2/2023: Expert culture in the age of uncertainty

(CFP: February 1–28, 2023)

Experts have always played a significant role in society. Their importance increased as our lives became more complex and specialised. With information aggregating at an impossible pace, referring to the knowledge of those who have it has proven to be an indispensable part of life. Experts have emerged as valuable assets, both in the consumer culture (predictable and associated with growth and system stability, but also enforcing constant choices) and in the culture of anxiety, uncertainty and less stable rules of social order. In postmodernity, an expert is someone that has the knowledge necessary in the times of ubiquitous risk to reduce uncertainty and the probability of a mistake. In the social sciences, the category of an expert is frequently associated not only with knowledge and communication processes but also with the exercise of power. An expert can gain impact by using knowledge and influencing public discourse. It was already Jürgen Habermas who said that public discourse was dominated by what could be called expert culture. However, recent technological progress has reduced the importance of experts. In the age of the internet, anyone can become an expert, says Tom Nichols, with collective wisdom and reliance on media specialists emerging as inseparable elements of our lives. In the face of these dilemmas, it is necessary to ask the following questions: Does the knowledge of current experts truly correspond to modern challenges? When suddenly confronted with unexpected situations, can experts diagnose them and predict how they will unfold? Are we currently experiencing the affirmation or depreciation of expert culture? What will the future expert be like? Are we living in the tyranny of experts, as William Easterly said, or are we seeing a crisis of expert culture?

3/2023: Ethnomusicologist on a field trip. The fields in ethnomusicology

(CFP: April 3–28, 2023)

‘Field trip!’ – this slogan has been used by nearly all generations of ethnomusicologists. How has the definition of the key concept of field change in ethnomusicology throughout years? What is the identity of the source found by today’s researchers of musical folklore? What is the ontological and semantic value of the concepts of ‘authentic’ and ‘genuine’ in the study of the broadly defined traditional musical culture? The modern definition of the field as a specific location one must go to in order to meet the mythical ‘Other’ and their work is becoming increasingly blurred despite the concept being still associated with rural areas as a place of folk music. However, performers no longer operate in isolated communities but in a world similar, if not the same, as researchers. The music they perform has changed or lost its former context and function. Consequently, it seems crucial to ponder on the relationship between the researcher and the subject, particularly in the light of the well-established knowledge that the development of tradition is a result of people’s individual contributions to culture rather than anonymous work of unknown groups that needs to be preserved in its authentic form (as was the belief for centuries). Another important issue is collecting fieldwork documentation as a hobby. What motivates this activity and what happens to the collected material afterwards? In the digital age, ethno-enthusiasts are inadvertently contributing to the McDonaldisation of field research, making a professional definition of the term even more necessary than ever before.

4/2023: Small-townedness

(CFP: July 3–31, 2023)

The new concept of Small-Town Syndrome (in Polish: małomiasteczkowość, which literally translates as ‘small-townedness’) has attracted increasing attention in recent years. It accommodates descriptions of space other than those attributed to the opposition of the countryside vs. the city (a large metropolis and city life). Surveys by the Public Opinion Research Centre (CBOS) indicate that only 13% of Poles would like to live in the city. While Small-Town Syndrome remains a relative term, the city–countryside opposition is currently undergoing deconstruction. One can no longer think of rural areas only as ‘orientalised’ world, provinces or peripheries ridden with complexes (although the latter can still be the case). Neither can it be romanticised, as was a common practice in the mid-20^th century and the then popular vision of global village (cf. Leszek Kołakowski). This deconstruction combined with the subsequent disenchantment with the previous visions of life and the simultaneous recognition of the ‘new magic’ of social reality allow the world to open anew, with small-townedness emerging as a strong voice in public life and, frequently, a mediator between the city and the countryside. As a hybrid concept, it shows the dynamics of the clash between the local and supra-local forces. The revival of small towns has been driven by the Covid-19 pandemic, during which many young people returned to their family towns and localities. What was it like for them? Is the small-town locality a newly invented tradition or one that has been regained? Will this socio-cultural change trigger the processes of deglomeration? Can the provinces become a new utopia? Do we need a new anthropology of everyday life to take a fresh look on the detail as a reflection of the general picture and understand the contemporary phenomenon of small-townedness?

