No. 53, May-Jun. 2025 Wait—what? Bigger than politics? Yes. Because this isn’t about some passing political scandal. This is about the club. The biggest, boldest, most-decorated institution in the most beautiful game of all: football. It’s about Real Madrid. The Real Madrid. More
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
No. 50, Nov.-Dec. 2024 It is being said that Ponce de Leon brought bananas to Florida in the early 1500s, so Thorstein Veblen (1857-1929) was most probably well acquainted with the long curved fruit. Which, thinking further, the American economist has most probably also eaten. Yet, even for Veblen, bananas would not have been the sought after good to discuss the value of leisure class in economic modernity. More
No. 48, Jul.-Aug. 2024 Much awaited as any other major football tournament, the UEFA Euro 2024 brought along controversies regarding the competition format. Critics (or nostalgic fans) argued over the expansion of the tournament to 24 teams, considering that the old system, with 16 teams divided into groups of 4, would have been simpler and better. Better, meaning, more competitive (?). The current format sees the top two teams from each of the six groups (of four) qualify for the round of 16, joined by the best four third ranked teams of each group. 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
