This paper discusses the results of the international applied research project ‘UniDiversity – Universities Towards Diversity’ that examined what discriminatory attitudes, beliefs and behaviours based on sexual orientation, gender identity and sex characteristics (SOGISC) exist in the Lithuanian, Greek and Italian academic environment. Specifically, this paper analyses how LGBTI+ individuals conceive of different forms of discrimination in the Lithuanian academic environment. The paper fills the knowledge gap in terms of intolerance and discrimination against LGBTI+ individuals at Lithuanian higher education institutions (...) and provides its theoretical explanation. By focusing on the empirical data collected from survey and focus group interviews, the paper interprets them within the framework of both the sociopolitical context and theoretical debates about heteronormative attitudes. The paper argues that there exists a gap between the declarative openness to LGBTI+ people within Lithuanian universities and persisting stereotypes and discriminatory attitudes towards them. (shrink)

Weber’s very important theory on the influence of religion on economic behaviour was tested in the societies which belong to different cultural and religious circles. However, due to various socio-political circumstances, the testing of Weber’s theoretical-methodological framework has been largely neglected in the countries where Orthodox Christianity is dominant. However, the difficulties that arose in Orthodox societies during the post-socialist transformation, as well as the shift from the economic research paradigm to the cultural one on the global level, along with (...) the revival of religion in Eastern Europe as one of the most important institutions of ideological and social life, contributed to the focus of our scientific interest be directed in this direction. The central questions that we tried to answer on this occasion were primarily related to the specifics of the concept of work in Orthodox Christianity and the relationship to the accumulation of capital. (shrink)

This study analyses the affectivity of social disgust behind the oppressive exclusion of social minorities, such as the forced institutionalisation of vagrants in modern Korean society. This social exclusion of vagrants is divided into two forms: the forced institutionalisation of ‘infected vagrants’ during the Japanese occupation and the forced institutionalisation of ‘vagrants themselves’ during the developmental state. In both cases, the visible power apparatus of exclusion of minorities was socially legitimised by the effective use of disgust politics of purification and (...) isolation. Through this analysis, this study joins the discourse on affective communities as a critical alternative to deinstitutionalisation by revealing the dynamics of the social disgust that threatens the community’s existence. (shrink)

The consequence of establishing new Polish state borders after the Second World War was the mass resettlement of citizens of the pre-war Second Polish Republic (II Rzeczpospolita) from the so-called Kresy – now newly established Lithuanian, Belarusian and Ukrainian republics of the Soviet Union – to the Polish People’s Republic (Polska Rzeczpospolita Ludowa). The 240,000 Poles, who left the Lithuanian Soviet Socialist Republic as part of the post-war resettlement, were only part of a group of over 1.4 million people resettled (...) to ‘new Poland’. With extraordinary strength, they revived the 19th century myth of the Polish Kresy – one of the most important Polish national myths – which soon became an inseparable part of the Polish national discourse and the main element of Polish identity policy towards Poles who stayed in Kresy. This article is an attempt to answer the following question: What is the meaning of and role played by Kresy myth/discourse in constructing the identity of contemporary Poles living in South-eastern Lithuania – on the territory of these mythical Polish Kresy? The article is based on a series of interviews with Poles from Lithuania and representatives of governmental and non-governmental organisations operating for the Kresy, as well as an analysis of the content of these organisations websites with a project offer addressed to Poles in Lithuania. (shrink)

The attainment of autocephaly by the Orthodox Church of Ukraine intensified the religious transitions of parishes that were preceded by individual parishioners’ switches. The highest dynamics of such transitions occurred in the Volyn Region in the north-western part of Ukraine. These transitions refer exclusively to a switch from the Ukrainian Orthodox Church of the Moscow Patriarchate to the Orthodox Church of Ukraine without affecting other religious communities. Most of the population supported the autocephalous status of the Orthodox Church of Ukraine, (...) for they consider granting autocephaly as a major historical event for the Ukrainian nation. The process of active religious transitions was primarily determined by the aptness of each parish community and political climate on a national level. The Orthodox Church of Ukraine was able to maintain its high regard, but with the change of political power in Ukraine in 2019, it lost political support. The process of religious transitions dwindled. (shrink)

