生态人文科学

生态人文科学是一种新的科学范式出现的征兆.生态人文科学是20世纪90年代晚期出现的一种趋势,依托于后人文主义对人类中心论、欧洲中心论和西方科学的批判.传统生态学知识、本土知识和生物人文科学的发展,是生态人文科学的重要内容.其中,生物人文科学是一种包容性的知识类型,将人文科学、社会科学和生命科学联系起来.生态人文科学提供了一种理想的元共同体观念.这个元共同体由人类与非人类构成,其基础是共同实质的亲缘关系、共生关联、协同进化和互相依赖.生态人文科学还从心灵延展和分布式认知角度预期了未来的知识建构.     

The Polish Social Enterprise Sector Vis-à-Vis the Welfare Regime: Following on the Solidarity Movement?

This paper presents the development of the enterprise sector and the welfare regime in Poland, dominated by two opposing trends originating from the country’s recent history: remnants of the “Communist welfare state” and liberal tendencies that came after the political and economic transformation in 1989. The growing civil society that supplements a deficient welfare system finds its roots in the peaceful underground Solidarity movement of the 1980s which played a great role in liberating Poland. After the political turnover, the Solidarity’s mission-driven approach not only survived, but also helped shape Poland’s contemporary civil society. The outlined mechanisms seem to be significant for understanding the transformation of social economy and the welfare state concept in post-communist Europe. In our paper, we identify six mechanisms underlying the Solidarity movement, which, when subsequently implemented by social entrepreneurs, has guaranteed the success of their organizations. We will also characterize the current welfare state in Poland, as well as the role of social enterprises in filling the gaps and addressing the shortcomings of the welfare state. Several case studies will illustrate the latter.     

German-Polish relations in the historical consciousness of Polish youths

From the point of view of sociological research, historical consciousness is better understood as social consciousness. This term is more appropriate when describing the kinds of topics that sociology is capable of studying. At present, most Poles think that the memory of prejudice and discrimination suffered at the hands of the Germans during the Second World War still has a great influence on Polish attitudes towards Germans. This opinion is expressed both by people belonging to the generation that still remembers the war, and the young generations, for whom this history is part of school and textbook knowledge. Images of the past, which are evoked in the minds of young Poles when they think about Polish-German relationships, are explicitly negative; there are no positive views in this context. For more than a half of the students queried, the word Germans was associated with the events of the Second World War. Students' declarations did not differ from the opinions held by the Polish people at large. The negative images in the consciousness of the students regarding Polish-German relations is not unconditionally connected with a negative attitude towards Germans in general. It is striking that many associations related to the present are quite positive ones.     

Devils,Crows, Women: The Cinema of Dorota Kędzierzawska

Dorota Kçdzierzawska, who directed only three full-length films, is regarded as one of the most original post-communist Polish filmmakers. All of Kçdzierzawska’s films: Diabty, diably(Devils, Devils, 1991), Wrony(The Crows, 1994) and Nic(Nothing, 1998) are discussed here in chronological order. The paper asks why her ?uvreoccupies the margins of Polish national cinema. The author also analyses Kçdzierzawska’s choice of characters (ethnic minorities, children and single mothers) and the postmodern style of her work, which is marked by fragmented narratives and visual stylization. Kçdzierzawska’s attitude toward feminism and women’s cinema is also examined. Postmodernism and feminism provide the main theoretical framework of the discussion.     

The rebelling orphan: adopting the found photograph

Abstract

Every day thousands of family photographs get abandoned in second hand bookshops, at flea markets, and internet auctions, losing their past and having their stories erased. Conversely, the same images get found, reappropriated, and assigned with new meanings. It is this process of giving the found photograph a new lease of life that I explore in this article. As I argue here, photographs continue to act as potent narrative tools even if we no longer have access to their subjects or producers. Not only do I show how anonymous photographs can be read and interpreted but also how they function as material objects that are collected, loved, treasured, and inevitably integrated into the lives of their new adopted families. I show, in particular, how both the content and the materiality of photographs makes them carriers of family history and private memory, as well as intersecting with other categories such as class and identity.     

Comparison of breastfeeding in rural areas of Sweden and Australia – a cohort study

BackgroundBreastfeeding rates in Sweden and Australia appears to be decreasing in both countries. National statistics shows that 87% of infants in Sweden and 73% in Australia receive any breastfeeding two months of age.AimTo compare women's experiences of breastfeeding in Sweden and Australia and to identify factors associated with breastfeeding two months after birth.MethodsA cohort study in two rural hospitals in mid Sweden (n = 300) and north-eastern Victoria in Australia (n = 91) during 2007–2009. Participants responded to questionnaires in mid pregnancy and two months after birth. Crude and adjusted odds ratios with a 95% confidence interval were used to detect differences between women in both cohorts.FindingsWomen in Sweden (88.3%) were more likely to report any breastfeeding of the baby two months after birth (OR 2.41; 95% CI: 1.33–4.38) compared to women in Australia (75.8%) but were less satisfied with breastfeeding support and information. The most important factor associated with breastfeeding at two months postpartum for the Swedish women was to have received sufficient information about breastfeeding on the postnatal ward (OR 2.3; 95% CI 1.41–4.76) while for the Australian women receiving the best possible help when breastfeeding for the first time was most important (OR 4.3; 95% CI 1.50–12.46).ConclusionThe results indicate that Swedish women were more likely than their Australian counterparts to breastfeed the baby two months after birth. The findings demonstrated the importance of sufficient information and help when breastfeeding is initiated.     

RESEARCH ON IMMIGRATION/ETHNICITY IN EUROPE AND THE UNITED STATES: A Comparison

The article compares the main research agendas and methodological and theoretical approaches informing current studies of immigration and ethnicity in the United States and Europe (represented by six countries: the United Kingdom, France, Germany, Belgium, the Netherlands, and Sweden). The European part of the report focuses on the common features of immigration and ethnic research in the countries selected for examination as compared with the American studies. In accounting for the reported similarities and differences between the two continents, I identify the contributing circumstances in the examined societies at large as well as in the characteristics of the scholarly environment in which the research in question is conducted.