The aim of the article is to use a literature review to identify the dimensions of care from the perspective of heritage science, which is a highly interdisciplinary academic field. In this case, it includes philosophy, architectural theory and a broader theory of care that should be addressed for a comprehensive study of concepts of care in architecture and architecture-orientated art. In the analysis of selected architectural heritage interventions, special attention is given to aspects of care and aspects of aesthetics in order to develop a new methodology for identifying and evaluating interventions in the built environment.
This research constitutes a rare effort in examining how gratefulness/gratitude constructs refugees'/asylum seekers' lived experiences by centring underlying presence of power. Power in gratefulness/gratitude is here defined by using colonialism/coloniality framework to establish asylum as a continuation of those processes. Types of manifestations of gratefulness/gratitude that were explored were expressing signs of appreciation, confirming white saviourism and making concessions through integration, contribution to the new society and humility. Two main conclusions were made. Firstly, the study found that involuntary and voluntary expressions of gratefulness/ gratitude can overlap, meaning that even voluntary expressions can be tied to power. Secondly, gratefulness/ gratitude can take different forms; as a tool of control and marginalisation of refugees/asylum seekers, for obtaining benefits or as actual gratefulness/gratitude.
Virtual 360 degrees tours, digital replicas of real locations accessible anywhere with an internet connection, include 360 degrees panoramic photos and interactive elements such as videos, audio narration, and textual descriptions. Their significance increased during the COVID-19 pandemic, when museums had to temporarily close their doors to visitors. After the pandemic ended, their use as a substitute for visits declined, but the question of their impact on the intention to visit the museum, i.e., for promotional purposes, remains. The paper presents the results of an experimental study conducted in 2023 with 165 residents of the Republic of Serbia regarding their responses to the promotion of the Posavje Museum Bre & zcaron;ice. The participants were randomly divided into three groups based on the increasing modality of the medium they were exposed to: photos, a video, and a 360 degrees virtual tour of the Posavje Museum Bre & zcaron;ice. The results showed statistically significant differences between all three groups. The 360 degrees virtual tours were rated higher than videos, and videos were rated higher than photos on the media experience variables: enjoyment, sense of presence, autonomy, and satisfaction. The intention to visit was significantly higher with the 360 degrees virtual tour and was statistically significantly associated with the media experience variables. We discuss the results and the future use of virtual 360 degrees tours in heritage promotion.
This paper investigates how culture and cultural heritage contribute to achieving the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) by transforming democratic and social practices. Moving beyond metric-based evaluations and collections of best practices, it proposes a deliberative-agonistic framework for analyzing the transformative role of culture and heritage. Drawing on Marit Hammond's notion of deliberative democracy, culture is understood as a driver of political meaning-making and social transformation, while deliberation provides the conditions for redefining collective values. Against this background, the paper examines the theoretical foundations of the Faro Convention (2005), which introduced a "people-centered" paradigm linking heritage to social and environmental sustainability. It analyzes the interplay between deliberative and agonistic approaches in heritage governance, showing how conflicts over memory and identity can be transformed into productive democratic dialogue. The Charlottesville case (2017) exemplifies the tension between antagonistic, agonistic, and deliberative framings of contested heritage. At the macro level, comparative analysis of European heritage policies reveals that the capacity to integrate heritage into sustainability strategies strongly correlates with the quality of deliberation, as demonstrated by survey data and V-Dem indices. Deliberative contexts tend to enhance innovation, cohesion, and institutional trust, while agonistic approaches allow plural interpretations of heritage to coexist. The paper concludes that culture's transformative contribution cannot be fully captured by existing SDG indicators. An integrative evaluation framework is needed-one aligned with SDG 16.7, which promotes responsive, inclusive, participatory, and representative decision-making as a precondition for sustainable social transformation.
This paper explores the cultural representation of Croatia in international guidebooks published during the process of the country's EU-accession (2003-2013). Using a qualitative textual analysis of how the introductions' narratives in the guidebooks depicted Croatia, this study recognises the dynamic interplay of aspects from European and Balkan identity. The country was constructed as a mobile destination, moving from the Balkans into "Europe". Croatia's developing tourist infrastructure was highlighted to describe the country as gradually becoming "European". Simultaneously, there was a reduction in the explicit reference to the country's Balkan identity, its peripheral location and transitional culture. I describe this representational strategy of ongoing and incomplete movement as "controlled proximity".
