The ethnic landscape in the Baltic States is dominated by one large ethnic minority: Russians. Lithuania is an exception as here the first biggest ethnic minority are Poles, followed by Russians. The Baltic States have also significant Slavic minorities, such as Belarusians and Ukrainians. There are many barriers for people from different ethnic groups to overcome because the Baltic societies are segregated according to ethnicity across a number of dimensions: language, work and geography. During the Soviet period there were separate language schools, a system that reinforced ethnic separation. Labor market was also split along ethnic lines and a large proportion of ethnic minorities lived spatially segregated from the majority group and was concentrated mostly in urban centers. The impact of communist heritage and the construction of the post-communist state order had a negative impact on the integration process of the Russian minorities in those countries. The ethnic Russians had been heavily marginalized as many of them had no citizenship at all. As a result, they had limited access to labor-market and less social protection. However, the accession of the Baltic States to the European Union (EU) has succeeded in significantly changing policies with respect for and protection of minorities in the three Baltic countries. In the last years the ethnic Russians have in fact been partially accommodated through the consistency of the citizenship laws with the European Union norms, which precisely require the protection of minorities and respect for them. The aim of the study described herein is to investigate the historic roots of ethnic segregation between the native Baltic population and the Russian minority and show how the entry of the Baltic States into the EU has facilitated the process of promoting minority rights, especially from the perspective of granting citizenship right to Russian (and Polish) ethnic persons living in those countries.

W ostatnich latach filmowcy średniego pokolenia chętnie pokazywali przemoc poprzez jej ujęcie gatunkowe: czy to w thrillerach (filmach o seryjnych zabójcach), czy filmach kryminalnych. Najmłodsze pokolenie filmowe - urodzone w latach osiemdziesiątych - spogląda na ten motyw z zupełnie innej perspektywy. Młodzi twórcy unikają konwencji gatunkowych, przełamując - estetycznie i fabularnie - dotychczas dominujący w rodzimej kinematografii obraz przemocy i stawiając przed nim nowe zadania. W artykule przyglądam się sposobom obrazowania śmierci w najmłodszym kinie, z zaznaczeniem filmowych i społecznych kontekstów oraz analizą ich funkcji. Przedstawiam reprezentacje zabijania w ramach trzech strategii: heroicznej atrakcyjności, arthouse’owej dosadności i generacyjnej diagnozy. Heroiczną atrakcyjność opisuję na przykładzie dwóch filmów o powstaniu warszawskim - Miasto 44 (2014, J. Komasa) oraz Baczyński (2013, K. Piwowarski) - w których estetyzowana śmierć zostaje pokazana jako najwyższy model poświęcenia dla ojczyzny, a jednocześnie pełni rolę atrakcji. Na antypodach takiego obrazu figuruje strategia kina artystycznego, w której zabójstwo ukazane jest jako bezsensowny akt przemocy. Analizy tego motywu, estetycznie wzorowanego na konwencjach zachodniego kina arthouse’owego, dokonuję na przykładzie Placu zabaw (2016, B.M. Kowalski) i Hardkor disko (2014, K. Skonieczny). Za pośrednictwem trzeciego sposobu pokazywania zabijania - występującego w: Obietnicy (2014, A. Kazejak), Reakcji łańcuchowej (2017, J. Pączek) i Bejbi Blues (2012, K. Rosłaniec) - twórcy próbują rysować obyczajowy i psychologiczny portret danej generacji. W artykule szczegółowo analizuję powyższe strategie ukazywania śmierci i reprezentacje obrazów przemocy w najnowszej kinematografii, aby ukazać je jako odmienne na tle dotychczasowych tradycji kina polskiego.

Adaptation of generations in post-Soviet countries to most radical social changes

The article inquiries into the influence of age on the adaptation to changes among post-Soviet societies. The analysis of secondary data from survey research conducted in representative research samples in post-soviet republics was used in the research. Survey data from Russia (N=992), Belarus (N=1034), Moldova (N=970) and Ukraine (N=1000) was analyzed. The results show that the age facilitates positive adaptation. Younger generations had a higher level of happiness, evaluated their financial situation, their standing in the social hierarchy and prospects for the future better. The highest level of satisfaction with democracy was noted in Belarus and Russia. Lower marks were given by the citizens of Moldova, whereas the biggest disappointment was noticed in Ukraine. The Russians and the Belarusians followed by the Moldovans were located on high positions on the continuum of adaptation to social changes, but the Ukrainians managed to adapt to the system to the lowest degree.

Celem artykułu jest analiza i interpretacja danych uzyskanych drogą badań sondażowych na temat funkcji wychowawczej rodziny. W zmieniającej się rzeczywistości społeczno-kulturowej, w perspektywie politycznych decyzji w państwie, rodzina jako podstawowa komórka socjalizująca jednostki, aby spełniała swoje funkcje, zmienia się. Analizowane dane pokazują obraz zmian poglądów badanych, pokazują zmiany w systemie wartościowania i ujawniają motywacje badanych. Ramy teoretyczne artykułu stanowi teoria światopoglądu i teoria standardu kulturowego Krzysztofa J. Brozi.

