Everyday Ethnicity

The Process of Becoming Multilingual: Individual Language Biographies of Poles in BukovinaThis article focuses on multilingual female speakers born in Bukovina in the 1920s using the language biography method. Analysing selected language biographies of Poles living in southern and northern Bukovina entails focusing on a heritage language. The language biography method shows the development process of individual language awareness. The cases analysed in the study indicate that it is difficult to preserve the linguistic and cultural identity of an individual in mixed-language marriages. For Bukovinian Poles, the Polish language and the Roman Catholic religion are factors of identification and indigenous values symbolizing their belonging to the culture of their ancestors. These two elements are at the core of their identity and are fundamental cultural values which are passed on to children. All the language biographies presented in the article show the speakers’ multilingualism and t...

This article is part of the special cluster titled Bukovina and Bukovinians after the Second World War: (Re)shaping and (re)thinking a region after genocide and ‘ethnic unmixing’, guest edited by Gaëlle Fisher and Maren Röger. This introductory essay provides an overview of the historiography of the borderland region of Bukovina after 1945 and 1989–1991. Presenting the approaches adopted in different national contexts after the end of the Second World War, it points to the methodological nationalism which characterized research on the region during the Cold War. We show that while the historiography of Bukovina on the ground, in Romania and the Soviet Union, refracted wider national ideologies, abroad, particularly in West Germany and Israel, it remained for a long time the prerogative of small groups of “Bukovinians,” who saw it as their “lost home.” We explore both the similarities and differences between these narratives and stakeholders as well as the changes that took place aft...

Harbin (Northern China) and Czernowitz (Bukowina, Habsburg Empire until 1918, then Rumania until 1945, now Ukraine), are two examples of cities at the edges of empires, close to the borders of countries with a consequent melting pot of people and nationalities. In this framework of needs of representation of different national or religious characters, at the beginning of XXth century the Art Nouveau architecture played a key role on a background of never-ending Eclecticism. Less as a fight against Eclecticism and more as a symbol of modernity and super-national feature, Art Nouveau reached these outposts of Western culture directly by Vienna or through the Russian version of it. The Postsparkasse in Czernowitz (1900) and the Chinese Eastern Railway buildings (1902) in Harbin are the best examples of this search of modernity. The Art Nouveau era in Czernowitz, strongly related to the imperial core, vanished in 1918, but in Harbin it lasted until the 20’s, thanks to its iconic value.

Rezumat: Originea și evoluţia mișcării sportive în cadrul organizaţiilor civice din Bucovina (a doua jumătate a secolului al XIX-lea-începutul secolului al XX-lea). În articol a fost analizată activitatea organizaţiilor civice din Bucovina din a doua jumătate a secolului XIX-lea și începutul secolului XX care, în mod direct sau indirect, au valorificat în cadrul acţiunilor desfășurate diverse aspecte legate de practicarea sportului și educaţiei fizice în rândul copiilor și tinerilor. Pe lângă studiile de specialitate, au fost utilizate publicaţiile periodice ale vremii care au reflectat problemele privitoare la educaţia generaţiei tinere și au propagat sportul și recreerea. Pe baza activităţii organizaţiilor respective și a statutelor acestora a fost realizată clasificarea asociaţiilor. Résumé: L'origine et le développement du mouvement sportif chez les organisations civiques de Bucovine (la deuxième moitié du XIX-ème siècle le début du XX-ème siècle). Dans article ci-joint, on ...

