CONTENTS - VOL. 19, NUMBER 4,
December 2009
ARTICLES
OĽGA DANGLOVÁ: Popular Traditions, Folklore and
Politics … 329
ŠTĚPÁNKA ZEMANOVÁ: Cultural context of multilevel collective social actions:
Framing, reflection, resonance and the impact of global and local anti-poverty
movements … 341
JURIJ FIKFAK: Cultural and Social Representations on the Border: From
Disagreement to Coexistence ... 350
ADESHINA AFOLAYAN: Resignifying the Universal: Critical Commentary on the
Postcolonial African Identity and Development ... 363
EMIL VIŠŇOVSKÝ: The "Practice Turn" in Contemporary Socio-Human
Sciences … 378
ISTVÁN DANKA: Practical Knowledge vs. Knowledge as Practice ... 397
ESSAY
MIKULÁŠ HUBA: Value Oriented Science for a
Sustainable Society … 408
ABSTRACTS
POPULAR TRADITIONS, FOLKLORE AND POLITICS
OĽGA DANGLOVÁ
DOI: 10.2478/v10023-009-0047-3
E-mail: olga.danglova@savba.sk
Abstract: The article studies how the "language" of folk traditions
and folklore continues to be a tried-and-tested means for the representation and
propagation of political concepts and ideas. The author notes transformations in
the significance of folklore and folk traditions in historically changing both
political and socio-cultural contexts. Attention is drawn to the significance of
folklore in the nation-forming thinking of the 19th century, the place of honour
accorded to it as an expression of the working people during the period of
socialism, and its contradictory perception in the post-socialist context today.
Keywords: traditions, folklore, politics, social
representation, social transformation.
Pp. 329-340
CULTURAL CONTEXT OF MULTILEVEL COLLECTIVE
SOCIAL ACTIONS: FRAMING, REFLECTION, RESONANCE AND THE IMPACT OF GLOBAL AND
LOCAL ANTI-POVERTY MOVEMENTS
ŠTĚPÁNKA ZEMANOVÁ
DOI: 10.2478/v10023-009-0048-2
E-mail: zemanova@vse.cz
Abstract: In political science as well as in other social sciences much
attention has been paid during recent years to the rapid growth of national and
transnational activist networks and their increasing impact on domestic and
world politics. Together with the proliferation of literature on the topic,
concepts of collective action frames, framing processes, mobilizing ideas and
meanings and their cultural resonance have gained considerable currency. However,
less has been written about the possibilities of and the constraints on the
circulation of collective action frames or about the connection between the
cultural adaptation of frames and the results of actual collective struggles.
The paper explores this understudied issue both theoretically and empirically.
After identifying possible links between collective action framing processes and
the representational practices of particular cultures based on a review of
existing theoretical approaches, the functional consequences are demonstrated by
the example of the Global Call for Action against Poverty international campaign
and the Czech national variant.
Keywords: non-state actors in international
relations; transnational social action; framing; re-framing; cultural
representations.
Pp. 341-349
CULTURAL AND SOCIAL REPRESENTATIONS ON THE
BORDER: FROM DISAGREEMENT TO COEXISTENCE
JURIJ FIKFAK
DOI: 10.2478/v10023-009-0049-1
E-mail: fikfak@zrc-sazu.si
Abstract: In the twentieth century, certain
locations, symbols, and ritual practices along the Italian-Slovenian border were
subject to various social and cultural representations. During that century,
they primarily represented a subject of disagreement between both ethnic
communities; however, in the last ten years, some groups and local authorities
have been seeking opportunities to live together in coexistence.
Keywords: ritual; symbol; social poetics;
Slovenia; Italy; partisan; neo-fascism; discourse. Graffiti.
