Статті в журналах з теми "Slovenian Civilization"

This article presents some of the difficulties that arose for students during courses in Romanian language, culture, and civilization at the University of Ljubljana, Slovenia, and suggests some teaching solutions tested in the classes. Proceeding from the frame work of functionalcognitive grammar, the solutions that were chosen for interpreting and correcting students’ expression combine semantic, teaching, and pragmatic criteria. The analysis covers frequent mistakes and the most characteristic mistakes observed in Slovenian students’ speech, and the most appropriate solutions are suggested for them. This article represents a starting point for a Romanian textbook tailored to Slovenian students.

Civilization is a concept that ontologically defines the individual and the communities in which it develops. The most global civilization is the one that has emerged in the West. Civilization is not something static, but an organism that draws its roots from the distant past. In this sense, it is fundamental to answer the question of what are the constitutive elements that define Western civilization. This question only makes sense if it is asked in a historical perspective. In this direction the Freemasonry, A Very Short Introduction is a crucial one. It presents the analysis revealing how the history of freemasonry is related to the evolution of Western identity. It has to be read in the light of Niall Ferguson’s monograph The West and the Rest. The present text does so. The book then brings to light the contribution of the brotherhood to the intellectual habitus of what is called the Judeo-Christian civilization, at the present time still predominant on the Planet. The intellectual apparatus of the Freemasonry, A Very Short Introduction permits to elucidate the history of the masonic movement and its influence on events that seem unconnected and coincidental. Thus, this article tries to explain certain historical turning points in South-Eastern Europe, precisely in the light of the masonic alliances, in particular the case of the Illyrian Provinces and the first Slovenian poet, Valentin Vodnik, and secondly, what concerns the emergence of the Kingdom of Yugoslavia, which the author of the article defines as the result of the masonic strategy (the Grand Lodge of France and the Grand Orient of France).

For the Slovenian-born journalist, novelist and populist historian Louis Adamic, Ellis Island was as central to American civilization as Plymouth Rock. Throughout the 1930s and into the 1940s, Adamic dedicated himself to raising public awareness about the essential role of immigrants in the life of the nation. Adamic chronicled the stories and contributions of famous and not-so-famous immigrants from a variety of ethnic groups and challenged his adopted country to be true to its democratic ideals.

Since the introduction of the Bologna process in higher education, future Slovenian teachers of French as a foreign language have been trained at the master's level after completing language, literature, and civilization courses at the bachelor's level. The pedagogical program consists mainly of psychological and pedagogical subjects, and there is little room for language classes. The situation is apparently similar in other countries, for example, in Romania: "As the study program is too full, there is little room left to our students for individual research, for reflection on grammar problems" (Manolache, 2013: 58). The French language will, however, constitute the discipline of the future teachers that we train and "mastering the discipline and having a good general culture" (Rey, 2012: 86) is one of the professional skills cited in the official programs. Every language teacher should first be a good philologist. We wonder if, for future teachers, three years of BA studies are enough to learn the language to be able to transmit it afterward to their future learners. The students - future teachers - find themselves in a transitional stage between learners and teachers. They are looking for professional autonomy, which is difficult, especially if they have doubts about their language proficiency. In this article, we propose to present the training of French as a foreign language in Slovenia and to expose points that seem problematic, among others, the language skills of future teachers. After analyzing the students' lesson planning prepared for the final course in high school, which also serves as an exam, we find that, even though these documents are written in schematic form, they are not without errors, sometimes quite basic. One of the solutions would be to introduce more language courses at the bachelor's level and especially at the master's level. This is also what the students propose in their evaluations.

The article provides a historiographical overview and analysis of specific English-language publications by contemporary Slovenian researcher Marjeta Šašel Kos on the Illyrian issue. Issues related to hypotheses about the origin of the Illyrians, significant events in their internal history, achievements in various fields of culture, and an objective assessment of their relationship with the Greco-Roman world form the basis for an in-depth study of the ancient population of the Western Balkans, Central and Southwestern Europe. The world of Illyrian tribes, who were inhabitants of the eastern coast of the Adriatic Sea, the northwestern part of the Balkan Peninsula, and the southeastern part of the Alpine region, was in close proximity to the borders of the spread of the Greco-Roman civilization and its culture. Numerous Illyrian tribes, formed in the northern and southern ethno-cultural zone of the Eastern Hallstatt, were among the oldest tribal formations in the barbarian world of Europe (Pax Barbaricum). The world of the Illyrian tribes was sought to be understood by the ancient Greeks, followed by the Romans. However, contacts between representatives of these two diametrically opposite worlds ended in confrontation and assimilation. After numerous and bloody clashes, the world of the Illyrians lost its identity, underwent powerful Hellenization and Romanization, and acquired signs of deep provinciality. Therefore, the article's author seeks to introduce the reader to the achievements of individual bright and talented representatives of contemporary Illyriology and popularize their scientific work. Marjeta Šašel Kos's scientific work is diverse and productive (several extensive and substantive monographs and more than 70 scientific articles). The Slovenian researcher bases her views on archaeological and epigraphic materials, information comparisons, and reasoned criticism of ancient historians and geographers. All of these trends pursue a particular goal: to overcome the stereotype of perceiving representatives of the tribal world of ancient Europe, which was shaped by Greco-Roman written tradition. The review of her English-language works on the Illyrian issue demonstrates that Slovenian and European Illyriology are actively developing, allowing us to get to know and understand the specifics of the historical development of the ancient Illyrians.