Valeriy P. RUDENKO1, Vasyl O. DZHAMAN1, Zhanna I. BUCHKO1, Yaroslav V. DZHAMAN1, Petro V. MRUCHKOVSKYY2 1 Chernivtsi Yuriy Fedkovych National University, Faculty of Geography, Chernivtsi, UKRAINE 2 Chernivtsi Yuriy Fedkovych National University, College of Pedagogy, Chernivtsi, UKRAINE E-mail: rudenko_valery@ukr.net, vasyl_dzhaman@ukr.net, zh.buchko@chnu.edu.ua DOI: 10.19188/06JSSP022016 http://dx.medra.org/10.19188/06JSSP022016

Built on up-to-date field material, this edited volume suggests an anthropological approach to the palimpsest-like milieus of Wrocław, Lviv, Chernivtsi, and Chişinău. In these East-Central European borderline cities, the legacies of Nazism, Marxism-Leninism, and violent ethno-nationalism have been revisited in recent decades in search of profound moral reckoning and in response to the challenges posed by the (post-)transitional period. Present shapes and contents of these urban settings derive from combinations of fragmented material environments, cultural continuities and political ruptures, present-day heritage industries and collective memories about the contentious past, expressive architectural forms and less conspicuous meaning-making activities of human actors. In other words, they evolve from perpetual tensions between choices of the past and the burden of the past. A novel feature of this book is its multi-level approach to the analysis of engagements with the lost diversity in historical urban milieus full of postwar voids and ruptures. In particular, the collected studies test the possibility of combining the theoretical propositions of Memory Studies with broader conceptualizations of borderlands, cosmopolitan sociality, urban mythologies, and hybridity.

This chapter explores the relationship between identity, in particular ethnic identity, and political violence. To what extent are war and violence the outcome of antagonistic identities? And once violence erupts, what impact does it have on how people identify themselves and others? There are two dominant approaches in the literature. The identity-based approach tends to regard conflict and violence as a consequence of pre-existing ethnic antagonism. Violence-based approaches, in contrast, have challenged this causality, stressing that ethnic antagonism is often the outcome of violence rather than its direct cause. The chapter argues that both are problematic in different ways: whereas identity-based theories do not take the generative power of violence seriously enough, violence-based theories run the risk of taking it too seriously and often do not pay significant attention to individual agency and people’s ability to resist violence. However, it is not only individual responses to violence that differ but attitudes towards violence can also change over time.

China has been experiencing an unprecedented urbanisation wave over the last few decades, which has also led to so-called lower-tier cities in inland regions undergoing rapid development and competing for recognition. The city of Yinchuan, capital of the Ningxia Hui Autonomous Region in the country’s north-western periphery and home to the Hui people, a minority distinguishable from the Han majority only by their Islamic faith, had increasingly been developed as China’s ‘flagship Muslim city’ in recent years. Arabian-style architecture, road signs in Arabic script and a ‘Hui Culture Park’ were constructed to display state-sanctioned Islamic imagery, foster tourism and attract trade with Middle Eastern countries. Although considered much less politically sensitive than the far-western Xinjiang region with its Turkic Uyghur minority and close transnational links to Central Asia, in the context of China’s recent strategy to ‘sinicise religions’, Yinchuan’s conspicuous Islamic imagery has largely been removed from urban space. Drawing on observations from three field visits to the city in January 2017, October 2018 and March 2019, this article traces Yinchuan’s Islamic image-building strategy as well as its abrupt end, as reflected by transformations of urban space and changes in official narratives.

The author argues for a need for the introduction of a new concept of “historical identity” and makes its theoretical interpretation. A particular focus is made on the explanation of mechanisms of shaping and reproduction of historical identity on macro-, meso- and micro–levels in diachronic dimension, where macro-level is represented by the official models of past constructed and replicated by speeches of the President of Ukraine, meso-level – by the regional media–discourses and micro-level – by personal opinions on what are the most significant elements of historical past, represented by holidays (traditional Ukrainian, new Ukrainian and Soviet), historical personalities (described as positive or negative) and historical events (also described as positive or negative).
The reconstruction of the three main aspects of historical identity (such as holidays, personalities and main period/events) demonstrates that the institutionalization of the historical identity is tailored to regional experiences.

