Neuropsychological and neuroimaging evidence convincingly implicates the left cerebral hemisphere in the representation of skilled movements (praxis) in right-handers. Compelling and consistent data on the organization of praxis in left-handed individuals has only recently started to emerge. This new evidence, again both from neuropsychology and neuroimaging, supports the notion that in left-handers the neural substrate of praxis skills is less asymmetric, i.e., it is more bilaterally organized. Up until recently, though, the neuropsychological literature on brain-damaged left-handers was often dominated by descriptions of more or less atypical cases and dissociations of functions observed in such individuals. Associations of deficits, linked to anatomic proximity rather than to a common cerebral specialization, were rarely found worth publishing and/or in-depth discussions. This paper first reviews some of the most relevant and/or well-known reports on representations of different categories of skilled manual gestures in right- and left-handers, with a view to support the idea that these skills are mediated by a common system. Then, based on neuroimaging evidence from healthy subjects, a few individuals with unusual organization of praxis are discussed. These disparate cases quite likely represent natural variation in functional asymmetries. It is yet to be determined whether the effect of a more bilateral organization of cognitive skills in this population is just due to a much higher incidence of atypical representations of functions or rather a general tendency for all left-handers to have their brains less asymmetrically organized.

The article presents a unusual take on the subject of culture not from the point of view its internal, abstract, immeasurable, yet accessible to cognition content, but from the point of view of its vehicles, or artifacts. The author of the text placed language among the most important external manifestations of culture and focused on how the relationship between language and culture works in practice. The article is divided into three parts, each focused on a different aspect of this relationship. The first one presents a series of theories on meaning and the material and immaterial manifestations of culture as discussed in the humanities. The second one is devoted to physical and corporeal meanings of language. The author presents observations in the field of semiotics which were initiated in the classical era and experimentally confirmed in twentieth-century studies. The third part of the article focuses on the issue of meaning as a biological phenomenon. The author deliberates on the meanings in language that stem from the sounds of words, articulation, and their psychological dimension.

The essay deals with Montesquieu’s methodology of history. My crucial assumption is that Montesquieu intends to cultivate history as science. In the 18th century this ambition meant that he wanted to use the analytical method in the field of history. His works include many examples of the successful exploitation of analysis. Since the philosopher does not consider his methods, my aim will be to extract from his works the ideas that stand behind his historical investigations. In other words, I am going to answer how history can be practiced as science (in the Enlightenment sense of this term). First of all, I am going to explain why analysis was – and still is – so efficient in a realm of natural phenomena. My point will be that it indicated to early modern scientist how they should conduct their experiments. On the other hand, experiments give advantage to scientists due to the fact that they are able to construct and control their object. To put it differently: analysis and experiments are efficient because truth and action are convertible. Now, my crucial question is: ‘Are historians capable of gaining advantage over their objects as physicists are?’ Giambattista Vico, for example, agrees. According to him, researchers can comprehend historical events because history is man-made. Some parts of Montesquieu’s works indicate that he shares Vico’s assumptions. Hence, historians are able to scrutinize past factors, and they can perform thought experiments. Such experiments are means for validating and abolishing hypotheses by using counterfactuals.

The purpose of this article is the presentation of the results of the research conducted in Poland on the effectiveness of music education realised in accordance with the assumptions of Edwin Elias Gordon’s Theory of Music Learning, which holds an important place in the existing systems of common music education. Gordon pays attention to the need of undertaking the earliest possible music interactions when it comes to children. Some observations conducted among pregnant women and infants during music activities being realised in accordance with the assumptions of Gordon’s theory showed that infants display some reactions indicating the recognition of the music presented before the birth. They also demonstrated that these children reacted to music earlier than the infants who were not musically stimulated in their prenatal period. The experimental research conducted among children at pre-school age and early-school age proved greater, compared to the traditional methods, effectiveness of the interactions resulting from Gordon’s Theory of Music Learning in the development of their music aptitudes and musical achievements1 . Moreover, they also proved that the stimulation of music aptitudes contributes to the development of children’s perceptive-motor functions especially in the context of developmental shortages compensation. Other research confirmed the validity of E.E. Gordon’s thesis about the existing relation between instrument timbre preference and the achievements in playing them.

The article presents the main issues connected with visual anthropology application in research studies carried out in non-European environment. The text is based on author’s research of the Palestinian society. The main topic of the research was connected with the understanding of safety and danger among Palestinian women. The article presents problems, challenges, and chances of using photo-interviews according to the postcolonial and intersectional contexts in social research.