The Influence of Political Processes and the War in Ukraine on the Formation of Generation Alpha and the iGeneration (Z): Defining Specific Features

The article attempts to analyse and define the specific features of the iGeneration (Z) and Generation Alpha in Ukraine in the context of the political processes and the war taking place in Ukrainian society. The article discusses the generation issues, taking into account the characteristics of the iGeneration (Z) and Generation Alpha. Assuming that a generation is an identifiable group of people who share a similar time of birth and significant events at critical stages of development, the article presents an original approach to determining the specific features of the iGeneration (Z) and Generation Alpha in Ukraine. The Orange Revolution (2004), the Revolution of Dignity (2014) and the hybrid war (2014-2022) and Russian-Ukrainian war (from 24.02.2022) had a significant impact on the formation of the iGeneration (Z) and Generation Alpha in Ukraine.

Tackling biography. Building religious identity amidst the discontinuity of intergenerational transmission

The article explores the issues of searching for identity in the third post-war Polish Jew generation. Its purpose is to try to reconstruct the experience of becoming a religious Jew and choosing the Jewish path during adolescence faced with missing or incomplete transmission of intergenerational cultural heritage. The two biographies were investigated in terms of the educational paths of their narrators, primarily informal education, independent gaining of cultural (religious) knowledge, as well as the opportunities and limitations of formal Jewish education in Poland. The research was based on the biographical method, unstructured/in-depth interviews. The article consists of four main parts: 1. the application of the biographical method to own research; 2. the social context of the biography of the “unexpected generation”; 3. two biographical exemplifications; 4. the portrayal of the narrators’ struggles in building their own path in religious education. The exemplifications provided by the two biographies help identify the process of “becoming a religious Jew” in the “found generation”, illustrate individual biographical events and common biographical sequences. Furthermore, the article pinpoints the so-called biographical anchors, including prominent figures, religious authorities, minority organisations, and accessibility of religious education in Polish conditions – factors that contribute to the rise of the “cultural self”.

Generational Specificity of Socio-Political Transformation in Georgia: Between Tradition and Modernity

The article’s purpose is to analyse the generational transformation and outline the characteristics of individual generations. Moreover, the concept of V. Papava indicating generational trends was juxtaposed. The analysis characterises the young generation of Georgians in relation to other generations. I used research methods to solve this research problem based partly on secondary sources. The basic research methods used in the article are the method of analysing existing data and the comparative method, which allowed for juxtaposing the division into generations proposed by V. Papava with the general characteristics of global generation trends. Secondary statistical data studies from the Caucasus Research Resource Center completed the other methods, allowing for a more in-depth analysis of the generations. This article is a snapshot of studies on the generational transformation of Georgian society and is part of a series of articles on the young generation of Georgians and their opinions about democracy and democratisation.

Intergenerational solidarity: anachronism or a chance for modern dimension of sustainable social responsibility?

This work is an attempt to answer the question whether in times of crises, digitalisation and the mediatization of social bonds the idea of intergenerational solidarity is still valid. The authoress provocatively questions the thoughts on social responsibility for the fate of the next generation. At the same time she wonders what the modern face of family interpersonal relationships in society is; sees a change, opportunities and threats. Reveals the best practices, based on which young people can promote intergenerational solidarity at local and regional levels and presents her point of view in terms of promoting effective solutions to exploit the potential of older people.

Literature is a social fact and as such it can be one of the ways to interpret social reality. Therefore, the literature published after the year 2000, with reference to sociological studies on young generation, is found to be an interesting source of knowledge on behavior, attitudes and values presented by young Poles. The article as a contribution to the discussion on the role of literature as “the mirror” of social life is limited to young people as observers (the youngest generation of Polish writers) and as the observed (experiences and problems of young Poles at the beginning of the 21st century). Its introductory part deals with the problem of perception of social life from the angle of literature, and refers to the concept of the considered generation in sociological literature. Its main part presents the sketch for the portrait of fictional young Poles, their lifestyle and values based on the literary fiction. At the same time, this artistic image is compared to the existing sociological data. The use of the latter is subject to the problem key applied in the analysis of the selected novels.

Youth and the values of the democratic social order. A report from dynamic and comparative studies

The text is a presentation of the preliminary results of team research on the attitude of students towards the value of the renewal of social order, reconstructed in Piotr Sztompka’s “renewal decalogue”. On the basis of the results of the exploration carried out 30 years ago on “Youth in relation to the values and norms of social life”, a new scientific research was designed. It was carried out at several Polish and Ukrainian universities, in a group of students from several faculties. Ten values and forty norms of social life were assessed twice on a six-point scale. The respondents were first asked to indicate to what extent they considered certain values of social life as personally important and how they influenced their lives in various social situations. Then, they had to assess to what extent the given norms are noticed in their environment and are present in contemporary social life. The research report contains the results of the exploration of only a part of the study cohort, 272 students of pedagogy from Polish universities and 91 students from pedagogical universities in Ukraine. The obtained results were additionally compared with those obtained three decades earlier in a group of students of the same faculty.