The topic of this paper is the situation of language skills and a determining factor of it in minority context: languages of instruction in Transylvania. Presenting the socio-demographic context and the status of languages as they are manifested in language skills. Language skills are presented referring to mother tongue skills, second and foreign language competence. The paper emphasizes that the connection between schooling, education, and language usage is evident in the case of minority languages since the instruction in minority languages is a key factor for the maintenance of the language. The empirical data used in the paper come from several sources, most important of them being a sociolinguistic survey in a representative sample of Hungarians in Transylvania carried out by The Romanian Institute for Research on National Minorities (Cluj/Kolozsvár) in 2009.

Hat évvel az első letartóztatások után-2016 január 26-án elsőfokú ítélet született a BKV-ügyben Kecskeméten. A politika által erősen használt, illetve befolyásolt eljárásban Hagyó Miklós volt főpolgármester-helyettest hivatali visszaélés, illetve hűtlen kezelés bűntettében, mint felbujtót két év szabadságvesztésre ítélte, amelyet négy év próbaidőre felfüggesztett. Az ítélet heves viharokat váltott ki. Az ítélet ellen mind Hagyó védői, mind az ügyészség fellebbezést nyújtott be. Hagyó Miklós arcképét ezidáig háromszor plakátolták ki az országban, mint a szocialista kormányok korrupciójának ékes bizonyítékát. Egyes vélemények szerint az ügy kirobbanása, pontosabban, annak időzítése nagyban hozzájárult a Fidesz 2010-es kétharmados győzelméhez. Az ügy politikai súlyát jól példázza, hogy 2014-ben is volt miniszterelnökök társaságában láthatta újra a szavazó a ,,nokiás doboz " történet főszereplőjét. A nokiás dobozban átadott kenőpénzről tett kijelentéseit Balogh már a per egy korábbi szakaszában, 2012-ben sem vállalta, 2015 márciusában pedig bocsánatot is kért Hagyótól. Elmondta a bíróság előtt, hogy nem adott át pénzt neki-sem nokiás dobozban, sem máshogy. Korábbi kijelentését azzal indokolta, hogy ,,nem akart börtönbe kerülni, mint a többi vádlott". Azt a bíróság is megállapította már a büntetőeljárás elején, hogy a vesztegetési pénz ügyében nem történt teljes körű nyomozás. Az ügyészség csak ez után, 2012 novemberében indította el a második nyomozást hogy kiderítse, van-e alapja Balogh terhelő vallomásának. 2015. júniusában azonban bizonyítottság hiányában megszüntették ezt az eljárást, miközben Hagyóval szemben fenntartották a vádat. Igaz, már csak egyszeri 15 millió forintos átadásról beszéltek az ügyészek. A bíróság nem hitt Balogh Zsolt nyomozati vallomásainak, hiszen a tárgyaláson visszavonta azokat és bocsánatot kért. Ebben az ügyben az elsőrendű vádlott Hagyó Miklóst felmentette a bírói tanács. A választásokat eldöntő nokia dobozos történetet tehát lezárta a Kecskeméti Törvényszék. (Az üggyel külön honlap foglalkozik, amelyet itt lehet kutatni) Figyelemre méltó azonban, hogy abban a vádpontban, amelyben a bíróság elítélte az első rendű vádlottat, ugyanerre a nyomozati vallomására alapozva hozott elmarasztaló ítéletet. Érdemben semmilyen más közvetlen bizonyíték nem állt a bíróság rendelkezésére, ahogyan ezt az ítéletben is több helyen rögzíti. Az elmarasztaló ítélet kapcsán erről a feloldhatatlan ellentmondásról próbál képet alkotni tanulmányom. Az ítélet így hangzik: ,,A végső teljesítésigazolás aláírása és a végszámla kifizetése kapcsán azonban Hagyó Miklós I. r. és Balogh Zsolt IV. r. vádlottak büntetőjogi felelőssége a lefolytatott bizonyítás alapján kétséget kizáróan bizonyítást nyert. "