1/2024: Asymmetries of knowledge: Cultural studies and literary studies

(CFP: September 1–29, 2023)

The concept of this issue is to explore topics related to the analysis of the historically and geographically diverse origins of cultural studies intertwined with and emerging from literary studies. A two-fold theoretical approach is proposed: (1) the transition from the scientific analysis of conceptual discourse to ‘cultural studies on scientific culture’ as defined by Anna Zeidler-Janiszewska; and (2) the reconstruction of social and interdisciplinary translations referred to by Karin Knorr Cetina as ‘transepistemic arenas of research’, that is communities and relationships extending beyond the purely cognitive dimension (and studied, for example, from the perspective of Adele Clarke’s situational analysis). Another topic is the reconstruction of protocultural traditions from the Polish humanities of the 1920s to 1960s as a reservoir of largely unexplored categories and conceptualisations. Our aim is to encourage more reflection on the ideas and writings by scholars such as Stefania Skwarczyńska, Stefan Żółkiewski, Dawid Hopensztand, Konstanty Troczyński, Stanisław Brzozowski (and probably many others) as participants in the modern debate, of which we are also a part.

2/2022: Community (in) photography

(CFP: February 1–28, 2022)

Photography as a socio-cultural practice has long been the subject of analyses and studies conducted from many research perspectives. One of the frequently discussed aspects is its sociopetal – taking responsibility for the construction, reconstruction and defence of a group or community identity. In principle, any type of photography can carry this value. To use Bruno Latour’s term, photography is an actant acting on other actors in the multi-layer network of what constitutes reality. Connecting not only photographers, it inspires the formation of communities of photography enthusiasts, organisers of photo festivals, reviews, conferences, as well as editorial teams and research groups dedicated specifically to this medium. Contemporary photography lovers are pursuing their passions online, organising virtual exhibitions, commenting, and evaluating their works. Professional photographers are establishing popular collectives that give rise to various communities. How are the social mechanisms of associating through the medium of photography changing? What purposes do they serve, and what are their results? How important is photography and what is its role as a tool of social mobilisation and creator of knowledge communities? Let us take a closer look at photographs and their authors, both through the prism of the past and the most recent experiences related, for example, to the COVID-19 pandemic.

3/2022: The form-building aspects of phonography

(CFP: April 1–29, 2022)

David Bowie said that, once freed from the physical medium, music itself is going to become like running water or electricity. Twenty years later, in the era of streaming services, the artist’s vision is becoming reality. Nevertheless, tapes and records are still in the game, with increasing sales attesting to the revival of old media. Physicality has been an unquestioned feature of phonography for decades. According to Werner Faulstich, the era of medium-bound music and music storage media that have changed the functioning of music in culture started with the phonograph. The media that have come ever since, Marshall McLuhan argues, have transformed the music itself while also being influenced by it. Innovation as much as the limitations of sound storage devices have themselves become factors in the creative process, particularly in popular music. The latter relies on artistic gestures and specific media used for their specific features such as: reverse playback, shifting the disc or tape rotation speed, parallel grooves, hidden tracks, the use of recorded content in playback devices, picture discs, etc. The multi-code character of the current media (material, packaging, descriptions, graphic content) is crucial for conveying the artistic message, enriching this area of research. The physicality of music storage devices attracts both listeners and researchers. Despite its limitations, it offers a quality that cannot be found in music released and played through other media than traditional.

