Kultura
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The Kultura Journal is an international scientific journal for the theory and sociology of culture and cultural policy, which follows culture in the widest sense of the word where science, education and all human activities are taken as its integral part.
It was started in 1968 courtesy to the efforts of Stevan Majstorović, founder of the Centre for Studies in Cultural Development, with the objective to encourage integrative, analytical and critical interpretations of the modern cultural phenomena.
At the time of its establishment, the Kultura Journal was unique in the domain of intellectual thought both in terms of its concept and its design. Since the first issue, i.e. over the fifty years of its existence, Kultura has been and has remained open to creative ideas from the country and the world, as seen from the texts of important foreign authors and contributions from professionals coming from the cultural centres of former Yugoslavia, as well as domestic authors who offered new ideas and approaches to culture. The recognizable design solution of the logo of the journal and its cover page were created by the artist and calligraphist Božidar Bole Miloradović, for the very first number.
As of 1971, the issues were edited thematically, which has been dominant practice to this date, with the aim of enriching certain thematic fields in our cultural and scientific community.
The first Editorial Board of the Kultura Journal consisted of eleven members, led by the Editor-in Chief Stevan Majstorović and Trivo Inđić, as conceptual instigators of the journal which heralded a new orientation in the intellectual field. Members of the Editorial Board were: Slobodan Canić, Dragutin Gostuški, Vujadin Jokić, Danica Mojsin, Mirjana Nikolić, Nebojša Popov, Bogdan Tirnanić, Milan Vojnović and Tihomir Vučković. Over the five decades of the Kultura Journal, editorial boards changed several times.
Kultura is issued every three months (four times a year) and its printing has been financed by the Ministry of Culture and Information of the Republic of Serbia since 2001. With support of the competent ministry, all numbers of this journal, from the first to the last issue, were digitalized in 2009. As a result, a DVD containing digital form of the journal, was available with the issue No. 129, titled "Electronic libraries". A few years later, in 2013, Kultura switched to the Cyrillic script, with an important note that it still published in Latin script those authors from the region who originally use Latin script(Montenegro, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Croatia). With the issue No. 140, on the occasion of marking the 45th anniversary of the Kultura Journal, a special USB was made available, with all the texts from the numbers 1-137. The web page of the Centre for Studies in Cultural Development contains all the texts ever published in any issue of the Kultura Journal over half a century of its existence.
The Department for Registration of Journals of the Ministry of Education, Science and Technological Development of the Republic of Serbia, the Kultura Journal was registered in 2005 (when categorisation of scientific journals started) marked as category P53. In 2010,it was registered as category M52 in the group of journals for history, art,history, ethnology and archaeology. At the beginning of July 2012, the journal advanced to the category of national interest, by Decision of the Ministry of education, science and technological development of the Republic of Serbia (M51).
Kultura is regularly deposited with the Repository of the National Library of Serbia, and since 2010, it has been included in the Serbian Quotation Index, where the texts published in Kultura can be found in full digital form. As of 2011, the texts i.e. scientific articles, apart from the regular UDK (universal decimal classification) also carry specific DOI (Digital Object Identifier) codes, that allow for their greater visibility and international indexing under international standards. In the meantime,electronic version of the journal was started i.e. the first steps were made towards electronic edition by CEON (Service for monitoring, measuring and valorisation of scientific journals) through Aseestant electronic editing programme. This has contributed to the quality of published articles, as the editorial board now have at their disposal adequate programmes for text checking in terms of correct citation sand listings of references as well as prevention of plagiarism.
Kultura is regularly delivered to the National Library of Serbia in Belgrade, Belgrade City Library,University Library "Svetozar Marković" in Belgrade, Library of Matica Srpska in Novi Sad, Library of the Serbian Academy of Sciences and Arts in Belgrade, Library of the Rectorate of the University of Arts in Belgrade, University Library in Niš and University Library in Kragujevac. The Kultura Journalis regularly received by numerous interested institutions of culture (libraries, theatres, museums, culture centres) as well as individuals. The Journal nurtures professional exchanges with many similar institutions and magazines in the country, region and in Europe (Montenegro, Croatia, Slovenia,Hungary, Bulgaria, Germany, Switzerland and other countries).
In addition to respecting scientific rules and standards for publishing scientific papers, Kultura has not lost the curiosity or the freshness of an avant-garde magazine dealing with both eternal and very actual topics.
Pages
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- A festive dinner
- 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.
