Przegląd Politologiczny, 2012, nr 3

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    Historia i pamięć zbiorowa w polityce regionalnej (casus Śląska Opolskiego)
    (Wydawnictwo Naukowe WNPiD UAM, 2012) Trzcielińska-Polus, Aleksandra
    The multicultural and multiethnic character of OEl¹sk Opolski frequently leads to emotionally heated disputes over such symbols of the past as historical monuments, anniversaries of historical events, cemeteries, signs with topographic names and so on, which is reflected in regional policy. History and collective memory are obviously used by the politicians of OEl¹sk Opolski (both by political parties and minority organizations) for their current political purposes, in order to achieve certain political interests (such as winning or retaining voters) by means of exerting an influence on the regional community or selected groups and by shaping certain attitudes and behaviors. The author refers to concrete examples of debates held in the region to explain the phenomenon of the politicization of history. She ponders the role of researchers, including political scientists, in preventing the politicization of the past and emphasizes the necessity for their taking a stand in the process of forming regional historical policy.
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    Wolność wypowiedzi a zjawisko manipulacji przekazem prasowym
    (Wydawnictwo Naukowe WNPiD UAM, 2012) Sobczak, Jacek
    The legal concept of human liberties and rights, including freedom of speech, is secondary to philosophical assumptions. Certainty of where the border between authority and freedom lies leaves the issue of the actual range of freedom unresolved. There is no, and there can be no absolute freedom, and the borders of every freedom are defined by legal regulations. This raises the question of whether a democratic state, a state of law, can make regulations in the realm of human rights and freedoms. In international relations, human rights are the foundation of all humanitarian law. There can be no violation of human rights in democratic states. The Constitution of Poland prioritizes human freedoms and rights in the constitutional hierarchy. Freedom of speech is placed particularly high in the hierarchy of liberties encompassed by human rights. Freedom of speech is guarded not only by Constitutional regulations but also detailed laws, which simultaneously establish the limits of the freedom of speech. These limits are also set by ethical norms. Journalists attempt to get around the legal limits that establish the framework of freedom and the barriers posed by codes of ethics, by means of manipulation of press releases. Manipulating society, journalists become a tool of authorities that are frequently not elected, not sovereign and are in fact acting on behalf of entities that remain anonymous and whose goals are undisclosed.
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    Państwowa, narodowa, społeczna, partyjna? Nauczanie historii w szkołach publicznych – studium przypadku
    (Wydawnictwo Naukowe WNPiD UAM, 2012) Kałużna, Joanna
    A canon of historical monuments, national holidays, names of streets, the provision of state financing to certain scientific and research centers, supporting initiatives to commemo- rate events and individuals, and building museums are only selected aspects of the historical policy of a state, approached as a detailed policy. This paper concerns another aspect of this policy, namely non-academic state education. A long-term educational reform was launched on September 1, 2009. It provides for the changes to be fully implemented by September 2014. They will concern a number of fields, but there is one that has become the core of a pe- culiar political conflict – the reform in teaching history. The paper presents the conflict, its turning points and, first and foremost, its rhetoric – the character of statements, selection of vocabulary and ways of evoking the right associations employed by both parties to the con- flict. The paper also discusses the assumptions of the reform and indicates the most important legal acts and statements by the Minister of National Education, thereby providing a legal framework for the arguments of the conflicting parties.