The article is based on the data of the 10th round of the European Social Survey (ESS) analysis and discusses the correlation between Lithuanian residents’ satisfaction with democracy and political participation, self-evaluation of political efficacy, social trust, trust in authorities and satisfaction with their performance, as well as sociodemographic variables. The article also analyses the dynamics of satisfaction with democracy in Lithuania, and this indicator is compared with the data of other countries that participated in the ESS. The analysis was (...) performed with a representative sample of the Lithuanian population, and the case of Lithuania was compared with representative population samples of other countries. The method of research is statistical analysis, Pearson’s r correlation coefficient was calculated. Statistically significant correlations were identified between the satisfaction with democracy and almost all analysed variables. The strongest positive statistically significant correlations between the satisfaction with democracy in Lithuania are with the satisfaction with the government and its performance and trust in authorities. (shrink)

Rural community organisations (RCOs) are part of a non-governmental organisations network, an effective tool for tackling local problems and reducing growing territorial exclusion. Despite their significance, it is not fully clear how many of these organisations exist in Lithuania. This is due to several reasons: the typology of settlements in the national law (more specifically, the definition of rural areas) no longer reflects the demographic reality, and the definitions contained in the sub-legislation are ‘manipulated’. In the context of the activities (...) of RCO, this is a flawed practice as it slows down the empowerment of the existing potential of organisations. The article presents the issue of the RCO network as well as addresses the problem of the typology of the settlement system itself. Adapting the research practice opens a scientific debate to launch a search for answers to emerging problems. (shrink)

The main attention is focused on time allocation for work and personal life in this article. The research consists of four parts. The first part of this article analyses the theoretical aspects of time allocation for work and personal life. The second part of the article justifies the methodology of the research. In the third part of the article, the time allocation for work and personal life is analysed. Finally, the discussion about time allocation for work and personal life is (...) provided. Having conducted the empirical analysis, the following conclusions can be drawn. The experts defined the concept of the balance between work and personal life in terms of time: the balance between work and personal life is achieved when a person feels consistency and harmony between work and personal life. In terms of time, sleep, work and personal life must be each given 8 h a day, proportionately. However, it has been empirically investigated that the most important area of time allocation for self-employed persons is work. Self-employed persons in Lithuania spent 22.5% of time a day on work, and 77.5% on personal life. Furthermore, in the end of this article, the main conclusions and possible future directions of the research are provided. (shrink)

Social mobility is influenced by many factors. Studies show that Lithuania is among the countries with the same number of upward and downward social mobility. This shows that there is social inequality in the country, which especially affects people from the lower socio-economic strata. Considering the fact that previous studies of social mobility did not analyse the factors of this phenomenon based on the qualitative approach of data collection and analysis, this article, based on the Delphi method, seeks a consensus (...) of views expressed by experts – the most important barriers and factors of social mobility. The results show that a family and neighbourhood environment that does not form positive social skills is one of the main obstacles to social mobility, moreover, opportunities are limited due to insufficient funding for social protection, high levels of inequality, the fragmentation of complex assistance and the lack of other social services. (shrink)

The article deals with the metaphysics of cognitive processes in media reality formation. Metaphysics reveals being and nothingness. Processes and discourse practices are regarded as cognitive processes. There is a distinction between media reality, hyper reality and virtual reality. The relationship between reality and information processes is being explored. The metaphysics of media-reality influences the existence of man and society, touches upon the value foundations of being and introduces the way to transform them. The metaphysical dimension of cognitive processes opens (...) up new forms of media reality impact on society. It is considered to be an integrative form uniting the representatives of different groups in achieving a specific goal. (shrink)