Hallgató: Pethő Hunor Kult. örökségvédelem MA.I

Jelen dolgozatban az oral history módszerét használva szeretnék egy általános következtetést kapni az ősök iránti emlékezésről, megemlékezésről. Az aranyosrákosi öregebb személyek megkérdezésével arra a kérdésre kerestem a választ, hogy ki-ki hány, és milyen felmenőjére emlékezik vissza, saját családjából. Ezen kérdéskör mellett azt is elemezni szeretném, hogy a megkérdezettek milyen kontextusban emlékeznek őseire, mivel hozzák kapcsolatba az illető személyt, és melyek voltak azok a fontosabb, " emlékezetre méltóbb " jellemzők. A tanulmány elején röviden bemutatom a települést, illetve annak demográfiai és vallási adatait. Aranyosrákos Kolozs megye déli határának közelében elterülő település, Várfalva községhez tartozó falu; ezzel egybeolvadva fél évszázada ennek szerves része. A település földrajzi fekvéséről csak annyit, hogy az Aranyos folyótól délre terül el, annak harmadik teraszán és átszeli a Rákos-patak, melynek vízgyűjtő medencéje a Székelykőtől és Hidastól az Aranyosig terjed. Az Erdélyi Szigethegység keleti oldalán lévő Borrévi-szoros közelében fekszik, illetve ha egy képzeletbeli egyenest húzunk a Tordai-hasadék és a Torockó melletti Székelykő között, e vonalon középúton találjuk Várfalvát és Aranyosrákost.

Though scholars of ethnicity remark that religion is an important qualifying attribute for membership in an ethnic group, the nature of the relationship between religious faith and ethnic identity requires further exploration. An approach that emphasizes the importance of religious practices in forming and maintaining ethnic boundaries may offer a more complete explanation of the relationship between religion and ethnicity. This article proposes a framework for understanding how religious practices influence ethnic boundary formation and maintenance processes. I propose that religious practices may play a universalizing, negotiating, or differentiating role in influencing the formation and maintenance of ethnic boundaries. To illustrate these various roles played by religious processes, the article presents a heuristic case study of Islamic faith in boundary setting processes in Hui Muslim communities in China.

This article argues that bottom–up, people-centered research which uses ethnographic and everyday approaches is crucial but underutilized in research on identity politics in Eastern Europe. In order to understand what concepts such as ethnicity and citizenship mean in the context of people’s everyday lives, it is vital to understand whether taken-for-granted political concepts are appropriate and the make-up of data such as census data. The article first introduces the methods of political ethnography and bottom–up interviews by discussing how they can be applied and their value within political science. The paper uses data gathered from interviews in Moldova and Crimea (when it was still a de jure and de facto part of Ukraine) to demonstrate the value of this approach. It shows how interview data can add significantly to the understanding of kin-state relations within political science by adding a richness of context and a bottom–up perspective that quantitative and elite-level interviews fail to provide. Lastly, the paper draws on experiences gained from research design to discuss how bottom–up research in political science can be conducted rigorously. The article argues that this approach can deepen the understanding of identity politics and kin-state relations or, more broadly, important post-communist questions such as democratization and Europeanization.

Nowadays, we are living in a world wherein the education is becoming more and more a self-development process for both its ends teacher and student. The former must apply a trans-disciplinary approach during the development process of student's knowledge. In my point of view, when planning classes and curriculums, it is crucial to take into consideration the psycho-social traits and particularities of the participants and to elaborate methodologies based on active, non-formal strategies. In order to accomplish this very purpose, the institution of school must be cultural first but also multicultural.This should be the main
objective of education in the Romanian society, given that several nationalities coexist for centuries in the same geographical area, especially in Transylvania (i.e. Hungarians, Germans, Gypsies). This research is a psycho-pedagogical experiment
consisting in the implementation of an intercultural educational program, addressing teenagers in two of the most representative high-schools in Targu-Mures (a city from Transylvania renowned for its diversion of minorities).