4/2022: Cultural landscapes of the post-pandemic

(CFP: July 1–29, 2022)

The pandemic has affected nearly every aspect of human life. Looking forward to its passing, can we envision the post-pandemic and virus-free world, both biologically and culturally? Multiple studies and reports are available that discuss the pandemic condition of various areas of social and individual life, including culture. From the point of view of collective life, the question about the upcoming post-pandemic landscape seems particularly interesting. ‘Post-pandemic’ is emerging as yet another concept with the prefix ‘post-‘, highlighting its, as Rosalind Krauss would say, ‘performative ambiguity’. While indicating the will to move beyond the pandemic perspective, the term still refers to it dialectically. It prompts questions whether it is still possible to come back to the pre-pandemic reality or, on the contrary, our world is changing irreversibly, and we are involuntary witnesses of this change? Isolation and distance in all aspects of human life, with virtual interactions serving as a substitute for direct contact, are increasingly recognised as key features of our times; however, inquiries into their deeper consequences for the past-pandemic life are less frequent. The very distinction between the pandemic and the post-pandemic time seems to deserve an in-depth humanistic analysis. The previous dualisms, culture – nature, tangible – intangible, private – public, real – virtual, online – offline, have been replaced by new hybrids. To what extent will our awareness of the pandemic, its course and consequences prompt the redefinition of the key world-organising concepts? Are we witnessing the emergence of a specific post-pandemic culture, with new forms of understanding what is cultural, or is it the beginning of a new chapter in the history of humankind?

1/2023: Excluded images

(CFP: September 1–30, 2022)

The status of excluded images and images of exclusion, originating from the parameterisation practices and strategies of the 19^th and early 20^th centuries and thus principally associated with the anthropometric paradigm, is nowadays increasingly affected by the (largely politicised) participation of machines. Digital cameras and mobile phones have become widespread along with new photo sharing platforms such as social media and applications. Mikko Villi argues that photographs, which can be uploaded and deleted instantly, have become an important element of personal interactions. José van Dijck highlights that the ‘visual language’ of social media has developed its own poetics, making certain images more privileged while others remain peripheral. What are the relationships between various forms of users’ communication exclusion and their social practices? Other fascinating areas related to algorithmic identity imaging include biometric identification techniques which lead to racial, ethnic and gender (features determining affective individuality) exclusion in images as well as machine imaging and its emancipatory potential. The indicated areas of research prompt questions about the specificity of visual poetics in machine imaging in terms of methods of image generating, (re)constructing and archiving: algorithmic procedures, the operation of image reconstruction software, the functionality of digital interfaces, and the material components of image storage devices.

2/2021: Anthropology of rock

(CFP: 1–28 February 2021)

Rock is an important part of culture. Song studies, a subdiscipline of sound studies and an interesting context in contemporary humanities, have sought to enter the Polish discourse of cultural science for some time now. The anthropology of rock is a topic still in need of studying. Polish research in this respect is rather modest compared to other parts of the world, particularly the English speaking countries, where reflection on rock has been popular for many years. In Poland, its origins date back to 2009 when the first nationwide conference ‘Unisono na pomieszane języki’ [Language mix in unison], organised by Radosław Marcinkiewicz, took place in Tułowice near Opole. Eleven editions of the conference have been held so far – since the third session under the motto ‘Unisono w wielogłosie’ [Polyphony in unison]. Six volumes of the conference materials have been published (2010–2014, 2019). Their significance results not only from the fact that they are the first series of such studies in Poland but also that they have laid the foundations for Polish rock music studies. A few years earlier, in 2003, A po co nam rock? Między duszą a ciałem [What do we need rock for? Between soul and body], edited by Wojciech Burszta and Marcin Rychlewski, came out as the first multi-authored monograph on the topic. This shows that rock anthropology research is a relatively young discipline in Poland – not even 18 years old yet. In this issue we will focus on studies by Polish researchers. Ten years before the release of A po co nam rock?, Wojciech Siwak published his pioneering work, Estetyka rocka [The aesthetics of rock] (1993). The last decade (2009–2019) has seen a real flood of works on rock culture.