Sociotype is a concept that allows a more comprehensive understanding about biosociology of undiagnosed rare diseases (URD). Sociotype is related to a genotype and a phenotype and it is an expression of the individual life world in society. In this paper, semiotic and hermeneutic analysis of papers published and selected about URD is developed. Te perspective followed in this research is aligned with the works of Barbieri and Peirce. Papers with the most social content have been selected and those with (...) a more biomedical content have been rejected. Te semiotics analysis has been divided in genotypic, phenotypic and sociotypic, and related to the hermeneutical perspective. It has been possible to understand the basis of semiotics elements of URD. Te general conclusion is that URD is a particular sociotype with a determined set of social characteristics. Tis paper opens research on the biosemiotic and hermeneutic perspective about URD. (shrink)

This paper explores recent developments in the virtue ethics approach to human flourishing in technological societies. I discuss the merits of virtue ethics in a broader context of various philosophies of technology. I propose that a distinction can be made between two broad approaches to the question of the good life and technology: the production approach that focuses on the roles technologies could and do play in production for the elimination of various forms of labour and the consumption approach that (...) focuses on the role of technology in everyday social settings and interactions outside the workplace. Finding that the virtue ethics approach currently remains almost exclusively focused on consumption, I conclude the article with a suggestion for how virtue theory can be advanced beyond consumption using the resources of the same virtue ethics tradition. (shrink)

Professionals and researchers in the literature widely discuss the concept of knowledge sharing. This article aims to provide a theoretical framework for knowledge sharing from the perspective of selected factors such as altruism and social exchange theory (SET) and also discusses an epistemological approach to knowledge management and knowledge sharing. The main aim of this paper is to theoretically and empirically contribute to knowledge sharing in the University context. The paper also discusses the altruism and knowledge sharing of students as (...) individuals who may expect some recognition for sharing their tacit and explicit knowledge. Data confirm that there is often an altruistic approach among students. If they expect recognition, it is mainly on a group level. Groups of student respondents also gave a unique perspective on the influence of the COVID-19 Pandemic on the attitude toward sharing knowledge. (shrink)

The discussion follows the logic of Western modern metaphysics (mathematical) and ontology (atomistic materialism) in order to demonstrate how scientific discourses assumed a power to construct the environment. A discourse of any discipline is constructed on the basis of its value to be applied on the material, homogeneous environment, to yield desired technical products, including genetic, chemical, electronic, physiological, etc. Thus, each discourse contains the ‘power’ to remake the environment in accordance with its rules. The result is the following: environment (...) is a discursive construct. Such constructivism is accepted by post-modern writers who claim that all discourses are a power which determines how we understand and treat the environment. (shrink)

Language not only objectively expresses the thought of a proposition but also indicates the speaker’s emotion, attitude, and viewpoints toward a proposition, which is called subjectivity in the study. Subjectivity is one of the main topics in philosophy. However, the phenomenon of subjectivity is mainly discussed at the word, construction, or syntactic level from the perspective of linguistics. To better the characteristics of speakers as subjects in social practice activities and cognitive activities, an analytical framework of subjectivity in discourse from (...) the perspective of philosophy was constructed to investigate subjectivity at the discourse level. Three aspects, that is, experience, mental and communicative models, were explored. The results show that (1) the constructed analytical framework clearly shows the social characteristics of subjectivity in discourse; (2) the experience model is divided into the speaker’s social and cultural experience; (3) the mental model is construed as the speaker’s mental cognition, reflected by the speaker’s mental stance and emotion; (4) the communicative model is represented by the speaker’s communicative intention and communicative practice, including appeal, command and announcement. The study provides an analytical framework to dig up the subjective nature of language and the relationship among speakers, society and discourse. This study also enriches the research on subjectivity and discourse analysis. (shrink)