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    Polityczność sztuki. Analiza pracy Zbigniewa Libery pt. LEGO. Obóz koncentracyjny z 1996 roku
    (Wydawnictwo Naukowe WNPiD UAM, 2012) Lorenc, Magdalena
    The objective of the paper is to analyze Zbigniew Libera’s Lego. Concentration Camp from 1996, which is considered to be one of the most important Polish works of art in the 1990s. Lego exemplifies the problem of the politicality of art which consists of art’s involvement in politics. The considerations on the permeation of the fields of politics and esthetics constitute a sig- nificant part of the work of French philosopher Jacques Ranciere, whose concepts provide the theoretical foundations for the analysis of Libera’s Lego. The juxtaposition of toys with the symbol of the Holocaust raises questions about the role of art in uncovering the discourse of power as understood by Michel Foucault, the influence of public policies (cultural, educational policies and the policy towards the past) on art and the borders of commercialization and trivialization of the symbols of collective memory. Libera’s Lego is a transgressive work, representing the trend of so-called critical art in modern Polish art. The artist used artistic methods to break the cultural taboo that concerns the presentation of the non-presentable. Libera showed the past and the present, the former by re- ferring to the topic of the Holocaust, indicating the pragmatism of the Nazi system, and the lat- ter by uncovering the laws of the teaching process, carried out by means of repeating patterns. Above all, however, Libera showed that artistic activity can be a form of expressing interests and can influence the shape of public policies.
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    Kojenie obrazem, leczenie snem. Konstruowanie pamięci o Zagładzie w polskich filmach fabularnych po 1989 roku
    (Wydawnictwo Naukowe WNPiD UAM, 2012) Forecki, Piotr
    In the period between the end of World War II and the late 1980s the Polish film industry produced nearly twenty films on the Holocaust which approached the topic within secure lim- its. Those films that were permitted to be shown did not disturb the good feeling of the na- tional community, did not refer to the Polish version of anti-Semitism, and first and foremost avoided the sensitive issue of Polish society’s attitude to the annihilation of the Jews. Each film complied with the then current historical policy, which either treated this issue instru- mentally or simply ignored it. After 1989, both historiography and cinematography began to fill in the blank spots and address topics that were formerly forbidden, taboo or distorted in the official state discourse. Due to the abolishment of political restrictions and the liberation of public discourse, Polish cinematography embarked upon a belated examination of conscience and revision of the memories of the Holocaust cultivated till then. At least it seemed so. Has it actually happened, though? Have Polish filmmakers actually taken the trouble to deconstruct the myths, fill in the gaps and correct the deformed Polish memories of the Holocaust? Even if the answers to these superficial questions are affirmative, at least in terms of their intentions, what has become of it? This paper is an attempt to identify how the memory of the Holocaust has been constructed in Polish feature movies since 1989.
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    Relacje polsko-rosyjskie w retoryce politycznej obchodów rocznic zbrodni katyńskiej po 1989 roku. Perspektywa politolingwistyczna
    (Wydawnictwo Naukowe WNPiD UAM, 2012) Czubaj-Kuźmin, Sylwia
    Polish-Russian relations seem to be heavily burdened by historical experience. History in- fluences the present not only indirectly, via historical facts, but also via the ways of commem- orating them. Referring to their memories, social groups strengthen the sense of their own uniqueness and cultural identity. One of the ways to commemorate events are anniversary celebrations accompanied by a certain political rhetoric. The author analyzes the texts, press releases, commentaries and an- niversary speeches given by politicians to commemorate the Katyñ massacre published by the „Gazeta Wyborcza” and „Rzeczpospolita” daily in April 1990, 2000 and 2010. Among the figures of memory identified in the analyzed texts which are typical of the Pol- ish-Russian dialogue concerning the Katyñ issue over the period of 1990–2010, there prevails a certain group of topoi appropriated by the language of politics from Christianity, and pre- cisely from the sacrament of confession. These topoi are based on reconciliation and compen- sation. Other topoi involve those of a victim, righteous Russian or a common field of memory.
