No. 52, Mar.-Apr. 2025 Ulf Hannerz wrote back in 1989 that that the twentieth century culture can be characterized as having been built on centre-periphery relationships. This divide has allowed cultural diversity to flow transnationally, empowering cultural creativity through the exchange of ideas and values, especially in peripheral societies. More
No. 51, Jan.-Feb. 2025 In My Russia (Romanian language edition at Curtea Veche, 2024, in translation of Adriana Dănilă), Mikhail Shishkin argues that one of the defining moments in Russian history was the choice of the “Old Church” language for Kievan Rus instead of Latin. This decision, which had major consequences for the cultural, scientific, and geopolitical development of the Russian sphere, cannot be attributed to a single ruler. Rather, it was a long historical process linked to the influence of Byzantium and the Christianization of Kievan Rus. It is true that the seeds were sown by Vladimir I of Kiev (978–1015), who decided to Christianize Kievan Rus in 988, adopting Byzantine Orthodoxy as the official religion. Through this decision, the path of the Slavic liturgical tradition, introduced by Saints Cyril and Methodius, was chosen, making Old Slavonic the liturgical and administrative language of the emerging Russian state. The decision was consolidated during the reigns of Yaroslav the Wise (1019-1054) and Ivan III (1462-1505), the latter’s rule coinciding with the period when, after the fall of Constantinople in 1453, Russia proclaimed itself the heir to the Byzantine Empire, and Moscow began to be regarded as the “Third Rome”. By choosing a language within the Byzantine sphere of influence, Kievan Rus distanced itself from Latin (the language of the Catholic world) in favour of the Orthodox model. The choice belonged to Vladimir I, who had to decide between Orthodoxy, Catholic Christianity, Judaism, and Islam. More
The European environment – business and wider society alike – is undergoing significant disruptions following the impact of digitalisation. Traditional value creation models for European businesses change. Value creation models are impacted by digital transformations – both if we talk about a “digital twin” (a virtual/digital control of physically running processes and physical resources) or about a full “digital from scratch”. New combinations of digital and physical resources (components) allow new, innovative, fully – or partially – digital products to be launched onto the markets. Thereupon, digital platform ecosystems (DPEs) and digital platform-based value creation models leave their marks on production, consumption, organization and organizations, or exchange. More
Romania is attacking on the left side of the pitch, Răzvan Marin and Florin Tănase have a short exchange of passes in the corner of the penalty box, which opens some wide spaces for the latter to penetrate and make a decisive pass for Eric Bicfalvi, who, at 32, scores his first goal for the representative team of Romania, at his eighth cap. It was the 81st minute of the UEFA Nations League match on Windsor Park in Belfast. Around the same time that Răzvan, Florin and Eric had their passing game combinations, allowing the latter to find the back of the net, Sorin, Florin and Cătălin were finding the back of the plate. They were, obviously, not on any football pitch, but they were starring, as chefs and judges, in a well-known cooking show in Romania. More
People(s) worshiping different deities and subject to different kinds of democracies, people(s) coming from older cultures or younger countries, all feel at home in the stands of stadiums or in the TV-oriented armchairs during football World Cups. Savian was yards away from Russian playgrounds and Vlad was inches away from HD screens. They play a friendly match in TMFI. More
There is a ceaseless notion going on about the rearwardness of Eastern European states and their inability to build lastingness. Ideas uninterruptedly flow about a retrograde existence that keeps the East away from competing with the West; that the hiatus seems to enlarge day after day. Alignment with the West is one of the biggest endeavours of the East. Many efforts are put into an attempt of modernization which gives the impression of being beyond comprehension and realization. Arraying in the same clothes as the big brother looks to have become a mantra of the East, with an ubiquitous hope of a finest hour that will come when differences will no longer exist. Odd enough, the East sets its hopes in an ideal it has never managed to obtain for centuries, but which is now seen as an end goal. More
The world is struggling with despair in the face of an uncaring threat at the moment of writing these ideas: that word is not even worth mentioning any longer, since it is probably on the lips (and in the ears) of the majority of people worldwide. ‘Probably’ and ‘majority’ are only used here in order to respect a certain journalistic demeanor in writing which requires some precautionary – thus, not categorical – statements. Indeed, some children might not truly understand what goes on during the present time; so might some minority of people living in any given disconnected and remote settlement (if such disconnection still exists) and, unfortunately, so does some whimsical category of people – even grown-ups – who, although they have heard about the danger, behave as if they do not understand what is happening (which, again, with precautionary measures, might just be the case: their ignorant behavior simply denotes a lack – inability? – of understanding). Or, the more despicable, they did understand, but they simply want to make a spectacle of their ability to break the law (because, hey, isn’t it so, they are ‘smarter’, ‘wiser’, ‘brighter’). More
Summers in Germany are usually temperate. The humid winds from the West and from the North keep temperatures at a decent average, letting people enjoy sunny, but not torrid days, while also safeguarding some vital sales of the traditional beer. Away from the proverbial workaholism, Germans can also find their ways for letting off steam. Some of them do it in the ‘Biergartens’ of the ‘Vaterland’, while most of the others jump on the plane to Mallorca to work on a tan which is unavailable back home. “Little Germany”, as Mallorca has come to be known, offers cheese cubes, roast pork (to put it ‘simply’: “Schweinebraten”) or apple salads next to traditional paellas in what has become a ‘saxon-iberic’ mix meant at attracting tourists. More
Throughout 2020, the question of how the world would look like after the Coronavirus pandemic has been constantly repeated. The “status quo” has been challenged: our usual lives have been suddenly torn apart and life during Covid-19 has been described as “another normal” or as a “new normal”. Such a massive, transformational change is not commonplace, so the attempts of humanity to regain its balance are understandable. The Covid-19 pandemic ends up being a real case scenario for Kurt Lewin’s famous 3-phase change model, meant as a tool to resolve major social conflicts. More
Where is Romanian football heading towards? Well, for a beginning, literally speaking, it might head towards the back of the net, which would be wonderful piece of news for the goal scoring team. The not so bright answer would come if the question was considered as a metaphor, not as a real ball-playing skill of any given footballer. Irrespective of where a ball is really heading – in or outside the goal, in the stands, outside the stadium even, as witnessed in many small, murky stadiums of lower league competitions – one thing is certain: Romanian football fans don’t really seem to be heading towards there where one would expect them to see: to the stadiums. More
Towards the end of 2019, a software issue during launch meant that Boeing’s Starliner spacecraft was unable to perform its first mission to supply the International Space Station as intended. It might by counted as merely one of the many problems often faced in cosmic exploration, yet this one was of particular interest because the spacecraft was created and operated by Boeing, a private business, as opposed to a public body such as National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA), such as we have been widely acquainted to. In fact, NASA abandoned the manned spacecraft program in 2011 (the space shuttle fleet), due to the high maintenance costs, as well as the significant and politically unpalatable dangers. Instead, what it has done since then has been to rent berths in Russian Soyuz spacecrafts or to encourage private businesses to come up with replacements. That is how SpaceX, Orbital Sciences Corporation and United Launch Alliance jumped onto the bandwagon of a game that, for the better part of the last century, was played by governments moved by Cold War logic. More
‘May the force be with you’, and it’s not Anakin Skywalker who possesses it, but it looks like you’d rather find it in old grandma’s cooking book. Dishes seem to have historically had the power not only to feed hungry stomachs and greedy souls, but also to beget monstrous diplomatic disharmonies. Not that it necessarily came to weapon-like conflicts, but still enough on the plate to leaven in a sourdough of cultural schisms. More