In 2007, Slovenia was one of the first countries to adopt light pollution prevention legislation with the Decree on limiting values of light pollution [1]. As such, Slovenian experience is ideal for studying the effectiveness of the taken measures and of remaining factors, preventing fully resolving the problem. Undisputed progress has been made with the Decree in many respects. Different sources of light pollution are covered and the country is largely respecting the Decree requirements. Following the requirement to harmonize the lighting with the Decree by 2017, today more or less all street lighting meets the ULOR = 0 condition and other most problematic issues have been mostly resolved. Following the technology advances, LED lighting is largely introduced, thus making it easier to meet the Decree limitation of power consumption. Despite all the progress, the country is facing a wide spread of light pollution, as the road and street lighting are intensively spreading to new locations. The Decree sought to limit the total amount of public lighting with a limit of annual power consumption of 44,5 kWh/capita, but with technology shift to LED the effect of this limit has failed. Furthermore, the technical measures and quantitative limits are not sufficient to provide ecologically and spatially appropriate lighting. In the lack of comprehensive eco-spatial policies, based also on much stricter estimations of cost/benefit ratio, the lighting is almost completely subject to the technical decisions of the state road authorities, reckless civilizational pressure on the municipality level and international lighting standards, strongly influencing both previously listed factors.

Ruefully the editors of the review Acta Neophilologica announce the loss of our co-worker Henry A. Christian, Professor of American Literature at Rutgers University in Newark, New Jersey. He died on 4. April 1997 on his estate at Millburn in New Jersey. For many years he paid in his scholarly researches special attention to the problems of cultural contacts between Slovenia and the United States in which also Slovenes living in America play an important role: he has approached these problems as an Americanist, interested in the history of American civilization. This is why we wish to remember him on our pages.

Ruefully the editors of the review Acta Neophilologica announce the loss of our co-worker Henry A. Christian, Professor of American Literature at Rutgers University in Newark, New Jersey. He died on 4. April 1997 on his estate at Millburn in New Jersey. For many years he paid in his scholarly researches special attention to the problems of cultural contacts between Slovenia and the United States in which also Slovenes living in America play an important role: he has approached these problems as an Americanist, interested in the history of American civilization. This is why we wish to remember him on our pages.

Der wissenschaftliche Nachlass des Akademikers István Nyomárkay (1937–2020) umfasst etwa 280 Publikationen. Aufgrund des begrenzten Umfangs fokussiert sich diese Studie auf die Darstellung seiner wichtigsten Monografien.Im Bereich der Sprachkontakte wird die morphologische Integration der Internationalismen in das Sprachsystem der kroatoserbischen / serbokroatischen Schriftsprache in der ersten Monographie (1984) analysiert. Viele der betrachteten Internationalismen, die letztendlich lateinischen Ursprung haben, wurden nicht direkt aus dem Lateinischen übernommen, sondern wurden aus dem Deutschen, Italienischen und Französischen entlehnt. Dieses Buch war derzeit die erste große Synthese in diesem Bereich.Die folgende Monographie (1989) erforscht die Entstehung der neuen Zivilisationswörter der kroatischen Sprache in der zweiten Hälfte des 19. Jahrhunderts. Die meisten Ausdrücke wurden aus politischen und kulturellen Gründen nach ungarischen Mustern geprägt. Sie sind teilweise Lehnprägungen, teilweise Neubildungen. Bei ihrer Entstehung wirkten Impulse von ungarischen Vorbildern mit.Auf das Gebiet der Sprachkultur gehört das Buch von 2002. Hier wird der Einfluss einer 1779 in Wien veröffentlichten deutschen Grammatik auf slowenische, slowakische, kroatische und ungarische Grammatiken analysiert. Obwohl zahlreiche Elemente der deutschen Grammatik übernommen wurden, passten die Autoren andere Befunde in modifizierter Form ihren eigenen Sprachen an.Unter Nyomárkays lexikographischen Werken ragt das sprachhistorische Wörterbuch des Burgenlandkroatischen (1996) hervor. Das 4864 Stichwörter umfassende Wortmaterial stammt ausschließlich aus 64 Quellen. Das Wörterbuch, ein wichtiges Werk für die Sprachgeschichte, dient auch als geeignetes Hilfsmittel zum Lesen alter Texte.Die letzte Monographie (2007) des Autors über die Geschichte der kroatischen bzw. serbischen Sprache gehört in den Bereich der Sprachgeschichte. Es ist die erste Synthese der Geschichte der erwähnten Sprachen auf Ungarisch. Es handelt sich um ein im leserfreundlichen Stil geschriebenes wissenschaftliches Werk, das ungarischen Linguisten und Studierenden gewidmet ist.Es ist sehr wichtig hervorzuheben, dass alle oben betrachteten Bücher auf der Analyse von zahlreichen Quellen beruhen.Academic István Nyomárkay (1937–2020) left a great legacy of his oeuvre, consisting of more than 280 publications. For size limits, this study presents only a few of the most important domains of Professor Nyomárkay’s research, based on some of his books.In the field of language contacts, his first monograph (1984) examines the integration of international loanwords into the morphological structure of the Croato-Serbian / Serbo-Croatian literary language. These international loanwords, eventually, are of Latin origin. Many of them are not Latin loanwords but they got adopted into the Croato-Serbian literary language by the mediation of the German, Italian, and French languages. This book was the first major synthesis in this field at that time.The next monograph (1989) examines the formation of the new words in the vocabulary related to Croatian civilization in the second half of the 19th century. Due to political and cultural reasons, the new expressions were created mainly on Hungarian patterns. Some of them are calques, other ones are new word formations inspired by Hungarian.The book published in 2002 pertaining to language-culture research investigates the influence of a German grammar published in Vienna in 1779 onto the grammars of Slovenian, Slovak, Croatian, and Hungarian. The authors took over many elements of the German grammar and adapted them to their own language each, with some modifications of several of its statements.From among the lexicographical works of Nyomárkay’s, the historical dictionary of the literary language of the Croatians in Burgenland is an outstanding piece (1996). It contains 4,864 entries, which were taken from 64 resources. Apart from the fact that the dictionary is a work of salient importance from language historical point of view, it also offers considerable help in reading old texts.The last monograph of the author on the history of the Serbian and Croatian languages (2007) pertains to the domain of language history. This is the first summary of the history of the aforementioned languages written in Hungarian. It is a piece of scholarly work in an easy to read style, addressing linguists and university students in Hungary.It is very important to point out that each of the books considered above is based on the analysis of numerous sources.