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    Rosyjskie jubileusze jako zjawiska retoryczno-ironiczne
    (Wydawnictwo Naukowe WNPiD UAM, 2012) Hordecki, Bartosz
    The objective of the paper is to present Russian anniversaries that commemorate impor- tant historical events as phenomena with a dual, rhetorical and ironic character. Rhetoric and irony are used with reference to individuals as well as imagined communi- ties, such as nations. The memory of some historical events, or the lack of such memory, as well as the manners of referring to these events or ignoring them, result in the transformation of what community members think about themselves and their entanglement in common exis- tence and fate. Therefore, changes of remembrance and oblivion, recollection or forgetting can integrate or disintegrate, intensifying the pride or shame of one’s national identity, which eventually results in satisfaction or frustration, and sometimes in a sense of superiority or infe- riority. Pride and satisfaction are produced by rhetoric, while shame and frustration – by irony. Sometimes rhetorical-ironic playing with the past assumes particular significance, becom- ing an exceptionally important factor in social and political life. This phenomenon strongly intensified in Russia in the beginning of the 20th century, becoming a veritable ‘anniver- sary-mania’, and in 2012, which President of the Russian Federation, Dmitry Medvedev, de- clared the Year of Russian History. The periods analyzed in the paper are around one hundred years apart. Russian society has totally changed over this period, mainly as a result of the revolution, two world wars and sev- eral decades of communist rule. In 1990, the Russian Federation was established, a state with an authoritarian-democratic hybrid of a political system. Despite these transformations, mod- ern Russians repeat numerous set behavioral patterns from the beginning of the 20th century. These patterns are used by the advocates of affirmative as well as critical approaches to the history of Russia and the current social and political situation in the country.
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    Kościół katolicki wobec pamięci zbiorowej Polaków. Ciągłość i zmiana
    (Wydawnictwo Naukowe WNPiD UAM, 2012) Stachowiak, Paweł
    The paper attempts to present the leading objectives and motives of the ‘Church’s policy of memory’ before and after 1989. The author states that, like many other institutions of public life, the Catholic Church implements its own policy to shape the collective memory of Poles, both in terms of legitimization and content. At the time of the Polish People’s Republic, the first and foremost objective of the ‘Church’s memory policy’ was to counteract the activities of the communist authorities, which were carrying out a project to restrict the Church’s influ- ence to the narrowly understood field of the priesthood and which ultimately aimed at the atheization of Polish society. The emphasis on the historical symbiosis of Polishness and Ca- tholicism served the purpose of defending the traditional form of Polish religiousness and pro- viding the Church with social support in the struggle to maintain the public dimension of its influence. Despite the change in language, the present objective of the Church’s historical narration appears similar: to oppose these aspects of secularization trends that drive the Church away from public space and so intensifying the phenomenon of the privatization of faith. Whether in the past or present, the Church’s vision of the past is to secure its own stability as an institu- tion and retain the role of a significant factor contributing to the national and state conscience of Poles.
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    Homo sovieticus – „jednowymiarowy klient komunizmu”, czy „fenomen o wielu twarzach”?
    (Wydawnictwo Naukowe WNPiD UAM, 2012) Kania, Eliza
    The paper analyzes a symbolic notion that entered Polish political discourse at the time of political transformation, namely the notion of homo sovieticus. The author emphasizes a di- chotomy in how this notion has been presented in Poland and in the Soviet Union, and later in the Russian Federation. In Poland this symbol was primarily assigned all the negative features associated with the pre-transformation society and with soviet ‘communism’ (Rev. J. Tisch- ner). In Russia, the associations most frequently evoked by the notion of homo sovieticus were more varied (A. Zinovjev, S. Alieksiyewich, W. Yerofieyev). Ideological zeal, or commit- ment to the ethos of work, were referred to more often there. Czes3aw Milosz presented an- other interesting approach to the topic, interpreting homo sovieticus more in terms of a victim of the ‘totalitarian system’ while emphasizing the issue of violence – both symbolic and sub- jective, and the uniformization of society (which had a considerable impact on ‘shaping’ the social mass as desired by the authorities). The paper attempts to stress the fact that the notion of homo sovieticus or soviet man is fre- quently refused the right to an actual identity, as it is mainly associated with the negative as- pects of human nature. It is forgotten that an individual identity is the sum total of many factors: its self-identification and placement, the collective self-consciousness of the group, the historical conditions or axiological system prevailing and socially accepted in a given his- torical period.