This paper investigates the influence of regional diversity on consumer characteristics in large markets, using China as a case study. The study aims to explore how regional cultural values and consumer traits vary across different regions and proposes a regionally tailored approach to marketing strategy formulation. Data were collected from three socio-economically diverse regions in China, with three tiered cities surveyed in each region to account for intraregional variations in population size, socio-economic development, and administrative hierarchy. The total sample included 1,062 respondents. Methodologically, the study adapted established and validated scales to measure four dimensions of personal cultural values, consumer ethnocentrism, and consumer innovativeness, enabling an empirical examination of regional differences. The findings reveal significant inter-regional variations in intolerance of ambiguity, tradition, and consumer innovativeness. For instance, consumers in the Northern region exhibited lower levels of intolerance of ambiguity and innovativeness compared to other regions, while consumers in the Eastern region placed the least emphasis on tradition. These results underscore the importance of recognizing and addressing regional differences in consumer behaviour. The study concludes that international marketers should move away from a one-size-fits-all approach and instead adopt regionally segmented strategies that account for the unique cultural and economic characteristics of each region. By doing so, marketers can better target and tailor their offerings to local consumer needs, thereby enhancing the effectiveness of their strategies in large and diverse markets like China.
The article examines the role of gender as a category of collective memory, or more specifically, how museum and primary school textbook representations of World War II in Slovenia represent and construct gender, gendered subjects, and gendered communities. Authors are interested in how textbooks and museums produce specific flows of history and memory, through the mediation of gendered narratives and the use of non-neutral textual practices. They ascertain that even today, patriarchal and androcentric representations of women continue to leave a significant imprint on the socio-cultural organisation of communities. Authors employ fundamental theoretical concepts of cultural memory, ideology, habitus, power, and knowledge in order to address the gap within academic discourse concerning the study of the gendered dimensions of collective memory. Based on a critical multimodal analysis of seven museum exhibitions and five primary school history textbooks, the article concludes that the produced cultural memory is recognised as a significant agent in the construction of gender ideologies and gendered habitus. The article identifies seven analytical parameters that point to the gendered nature of memory-representations of professions and leisure activities, the use of quotations, anonymity, photographic approaches, the flow of the narrative, and placement on the continuum between heroism and suffering-through which authors demonstrate that museum and textbook representations of women in representations of the Second World War remain profoundly misogynistic.
This paper will present the eco-narrative about the hunting of Sultan Bayazid II, in the hunting grounds of Uzunova (Uzund & zcaron;ovo) near Plovdiv, as well as his report on species and quantity of the catch, and the number of participants in hunting. The analysis of Hasht Bihisht (Eight Paradises) chronicle illustrates how the author depicted the structure of the institution of hunting at the Ottoman Court, at the same time using the royal hunt as a framework for presenting the image of a powerful but benevolent ruling authority. The paper will be the basis for a historiographical comparison with the same and similar ceremonies in other cultures and countries of the Mediterranean region.
The research task of this paper relates to a diachronic cross-section of intercultural relations which existed in the age of humanism and the Renaissance between the British and Mediterranean populations. The first part of the paper focuses on the geostrategic position of trade relations through the Balkan Peninsula, extended and established by its geographical position as the dominant cultural meeting point of all the ethnic groups which made use of the flow of goods and capital in conditions of both wartime and peacetime. The second part of the paper gives an analytical-synthetic insight into the poetic orientation of D & zcaron;ore Dr & zcaron;i & cacute; and Lodovik Paskvali & cacute;, who were schooled under the influence of Mediterranean culture and were heralds of intercultural and intertextual dialogue in the south-eastern part of Europe.
This paper presents an authentic approach to the reactivation of valuable architectural heritage through the transformation and adaptation of the late-medieval fishing settlement into the town-hotel Sveti Stefan, which represents a tourism brand of Montenegro on the eastern Adriatic coast. The study shows the process of converting, usage throughout history, and the challenges and potential that Sveti Stefan holds today. The results of the analyses provided a foundation for defining criteria to assess the value of this site, which represents the significant cultural heritage, allowing for a comprehensive examination of scenarios for the transformation and development of Sveti Stefan. The goal was to establish a unique and flexible model of sustainable development with the aim of ensuring active and continuous utilization of the architectural heritage.
This article examines the complex phenomenon of Ethnic/Social Terms used as Insults (ESTIs) in Turkish, focusing on ethnic terms such as 'Ermeni' (Armenian), 'Yunan' (Greek), 'Rum' (Greek), and 'Yahudi' (Jew/ Jewish). These terms uniquely function as both neutral ethnic descriptors and pejoratives for slurring. This research investigates the linguistic characteristics and pragmatic functions of ESTIs focusing on their dual derogatory nature in being both non-referential and restricted referential in their derogation. It also explores their pragmatic characteristics focusing on derogatory autonomy, negation, and rejection, by discussing their similarities and differences with typical slurs.