Straipsnyje apžvelgiama mokslinė konferencija „(Post)tiesa ir žinojimas filosofiniu, sociologiniu ir komunikaciniu požiūriu“, įvykusi Lietuvos mokslų akademijoje. Kon­ ferencijoje nagrinėtos temos: tiesa ir posttiesa Rusijoje, žmogaus tapatumas medijo­ se, tiesos problema Martino Heideggerio filosofijoje, techninės posttiesos galimybės sąlygos, pedagogika (post)tiesos sąlygomis, nesutarimo etika ir diplomatija bei racio­ nalumų įvairovė, politinis veikimas posttiesos sąlygomis, politinis ethos, posttiesos apraiškos medijose ir propagandoje, sąmokslo teorijos ir posttiesos santykis, taip pat analizuota posttiesos būklė per žaidimo fenomenologijos prizmę ir kt. Straipsnyje ap­ tariamos pagrindinės konferencijos pranešėjų (...) mintys, su kai kuriomis jų polemizuoja­ ma, apžvelgiami svarbesni diskusijų momentai. (shrink)

This article is an overview and introduction of the current issue of Filosofija. Sociologija, thematically divided into five chapters. The topics cover various aspects of contemporary world: from the challenges related to technology and democracy to researches on youth values and worldview. What seems to unite all these articles (in spite of their plurality of themes, views and approaches) is the idea of an ever-changing world in which philosophy is interconnected with other sciences and disciplines, in order to provide more (...) consistent and perhaps universal interpretations to the challenges that human beings must face in the contemporary world. (shrink)

The article deals with the role, peculiarities and philosophical issues of upbringing healthy and well-bred generation in Kazakh ethnomedicine, which has been passed down from generation to generation and has not lost its importance. Attention is paid to the peculiarities of the Kazakh people’s attitudes to nature, formed in connection with the natural environment, and the method of treatment based on shamanic beliefs. Philosophical concepts of nobility norms preservation of the Kazakh nation, following the tradition of exogamy in the formation (...) of generation health, have been analysed. The doctrine of blood purity is discussed in Treatise on Healing by Uteiboydak Tleukabyluly, a scientist-healer of 15th century. Tleukabyluly considers debauchery, love relationships outside of marriage, unacceptable. He gives a reason why Kazakhs should be banned from related marriages up to the seventh generation, since, according to his observations, this leads to infertility and miscarriages or the birth of an imbecile child. The role of the mother in the healthy generation was studied in the national philosophical context. (shrink)

The article discusses the significance of Hegel’s and especially Schelling’s concepts for the formation of Heidegger’s conceptions of Being and ecstatic time. It is argued that the authors of German Idealism began to think about the Absolute in temporal and historical terms, and that this set the stage for Heidegger’s historical and temporal understanding of Being. Crucially, negativity is included in the structure of Being. The ecstatic structure of Being and time itself is shaped by Schelling’s thought on the dialectic (...) of ground and existence. (shrink)

This article explores the relationship between consciousness and the historical urban space of the former Jewish Ghetto in Vilnius, Lithuania. This relationship is investigated primarily within the existentialist school of philosophy and takes its point of departure from Sartre’s ‘gaze’ or ‘look’ from his philosophical work, Being and Nothingness. Within this existentialist schematic the ‘look’ is methodologically sub-divided into i) ‘being looked at’ and ii) the ‘look looked at’. This paper further discerns the nuances of consciousness within the field of (...) phenomenology in terms of upsurges and decompressions when ‘being looked at’ in the Ghetto. That is, when walking its streets and ‘being seen’ by, and through the Ghetto’s windows. Subject is primarily understood as subdivided into Self, ‘I’ and ‘me’, thus rendering it as carrying a non-stable first-person perspective. (shrink)

Western democracies have become neoliberal with all the disproportions of economic and political power that have emerged in capitalist society. The power acquired in the free market not only deforms the integrity of society and economic and political balance, but also it has become virtually impossible for democracy as a form of government to exist. As the scale of the free market became global, the economic entity has also gone global creating disproportions that have led Western democracies to be ruled (...) by economic entities rather than political ones. However, proper education, the use of new economic decentralisation trends, changing the role of politicians and the activity of citizens, and emerging new possibilities of digital democracy give us a glimpse of how to use the opportunities of the free market for strengthening democracies. At the same time, the reforms that have taken place in China in recent years have paradoxically shown that neoliberalism can also have positive aspects for society, which, as a new balance of economic and political capital, can be applied in the West as well. (shrink)