The article analyzes the philosophical problems of legal Slavistics associated with the formation of the updated pan-Slavic state-legal ideology aimed at the development and improvement of Confederate and Federal forms of Slavic Association. The author consistently investigates conceptual, civilizational and geopolitical obstacles of the Slavic unity connected with religious, military-political and nationalist dissociation of the Slavic peoples. At the same time, the presented work suggests ways to overcome the anti-Slavic political and legal dogmas, with the help of education aimed at the formation among the Slavs of the pan-Slavic doctrine of the primacy of the Slavic communal-tribal system, built on the basis of archaic socialism (mutual responsibility and mutual assistance); Veche rule; freedom, denial of all forms of slavery; linguistic kinship; organic unity of personal and community interests, with the recognition of the unconditional primacy of sovereign values over private; as well as the supremacy of spiritual and moral principles over material needs. In practical terms, a legal project is proposed for the development of the Union State of the Republic of Belarus and the Russian Federation, which in the form of government can be a collegial Republic, in the form of state-territorial structure - a Confederation with a tendency to federalization and a democratic-polyarchic state regime. In addition, the author believes that from a civilizational point of view, Poland, the Czech Republic and Slovakia are predisposed to unite in the West Slavic Confederation-the Great Vagria or Venea; Russia, Ukraine and Belarus, having common historical, state and religious - Orthodox roots are obliged within the framework of reunification to create the East Slavic Confederation-Svetlorossia; in the Balkans, led by Serbia, it is necessary to revive the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia with the inclusion of the Republic of Serbia, the Republic of Montenegro, the Republic of Northern Macedonia, the Republic of Bulgaria, the Republic of Serbia Krajina. Slovenia and Croatia should be merged into the Croatian-Slovenian Federation. In the future, Slavic confederal unions and the Federation, together with the Slavic communities beyond the national borders of the Slavic Nations ( for example, Sorbs in Germany) for the preservation of their identity and the free development have the potential to unite in a pan-Slavic Union state - the Great Vseslav. It is advisable to elect a collegial Republic as a form of government of the great all-Russia; a form of state-territorial unity of the Confederate-Federal Union of Slavic peoples, communities and States with a socially guaranteed regime of political democracy.

AbstractThe territory of this new European state is crossed by strategically important passes, the lowest in the entire Alps, leading from the Danubian basin to the Mediterranean (Italy). Thus, the Slovenes had been under cultural, civilizational and political domination of centers from these two parts of Europe until 1918. Because the mountainous land forms, dissected also by valleys and basins, were prone to processes of diffusion rather than fusion, the Slovenes became a national and political subject of their own as late as the nineteenth century. From 1918 to 1990 they were joined to Yugoslavia, a South-East European state, and learnt, to their cost, all the differences between the cultures of West and Central Europe on the one hand, and South-East and Eastern Europe and the Near East on the other. Hence the plebiscite decision by the nation for an independent state.

The purpose of the article is to study the phenomenon of border in works of Alma Maximiliane Karlin (1889–1950), a German-speaking writer with a hybrid national identity. She was born in Austria-Hungary in a family with Slovenian roots, and later became a citizen of the Kingdom of Serbs, Croats and Slovenes, and then Yugoslavia. The study material are the travelogues “The Odyssey of a Lonely Woman” and “The Spell of the South Seas”, created in 1930s, and other autobiographical works of the writer: “Alone: My childhood and Youth” (published in 2010 in Slovenian, in 2018 a shortened version was published in German) and “My Lost Poplars: Memories of the Second World War” (published in 2007 in Slovene). In her writings, Karlin often speaks about the issue of borders (primarily between states, nations, and civilizations). This fact is due to Karlin’s biographical experience related to her personal choice – she went on a world tour, which was reflected in her work, where important place is occupied by travelogues and fictions, which action takes place in exotic countries. Historical changes also made the writer think about the problems of the nation and its borders. In the texts of Karlin the theme of national and racial identity often arises. The writer herself reflects on her national identity and writes that she has no homeland. One can speak about the mobility of boundaries at the reception level of Karlin’s works. What is the national literature Karlin does belong to? Karlin’s nomadism manifested itself both in the biography and in her works, the phenomenon of women’s travel correlates with the trespassing. The work of the traveling writer is transnational in nature, which makes it possible to problematize the concept of national literature and its borders.

Physical and psychological disorders in school-age children, as a consequence of prolonged sitting in class, denote one of the alarming issues of the today’s civilization. Scientific and professional literature pays great attention to the causes and phenomena of postural disorders caused by prolonged sitting, such as musculoskeletal disorders and back pain (MSD/BP). This phenomenon in children is increasingly correlated with school furniture design. School furniture, especially the chair and desk, are one of the most important factors to achieve the right body posture of pupils during school education. Despite this, not much attention is paid to the ergonomic requirements in furniture design, which are a prerequisite for good health, motivation improvement and learning of students. The objective of this paper is to show the impact of unmatched school furniture on the development of health problems and poor pupils’ posture through a review of scientific literature and previous studies concerning the issue. The results include a comparison of ten papers published in the period from 2004 to 2017 in Finland, Greece, Croatia, Slovenia, Nigeria, Brazil, Iran, Belgium, United Kingdom and India. Various databases have been used, including Pub Med, Google Scholar, Medline, Hrčak, Dabar, Science Direct and Science Citation Index. By reviewing the previous research of the selected authors dealing with sitting posture in school, an insight was gained into the effect of inadequate body postures on pupils’ health that could be used as guidance for new school furniture design.

