Suchergebnisse

The first level of the present work is methodologically concerned with the planned Prague corpus of spoken Czech. Spoken texts are recorded, fixed in writing and arranged according to linguistic and sociological criteria and evaluated. The goal is to sketch the current situation in spoken Czech from the recordings and thus to contribute to the above-mentioned discussion about the relationship between ST vs. ST. GT. The second level of this study complements the evaluation of the linguistic material. Sociological data collected by questionnaires and data provided by the same speakers in the field of ST: 1) knowledge (cognition); 2) degree of positive evaluation; 3) but above all the readiness (Konation) of the speaker for use of the ST examined. The attitude of the Czechs to their standard language, secondary to their Koine, is here in the foreground. This publication makes an important contribution to the intensified discussions about Standard Czech and Common Czech (Bohemian Koiné) since the political change in the Czech Republic.

This volume assesses the formation of Croatian national identity in the 1990s. It develops a novel framework calling into question both primordial and modernist approaches to nationalism and national identity before applying that framework to Croatia. In doing so it provides a new way of thinking about how national identity is formed and why it is so important. An explanation is given of how Croatian national identity was formed in the abstract, via a historical narrative that traces centuries of yearning for a national state. The book shows how the government, opposition parties, dissident intellectuals and diaspora groups offered alternative accounts of this narrative in order to legitimise contemporary political programmes based on different visions of national identity. It then looks at how these debates were manifested in social activities as diverse as football and religion, economics and language. This volume marks an important contribution to both the way we study nationalism and national identity, and our understanding of post-Yugoslav politics and society.

Introduction: This study examined the use of helmets in adults, adolescents, and children in a western Canadian province that has no helmet legislation. Methods: A prospective survey of cyclists in two urban Alberta regions was completed. Cyclist demographics, helmet wearing and helmet use were recorded. Results: Helmets were observed in 2,259 (55%; 99% CI: 52–57) of 4,141 cyclists; however, only 75% (CI 71, 78) were wearing the helmet properly. Patterns of use varied according to age: 75% (CI 71, 78) of children, 29% (CI 23, 34) of adolescents, and 52% (CI 49, 55) of adults wore helmets. Percentages were higher in Calgary than Edmonton (63% vs. 45%; p<0.0001) and females wore helmets more often (64% vs. 50%; p<0.0001). Discussion: These results identify large within- and between-region variation in the use of cycling helmets in Alberta. Injury prevention planners need to use these data to adopt interventions that are focused on age groupings, gender, and place of residence

This paper examines risk, return and the prospects for portfolio diversification among major painting and financial markets over the period 1976-2001. The art markets examined are Contemporary Masters, French Impressionists, Modern European, 19th Century European, Old Masters, Surrealists, 20th Century English and Modern US paintings. The financial markets comprise US Treasury bills, corporate and government bonds and small and large company stocks. In common with the literature in this area, the study finds that the returns on paintings are much lower and the risks much higher than conventional nvestment markets. Moreover, while low correlations of returns suggest that opportunities for portfolio diversification in art works alone and in conjunction with equity markets exist, the construction of Markowitz mean-variance efficient portfolios indicates that no diversification gains are provided by art in financial asset portfolios. However, diversification benefits in portfolios comprised solely of art works are possible, with Contemporary Masters, 19th Century European, Old Masters and 20th Century English paintings dominating the efficient frontier during the period in question.

Examining the relations between the rise of scientific psychiatry and the emergence of mental health nursing in Dutch asylums, this study analyses the social relationships of class, gender and religion that structured asylum care in the Netherlands around 1900. Drawing on archival collections of four Dutch asylums, the book highlights the gendered nature of mental health nursing politics. Seeking to model the asylum after the forceful example of the general hospital, psychiatrists introduced new somatic treatments and designed mental nurse training which aimed at creating a nursing staff skilled in somatic care. The training system, based on the projected image of the civilized, middle-class female nurse, bringing competence and compassion to the care of the mentally ill, created new opportunities for women, while at the same time restricting the role of men in nursing. Capturing the contradictory realities of hospital-oriented asylum care, the book illustrates the social complexity of the care of the mentally ill and forms an important addition to the historiography on European psychiatry.