In our research we are seeking for a Lower Silesian identity, we are especially interested in the Polish-German cultural heritage in social remembrance (or social oblivion). In the article our basic purpose is to provide the grounds for discussion about the presence of the sacred space in social memory (the old German Calvary as a part of contemporary Lubawka’s cultural heritage), using group interviews with visual presentations to stimulate a journey back into the past, to familiarize with the place and its images. We aim at the reconstruction of “social frames of memory”, the moments when the small sacral architecture began to lose its religious mad social power, and we also want to show young residents’ attitudes towards this process. The project also seems to have some social value because it may become an introduction to the debate on preserving the Calvary as an element of local identity.

The undeniable fact is that various social sciences and other disciplines constitute the research perspective which relates to the practice of a multidimensional phenomenon. The welfare state is an excellent example of such notion, which in its nature unifies many theoretical and practical positions. It seems, however, that the economic and political dimensions of the welfare state (as conceptual or pro-social proposals) are disproportionately exposed both on the basis of scientific reflection and pragmatic approaches used by the institutions of the state. This tendency to think in economic and political terms, which incidentally is maintained for several decades, represents: (a) only one side of a complex nature of social welfare, and (b) a significant reductionism, leading to the elimination of sociological, cultural, educational, and psychological consequences of the functioning of the welfare state. This article is designed to reverse the trend of the dominant perception of the construct of the welfare state in economic and political terms, and replace it with the highlight of the mainly sociological dimension of this phenomenon (the welfare state sociology). However, it does not mean abandonment of the economic and political dimensions in general, as they are an integral part of the issue.

The paper sets out to deconstruct two concepts featuring in the title. Firstly, a novel definition of the welfare state based on economic ownership is presented, used then throughout the paper to examine the facts behind the widespread view of the welfare state finding itself in a crisis. Upon scrutiny, it turns out that empirical evidence to support the thesis under investigation is weak at best; neither globalisation nor Europeanization bring about any significant quantitative or qualitative worsening of welfare parameters. In addition, it is imperative not to put all the welfare states into one bag, as they in fact represent a plethora of diverse social-protection regimes.

Looming crisis, public discontent with privatization, and widening inequalities are factors which have historically set the electorate in favour of social democratic welfare policies. Today, however, these concerns rather appear to support new right-wing populist countermovements, even in the traditionally progressive Nordic countries. This article asks why there is not more explicit support of progressive policies, despite the presence of socio-economic factors which would normally favour such a policy shift , at least not just yet. In response to this query, the article first analyses the comparisons between the present crisis and the crisis of the 1930s with regard to alleged political inertia. It then reinterprets the contemporary political consequences of crisis by revisiting three classical social theorists who took pains at analysing the political responses to the economic crisis of the 1930s: Karl Popper, Gunnar Myrdal, and Karl Polanyi. On the basis of this revisitation of these three classics, the article argues that the combined effects of distrust in politics and the persistence of admittedly rolled-back welfare systems mutes the progressive reform potential of the present crisis.

Dozens of thousands Greek children lived in the childtowns in the 1940 and 1950s. Although this experience had profound consequences to their lives, there is to this day no serious study of what exactly was the impact of the childtowns on the children’s values and way of life. I interviewed four children and asked them about the differences between the childtowns and their villages. The key finding is that most children first came in touch with – and chose to accept – a modern and urban way of life in the childtowns. This suggests that despite the objections about the ideological motivations and use of the childtowns, these insitutions had a profound impact on Modern Greek cultural identity.

Migration from the new European Union (EU) Member States to the United Kingdom (UK) has been identified as one of the most significant social phenomena of recent times and Accession 8 (A8) migration to the UK has been studied extensively particularly since 2004. Even though gendered studies of migration are now attaining recognition, there is limited literature in relation to Polish migrant women. What is more, there is now much evidence to support the view that migrant women constitute a large proportion of international migrants. In fact, when considering migration within the European context, migrant women now outnumber their male counterparts. Drawing on a review of secondary literature and preliminary findings from new fieldwork research undertaken in Poland and the UK in 2012, this paper explores how Polish migrant women exercise their rights as EU citizens to better their own and their families’ wellbeing. As the consequence of their newly acquired rights as EU citizens, Polish migrant women appear to be active agents who make use of the resources and opportunities that migration offers. It is concluded that migration within the EU presents positive opportunities for Polish migrant women to actively engage with and exercise national and EU citizenship rights.

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