In the conducted study, an attempt was made to combine the available statistical information, to rank the data on the EU countries according to the development of housing relations in them. Sweden, Belgium, Luxembourg, the Netherlands, Finland, Cyprus and France are among the countries identified as countries with a high level of housing relations. Housing conditions are below average in the Czech Republic, Slovenia, and Slovakia. Romania has the lowest level of housing relations. There is no single policy for meeting housing needs in the European Union: in modern Europe, there is a wide variety of housing policies and ways of solving the housing issue. This diversity is determined by the historical, civilizational and cultural features of the countries, the level of their economic development. The purpose of the article is to identify common features and analyze the possibility and expediency of their borrowing to the legal space of Ukraine. In the EU countries, four types of residence of citizens in housing can be distinguished: simple private property; mortgaged property; rent at market price; rent at a reduced price or for free. There are differences in the housing sector in the developed countries of Western Europe and in the countries of Eastern Europe. In the territory of the former socialist community, in the housing sector, the right of private ownership prevails over lease relationships; social orientation in meeting housing needs is inferior to commercial interests. In developed countries, one large property (residential object) has 3-4 dependents (residents who are not owners), while in developing countries, a different housing pattern is observed, in which one small property has 1- 2 housing dependents, which is related to the desire to have a smaller number of co-owners and, accordingly, hypothetical legal disputes with them.

Comparative research has been one of the basic tendencies characteristic for sociology and other social sciences in the last decades. The comparison of the values of the population from all continents is particularly important in the era of globalization; certainly the greatest contribution and the greatest endeavor so far in that respect has been The World Study of Values by R. Inglehardt and his collaborators. In the last quarter of the century they realized four research "waves', the most recent one at the beginning of this millennium in as many as eighty countries whose population makes 85% of the world population. This magnificent study presented a specific "cultural mapping of the world", and this mapping also confirmed the surprisingly great similarity between the population of the former communist countries on the basis of the comparison with twenty-four variables processed in the factorial-analytical manner. Out of the total of 24 countries in this group including China, in the value area of the coordinate system they were all located near one another, in the quadrant which links two most general values (of the second-level factors) - "the values of poverty" and "the values of the secular-rational authority". The exceptions were Slovenia and Poland the former being inclined toward the developed world and the pole denoting "the values of prosperity" (they are also called "the values of self-expression"), and the latter because of the pronounced religiousness of its population, directed toward the pole denoting "the values of traditional authority". Analyzing also some other data (the Study contains 300 value variables), we confirmed the authors' conclusion about the similarities of values of the citizens from the former communist countries, and the proof for that can be found in some other researches, too. Unfortunately, for the time being the complexity of this determinist knot directs the explanations of the similarities between the values of these countries to the hypothetical domains. Still, it seems that the most plausible explanation is the civilization one which would combine diverse factors: historical economic, social-structural, political and culturological (ethnic religious, linguistic).

Throughout the 550 year Ottoman rule over the Balkan lands, where even today internal dynamics threaten peace and justice, how and through what means the Ottoman Empire achieved consistency, security and peace is a question to which a number of political scientists, sociologists, communication scientists and history researchers have sought an answer. The most interesting point of the question is that the peoples of the Balkans, a living museum comprising a number of different ethnic groups and religious beliefs, have reached the point where the culture of coexistence has been internalised and dynamics have moved from the conflict of identities to cultural integration. The Balkans are a bridge to the East from Europe and indeed to the West from Turkey, incorporating a patchwork political and cultural geography, the geopolitical location and a richness of culture and civilization, being one of the areas attracting the attention of researchers from different disciplines and capturing the imagination of the peoples of the world throughout history. Balkan studies are almost as difficult as climbing the peaks in the areas and meaningful answers cannot be reached by defining the area on a single parameter such as language, culture or traditions, while the phenomenon of the other can also be observed within the culture of coexistence in this intricate and significant location. Different ethnic groups with different cultures, such as the Southern Slavs (Bosniaks, Montenegrans, Serbs, Croats and Slovenes) as well as Turks, Albanians, Bulgarians, Balkan Jews, Balkan Romany and Wallachians (Romanians and Greeks). Although these peoples may have different religious beliefs, in the ethnically rich Balkan region, religion, language, political and cultural differences are vital in the formation of a mosaic, making the discourse of coexistence possible and creating common values and loyalties, breaking down differences. The Serbian and Montenegrin peoples, belonging to the Greek Orthodox Church, the Croat and Slovene peoples belonging to the Catholic Church and the Muslin Bosniaks have shared the same lands and livee in coexistence throughout the historical process, despite having different beliefs. However, in some periods the other and the perception of the other have replaced common values, leading to conflicts of interest, unrest and religion based wars. After the breakup of the Yugoslavian Federal Socialist Republic, Slovenia, Croatia, the Former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Serbia, Montenegro and Kosovo, defined by the European Union as the Western Balkans, have established themselves as nation states of the stage of history. The scope of our study is these Western Balkan Countries, and we will use the terminology Western Balkans throughout.