3/2021: Accessibility of visual culture

(CFP: 1–30 April 2021)

Contemporary culture is dominated by visuality. Dozens of ads, billboards, memes and videos flash before our eyes every day. Many of us contribute to this pool with own photos, drawings and collages published mostly in social media. Immersed in this ocean of images, we hardly ever reflect on the fact that visually impaired people can be excluded from this culture. It is a particularly pressing problem once we realise that people with low vision can participate in exhibitions, performances and film screenings only to a very limited extent, while their presence in museums, theatres and cinemas tends to evoke astonishment and doubts as to its purpose. Aldo Grassini, the founder of the Museo Omero dedicated primarily to the non-sighted, argues that the accessibility of culture for people with disabilities should be considered not only as a serious social problem but also an important factor in their therapy and social integration. While Polish cultural institutions take the effort to fully accommodate their events for the visually impaired, they often face financial, technical and psychological problems. Therefore, in this issue we present various ways of including visually impaired people in visual culture.

4/2021: Women and the countryside

(CFP: 1–30 July 2021)

The activity of women was for a long time compared to the activity of men. Descriptions of reletions beetwen them are fraught with multiple stereotypes. As people became more aware of women’s importance in the social and public life, cases of women breaking through the glass or grass ceiling (with the latter used in relation to women in agribusiness) began to surface in the discourse, with traditional gender roles more frequently identified as an obstacle in women’s development and pursuit of a higher social position. This was particularly true of the countryside where women are expected to play their traditional social roles. However, the last decades of intense economic and socio-cultural transformation have had an impact on the direction and nature of change in rural areas, e.g. in the functioning of rural families. Consequently, cultural codes that define the female and male family roles, relations between them and the accepted scope of duties and powers, have been modified. Self-definitions of what it means to be a woman or a man in the private sphere – in the family, among relatives and neighbours, in the economic or public-political space – have evolved. The roles performed thus far are changing in the light of the new cultural order while new ones are being developed. It is therefore necessary to review the position of rural women through the prism of culture defined by means of the dominant cultural codes and the resulting behaviour patterns, and to hear what women think about it.

1/2022: Cultures of moderation

(CFP: 1–30 September 2021)

‘We moderns have never needed a culture of limits as much as we do now’, argues Giorgos Kallis, an environmental scientist working in the field of ecological economics and an advocate of the idea of degrowth, in his book Limits: Why Malthus Was Wrong and Why Environmentalists Should Care. Fuelled by the economic system based on the growing production and consumption, the climate and ecological crisis prompts us to look for alternative models of social life. Profound changes are needed in how we organise our lives and economies – particularly in the countries of the Global North. It is also necessary to reflect on the values that steer these changes. One of them is moderation defined not as renouncement that is enforced by external circumstances and thus experienced as deprivation, but as well-being and living in balance with the environment, or as Kallis puts it, ‘a useful and happy life within the established limits’. Our aim is to look at this issue through the prism of Polish culture and its history. We intend to analyse the past and contemporary practices, communities and ethical systems developed around moderation, self-sufficiency and the concept of good life in harmony with nature. An equally important aspect for us is to study the lack of moderation, intemperance and coerced moderation as phenomena that continue to resurface in the history of Polish culture.

2/2020 Katastrofy, kataklizmy, klęski

(CFP: 1 lutego – 6 marca 2020)