Closer to us in what it integrates & in its consequences, global politics still gets conceptualized as if it belonged to a realm of its own, disembedded & abstracted beyond quotidian experiences of power. Still folded in a supernatural world that cannot be of their making, as far from experience as their Cold War predecessors were, international studies (IS) students are as alienated & find it as hard to work with critical imagination. To teach students to be more than mere technicians of whatever new world order may be born of present circumstances, we have to unmake the political separation that still exists between the study & teaching of global politics & everyday life in the world economy. This article presents a record of a decade-long teaching experiment conducted in the department of political science at Laval U in Quebec City. Borrowing techniques & inspiration from the "historical avant-garde," I have worked to reinvent my pedagogical practice to create "situations" in which students can be full, unalienated subjects in the learning process. 100 References. Adapted from the source document.

This article is a study of the dynamics behind "illiberal nationalism" in post-Leninist Romania. It seeks to provide a historical institutionalist explanation for the extent to which universalist liberal political principles have proven compatible with nationalist projects in post-Leninist Romania. The author's hypothesis is that the "illiberal" character of nationalism in contemporary Romania can be traced back to the nation-building project adopted by the Leninist regime in Romania. This nation-building project sought to engineer the reconciliation between nationalism and the universalist ideology of Leninism in much the same way that nationalism and liberalism have been reconciled in the West. Paradoxically, the more successful this Leninist nation building was, the more difficult it would be for post-Leninist elites to define a liberal variant of nationalism, given how deeply Leninist principles became embedded or fused with the nation's self-image. This counterintuitive logic partially accounts for the illiberal features of nationalism in post-Leninist Romania.

Explores the role of the Soviet Bureau, the unrecognized Bolshevik embassy in the US established in Jan 1919 as part of V. I. Lenin's attempts to achieve diplomatic recognition of his regime. Ludwig C. A. K. Martens served as the unofficial Soviet ambassador to the US & led the activities of the bureau. When Martens could not obtain diplomatic recognition for Bolshevik Russia, he sought recognition by America's influential businessmen. He won concessions for eight individual investors in the early 1920s, the formation of the All-Russian Textile Syndicate in 1923, & the reestablishment of the American-Russian Chamber of Commerce in 1926. The Red Scare in 1919 & 1923, however, had distanced US businessmen from the bureau. The US refused to recognize the Russian government between 1917 & 1933; the bureau was eventually closed, & Martens voluntarily returned to Russia in lieu of deportation. His efforts, however, remain a case study on how to secure diplomatic recognition through trade relations with private investors. 2 Figures. L. A. Hoffman

Examines the degree to which domestic political opposition in Eastern & Central Europe inhibited the effectiveness of external efforts to use soft persuasion, monitoring, & stronger political conditionality in arena of ethnic politics. Case studies of ethnic policy development in 1990s Latvia, Estonia, Slovakia, & Romania, which included 76 interviews, are used to compare the influence of three European organizations -- the Organization for Security & Cooperation in Europe (OSCE), the Council of Europe (CE), & the European Union (EU) -- in the context of three variables linked to domestic political preferences: (1) domestic opposition, (2) authoritarian-style leadership, & (3) the role of ethnic minorities in parliament/government. It is argued that while important to ethnic policies, domestic political factors is not always the most decisive factor; eg, ethnic minority representation is no guarantee of policies in favor of minorities, while authoritarian leadership does not equate to an automatic rejection of ethnic accomodation. International organizations have influenced the case study countries, albeit with differing degrees of effectiveness. Well-targeted political conditionality with incentives in line with leadership goals can work. J. Zendejas