This article, which is informed by a study of secondhand clothing retail, aims to reflect methodologically on various correspondences surrounding sources and correspondences between sources and a ...researcher. The article discusses the influence such correspondences might have on interpreting, perceiving, and explaining the researched phenomenon of secondhand clothing retail. It reviews what authors of various sources focused upon while photographing, writing, or talking about mostly Slovene and Slovak commission shops. It also exposes a part of the author’s research process, discusses public media’s agenda, and questions what affected either researcher or media contributors to address the selected parts of the researched topic. The author claims that care and the possibility of changing perceptions result primarily from the emotional, moral, or political correspondence between, for example, the researcher’s values or interests and those of various sources. Therefore, an individual’s auto-reflectivity and sincerity are a crucial part of the research as well as a process of interpretation.
Mostly through the case studies of the Slovenian Komisija and Czechoslovak Chronor, Klenoty and Bazar stores, this article presents socialist commission shops as providers of basic household goods. ...It therefore contributes insights into the complexity of commission shops as a specific type of second-hand retail as well as insights into the complexity of types of retail and socialist consumerism in general. It briefly compares commission shops with some other socio-historically known forms of second-hand retail, while pointing to the differences and similarities among them.
This article contradicts Slovenian public opinion that asserts there is no tradition of second-hand clothes stores in Slovenia. It briefly demonstrates that second-hand retail clothing has a long ...history in the country that was interrupted for a few decades following the 1960s. In addition, the article reflects upon the question of why “socialist mentality” or more precisely, a “specifically Slovenian socialist mentality” is publicly perceived as the main reason for the contemporary lack of such a retail sector. According to the author, it is not unimportant that such mentality is most often ascribed to marginal and lower social strata who supposedly link second-hand clothes with poverty, thus sustaining their premodern (“socialist”) notions. However, public perceptions of the modernization process can only primarily hide contemporary social differences.
The article analyses official and unofficial discourses (media reports, web commentaries and forums) in Slovenia and Croatia which deal with eliminating holidays as a part of austerity measures. It ...focuses on the relationship between eliminating holidays, diligence and mentality on the one hand and Balkan, socialist and European identity on the other.
U tekstu se analiziraju sluzbeni i nesluzbeni diskursi (medijsko izvjestavanje, internetski komentari i forumi) u Sloveniji i Hrvatskoj koji ukidanje praznika tematiziraju kao gospodarsku mjeru ...(stednje). Prate se odnosi izmedu ukidanja praznika, marljivosti i mentaliteta na jednoj strani te balkanskog, socijalistickog i europskog identiteta na drugoj. Prikupljena grada sugerira da su obje vlade prijedlozima o ukidanju praznika potakle vecinom dvije vrste komentara: o povezanosti praznika s marljivoscu i o tome koje bi praznike i uz njih vezane identitete eventualno valjalo ukinuti. Vecina nesluzbenih diskursa praznike uglavnom nije povezivala s produktivnoscu, niti se fokusirala na sustavno uredenje placanja rada za vrijeme praznika (i/ili neradnih dana) i radnicka prava. Znatno vise komentara posveceno je pojmu socijalistickog mentaliteta, navodno povezanog s pojedinacnim praznicima, pri cemu se produktivnost, u manjoj mjeri nego priblizavanje Europi, pokazala ciljem predlozenih (i/ili realiziranih) sustavnih promjena.//The article analyses official and unofficial discourses (media reports, web commentaries and forums) in Slovenia and Croatia which deal with eliminating holidays as a part of austerity measures. It focuses on the relationship between eliminating holidays, diligence and mentality on the one hand and Balkan, socialist and European identity on the other. The analysed material suggests that both governments' proposals to eliminate holidays largely triggered two kinds of commentaries: how holidays are related to diligence and which holidays and identities related to them - if any at all - should be eliminated. If most unofficial discourses have not connected holidays with diligence and productivity, they have also not focused on systemic solutions regarding payment of work for holidays (and/or days free of work) nor have they concentrated on workers' rights. However the majority of commentaries touched upon the question of the socialist mentality and identity, which were seen as related to specific holidays. In the end, it was not productivity but rather drawing closer to Europe that appeared as a goal of the suggested (and/or realised) systemic changes. web URL: http://hrcak.srce.hr/index.php?show=clanak&id_clanak_ jezik=2 20057