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- A networked avant-garde
- The surrealist avantgarde movement has set the ideological and cultural globalization processes into the very heart of their individual and collective research, relentlesly erasing geopolitical as well as artistic, cultural, linguistic and psychological borders alike. The cooperation and exchange of ideas among French, Spanish and Serbian surrealists was rooted in their personal aquaintances and personalised contacts starting from the 1920s. From 1923 to 1928, a rich network of contacts was built, while the widest and most prolific communication took place from 1929 to 1932, during the years of publishing the almanach Nemoguće-L'impossible (1930) and the magazine Nadrealizam danas i ovde (1931-1932) (Surrealism here and today). Surrealist have fully used the mailing in order to internationalize their movement. In addition to letters and postcards, almost daily they exchanged telegrams and packages that arrived at their resident addresses - those dispersed throughout Europe, but also the ones found within quarters of the same cities. This intranet established along the lines of French/ Spanish/Serbian cooperation, functionally removed Serbian surrealists from the geographical and cultural margines into a much wider net of communication that allowed a free flow of creative information, which altogether, whether coming from the centre or margines, offered equal participation in profiling globale contours of the surrealist avant-garde ideology.
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- A piece of news is male gendered ethical aspects of gender equality in informative programme of national televisions in Serbia
- This work tends to discuss ethical aspect of gender equality in Serbia through content analyses of informative programme. Considering that gender identity, relations and beliefs are, as a part of public sphere, spotted through form and content of TV informing, way of representing and addressing women, we set our attention right to these aspects. The article has been a part of Women in television mirror- gender equality in informative programme of Serbia research, conducted by the Center for Study in Cultural Development, in June and Jully, 2009. The research has shown that you can make a 25 minutes TV journal and not mention a woman, otherwise satisfying all broadcasting technical and programme criteria. We started with the assumption that media are both the mirror of society as well as a creator of social movements, and that the image we detect shows us what part on social scene in Serbia women play, but also point to tendencies in that domain.
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- A question mark for the taverns of Belgrade
- This paper discusses the concept of intangible cultural heritage through the analysis of the state of Belgrade taverns, which are left to ruin. The main pattern of the paper is an attempt to define a place and importance of the taverns as an intangible cultural heritage given their presence throughout the centuries in this capital city's life. Paper also explores inns as cultural property monuments, defining their characteristics with the aim of grasping their value. As such, taverns can be seen as cultural monuments encapsulating the intangible cultural heritage. In the end paper gives reasons why the old taverns should be preserved from demolition and the uniformity of globalization, primarily for the reasons of safeguarding the national and cultural identity, giving the possible ways of their protection through projects.
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- A reflex of cultural studies in Don Delillo's Mao
- 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.
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- A scale model as a public space
- In visual culture studies, a scale model (franc. Maquette) is usually considered in two cases: as a phase in the realization of sculptural and architectural tasks or as an element of museum documentation and exhibitions. A scale model serves as a test for the development of creative ideas, while in the second case, it serves to present an existing, real, three-dimensional structure. In addition to being proportionately reduced, a model is often formally condensed, in terms of the use of details. Yet, all these losses (in scale and design) actually open up the space to another element - imagination. A model offers a visual stimulus, which by means of imagination (individual or public) completes the notion of a signified object. Located in a public space, a model becomes its part, keeping its imaginative potential. In other words, a model in a public space brings imaginative content and thus expands the existing public space. In this sense, a very specific model is a model which announces the construction of a public space: the public space represented by a scale model does not exist in reality; a model itself though its imaginative content - is the only reality of this public space. To the public, by announcing a public space, this kind of scale model induces something that might be called 'public imagination'. In this case, public imagination is seen as a process of constructing public opinion by using imaginative stimulants (primarily visual). Starting from these assumptions, this paper will analyse the scale model of the project 'Belgrade Waterfront' as a generator of public imagination. This means that the 'Belgrade Waterfront' scale model will not be viewed simply as an announcement for the public space, but as an original reality in a public space in which it is exhibited, and as an element in the construction of the expanded public space based on imagination. In other words, this means that the 'Belgrade Waterfront' scale model is not examined as a sign that represents something else (future look of the river Sava waterfront), but as a visual structure that builds its own public space.
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- A spiral of development and/or fall
- Two key concepts that explain the essence of life are the concepts of time and space. Movement through time and space, according to one way of thinking, enters the path of circular motion in a close and predictable system. According to another, for the humans, movement has a linear path in an open and unpredictable system. A compromise between these two extreme positions of understanding development is symbolized by a spiral - it attempts to open a close system, to bring it back to almost the same position but also to lead it in a direction of development and movement towards new forms. So, a circle, a spiral and a ray are symbols of understanding progression in time which has its beginning. In this paper, the problem of development is presented through the symbolism of a spiral. In the context of monotheistic religions, the beginning is given by the creation of the world and counting of the days. A spiral is established in time by a cycle of weeks. The second message of the Old Testament comes from the fall into sin. Since then, through knowledge of the good and the evil, the spiral has unwound in two directions, a direction of life and a direction of death, and their battlefield are the Earth and the Being.