Pp. 350-362
RESIGNIFYING THE UNIVERSAL: CRITICAL
COMMENTARY ON THE POSTCOLONIAL AFRICAN IDENTITY AND DEVELOPMENT
ADESHINA AFOLAYAN
DOI: 10.2478/v10023-009-0050-8
E-mail: shina73_1999@yahoo.com
Abstract: The dimension of the debate on the
relation between the universal and the particular in African philosophy has been
skewed in favour of the universalists who argued that the condition for the
possibility of an African conception of philosophy cannot be achieved outside
the "universal' idea of the philosophical enterprise. In this sense, the
ethno-philosophical project and its attempt to rescue the idea of an African
past necessary for the reconstruction of an African postcolonial identity and
development becomes a futile one. A recent commentator even argues that works
concerning African identity are now totally irrelevant and misguided. In this
essay, I will be arguing, on the contrary, that the universalist's argument,
much like its critique of ethno-philosophical reason, mistakes the nature,
significance and necessity of such a resistance (rather than original) identity
that the ethno-philosophical project promises. I will also argue that the
fabrication of such an identity facilitates the avoidance of an uncritical
submersion in the universal as well as a proper conception of an African
development. This, furthermore, is the only avenue by which the imperialistic
ontological space of universal humanism, in which most universalistic claims are
rooted, can be made more polygonal and mutually beneficial for alternative
cultural particulars.
Keywords: universalism; humanism;
Ethno-philosophy; modernity; identity.
Pp. 363-377
THE "PRACTICE TURN" IN CONTEMPORARY
SOCIO-HUMAN SCIENCES
EMIL VIŠŇOVSKÝ
DOI: 10.2478/v10023-009-0051-7
E-mail: ksbkemvi@savba.sk
Abstract: The paper provides an overview of the
current situation in the socio-human sciences, which is characterised by
attempts to overcome traditional one-sided approaches and look for new
alternatives. One of the latest alternatives to traditional approaches in the
philosophy and methodology of the social sciences is the "practice turn".
It is the turn to another, non-traditional approach to practice but also to
Aristotelian phronesis. The author gives an account of three main tenets of this
turn with reference to both ancient Greek and modern conceptions of practice.
Keywords: socio-human sciences; practice; "practice
turn"; social theory; phronesis.
Pp. 378-396
PRACTICAL KNOWLEDGE VS. KNOWLEDGE AS PRACTICE
ISTVÁN DANKA
DOI: 10.2478/v10023-009-0052-6
E-mail: danka.istvan@gmail.com
Abstract: The main thesis of this essay is that
practice is superior to a "theoretical vs. practical" distinction. In
this sense, every sort of knowledge is essentially "practical";
so-called "theoretical" knowledge is an historically overemphasised
borderline example of the practical. Based mostly on Wittgenstein's view, I
shall gradually refine an opposition between theoretical and practical knowledge
by analysing some related dualisms on an active, processual, communicative and
applicative concept of knowledge. Then I will provide some arguments as to why
knowledge as a practical matter in this sense should be seen as, both logically
and temporally, prior to the distinction.
Keywords: theory of knowledge; practical
knowledge; theory of action; Anti-Cartesianism; Wittgenstein.
Pp. 397-407
VALUE ORIENTED SCIENCE FOR A SUSTAINABLE
SOCIETY
MIKULÁŠ HUBA
DOI: 10.2478/v10023-009-0053-5
E-mail: mikulas.huba@savba.sk
Abstract: The essay deals with the relationship
between ethics, science and the character of society associated with challenges
such as: What is the contemporary role of science in society and how does it
fulfil it? Is value oriented "engaged" science possible? What does the
responsibility of science mean? What is the reason for and the state of
integrative, interdisciplinary, cross-disciplinary and/or post-disciplinary
approaches in the science? What is the role and meaning of evaluation in
scientific production and/or its usefulness? What is the value, cost and
effectiveness of science? Is scientometrics an adequate answer? What is the role
of ethics and science in the context of sustainable development/living/society?
In the final section of the essay several examples drawing on the international
as well as the national level are introduced. The ambition of the author, a
professional environmental geographer, is not to submit an extensive excursion
into most fashionable aspects of the topic within the global philosophical
context. The author describes his own personal experience and position and tries
to discover what the emerging challenges and threats in this field may be, first
of all in the current Slovak context.
Keywords: science; ethics; values; responsibility;
society; sustainability; (self)evaluation; international initiatives/documents;
Slovakia; Skolimowski; Vavroušek.
Pp. 408-420
