.     

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.     

Tamale-making traditions among three ethnic groups in west central Louisiana

The state of Louisiana is widely recognized for the Creole and Cajun cuisines of south Louisiana. Yet several Indo-Spanish foodways have been preserved in northwest Louisiana since the colonial era. In this paper, we explore the tamale-making traditions of three distinct culture groups who reside in the region and how traditions are a source of ethnic identity. Tamales are primarily associated with residents of Indo-Spanish heritage in Sabine Parish, but they are also part of the foodway traditions of the French Creoles and Cane River Creoles of Natchitoches Parish. It is asserted that the tamale-making traditions in these communities resulted from a process of creolization that took place during the eighteenth century with the start of European colonization. We assess the role of tamale-making among contemporary cultural groups to demonstrate how this tradition has survived in the region.