Introduction. Slavic neo-paganism has been of particular interest to Russian researchers in recent decades. It is still unknown whether there are many representatives of neo-pagan movements in Russia, and the boundaries of this phenomenon are very blurred. As a result, in the scientific community, an ambiguous direction is gaining popularity as folk history, the authors of which advocate the concept of «alternative history». There is an extensive number of «scientific» works and communities based on falsifications and distortion of historical data. One of such trends, in quasi-history, is the early re-creation of Slavic culture, which is increasingly viewed through the prism of Slavic neo-pagan concepts, thereby having a significant impact on Russians' perceptions of traditional Slavic culture. Some Slavic neo-pagan traditions, in addition to the traditional foundations of early Slavic culture, use religious and mythological constructs of other world and national religions. Special importance is attached to the Indian myth-forming component, which unwittingly becomes not only a kind of historical support for the development of pseudo-historical ideas of neo-paganism, but also is the richest source for the development of «Slavic» mythology. Based on this, the analysis of Slavic neo-pagan beliefs through the borrowing of religious and mythological images of Indian culture becomes relevant.Materials and Methods. The methodological basis of the work was the general scientific principles of historicism, consistency, unity and scientific objectivity. Historical and logical methods of scientific research in the study of cultural and religious traditions of Slavic neo-paganism have determined the objectivity and scientific character in the study of this phenomenon.Results. Currently, the problem of modern Slavic neo-paganism lies in the fact that the reconstruction of the true appearance of the bygone culture and mythology of Ancient Russia is an extremely difficult task and requires an objective and comprehensive study of this issue. However, representatives of modern Slavic paganism claim that it is the Slavs who are the original Aryan people, with an ancient and developed culture of many thousands of years. The key sources, among neo-pagan supporters, of the origin of the Slavs and the description of their cultural and religious life are the texts of the «Slavic-Aryan Vedas» and the «Veles Book». «Veles's Book», according to representatives of Slavic neo-paganism, is the scripture of the ancient Aryans and contains particles of Slavic-Aryan wisdom preserved by the Novgorod Magi of the IX century. The «Veles Book» repeatedly contains images and plots borrowed from Eastern religious traditions, in particular from Hinduism. The content of the «Slavic-Aryan Vedas» is quite diverse. They include the Old Norse «Saga of the Inglings» interpreted by A. Khinevich, a recording of Perun's conversation with people in which he tells about the commandments, about past and future events on Earth, about the origin of the Russian people. Other pseudo–historical ideas of the origin of Slavic culture and the borrowing of mythological images of other ethnic groups by it are noted in the collection of epic songs by the Serbian historian Stefan Ilyich Verkovich – «Veda Slovena» (translated into Russian «Veda Slavs»). Attention to the collection «The Veda of the Slavs» was attracted by the enthusiastic historian A.I. Asov, having made several translations from the 1st and 2nd volumes of the book «The Veda of the Slavs». In addition, the trend of folk history is observed in attempts to prove the paramount importance of the «Slavic-Aryan» civilization over other peoples through the semantic similarity of the hydronomic objects. According to ideologists and representatives of Slavic neo-paganism, we can also observe the «Vedic» origins in Ancient Russia in the names of rivers and lakes on the territory of modern Russia.Discussion and Conclusions. The analysis of Slavic neo-pagan traditions revealed a weak reasonableness of the judgments of ideologists and representatives of Slavic neo-paganism about antiquity and the influence of the «Slavic-Aryan» civilization on Ancient India. Proceeding from this, it is also incorrect to assume that Indian deities are prototypes of Slavic gods or included in the Slavic mythology of Ancient Russia, since the described images and attributes of Hindu gods, in the context of traditional historical chronology, appeared much later than the Slavic neo-pagan tradition ascribes to him. At the same time, we cannot exclude the fact that the «Slavic-Aryan Vedas» and the «Veles Book» became not only the basis of a distorted perception of Slavic culture for followers of neo- Pagan traditions, but also brought the «Slavic-Aryan myth», as part of folk history, into the scientific and academic world.

