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This essay offers a succinct but comprehensive overview of Icelandic cinema from its early 20th-century emergence to the present day. Split into two parts, the first half focusses on filmmaking in Iceland prior to the founding of the Icelandic Film Fund in 1978, which was to establish a continuous local film production for the first time. Prior to that filmmaking in Iceland boiled down to the occasional efforts of local amateurs, albeit often quite skilled ones, and professional filmmakers visiting from abroad. Indeed, the few silent feature films made in the country all stemmed from foreign filmmakers adapting Icelandic literature and taking advantage of its photogenic landscapes. The first Icelandic feature was not made until 1948 and although immensely popular, like those that followed in its wake, the national audience was simply too small to sustain filmmaking without financial support. Although this changed fundamentally with the Icelandic Film Fund, which instigated contemporary Icelandic cinema and the subject of the essay's second half, the Fund's support proved insufficient as the novelty of Icelandic cinema began to wear off at the local box office in the late 1980s. The rescue came from outside sources, in the form of nordic and European film funds, whose support was to transnationalize Icelandic cinema in terms of not only financing and production but also themes and subject material. These changes are most apparent in Icelandic cinema of the 1990s which also began to garner interest at the international film festival circuit. In the first decade of the twenty first century, however, American genre cinema began to replace the European art film as the typical model for Icelandic filmmakers. Hollywood itself also began to show extensive interest in Icelandic landscapes for its runaway productions, as did many other foreign film crews. In this way Icelandic cinema is increasingly characterized by not only national and transnational elements but also international ones.

Kosningaréttur er grundvallarréttur þegna í lýðræðisríkjum og þátttaka í kosningum álitin ein af mikilvægustu athöfnum borgaranna. Þó að þessi réttindi skuli tryggð öllum þegnum sýna alþjóðlegar rannsóknir að fatlað fólk er víða útilokað frá þátttöku í kosningum. Fatlað fólk er síður líklegt til að kjósa en ófatlað fólk og mætir iðulega ýmsum hindrunum ef það reynir að taka þátt í kosningum. Þessi grein fjallar um kosningaþátttöku fatlaðs fólks með hliðsjón af niðurstöðum alþjóðlegra rannsókna. Í upphafi eru raktar helstu hindranir í vegi kosningaþátttöku fatlaðs fólks og leitast við að svara hvaða áhrif þessar hindranir hafi, ekki aðeins fyrir fatlaða borgara, heldur jafnframt hvað það þýði fyrir heilbrigði lýðræðis og lýðræðislegra stofnana þegar hluti þegnanna mætir alvarlegum hindrunum varðandi borgaraleg grundvallarréttindi. Íslenskar rannsóknir á þessu sviði eru ekki fyrir hendi og engin skipuleg tölfræðileg gögn eru til varðandi þátttöku fatlaðs fólks í kosningum eða stjórnmálum hér á landi. Byggt á gögnum sem aflað var hjá tveimur fjölmennustu heildarsamtökum fatlaðs fólks hér á landi er rýnt í reynslu, aðstæður og möguleika fatlaðs fólks til þátttöku í kosningum á Íslandi, lagasetningar þar að lútandi og skyldur ríkisins til að stuðla að og tryggja þátttöku fatlaðs fólks í stjórnmálum og opinberu lífi, ekki síst í ljósi þess að Samningur Sameinuðu þjóðanna (SÞ) um réttindi fatlaðs fólks (SRFF) hefur verið fullgiltur hér á landi ; The right to vote is a fundamental right of citizenship in democratic nations, and participation in elections in one of the most important acts undertaken by citizens. Although these rights are guaranteed to all citizens, international research shows that disabled people are widely excluded from participation in elections. Disabled people are less likely to vote than non-disabled people and often encounter various obstacles when they try to participate in elections. This article discusses the voting participation of disabled people in consideration of the international research. The main barriers that disabled people encounter in the voting process will first be outlined. This will be followed by questions concerning the effects these obstacles produce, not only for disabled citizens, but what this means overall for the health of democracy and democratic institutions when a portion of the citizenry encounter serious obstacles concerning their basic civil rights. Icelandic research in this field is extremely limited and no systematic statistical data exists on the participation of disabled people in elections, or politics in general, in this country. Based on data drawn from sources from two of the largest disabled people's organization in the country, the focus here is on the experiences, circumstances and opportunities for disabled people to participate in elections in the country. The findings draw attention to the obligations of the state to promote and ensure the participation of disabled people in politics and public life in light of the recent ratification in Iceland of the UN Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities (CRPD) ; Peer Reviewed

This article discusses the phenomenon of self-harming or "non-Suicidal Self-In-jury" (nSSI). The International Society for the Study of Self-Injury defines non-sui cidal self-injury as the deliberate, self-inflicted damage of body tissue without suicidal intent and for purposes not socially or culturally sanctioned." The article discusses the cultural and social representations of self-injury, what is implied in it, who engages in it, and for what reasons. A lot can be deduced from interviews with self-harmers who use it to gain control over bad feelings and stress, by hurting their body and participating in risky behaviour. This dangerous activity often has more complicated sides with reference to rituals and spiritual associations to bloodletting, cleansing of all evil and healing, absolution and much wanted peace of mind. Finally, the changes in self-harming discourse and channels of communication are discussed. It has opened up during the last two decades with the arrival of social media. The self-harmers have built their own subcultures with special aesthetics and often preferring theatrical staging or performances instead of verbal expres-sion. These channels can have an uncanny power and influence over young and vulnerable people. The conclusion of the article is that all this requires an informed discussion as a special world, a special angst which is expressing itself in ways that might develop into suicidal behaviour if it is not taken seriously.

