ANNUITY FROM ARCHITECTURAL MONUMENTS

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Research, restoration and maintenance of immovable cultural heritage requires funding. Before proposing a new way of funding that is in accordance with society possibilities and market principles, all the problems, field situations and needs should be professionally assessed. Monument annuity represents a way of including the immovable cultural heritage into economic domain. If based on professional principles, this would not represent an attack, a denial or profanation of heritage but could be the first step in regulation of the monumental potential of a territory. Monumental annuity provides sustainable monument management, defines maximum number of monument users, restricts monument exploitation, encourages proper attitude towards the monument, stimulates income, balances expenses, provides incentive for further exploration, provides funds needed for research and maintenance etc. During research, we used the theoretical and practical experiences of countries that have introduced payment of monument annuity.

CULTURAL STRATEGY OF VOJVODINA`S HUNGARIANS AND POLITICS OF CULTURE

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The Cultural strategy of Vojvodina Hungarians is one in a lineup of strategies, which was made and adopted by the National Council of Hungarian National Minority. This comprehensive and complex document was contributed to by most members of the National Council and its chairman, as a pioneer attempt, since no other national minority in the Autonomous Province of Vojvodina, Serbia has produced a document such as this. The reason for such an ambitious enterprise by the National Council of Hungarian National Minority is found in outlining plans and aims of the Council as well as a number of experts, institutions and civil organizations active in the area of culture, which are established and are working on the territory of the Autonomous Province of Vojvodina. Introduction and analysis of the Strategy as well as recognition of the cultural policy of the Hungarian minority are the subject of this work.

COLLECTIVE INTELLIGENCE AS A SOCIAL POTENTIAL

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This paper analyses the phenomenon of collective intelligence, which is intriguing and increasingly important, and it presents research that provides interesting insights about its existence and presence. The central part of this paper analyzes various trends and theories which are associated with the collective intelligence in order to show it in a larger context. Furthermore, the paper provides an overview of examples of collective intelligence in humans and provides parallels with various management techniques and practices that testify that the knowledge of this phenomena and advantages of its use in a variety of human activities have been known for a long time. In conclusion, the importance of collective intelligence is emphasized for the development and evolution of the human society, constituting possible directions for further development of this field and raising questions about further potential directions. This paper was produced using the method of content analysis of domestic and foreign literature, the classification method, the description method, the comparative method, the method of analysis and synthesis and the historical method.

A FESTIVE DINNER

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This study of a festive dinner in a rural micro-community in the period of socialist Yugoslavia shows how a group confirms and redefines its existence through a formal menu. The menu bears the male sex signifier, yet matches the taste of all the consumers. The abundance of meat in the meals shows that “a class body” – a strong (male) body is desirable, revealing the deepest dispositions of habitus. Alcoholic drinks are taken by both men and women, yet men drink more being members of a more dominant sex, thus having a greater need in reproducing the cultural norm. The activity of preparing and serving food at the table is not subject to ritual rules and bears the female sex signifier. By introducing changes in the menu and by emancipation of the woman at the dinner table, this patriarchal micro-community shows dynamics and flexibility, thereby negating the stereotype of the rural population as passive. The differences in the economic power are least visible at the festive dinner table, which confirms the Bourdieu’s statement that food is a privileged field where it is symbolically possible to regain dignity and self-respect of the social groups positioned at the bottom of the social ladder, in real economic and social terms.

A REFLEX OF CULTURAL STUDIES IN DON DELILLO’S MAO

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In the paper, Don DeLillo’s novel Mao II (1991) serves as an example of a relationship between cultural studies and the novel. Starting from the influence which this interdisciplinary field of research could have on the construction of the novel world, focused on the prevalence of cultural processes, the paper pinpoints and examines several aspects of selected chapters and scenes in the given novel in order to show some points of convergence and the shared interests between cultural studies and the novel, knowledge invested in them, meanings of depicted cultural phenomena and tendencies and their potential cultural value. The analysis is primarily focused on the presentation and interpretation of the masses as both physical entities and entities of identity and consciousness, as features of the discourse and the ideas produced.