In this article, I analyze practices of defining and applying concepts of ethnicity, loyalty and state security in Greater Romania. While state policies were based on a basic assumption of the equation of ethnic belonging and loyalty (Romanians being loyal, non-Romanians disloyal), the complexity of the very administrative apparatus and the problems of unification opened up a space in which the concepts of loyalty and ethnicity were contested. The case studies of the use of the term irredentist and the language exams of minority officials in the mid-1930s shed light on a related but different question. The basic equation of loyalty and ethnicity resulted in the use of an otherwise empty concept of irredentism as a term to denote little more than ethnic “otherness,” a vagueness that enabled local authorities to apply it deliberately, either to restrict or to permit members of minorities to engage in activities that had some bearing on questions of identity. The ways in which the language exams were administered indicate the existence of a large group of non-Romanian public officials who were treated by their colleagues and immediate superiors as equal members of a public body serving the nation state, people who in exchange redefined their loyalty and identity as one based primarily on this professional group membership while still preserving their ethnic belonging. These deviations from the basic equation also reveal how the layered and geographically diverse nature of the state administration influenced the contested nature of the ethnic categories.

Chernivtsi, a contemporary town located in Western Ukraine, is perceived as one of the most multiethnic places in Ukraine. Situated in the Ukrainian-Romanian borderlands, Chernivtsi’s  ruling state and dominant national group has changed four times in its history. Since 1991, this city has been an arena for both a “Ukrainization” policy as well as the revival of national minority institutions. This article is based on ethnographic fieldwork conducted in Chernivtsi since 2010 and explores why and when ethnicity as a category of practice matters for ordinary people. By using the methodology of the “everyday” and taking “situational” ethnicity as a major approach, for individuals in Chernivtsi, I show “Ukrainianess” becomes an unmarked, obvious and taken for granted category in daily life. Thus, the nationalizing efforts of the Ukrainian state, which since the late socialist period constantly marked “Ukrainianess” as a significant category, can be perceived as successful and other national manifestations do not pose any threat to it.

After the collapse of the communist regime, Romanian education policy has taken a turn towards Europeanization. Drawing from fieldwork data collected in the multicultural district of Cluj, I focus on diversity as an aspect of Europeanization of schooling in Romania. My findings reveal that Europeanization works symbolically rather than substantially in educational establishments enrolling a multi-ethnic student body. Although diversity is embraced discursively by teachers and staff, school practices fail to demonstrate an incorporation of diversity into the Romanian national narrative which remains marked by the old structures of ethnocentric monoculturalism and self-victimization. Explanatory factors brought into discussion refer to institutional continuity (i.e. the persistence of old habits in everyday school practices) and institutional contradiction (i.e. the coexistence of the distinctive logics of multiculturalism as difference and of integration as social justice in the delivery of educational policy for Hungarian and Roma minorities)

The study gives an overview of the constructions of Transylvania and their relations during the interwar period. It presents the distance as well as the closeness to Transylvania and the process of establishing the boundaries of Transylvania, where the boundaries are not only meant in a geographical sense. Its point of view is distinctly Transylvanian, and it looks at how the various Transylvanian actors of history, from everyday people to the political elite, tried to find a place for themselves and their region in the world; where they drew the dividing line between ‘us’ and ‘them’; and what were the differences, which were present in the social space and simultaneously forming identity discourses or even rooting in them, and the experiences relating to them. In order to capture this process, the study amplifies Rogers Brubaker’s triadic system of correlation into a quadrangle by mentioning the regional elite of the majority as a separate actor.
This system of correlations is dynamic, in which the various forms and practices of separation and identification might be present depending on the circumstances. The various groups might merge creating an opposition against someone or they might be separated from each other according to their characteristics or interests. Their boundaries can be crossed or they can be completely impenetrable; the main idea is that they identify themselves as a group standing against another group and they assign that particular group certain common characteristics. This can be true for both the cases of everyday encounters and the discourses of the political elite. Within the framework of these relations and system of relations the regional elites wanted to turn around the hierarchy within the nation and they considered their own regional group as the authentic representative of the nation. This was reinforced by the everyday encounters as well. However, against the other nation the support of the centre was needed. But since both the regionalist discourse and the encounters ethnicised the differences between the groups of Hungarians and the groups of Romanians, the question arises whether this proves the potential of separate nation-buildings.