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    Europejski podręcznik historii jako próba wypracowania wspólnej pamięci zbiorowej obywateli Unii Europejskiej
    (Wydawnictwo Naukowe WNPiD UAM, 2012) Lesiewicz, Elżbieta
    The Euro-handbook and common collective memory of Europeans are the two topics of considerations in this paper. As indicated by its title, the author assumes that there is no com- mon collective memory of the residents of Europe and that a common handbook for European history has failed to be written so far. The considerations are divided into two parts. The first focuses on the common collective memory and related issues, the second presents a number of controversies over a common handbook for the history of European Union citizens. The con- cept of a common European memory is relatively new, and since it emerged it has been a pro- ject to be realized, a reality to be created, by making references to various social, cultural, historical, political, moral and economic categories. Memory is one of the most important fac- tors in building community: a familial, linguistic, national, religious and territorial commu- nity. Therefore, the policy of the European Union is to a large extent concentrated on building a ‘collective memory’. This is about the Europeanization of culture and symbolization of pub- lic space which supports a sense of familiarity, and the consciousness that there is a common spiritual and intellectual European heritage. It is, however, difficult to develop a common Eu- ropean memory since that collective memory is divided; it is a conglomerate of different per- spectives and different versions. This obstacle makes it impossible to write a common handbook of European history. The Old Continent can hope for a divided or dialogue mem- ory, that is for an agreed memory that goes beyond a national horizon. Memory understood in this way could become a foundation for a Euro-handbook taking into account various histori- cal experiences and interpretations of events. If such an agreed handbook were written it could play a significant role in shaping the common memory policy. Therefore, there is a need for a wise and modern history handbook, where teaching would serve reconciliation. The out- come of such teaching is to involve tolerance and peaceful coexistence.
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    Tożsamość i pamięć zbiorowa w badaniach politologicznych
    (Wydawnictwo Naukowe WNPiD UAM, 2012) Lipiński, Artur
    The social sciences have experienced an unprecedented interest in the issue of collective memory dating back at least to the 1990s. There has been a veritable avalanche of studies into this topic, editorial series and periodicals have appeared devoted exclusively to it. Simulta- neously, an analysis of the literature on this topic shows that collective memory is not a partic- ularly frequent subject of political science research. It is therefore routine in many works of political scientists to acknowledge the limited number of studies on memory. All that does not mean that the trend has not begun slowly to change. The number of texts on the political as- pects of memory is systematically growing, there are editorial series and monographic issues of scientific periodicals concerning the issue of memory or the political instrumentalization of history. Political scientists are also co-authors of collective works and periodicals of an inter- disciplinary character. The objective of this paper is to analyze a single, but highly influential, issue related to political science research into memory, namely the topic of identity perceived from the perspective of collective memory. The purpose is not so much the exhaustive presen- tation of all the surveys into memory and collective identity in the field of political science but rather establishing the set of main concepts, themes and issues explored by political science literature written in English.
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    Politologia – nauka w drodze
    (Wydawnictwo Naukowe WNPiD UAM, 2012) Wolff-Powęska, Anna
    The paper presents the thesis that the interdisciplinarity of political science as a science, open to the accomplishments in the field of social sciences and humanities enriches this disci- pline. On the one hand, the enormous expansion of knowledge enforces specialization. On the other hand, there is a constant exchange of thought and methodological experience that takes place for fear of becoming isolated. Globalization – the new quality of international life – forces us to continuously exceed the limits of traditional theoretical orientations. Scientific pluralism raises the question of who and when has the right to decide on the superiority of one scientific model over another. The present state of research into the status of political science allows us to observe that the research instruments of politics, the process of permanently changing the world, must be flexible. The history of the social sciences confirms the continu- ous interdependency of particular disciplines and acknowledges political science as an impor- tant link in the chain of evolution of science.