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- A strategic dilemma of cultural policies
- The subject of this paper is a strategic dilemma of cultural policy concerning the issue of direct control or isolation from the political process (a dilemma regarding the implementation of cultural policies); whether cultural management must be fully integrated into the established system of budget financing from the state budget or if it is needed to reduce state control of the means of cultural production and distribution. The aim of this study is to arrive at possible measures and recommendations that need to be implemented in order to reduce political influence and excessive government intervention in cultural and artistic fields. The state is the most important factor in defining cultural policy and government intervention (except when it comes to the liberal model of cultural policy, which means a state policy of non-interference in cultural development) is of crucial importance to establish a continuous cultural development in a particular community. Complete state control leads to the risk of political interference as a result of different interests that do not correspond to the strategic objectives of cultural policy, while neutral stances and a lack of control can lead to the commercialization of culture. Analyses of objectives, priorities and instruments of the state model of cultural policy in France, the para-state model of cultural policy in the Netherlands and the transition model of cultural policy in Croatia and Serbia, as well as the analysis of activities undertaken in the field of practical politics, leads to conclusions which reflect advantages and disadvantages of direct state control and intervention in the field of cultural policy, as well as the ways the detachment from the political process by using various instruments of cultural policy and the transfer of competencies to the para-state bodies can contribute to cultural development of the community and democratization of culture.
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- About Serbia and Serbs in the written sources of the French intellectuals at the late 19th and the beginning of the 20th century
- From the late 19th century to the Great War (1914-1918), information about Serbia and Serbs in the French public has crossed from the unreliable, rare and misty news of the enthusiasts to the reliable, reasoned and clear assessments of the situation on the Balkans and Serbia by the French scholars and publicists, who were also prominent international relations experts. After the official agreement between France and Russia in 1894, an increased interest in the Balkans, Serbia and the Serbs was noticed among French intellectuals (Louis Leger, Ernest Denis, Emile Haumant, Charles Loiseau, Auguste Gauvain, Albert Malet, Victor Berard, Andre Cheradame). For example, such interest in the Serbs in the Ottoman Empire (Victor Berard) was extended to the studies of the Slavic peoples who lived in the Austro-Hungarian Empire (Charles Loiseau, Andre Cheradame, Andre Barre, Leon Lamouche). The development of science and the actualization of the Balkans issue, as yet undefined, prompted the French intellectuals to devote more attention to gathering of information about the Balkans and the peoples in this region. The French authors who have written about the Balkans, Serbia and the Serbs since the end of the 19th century, have carried out a careful selection of source information, learned the Serbian language, travelled and visited the areas they wrote about, collaborated with Serbian intellectuals and collected new sources and literature for their texts. At the beginning of the 20th century, Serbian history, tradition and heroic folk songs, as once primary topics of interest, were gradually replaced by new topics that reflected life of the Balkans population, and then by the political, economic and social conditions in Serbia. Political events on the national and international scene have determined the interests and the themes, prompting intellectuals to action and creating space for cooperation. Due to the complexity and sensitivity of issues that came into focus, intellectuals relied on scholarly arguments, which at the same time, changed the terminology and the image of Serbia and the Serbs.
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- About commissions for preservation and maintenance of religious facilities of the Serbian Ortodox Church between the two world wars
- After establishment of the Patriarchate, the archpriests of the Serbian Orthodox Church planned renovation and restauration of the temples throughout the first South Slavic country proclaimed on 1st December 1918. For the realization of these plans, competent commissions were formed. This paper provides a chronological reconstruction of events that occurred during formation of these commissions as well as the problems in the relationships of the Ministry of religion and justice and of the Holy Archpriest Synod of the Serbian Orthodox Church, regarding composition and jurisdiction over these commissions which was first granted to the said Ministry and then transferred to the Patriarchate of the Serbian Orthodox Church.
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- About the award culture in Serbian modern art life
- The paper is based on available biographic sources on modern Serbian artists which illustrate characteristics of the art award culture. Attention is drawn to branching and multiplying of awards based on development of the visual arts. Also, growing complexity of the awarding procedures is noted, depending on the social circumstances.