This article analyses the practical strategies used by older people living in poverty to navigate their social worlds, which, applying Pierre Bourdieu's theoretical framework, are framed by 'positional suffering' due to low social status. Qualitative data gathered from biographical interviews reveal strategies that include adjusting one's aspirations to what is attainable, adapting one's needs to match necessities, learned self-sufficiency, relentless prioritisation, an emphasis on cost-consciousness and stringent conservation, prioritisation by sacrifice and dispositions to 'make something out of nothing'.Crucially, these strategies emphasise that older people living in poverty are active agents navigating through hardship.
This paper examines the role of cultural texts in post-conflict societies, focusing on hate speech and identity formation through the lens of cultural semiotics. It analyzes the Usta & scaron;a salute "Ready for the Homeland" (Za dom spremni, ZDS) in Croatia, exploring its symbolic function and normalization within institutional frameworks. The study shows how declarations such as the Croatian Homeland War Declaration act as institutionalized cultural texts that legitimize exclusionary symbols like ZDS. These texts embed such symbols into the dominant post-war memory regime, reinforcing polarization and shaping collective identity.
This study explores the intersection of fashion, gender identity, and postmodern nomadism by representing the image of the nomad in contemporary men's fashion. The aim is to examine how nomadic aesthetics shape new visual narratives of masculinity, particularly within the framework of postmodern values such as hybridity, mobility, agender style, and sustainability. The research employs a qualitative visual analysis of selected fashion collections, advertisements, and subcultural imagery, drawing from global case studies. The results demonstrate how clothing becomes a key tool for expressing fragmented, adaptive identities and how urban nomadism reshapes the concept of masculinity through modular, layered, and multifunctional fashion design.
This paper examines content moderation practices in Slovenian digital media organizations, based on interviews with representatives from RTV Slovenija, Mladina, Metropolitan, and Star & scaron;evski & ccaron;vek, as well as comment guidelines of the 14 most visited online media and a large forum. Comment standards address socially unacceptable speech beyond illegal content. Larger digital media organizations have developed elaborate in-house systems, while the rest rely on social media platform tools. Sustaining moderation requires significant resources and exacts an emotional toll on moderators. Effective approaches enable flexible moderator responses, utilizing technologies with a range of complexity.
This article aims to determine how public prosecution deals with criminal reports concerning Article 297 of the Slovenian Penal Code on hate speech and explores the influence of the 2019 Slovenian Supreme Court judgment on this practice. The analysis is based on 98 closed case files of the prosecution from 2019 to 2023. The main findings indicate that the number of indictments and convictions remains low; criminal prosecution of cases is inconsistent; there are regional differences in prosecutorial practice; the impact of the 2019 decision is low; and the quality of documents produced by the prosecutor's offices is deficient.
This article explores hate speech as a governing logic embedded in Serbia's migration management, extending beyond explicit verbal hostility to encompass institutionalized silence, public spectacles, and policy design. Drawing on speech act theory, critical discourse analysis, and scholarship on racialized governance, it conceptualizes hate speech as a performative act with perlocutionary force. Through ethnographic and discursive analysis, the article shows how people on the move are rendered both hyper-visible and absent-criminalized, pitied, or erased-depending on political need. It argues that hate speech, framed through calculated ambivalence and absent presence, sustains exclusionary practices and legitimizes state and societal violence against migrants.
Taking into consideration the dynamic and adaptable nature of code-switching of the Istrian bilingual speakers, the objective of this paper is to investigate the aspects underlying the processing and production of switched linguistic sequences, focusing in particular on conceptualization, frequency, accessibility, similarity and adaptation of linguistic constructs in specific contexts, as well as pragmatic purposes and functions.
The paper critically examines and evaluates two different methodological approaches to the determination of genealinguistic language, more specifically dialectal borders, using the case of the study of local dialects in the Gorski kotar region. Dialectology is defined as a science within genealogy, which is one of the three branches of linguistics (along with typolinguistics and sociolinguistics). It is emphasised that within dialectology, theorems and criteria from different branches of linguistics cannot be combined, and in this context a clearer definition of the meaning of the adjective Slovenian within the phrase Slovenian dialects is also given. The paper also provides a genealogical justification for the revised Map of Slovenian dialects (version 2023).
The aim of this paper is to show how Foster care for older persons can ensure an adequate level of quality of life and demonstrate the potential of social investment strategies, focusing on the introduction of foster care, as a means to reduce poverty. The paper was prepared using a variety of methods: statistical, hypothetical-deductive, analytical-deductive, and comparative methods, including fundamental scientific techniques. The data show that older people placed in foster care have a subjectively more satisfying quality of life and that they rate their personal poverty better than before placement.