We współczesnej kulturze coraz częściej pojawiają się obrazy, filmy, seriale i książki poświęcone tematyce katastrof i kataklizmów, które wydarzyły się kiedyś, lub takich, które mogą mieć miejsce w przyszłości. Zjawiska takie zawsze budziły obawy i lęki. Chociaż ludzie próbowali zabezpieczać się przed takimi zdarzeniami i ich unikać, to charakteryzuje je wysoki stopień nieprzewidywalności. Mają nagły i wstrząsający charakter, a zazwyczaj także dramatyczny przebieg i poważne konsekwencje. Próby opisu tych zdarzeń, wyjaśniania ich mechanizmów, wymagają często dystansu czasowego. Wiążą się bowiem z traumą nie tylko pojedynczych osób, ale i całych pokoleń, a nawet społeczeństw. Jakie są przyczyny wzrostu liczby analiz dramatycznych zdarzeń z przeszłości, takich jak katastrofy elektrowni jądrowych w Czarnobylu i Fukushimie, powódź tysiąclecia we Wrocławiu, katastrofy promów kosmicznych Challenger i Columbia, wielki głód w Finlandii i na Ukrainie, pożary lasów w Kalifornii, katastrofa Titanica, kryzysy ekonomiczne lat trzydziestych i 2009 roku, epidemia dżumy w Europie, 11 września w Stanach Zjednoczonych, upadek najstarszego biura podróży Thomas Cook i wiele innych? Dlaczego jedne trafiają do masowej wyobraźni, a inne zostają zapomniane? Dlaczego przyszłość coraz częściej przedstawiana jest jako apokalipsa i zagłada? I skąd współcześnie w kulturze masowej tak wiele powrotów do katastrof, kataklizmów i klęsk z przeszłości?

 

3/2020 Rewolucja uważności

(CFP: 1-20 kwietnia 2020)

Rewolucja uważności to zjawisko, któremu warto przyjrzeć się poprzez współczesne tendencje kontestacji kultury hałasu, nadmiaru i pośpiechu, opartej na imperatywie konsumpcjonizmu. Uważność została spopularyzowana w czasach kontrkultury lat 60. i 70., będąc elementem transferu buddyzmu zen, w latach 90. natomiast znalazła zastosowanie między innymi w terapii bólu czy radzeniu sobie ze stresem. Rewolucję uważności należy traktować jako część szerszego zjawiska, które określono mianem „duchowej rewolucji”. W refleksji nad rewolucją uważności kluczowa jest próba odpowiedzi na pytanie, na ile miałaby ona kontestować logikę późnego kapitalizmu, a na ile ją podtrzymywać. Zjawisko utowarowienia uważności zostało określone wręcz mianem „McUważności”. Zmakdonaldyzowana zachodnia kultura co najmniej od czasów rewolty w latach 60. i 70. importuje orientalne idee religijno-filozoficzne. Nieprzypadkowo Theodore Roszak definiował kontrkulturę jako zwrot w stronę mistyki, okultyzmu i magii. Colin Campbell zjawisko to powiązał z orientalizacją Zachodu, w której idea uważności, związana z medytacją, zostaje poddana procesowi kulturowej dekontekstualizacji i znajduje zastosowanie między innymi w leczeniu. Czy idea uważności i powiązana z nią rewolucja uważności zachowują jeszcze odniesienie do orientalnego kulturowego kontekstu, czy zostają z niego odarte i jako zsekularyzowane odsyłają do świeckiego społeczeństwa późnego kapitalizmu? A może na styku orientalnego i europejskiego kontekstu rodzi się nowa wartość, a idei i praktyce uważności nadane zostają nowe znaczenia?

 

4/2020 Języki tańca

(CFP: 1-31 lipca 2020)

Czym są języki tańca i na czym polega ich różnorodność? Z potrzeby metodologicznej refleksji nad tym zagadnieniem narodził się pomysł badawczego przyjrzenia się temu niełatwemu, wbrew pozorom, tematowi. Kłopot stanowi już podstawowa definicja przedmiotu badań. Dla Joan Kealiinohomoku kluczowy wydaje się moment rozpoznania tańca jako tańca właśnie przez członków tańczącej wspólnoty. Intuicyjnie nazywamy tańcem ekspresję bywalców klubów techno, oglądany na scenie balet klasyczny, telewizyjne show w rodzaju Tańca z gwiazdami czy będące często niezbywalną częścią rytuału tańce w kulturach plemiennych – fenomeny niesłychanie przecież odmienne. Łączy te zjawiska ruch ciała, w skomponowanej w czasie i przestrzeni strukturze, czasami posługującej się znakiem. Tym, co wysuwa się na pierwszy plan, byłaby funkcja estetyczna. Taniec to tworzenie i doświadczanie ulotnego piękna. W planowanym numerze będziemy poszukiwać języka, w którym teoria spotyka się z praktyką, a metodologia jest  – jak w somaestetyce Richarda Shustermana – wglądem we własne cielesne doświadczenie, samowiedzą. Ideą numeru jest łączenie refleksji teoretycznej nad tańcem z praktyką taneczną i choreograficzną. Kategoria intymności w tangu argentyńskim, improwizacja wobec choreografii, taniec jako narzędzie międzykulturowe, choreografie przeszłości to tylko niektóre z planowanych zagadnień.