Temporary or permanent, local or international, voluntary or forced, legal or illegal, registered or unregistered migrations of individuals, whole communities or individual groups are an important factor in constructing and modifying (modern) societies. The extent of international migrations is truly immense. At the time of the preparation of this publication more than 200 million people have been involved in migrations in a single year according to the United Nations. Furthermore, three times more wish to migrate, mostly from sub-Saharan Africa towards some of the most economically developed areas of the world according to the estimates by the Gallup Institute (Esipova, 2011). Some authors, although aware that it is not a new phenomenon, talk about the era of migration (Castles, Miller, 2009) or the globalization of migration (Friedman, 2004). The global dimensions of migration are definitely influenced also by the increasingly visible features of modern societies like constantly changing conditions, instability, fluidity, uncertainty etc. (Beck, 2009; Bauman, 2002).The extent, direction, type of migrations and their consequences are affected by many social and natural factors in the areas of emigration and immigration. In addition, researchers from many scientific disciplines who study migrations have raised a wide range of research questions (Boyle, 2009, 96), use a variety of methodological approaches and look for different interpretations in various spatial, temporal and contextual frameworks. The migrations are a complex, multi-layered, variable, contextual process that takes place at several levels. Because of this, research on migrations has become an increasingly interdisciplinary field, since the topics and problems are so complex that they cannot be grasped solely and exclusively from the perspective of a single discipline or theory. Therefore, we are witnessing a profusion of different “faces of migration”, which is reflected and at the same time also contributed to by this thematic issue of the journal Ars & Humanitas.While mobility or migration are not new phenomena, as people have moved and migrated throughout the history of mankind, only recently, in the last few decades, has theoretical and research focus on them intensified considerably. In the last two decades a number of research projects, university programs and courses, research institutes, scientific conferences, seminars, magazines, books and other publications, involving research, academia as well as politics and various civil society organizations have emerged. This shows the recent exceptional interest in the issue of migration, both in terms of knowledge of the processes involved, their mapping in the history of mankind, as well as the theoretical development of migration studies and daily management of this politically sensitive issue.Migration affects many entities on many different levels: the individuals, their families and entire communities at the local level in the emigrant societies as well as in the receiving societies. The migration is changing not only the lives of individuals but whole communities and societies, as well as social relations; it is also shifting the cultural patterns and bringing important social transformations (Castles 2010). This of course raises a number of questions, problems and issues ranging from human rights violations to literary achievements. Some of these are addressed by the authors in this thematic issue.The title “Many faces of migration”, connecting contributions in this special issue, is borrowed from the already mentioned Gallup Institute’s report on global migration (Esipova, 2011). The guiding principle in the selection of the contributions has been their diversity, reflected also in the list of disciplines represented by the authors: sociology, geography, ethnology and cultural anthropology, history, art history, modern Mediterranean studies, gender studies and media studies. Such an approach necessarily leads not only to a diverse, but at least seemingly also incompatible, perhaps even opposing views “on a given topic. However, we did not want to silence the voices of “other” disciplines, but within the reviewing procedures actually invited scientists from the fields represented by the contributors to this volume. The wealth of the selected contributions lies therefore not only in their coherence and complementarity, but also in the diversity of views, stories and interpretations.The paper of Zora Žbontar deals with the attitudes towards foreigners in ancient Greece, where the hospitality to strangers was considered so worthy a virtue that everyone was expected to “demonstrate hospitality and protection to any foreigner who has knocked on their door”. The contrast between the hospitality of ancient Greece and the modern emergence of xenophobia and ways of dealing with migration issues in economically developed countries is especially challenging. “In an open gesture of hospitality to strangers the ancient Greeks showed their civilization”.Although the aforementioned research by the United Nations and Gallup Institute support some traditional stereotypes of the main global flows of migrants, and the areas about which the potential migrants “dream”, Bojan Baskar stresses the coexistence of different migratory desires, migration flows and their interpretations. In his paper he specifically focuses on overcoming and relativising stereotypes as well as theories of immobile and non-enterprising (Alpine) mountain populations and migrations.The different strategies of the crossing borders adopted by migrant women are studied by Mirjana Morokvasic. She marks them as true social innovators, inventing different ways of transnational life resulting in a bottom-up contribution to the integrative processes across Europe. Some of their innovations go as far as to shift diverse real and symbolic boundaries of belonging to a nation, gender, profession.Elaine Burroughs and Zoë O’Reilly highlight the close relations between the otherwise well-established terminology used in statistics and science to label immigrants in Ireland and elsewhere in EU, and the negative representations of certain types of migrants in politics and the public. The discussion focusses particularly on asylum seekers and illegal immigrants who come from outside the EU. The use of language can quickly become a political means of exclusion, therefore the authors propose the development and use of more considerate and balanced migration terminology.Damir Josipovič proposes a change of the focal point for identifying and interpreting the well-studied migrations in the former Yugoslavia. The author suggests changing the dualistic view of these migrations to an integrated, holistic view. Instead of a simplified understanding of these migrations as either international or domestic, voluntary or forced, he proposes a concept of pseudo-voluntary migrations.Maja Korać-Sanderson's contribution highlights an interesting phenomenon in the shift in the traditional patterns of gender roles. The conclusions are derived from the study of the family life of Chinese traders in transitional Serbia. While many studies suggest that child care in recent decades in immigrant societies is generally performed by immigrants, her study reveals that in Serbia, the Chinese merchants entrust the care of their children mostly to local middle class women. The author finds this switch of roles in the “division of labour” in the child care favourable for both parties involved.Francesco Della Puppa focuses on a specific part of the mosaic of contemporary migrations in the Mediterranean: the Bangladeshi immigrant community in the highly industrialized North East of Italy. The results of his in-depth qualitative study reveal the factors that shape this segment of the Bangladeshi diaspora, the experiences of migrants and the effects of migration on their social and biographical trajectories.John A. Schembri and Maria Attard present a snippet of a more typical Mediterranean migration process - immigration to Malta. The authors highlight the reduction in migration between Malta and the United Kingdom, while there is an increase in immigration to Malta from the rest of Europe and sub-Saharan Africa. Amongst the various impacts of immigration to Malta the extraordinary concentration of immigrant populations is emphasized, since the population density of Malta far exceeds that of nearly all other European countries.Miha Kozorog studies the link between migration and constructing their places of their origin. On the basis of Ardener’s theory the author expresses “remoteness” of the emigratory Slavia Friulana in terms of topology, in relation to other places, rather than in topography. “Remoteness” is formed in relation to the “outside world”, to those who speak of “remote areas” from the privileged centres. The example of an artistic event, which organizers aim “to open a place like this to the outside world”, “to encourage the production of more cosmopolitan place”, shows only the temporary effect of such event on the reduction of the “remoteness”.Jani Kozina presents a study of the basic temporal and spatial characteristics of migration “of people in creative occupations” in Slovenia. The definition of this specific segment of the population and approach to study its migrations are principally based on the work of Richard Florida. The author observes that people with creative occupations in Slovenia are very immobile and in this respect quite similar to other professional groups in Slovenia, but also to the people in creative professions in the Southern and Eastern Europe, which are considered to be among the least mobile in Europe. Detailed analyses show that the people in creative occupations from the more developed regions generally migrate more intensely and are also more willing to relocate.Mojca Pajnik and Veronika Bajt study the experiences of migrant women with the access to the labour market in Slovenia. Existing laws and policies push the migrants into a position where, if they want to get to work, have to accept less demanding work. In doing so, the migrant women are targets of stereotyped reactions and practices of discrimination on the basis of sex, age, attributed ethnic and religious affiliation, or some other circumstances, particularly the fact of being migrants. At the same time the latter results in the absence of any protection from the state.Migration studies often assume that the target countries are “modern” and countries of origin “traditional”. Anıl Al- Rebholz argues that such a dichotomous conceptualization of modern and traditional further promotes stereotypical, essentialist and homogenizing images of Muslim women in the “western world”. On the basis of biographical narratives of young Kurdish and Moroccan women as well as the relationships between mothers and daughters, the author illustrates a variety of strategies of empowerment of young women in the context of transnational migration.A specific face of migration is highlighted in the text of Svenka Savić, namely the face of artistic migration between Slovenia and Serbia after the Second World War. The author explains how more than thirty artists from Slovenia, with their pioneering work in three ensembles (opera, ballet and theatre), significantly contributed to the development of the performing arts in the Serbian National Theatre in Novi Sad.We believe that in the present thematic issue we have succeeded in capturing an important part of the modern European research dynamic in the field of migration. In addition to well-known scholars in this field several young authors at the beginning their research careers have been shortlisted for the publication. We are glad of their success as it bodes a vibrancy of this research area in the future. At the same time, we were pleased to receive responses to the invitation from representatives of so many disciplines, and that the number of papers received significantly exceeded the maximum volume of the journal. Recognising and understanding of the many faces of migration are important steps towards the comprehensive knowledge needed to successfully meet the challenges of migration issues today and even more so in the future. It is therefore of utmost importance that researchers find ways of transferring their academic knowledge into practice – to all levels of education, the media, the wider public and, of course, the decision makers in local, national and international institutions. The call also applies to all authors in this issue of the journal.

