This article deals with naming practices among the Czechs who lived in the first half of 20th century in two Bulgarian villages - Vojvodovo and Belinci. It is based on fieldwork carried out among the people who migrated in 1950 from Bulgaria and settled in several towns and villages in South Moravia (region of Mikulov and Valtice), and their descendants. Naming practices of the Bulgarian Czechs are analyzed in relation to naming strategies of the Bulgarians in the given period, and it is argued that the role that was fulfilled by surnames among the Czechs was fulfilled by first names among the Bulgarians. Relationship between the naming strategies and ideas about kinship and gender are discussed further.
The Croatian society is still coping with traumatizing events (World War II and civil war) and memories of them. The politics of memory, articulated by Tudjman´s strategy of generational and memory reconciliation of the society in the early 1990s, led to the relativization and even promotion of the pro-fascist Ustashe regime, and simultaneously to the marginalization and stigmatization of narratives relating to the role of national liberation struggle within multi-ethnic partisan movement. This also included members of local Czech minority. The study shows how - despite this - the narratives concerning the partisan resistance are still alive in family memory, and they form, through generational transmission, a value alternative to the contemporary nationally-oriented state ideology as well as to the cultural presentation of Czech minority. Family memory works as an autonomous ”intimate space/area” of expatriates in Croatia, which is based on searching for a generational value continuities in the period of post-communist social uncertainties.
Studie je věnována Kosíkovu výkladu české radikální demokracie, jak jej podal na přelomu čtyřicátých a padesátých let minulého století. Autor předkládá tezi, podle níž byla jedním z cílů Kosíkových textů o tomto politickém hnutí konceptualizace levicového radikalismu. Úvodní část statě rekapituluje a hodnotí historiografické práce mapující vztah umění a politiky, respektive kulturní politiku v období takzvaného stalinismu (knihy Alexeje Kusáka a Jiřího Knapíka), a předkládá základní charakteristiku levicového radikalismu, chápaného jako životní postoj charakteristický pro relativně krátké období počátků totalitního režimu. V oblasti umění se tento utopický, normativně uzavřený koncept projevoval extrémně instrumentálním přístupem k uměleckému dílu, jehož primárním smyslem měla být spoluúčast na budování „nového“ světa. Karel Kosík je ve studii chápán jako čelný představitel generace mladých komunistů, jenž měl zásadní podíl na založení nového filozofického diskurzu a který formuloval nové výkladové paradigma dějin českého politického a filozofického myšlení 19. století. Druhá část studie shrnuje důvody, proč lze Kosíkovým textům o radikální demokracii přikládat v rámci soudobého diskurzu specifické postavení. Hlavním argumentem je skutečnost, že vedle názorů Zdeňka Nejedlého představovaly Kosíkovy texty (vyznačující se v některých případech výraznou ideologičností a spojováním odborného stylu s prvky politické žurnalistiky) nejvýraznější dobovou tematizaci „české otázky“. Kosíkův výklad radikální demokracie je představen v komparaci se staršími marxistickými výklady dějin 19. století (Jana Švermy, Záviše Kalandry, Václava Čejchana). V závěru textu je naznačen Kosíkův konstrukt „pokrokové“ linie českých dějin, který byl založen na představě „revolučnosti“, a jeho pojetí „české otázky“. and The article is concerned with the interpretation of Czech radical democracy as postulated by the Marxist philosopher Karel Kosík (1926–2003) in the late 1940s and early 1950s. It argues that one of the aims of Kosík’s writing about this political movement was to conceptualize leftwing radicalism. It begins with a recapitulation and assessment of historiographical work charting out the relationship between art and politics, particularly policy on culture and the arts in the period of Stalinism (referring to works by Alexej Kusák and Jiří Knapík), and presents the basic feature of leftwing radicalism, which is understood as an attitude characteristic of the relatively short period from the beginning of the totalitarian régime. In the sphere of art this utopian, normatively closed concept was manifested by an extremely utilitarian approach to a work of art, whose primary purpose was meant to be participation in building a “new” world. In this article Kosík is seen as a leading member of the generation of young Communists who had a substantial share in establishing a new philosophical discourse and formulated new criteria for interpreting the history of nineteenth-century Czech political and philosophical thought. The second part of the article summarizes the reasons Kosík’s writings about radical democracy should be given a special status in today’s discourse. The main argument is the fact that, apart from the opinions of Zdeněk Nejedlý, Kosík’s writings (marked in some cases by a strikingly ideological character and the mixing of academic style with elements of political journalism) presented the most sharply defined discussion of the “Czech Question” at the time. Kosík’s interpretation of radical democracy is presented in comparison with earlier Marxist interpretations of the history of the nineteenth century (by Jan Šverma, Záviš Kalandra, and Václav Čejchan). In the conclusion of the article Kosík’s construct is called the “progressive” line of Czech history, which was based on the idea of “revolutionary spirit” (revolučnost) and his understanding of the “Czech Question.”
Jan Blažek, a correspondent of the Czech Ethnological Society, wrote in 1982 a text that described representatives of selected socio-professional groups in the Czech countryside before World War I. He paid attention to beggars, vagrants, wanderers, and barrel organ players. Even though those people usually were on the margin of society, the author identifies peculiar features of each of the mentioned groups and he differentiates between them (he creates a particular characteristics for each of them). He deals with their social and material situation, majority ́s relationship to them (including possible stereotypes and expressions of solidarity), their life conditions (diet, accommodation, clothing etc.) and other features (way of earning livelihood, typical behaviour, or verbal expressions).
The study concerns provisional dwellings of poor village inhabitants, particularly a dwelling of a smallholder from Kostelec na Hané, which was continually inhabited for more than one hundred years. It was partly built under the road in the western part of the residential area. The entrance part of the basement that has for unknown reasons not been used for many years was modified. From the basement there is a system of tunnels under the town. Their use as a permanent dwelling was unique in central Moravia. The appearance of this house - its construction, space division, hearth, etc., is reconstructed in the study.
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Social work as an institutionalized profession aims to promote and defend human rights and social justice regardless of gender, sexual orientation and other grounds. Rooted in Christianity, it is partly performed by religious organizations and religious people. Consequently, conservative values may orient the profession, thus conflicting with the rights of lesbians and gays. The aim of the article is to present the risks of social worker’s oppressive action toward same--sex parents, and to suggest possibilities how to avoid such ethical misconduct. First, we present a dilemma of social work arising from the tension between ethical principles of equality and non -discrimination on the one hand and conservative norms on the other hand. Then, we introduce individual oppressive tendencies which are manifested in the discourse “on homosexuality” in Czech social work and how these may transform into social worker’s oppressive action. Finally, we propose practical suggestions that can support anti -oppressive social work in the Czech Republic.