The article attempts to consider the political and legal crisis that has been going on in Belarus for almost a year, in the context of the relationship between its causes and the quality of public administration. To this end, the authors identify modern approaches to understanding good governance. The indicators of management quality developed by authoritative international structures are indicated, on the basis of which it is possible not only to give an objective assessment of the quality of management in Belarus, but also to identify the most problematic positions. As shown in the paper, the main disadvantage of the quality of governance in Belarus is its authoritarian nature, which is manifested in the disregard for people's opinions and accountability. The process of gradual establishment of an authoritarian regime in the republic by means of the analysis of the chronology of the social and political events that took place in the republic during the last decades is clearly shown. In the final part of the work, the author draws attention to the factors that give stability to those regimes that can be attributed to information autocracies. In particular, it is the existence of state property and control over it as an instrument of power retention. The issue of its effectiveness (for example, state-owned enterprises) is not a priority for the country's leadership. The next factor is the presence of control over the political influence of deputies, checking the loyalty of people's deputies. In the system of government formed in Belarus, all elected officials, from village council deputies to parliament, are rigorously selected for their loyalty and lack of ambition. After that, they easily move from the vertical to the representative bodies (and back), occupying leadership positions in structures that mimic civil society. Finally, the third factor is the government's permanent desire to control the entire public sphere and the information space. The driving forces that have the potential to gradually weaken the ...

Książka stanowi tom studiów autorstwa polskich i zagranicznych językoznawców poświęcony zmianom we współczesnych językach słowiańskich, szczególnie widocznym w słownictwie i słowotwórstwie. Uwzględnienie aspektu stylowo-funkcjonalnego w rozwoju leksyki pozwala lepiej zrozumieć dynamikę zmian językowych i skuteczność działań komunikacyjnych. Celowościowy i pragmatyczny charakter zachowań komunikacyjnych ujawnia się szeroko w uwzględnionych przez Autorów kontekstach społecznych, politycznych i kulturowych. Prace zostały pogrupowane w trzy działy tematyczne: - Zjawiska, procesy i tendencje rozwojowe w słownictwie specjalistycznym (terminologii); - Dynamika mechanizmów słowotwórczych i leksykalnych; - Zmiany leksykalne we współczesnej komunikacji językowej i dyskursie. Wyodrębnione działy pomagają uporządkować przedstawioną w tomie problematykę, wskazując na dominantę tematyczną w poszczególnych tekstach. Zakresy tych grup nie są jednak ostre, złożona i wielowarstwowa problematyka tendencji i zmian we współczesnym słownictwie słowiańskim jest omawiana w różnym stopniu w każdym z wydzielonych działów. W większości prac zastosowano podejście konfrontatywne, pozostałe stanowią podstawę do takiego ujęcia. Do badań wykorzystany został bogaty materiał języków słowiańskich: polskiego, czeskiego, słowackiego, białoruskiego, rosyjskiego, ukraińskiego, bułgarskiego, słoweńskiego, a także innych języków, jak np. nowogreckiego. ; This volume of studies by Polish and international linguists is devoted to changes in modern Slavic languages, which are especially noticeable in the spheres of vocabulary and word formation. Taking into consideration the stylistic and functional aspect of lexis development allows for a better understanding of the dynamics of language change and the efficacy of communicational acts. The purposeful and pragmatic character of communicational behaviour manifests itself widely in the social, political and cultural contexts considered by the Authors. The works comprising the volume are divided into three thematic sections: - Phenomena, processes and tendencies in the development of specialist lexis (terminology); - Word formation and lexical mechanisms dynamics; - Lexical change in modern language communication and discourse. The sections help organize the volume by highlighting the dominant theme in particular texts. The scopes of the sections are, nevertheless, not sharply delineated – each section is to an equal extent devoted to the complex and multifaceted subject-matter of the tendencies and changes in modern Slavic vocabulary. Most of the works comprised in the volume adopt a contrastive approach, the remaining ones can serve as bases for contrastive studies. The text analyse the rich material of the Slavic languages – Polish, Czech, Slovak, Belarusian, Russian, Ukrainian, Bulgarian and Slovene – as well as of other languages, like Modern Greek. ; Publikacja finansowana ze środków Instytutu Slawistyki Polskiej Akademii Nauk