INTERTEXTUALITY AS A GAME OF POPULAR AND SUBLIME

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The thesis presented in this paper shows that literature has not completely lost its role of cultural capital. The reason for optimism is found in intertextuality as a key feature of postmodern art. The postmodern method in popular culture involves use of high art stylistic solutions while at the same time the content of popular genres treats very complex issues. We take as an example the television series True Detective, produced by the American HBO network, to show that even in that popular form it is possible to identify features of postmodern art such as double coding, intertextual irony and quotations. Through its themes and motifs, this series has been associated with one of the most significant work of the canonical literature – Dante’s Divine Comedy. Also, one work of popular literature has been explicitly quoted in this series – a collection of stories from the 19th century The King in Yellow by Robert Chambers.

JOURNEY FROM HERO TO VILLAIN AND ENJOYING TELEVISION ANTIHERO NARRATIVE

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The author examines how the former binary opposition between heroes and villains neutralizes and transforms inside the television fiction. While heroic and villainous characters in the past used to be based on the contrast between the absolute Good and Evil, today, their definitions are in continual transformation. This paper also attempts to provide insights and redefine aspects of anti-heroism. Popular TV series subvert the idea of heroism, as well as the idea of morality which is present in classical genres, based on duality of the world, the struggle between Good and Evil, temptation, a pact with the devil, suffering etc which culminates in redemption, catharsis and salvation. For the antihero, there is no rescue. In the second part of this paper, the author comprehensively discusses the theories that have appeared since the second half of the 20th century which have addressed developing emotions towards media content and media characters defined as anti-heroic, primarily affective disposition theory which explains how a viewer refocuses moral positions of the protagonists, as well as moral defense mechanisms, developed for the purpose of pleasure.

VIRTUAL WORLDS IN CONTEMPORARY SERBIAN WOMEN’S FICTION

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The paper is an attempt at illustrating the radical changes in the way in which gender, media and literature interact. Its intention is also to examine the ways in which the media and new digital technologies contribute to representations of gender-linked communication in the novels written by Vida Ognjenović, Ljubica Arsić, Tamara Jecić and Dunja Radosavljević. The new informational technologies have managed to capture the voices lingering at the margins, helping women transcend their real-life grounded identities and explore new narrative practices. The process of identification of women’s social self as depicted in contemporary Serbian women’s writing (such as Dunja Radosavljević’s Life After America, Tamara Jecić’s Stinky Onion, Vida Ognjenović’s The Address is Correct and Ljubica Arsić’s All Inclusive) lavishly uses computer mediated communication. These books introduce different kinds of women’s narratives, ranging from intimate confessions in letters and journals to experimental practices involving different points of view and focalisation. The aim of the paper is to analyze the ways gender is redefined in the cyberrituals of womanhood.

ANTHROPOLOGIST IN A SYNTHETIC WORLD

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Entering a completely new field of research, such as the research of synthetic worlds, places unique methodological challenges before anthropologists: it would seem that a new medium, which defines a new space and allows creation of new cultures, requires new methodological tools for fieldwork and data collection. However, a careful observation of the conditions of motion through synthetic worlds shows that, in this field, a researcher is faced with the same methodological problems as in any “classical” study of individual, specific culture, opening up even questions of validity of many previous RL researches. Analysis, as well as former practice, shows that observation with participation – as defined by Malinowski back in 1922 – is still a valid fundamental principle of ethnographic field research. Furthermore, with researching in virtual/synthetic worlds, it has become clear that participation is crucial for full understanding of any researched culture – a detail that is consistently neglected in many (primarily domestic) ethnographic researches.

GENTRIFICATION OF PRAGUE, BUDAPEST AND BELGRADE IN THE CONTEXT OF POST-SOCIALIST TRANSFORMATION AND GLOBALIZATION

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This paper explores the processes of gentrification in post-socialist cities, focusing on the cases of Prague, Budapest and Belgrade. The aim of the paper is to contextualise gentrification as part of a broader process of spatio-social stratification taking place in the post-socialist city. The process of post-socialist transformation resulted in sharp changes in both social and spatial aspects of the post-socialist city. The heterogeneous social structure of the city, which existed as a partially attained goal of the socialist housing policy, changed towards a polarized social structure comprising of the winners and losers of the post-socialist transformation. This induced emergence of gentrified and gated communities. The paper deals with the political, economical, and, most importantly – cultural – factors that influence contemporary urban development and policies. It accentuates a global shift towards more flexible urban policies and democratization of decision making. Multiple urban actors (the local administration, developers, experts and the civil sector) became involved in the negotiation around decisions concerning urban development, which used to be the sole responsibility of the socialist state.