The intensity and nature of ties between the Church and political parties was covered by a rich literature. However, we know relatively little about why the Church would support a newly emerged political party formed in a competitive space, in which other parties had in the past enjoyed the Church's support. This article aims to explain why many members of the Romanian Orthodox Church campaigned for the Alliance for the Union of Romanians (AUR) in the 2020 legislative elections. Our analysis relies on 18 semi-structured interviews conducted with Orthodox priests from different parts of the country. The findings illustrate that the traditionalist priests supported the party. These priests felt cornered by the existing anti-clerical attitudes in Romanian society, declared themselves disappointed by the mainstream parties for abandoning the Church, and perceived the EU as a threat to the traditional Romanian values and way of life.
This research investigates digitally mediated diasporic formations. It focuses on the role of mothering experiences in diaspora-making by looking at three migrant communities in the Netherlands—Romanian, Somali, and Turkish—and their uses of digital media. The aim of the dissertation is to show how mainly Amsterdam-based mothers from the three communities choose and use certain digital and social media platforms in order to strengthen their diasporic connections, both locally and transnationally. Drawing from feminist and migration studies, I propose the concept of diasporic mothering to emphasize how migrant mothers build communities through work of cultural reproduction, collective identity construction, and stable homemaking practices. I argue for the understanding of diasporas in the context of changing political, historical, and social contexts. By privileging an ethnographic perspective and taking a non-media-centric approach, I show how not only digital media, but also the material dimensions of everyday practices shape how migrants connect, both transnationally and with each other within the diaspora community. Following these theoretical and methodological considerations, I define digital diasporas as heterogeneous and dynamic communities, marked by the intersection of gender, class, race, and ethnic differentiation, and embedded in everyday social interactions, in material and digital spaces. The empirical part of the dissertation is based on one year of fieldwork with the three diasporic communities, in which the relation between digital diaspora formation and diasporic mothering practices was further explored. In the case of the Romanian community, I show how highly skilled migrant mothers mainly engage in diaspora formation via efforts toward aimed at the maintenance of family ties and heritage language transmission. I particularly emphasize how class and homeland politics are of high relevance for how these processes happen, both online and offline. In the Turkish case, I discuss the interplay between class and religion in how mothers participate differently in diaspora formation. I argue that homeland politics represent the terrain on which these divisions mainly play out, with privacy concerns structuring the digital mediation of diaspora groups. Finally, in the Somali analysis, I show how, despite classed differentiation, Somali mothers from different groups come together in diasporic formations. These encounters are shaped by the community's diasporic memory of its tense relationship with Dutch child protection authorities. In addition, I argue that digital media has a secondary role in this process due to the Dutch migration policy context, which favors certain migrants' physical, local, and neighborhood-based encounters. This dissertation offers a situated perspective on (migrant) people's digitally mediated sociality. In particular, a claim is made for the centrality of women's and mothers' reproductive work for community-building practices, with the concept of diasporic mothering seen as significant for the understanding of diasporic mobilizations. This gendered focus together with its non-media-centric approach aligns this dissertation with a larger humanities-based, feminist, and interdisciplinary tradition that critically unpacks the social values and power dynamics behind different technological advancements.
This article examines Ochire istorică asupra sclăviei (A brief historical survey of slavery), a mid-nineteenth-century pioneering study about the history of slavery, to ascertain the growing influence of anti-slavery ideas in the framing of the new Romantic historical discourse about Roma slavery in the Romanian principalities. The study, written by the leading Romanian historian, writer, journalist, and liberal statesman Mihail Kogălniceanu (1817–1891), was published in 1853 in a censored edition and has received only limited scholarly attentiondue to its incomplete form (the full version of the original article has yet to be published). The present paper intends to provide a critical reflection on the main features of Kogălniceanu's analysis of the institution of slavery in the Romanian principalities by exploring the author's multilayered interest in the question of Roma slavery, his command of primary sources, and the underlying historical interpretation and social doctrines thatframed his investigation.
This article discusses how the right to free movement within the European Union is presented as a matter of obligation, a duty of the other EU member states, in the discourse of Romanian Presidents and Prime Ministers (2005–2015). An examination of speeches and other statements from these politicians illuminates Romanian political reactions during the period when Romania became an EU member state, and reflects perceptions of Europeanness and European agreements. These issues take on an additional contemporary significance in the context of the Brexit negotiations, and they also add to the broader debate on whether EU norms and obligations are seen as being both just and equally applied. By analysing different types of argumentative topoi, I examine the deontological (obligation-based) argumentation employed in the free movement context. Furthermore, I examine to what extent these arguments are invoked in support of the right to free movement and who this right applies to. I argue that for Romanian politicians, deontological free movement arguments are connected to other states' compliance with European treaties and to demands for equal application of European rules without discrimination, or the delegation of responsibility to others. This manifested itself most frequently in the calls for the EU and its member states to do their duty by treating Romanians equally to other EU citizens.
The present thesis examines the formation and loyalties of the Romanian officers originating from the Banat Military Border who reached the rank of general in the Austro-Hungarian army between 1870 and 1918. As such, it covers an important blind spot in English-, German-, and Romanian-language historiography as, on the one hand, it contributes a multiple case study, based on extant personal testimonies, to the historical literature on the Habsburg officer corps and, on the other hand, it validates and brings together into a coherent narrative the snippets of historical evidence invoked in Romanian bibliography on the topic. The thesis goes beyond the above-indicated time span and follows the development of the Banat Military Border from its establishment in the eighteenth century to its dissolution at the end of the nineteenth century. Particular emphasis is placed on the formative environment of the military elites under discussion, whether this means historical or legal precedent, official stereotypes, or community identity and symbolism. The Border generals are presented in their relationships to the state (in its various instantiations), the army and civil authorities, as well as in their relations with the Romanian intelligentsia of the Empire. The main goal of the thesis is to account for their sense of identity and allegiance: who were these generals? to whom were they loyal?
AbstractThis study investigated how the bullying involvement of a child and a target peer are related to empathy. The role of gender was also considered. We hypothesized that empathy primarily varies depending on the bullying role of the target peer. Participants were 264 7–12‐year‐old children (Mage = 10.02, SD = 1.00; 50% girls) from 33 classrooms who had been selected based on their bullying involvement (bully, victim, bully/victim, noninvolved) in the classroom. Participants completed a cognitive and affective empathy measure for each selected target classmate. We found no differences in cognitive and affective empathy for all targets combined based on children's own bullying involvement. However, when incorporating the targets' bullying involvement, bullies, victims, and bully/victims showed less empathy for each other than for noninvolved peers. Noninvolved children did not differentiate between bullies, victims and bully/victims. Girls reported more cognitive and affective empathy for girls than boys, whereas boys did not differentiate between girls and boys. The results indicated that children's empathy for peers depends primarily on the characteristics of the peer, such as the peer's bullying role and gender.
Includes index. ; "Substance of six lectures given at the Lowell institute of Boston, in . 1921, and afterwards published under the title 'Is American safe for democracy?' "--Foreword. ; Bibliography: p. 207-209. ; Mode of access: Internet.