Temporary or permanent, local or international, voluntary or forced, legal or illegal, registered or unregistered migrations of individuals, whole communities or individual groups are an important factor in constructing and modifying (modern) societies. The extent of international migrations is truly immense. At the time of the preparation of this publication more than 200 million people have been involved in migrations in a single year according to the United Nations. Furthermore, three times more wish to migrate, mostly from sub-Saharan Africa towards some of the most economically developed areas of the world according to the estimates by the Gallup Institute (Esipova, 2011). Some authors, although aware that it is not a new phenomenon, talk about the era of migration (Castles, Miller, 2009) or the globalization of migration (Friedman, 2004). The global dimensions of migration are definitely influenced also by the increasingly visible features of modern societies like constantly changing conditions, instability, fluidity, uncertainty etc. (Beck, 2009; Bauman, 2002).The extent, direction, type of migrations and their consequences are affected by many social and natural factors in the areas of emigration and immigration. In addition, researchers from many scientific disciplines who study migrations have raised a wide range of research questions (Boyle, 2009, 96), use a variety of methodological approaches and look for different interpretations in various spatial, temporal and contextual frameworks. The migrations are a complex, multi-layered, variable, contextual process that takes place at several levels. Because of this, research on migrations has become an increasingly interdisciplinary field, since the topics and problems are so complex that they cannot be grasped solely and exclusively from the perspective of a single discipline or theory. Therefore, we are witnessing a profusion of different “faces of migration”, which is reflected and at the same time also contributed to by this thematic issue of the journal Ars & Humanitas.While mobility or migration are not new phenomena, as people have moved and migrated throughout the history of mankind, only recently, in the last few decades, has theoretical and research focus on them intensified considerably. In the last two decades a number of research projects, university programs and courses, research institutes, scientific conferences, seminars, magazines, books and other publications, involving research, academia as well as politics and various civil society organizations have emerged. This shows the recent exceptional interest in the issue of migration, both in terms of knowledge of the processes involved, their mapping in the history of mankind, as well as the theoretical development of migration studies and daily management of this politically sensitive issue.Migration affects many entities on many different levels: the individuals, their families and entire communities at the local level in the emigrant societies as well as in the receiving societies. The migration is changing not only the lives of individuals but whole communities and societies, as well as social relations; it is also shifting the cultural patterns and bringing important social transformations (Castles 2010). This of course raises a number of questions, problems and issues ranging from human rights violations to literary achievements. Some of these are addressed by the authors in this thematic issue.The title “Many faces of migration”, connecting contributions in this special issue, is borrowed from the already mentioned Gallup Institute’s report on global migration (Esipova, 2011). The guiding principle in the selection of the contributions has been their diversity, reflected also in the list of disciplines represented by the authors: sociology, geography, ethnology and cultural anthropology, history, art history, modern Mediterranean studies, gender studies and media studies. Such an approach necessarily leads not only to a diverse, but at least seemingly also incompatible, perhaps even opposing views “on a given topic. However, we did not want to silence the voices of “other” disciplines, but within the reviewing procedures actually invited scientists from the fields represented by the contributors to this volume. The wealth of the selected contributions lies therefore not only in their coherence and complementarity, but also in the diversity of views, stories and interpretations.The paper of Zora Žbontar deals with the attitudes towards foreigners in ancient Greece, where the hospitality to strangers was considered so worthy a virtue that everyone was expected to “demonstrate hospitality and protection to any foreigner who has knocked on their door”. The contrast between the hospitality of ancient Greece and the modern emergence of xenophobia and ways of dealing with migration issues in economically developed countries is especially challenging. “In an open gesture of hospitality to strangers the ancient Greeks showed their civilization”.Although the aforementioned research by the United Nations and Gallup Institute support some traditional stereotypes of the main global flows of migrants, and the areas about which the potential migrants “dream”, Bojan Baskar stresses the coexistence of different migratory desires, migration flows and their interpretations. In his paper he specifically focuses on overcoming and relativising stereotypes as well as theories of immobile and non-enterprising (Alpine) mountain populations and migrations.The different strategies of the crossing borders adopted by migrant women are studied by Mirjana Morokvasic. She marks them as true social innovators, inventing different ways of transnational life resulting in a bottom-up contribution to the integrative processes across Europe. Some of their innovations go as far as to shift diverse real and symbolic boundaries of belonging to a nation, gender, profession.Elaine Burroughs and Zoë O’Reilly highlight the close relations between the otherwise well-established terminology used in statistics and science to label immigrants in Ireland and elsewhere in EU, and the negative representations of certain types of migrants in politics and the public. The discussion focusses particularly on asylum seekers and illegal immigrants who come from outside the EU. The use of language can quickly become a political means of exclusion, therefore the authors propose the development and use of more considerate and balanced migration terminology.Damir Josipovič proposes a change of the focal point for identifying and interpreting the well-studied migrations in the former Yugoslavia. The author suggests changing the dualistic view of these migrations to an integrated, holistic view. Instead of a simplified understanding of these migrations as either international or domestic, voluntary or forced, he proposes a concept of pseudo-voluntary migrations.Maja Korać-Sanderson's contribution highlights an interesting phenomenon in the shift in the traditional patterns of gender roles. The conclusions are derived from the study of the family life of Chinese traders in transitional Serbia. While many studies suggest that child care in recent decades in immigrant societies is generally performed by immigrants, her study reveals that in Serbia, the Chinese merchants entrust the care of their children mostly to local middle class women. The author finds this switch of roles in the “division of labour” in the child care favourable for both parties involved.Francesco Della Puppa focuses on a specific part of the mosaic of contemporary migrations in the Mediterranean: the Bangladeshi immigrant community in the highly industrialized North East of Italy. The results of his in-depth qualitative study reveal the factors that shape this segment of the Bangladeshi diaspora, the experiences of migrants and the effects of migration on their social and biographical trajectories.John A. Schembri and Maria Attard present a snippet of a more typical Mediterranean migration process - immigration to Malta. The authors highlight the reduction in migration between Malta and the United Kingdom, while there is an increase in immigration to Malta from the rest of Europe and sub-Saharan Africa. Amongst the various impacts of immigration to Malta the extraordinary concentration of immigrant populations is emphasized, since the population density of Malta far exceeds that of nearly all other European countries.Miha Kozorog studies the link between migration and constructing their places of their origin. On the basis of Ardener’s theory the author expresses “remoteness” of the emigratory Slavia Friulana in terms of topology, in relation to other places, rather than in topography. “Remoteness” is formed in relation to the “outside world”, to those who speak of “remote areas” from the privileged centres. The example of an artistic event, which organizers aim “to open a place like this to the outside world”, “to encourage the production of more cosmopolitan place”, shows only the temporary effect of such event on the reduction of the “remoteness”.Jani Kozina presents a study of the basic temporal and spatial characteristics of migration “of people in creative occupations” in Slovenia. The definition of this specific segment of the population and approach to study its migrations are principally based on the work of Richard Florida. The author observes that people with creative occupations in Slovenia are very immobile and in this respect quite similar to other professional groups in Slovenia, but also to the people in creative professions in the Southern and Eastern Europe, which are considered to be among the least mobile in Europe. Detailed analyses show that the people in creative occupations from the more developed regions generally migrate more intensely and are also more willing to relocate.Mojca Pajnik and Veronika Bajt study the experiences of migrant women with the access to the labour market in Slovenia. Existing laws and policies push the migrants into a position where, if they want to get to work, have to accept less demanding work. In doing so, the migrant women are targets of stereotyped reactions and practices of discrimination on the basis of sex, age, attributed ethnic and religious affiliation, or some other circumstances, particularly the fact of being migrants. At the same time the latter results in the absence of any protection from the state.Migration studies often assume that the target countries are “modern” and countries of origin “traditional”. Anıl Al- Rebholz argues that such a dichotomous conceptualization of modern and traditional further promotes stereotypical, essentialist and homogenizing images of Muslim women in the “western world”. On the basis of biographical narratives of young Kurdish and Moroccan women as well as the relationships between mothers and daughters, the author illustrates a variety of strategies of empowerment of young women in the context of transnational migration.A specific face of migration is highlighted in the text of Svenka Savić, namely the face of artistic migration between Slovenia and Serbia after the Second World War. The author explains how more than thirty artists from Slovenia, with their pioneering work in three ensembles (opera, ballet and theatre), significantly contributed to the development of the performing arts in the Serbian National Theatre in Novi Sad.We believe that in the present thematic issue we have succeeded in capturing an important part of the modern European research dynamic in the field of migration. In addition to well-known scholars in this field several young authors at the beginning their research careers have been shortlisted for the publication. We are glad of their success as it bodes a vibrancy of this research area in the future. At the same time, we were pleased to receive responses to the invitation from representatives of so many disciplines, and that the number of papers received significantly exceeded the maximum volume of the journal. Recognising and understanding of the many faces of migration are important steps towards the comprehensive knowledge needed to successfully meet the challenges of migration issues today and even more so in the future. It is therefore of utmost importance that researchers find ways of transferring their academic knowledge into practice – to all levels of education, the media, the wider public and, of course, the decision makers in local, national and international institutions. The call also applies to all authors in this issue of the journal.

