The problem of Georgian identity at the threshold of XXI century

At the beginning of XXI century, the issue of the identity occurs as one of the most crucial problems of the contemporary science. In the light of the recent tendency of interdisciplinary and holistic attempt towards inquiring phenomenon, identity found itself in the centre of the interest of many science disciplines such as politic science, social science, philosophy, linguistics, literature studies, cultural anthropology, and so on. Nowadays we live in the world of permanent changes of the global character that concern also the identity, as a collective phenomenon, and an individualistic one. The transformation of the identity is particularly promptly accomplishing in the new democratic countries, such as Georgia. This is a very interesting phenomenon showing the transformation from the soviet model of the national reality to the European one. The situation in Georgia is being especially curious because of the fact that the Georgians are changing their identity from the post soviet citizens to the potential Georgian-European citizens. What’s more, this change does not mean the ignorance of the Georgian tradition. It turns out, that while the Georgians are willing to adapt the politic and economic European model, they are not so open to accept the European cultural patterns.

Adaptation strategies of borderland youth – a report from generational studies

The conducted discussion is embedded in pedagogy of youth, Robert Merton’s theory of social adaptation, the concept of intercultural education and the concept of “intercultural identity” by Jerzy Nikitorowicz. In the article, the strategies are presented of the adaptation of young inhabitants of the Polish-Czech borderland to school conditions and the requirements of social life. The results of some diagonal studies among secondary school learners, conducted 13 years apart, indicated two dominant strategies of conformism and innovation, revealed a slight decrease in the average value of conformism (3%) and a significant increase in the average value of innovation (22% change). In that context, the features of permanent socialization taking place in the conditions of the Polish-Czech borderland were indicated: dynamism, bidirectionality, functioning/being “in-between”, cultural pattern, the principle of continuum. Empirically determined adaptation strategies of youth show how young people handle a complex reality and how they can join the mainstream of social life.