 

1/2021 Muzeum antropocenu

(CFP: 1-28 września 2020)

Pojęcie antropocenu w ostatnich latach zyskało popularność nie tylko w polu nauk przyrodniczych, lecz również w kręgach humanistyki i sztuki (gdzie bywa zresztą kontestowane m.in. ze względu na antropo- i eurocentryczny charakter). Dyskusje na ten temat zorientowane są przede wszystkim na przyszłość. Jeśli pojawia się w nich temat przeszłości, to (jak u Jussiego Parikki) chodzi o „przyszłe przeszłości” (future pasts). Paradoksalnie, myśląc o antropocenie, chcielibyśmy jednak nie tyle patrzeć w przyszłość, ile spojrzeć wstecz. Z perspektywy współczesnych debat, preposteryjnie, zastanowimy się nad przeszłością antropocenu i jej wizualizacjami w muzeach, archiwach i sztuce. Ważnym obszarem naszych eksploracji badawczych będą muzea przyrodnicze, które są swoistymi „nekro-arkami” upamiętniającymi wymarłe gatunki i utraconą bioróżnorodność. Eksponaty muzealne, dioramy, wizualizacje natury, często nieintencjonalnie są przedstawieniami zachodzących zmian i wzrastającego wpływu „czynnika ludzkiego”. Coraz częściej spotykanym zjawiskiem jest np. organizowanie wystaw upamiętniających wymarłe gatunki. W tym kontekście pojawia się m.in. pytanie o rolę muzeów historii naturalnej w konstruowaniu zbiorowej świadomości „nie-ludzkiego dziedzictwa”. Warto zastanowić się także, czy idea muzeum historii naturalnej ma sens w obliczu końca podziału na historię „naturalną” i „ludzką” (Dipesh Chakrabarty). Podobnie archiwa fotograficzne, filmowe i dźwiękowe są zmaterializowaną pamięcią zachodzących zmian. Ich analiza może przyczynić się do rekonstrukcji zmieniających się wyobrażeń natury („alternatywnych przyród”), konstruowanych przedstawień antropocenu.

W 2019 i 2020 roku kolejne numery „Kultury Współczesnej” poświęcone będą czterem zagadnieniom wyłonionym w konkursie na najciekawsze koncepcje części tematycznych kwartalnika:

• Numer 4/2019 – „Homo medicus. Narracje humanistyczne w naukach medycznych”,
• Numer 1/2020 – „Kultura narcyzmu”.

Numer 1/2019 nosi tytuł „Algorytmiczna kultura”.

Numer 2/2019 to „Zwrot edukacyjny w kulturze?”.

Numer 3/2019 (w przygotowaniu) będzie nosił tytuł „Miasta-utopie”.

W 2018 i 2019 roku kolejne numery „Kultury Współczesnej” poświęcone będą czterem zagadnieniom wyłonionym w konkursie na najciekawsze koncepcje części tematycznych kwartalnika.

• Numer 2/2018 – „Technolęki. Kulturowe oblicza lęku przed technologią”,
• Numer 3/2018 – „Niepełnosprawność i technologia”,
• Numer 4/2018 – „Kultura (nie)wrażliwa. Wrażliwość w kulturze”,
• Numer 5(100)/2018 – Numer jubileuszowy (poza konkursem)
• Numer 1/2019 – „Algorytmiczna kultura”.