Članak se bavi strategijama koje organizatori koriste kako bi potvrdili izvornost tradicije, pripisane (zamišljenoj) dugovječnosti i aspektima (ne)materijalne kulture ispaše u Alpama, bračnih običaja ...i lokalnog dijalekta koji se od pedesetih godina prošlog stoljeća prikazuju u priredbama Kravji bal (Kravlji bal), Vasovanje (Seoska serenada) i Kmečka ohcet (Seosko vjenčanje). Od samih su početaka organizatori nastojali postići najizvorniji prikaz tradicijske (ne)materijalne kulture, što je tijekom 1950-ih i 1960-ih dovelo do uglavnom scenskog prikaza koji je osmišljen i uz pomoć (polu)profesionalaca. S vremenom je prihvaćen i model raširen na nacionalnoj razini prema kojem se u scensku izvedbu uključuje “pravi” obred civilnog i crkvenog vjenčanja, a tekstovi koji su se izvodili su skraćeni i učinjeni zabavnijima. U većini se slučajeva smatralo da su tekstualni aspekti izvedbe ti koji pridonose njezinoj izvornosti. Tek se u posljednje vrijeme u obzir uzimaju vremenski i prostorni kontekst (ne)materijalne kulture, dok se model scenskog prikaza sve više propituje. Ipak, društveni aspekti (ne)materijalne kulture još uvijek se ostavljaju po strani, a osim toga ni na samu se izvedbu i njezin scenski prikaz ne gleda kao na nematerijalnu kulturu.
Perceiving work competition as a strategic practice of a selected social system the author of the article examines the relationship between work competition and (public) holidays in the period of the ...first five-year economic plan of the Socialist Federal Republic of Yugoslavia (1947–1952). This relationship was mutual and similarly as in other socialist countries centrally planned as well as directed: holidays helped spreading the idea of competitive way of working as well as they helped structuring (working) time. On the other hand work competition helped rooting the new system of public holidays as well as it also structured and shaped holidays. Neverthless, a competition at a work-place, a category of work competition, which is most often mentioned in the literature, was only rarely referred to in people's recollections. Only some forms of work competition, for example postwar voluntary restoration work or youth working actions, were memorised which, as the author suggests, is also influenced by the symbolic acknowledgment of work and workers during socialism and with the fact that cultural politics of the time was not perceived solely as a cynical manipulation of political elites. Autorka zkoumá vztah mezi soupeřením v práci a (veřejnými) svátky v době Federativní socialistické republiky Jugoslávie. Soustřed'uje se na první pětiletý hospodářský plán (1947–1952), kdy bylo pracovní soupeření v plném proudu, a chápe jej jako strategickou praktiku v rámci zvoleného sociálního systému. Vztah mezi soupeřením v práci a veřejnými svátky byl, podobně jako v ostatních socialistických zemích, centrálně plánován a určován: na jedné straně byly svátky vhodnými nástroji k mobilitaci a umožňovaly propagovat myšlenku soupeření v práci, na druhé straně se stávaly mezníky určujícími počátek a konec soupeření, a tak napomáhaly strukturovat (pracovní) čas. Již v roce 1946 ústřední odborová organizace Jugoslávie určila svátek práce (1. květen) a den republiky (29. listopad) za dvě hlavní příležitosti, kdy měly být prezentovány, hodnoceny a odměňovány výsledky pracovního úsilí, a až do roku 1949 byli nejlepší individuální pracovníci vyhlašováni a odměňováni právě jen o veřejných svátcích. V článku jsou prezentovány příklady strategického vztahu mezi soupeřením v práci a svátky, a jako ilustrace také několik příkladů vzpomínek pamětníků na ně. Autorka pokládá za důležité, že většina repondentů zmiňovala jen některé, konkrétní formy pracovního soutěžení, například poválečné práce na obnově nebo mládežnické pracovní akce, zatímco soupeření na pracovištích, které je v literatuře zmiňováno nejčastěji, se ve vzpomínkách neobjevuje. Zdá se tedy, že je nutné pochopit rozdíly mezi konkrétními formami soupeření v práci, stejně jako vzít v úvahu skutečnost, že dobové chápání soupeření v práci bylo v době socialismu zásadně ovlivěno symbolickým jak oceňováním práce a pracovníků, tak i skutečností, že kulturní politika v té době nebyla vnímána pouze jako cynická manipulace organizovaná politickými elitami.
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