Статья посвящена анализу научного наследия выдающегося сербского ученого конца XIX – первой четверти XX века Йована Цвиича (1865–1927) и обзору развития концептуально близких его профессиональным интересам идей в России. Популярный при становлении научных взглядов исследователя антропогеографический метод был осмыслен Цвиичем в силу его широкой эрудиции и опыта полевых исследований по-своему. Будучи географом по образованию, Цвиич смог в своей деятельности по изучению природы и хозяйственного уклада населения Балканского полуострова мастерски скомбинировать точку зрения географа с историческим подходом. В этом видел заслугу Цвиича российский этнолог С.А. Токарев. По его мнению, разработанный Цвиичем антропогеографический метод во многом отличается от одноименного метода Фридриха Ратцеля (1844–1904), и в выгодную сторону. Научные доктрины Йована Цвиича не только предопределили традиции сербской этнографии XX века, но и получили мировую известность. Не прошли они бесследно и для российской науки. Некоторые из работ Цвиича – «Заметки по этнографии македонских славян» и «Аннексия Боснии-Герцеговины и сербский вопрос» в начале прошлого века были переведены на русский язык и изданы в Санкт-Петербурге. Антропогеографический вектор исследований нашел своих сторонников и в России, а также в дальнейшем в значительной степени способствовал появлению у нас в стране «этнического картографирования» и этноэкологии (антропоэкологии). Разработанная Й. Цвиичем культурно-географическая классификация областей Балканского полуострова, так называемых «зон цивилизации» во многом схожа с концепцией «хозяйственно-культурных типов и историко-культурных областей», предложенной в 1970-х годах отечественными учеными М.Г. Левиным и Н.Н. Чебоксаровым. Научное направление, объектом изучения которого являются связи и взаимодействия человека с окружающей средой, развивается и совершенствуется, как в мировой науке в целом, так и в российской науке, в частности. The purpose of the article is to investigate the scientific heritage of Jovan Cvijić (1865–1927), a prominent Serbian scholar of the late 19th and first quarter of the 20th century, and explore how the ideas related to his agenda developed in Russia. Cvijić’s profound erudition and field research experience helped him to give his own interpretation to the anthropogeographical principle, popular when he was starting his scientific career. A geographer by training, Cvijić masterfully combined geographic perspective with a historical approach in his activities aimed at studying the nature and economic setup of the Balkans. S. A. Tokarev, a Russian ethnologist, believed that Cvijić deserved much credit for doing so. According to Tokarev, the anthropogeographical method developed by Cvijić was considerably different from the homonymous method of Friedrich Ratzel (1844–1904) and compared favorably to it. Jovan Cvijić’s teachings had both ordained the traditions of Serbian ethnography of the 20th century and become well-known globally. Their impact on Russian academia was noticeable, too. Some of Cvijić’s works, namely “Nekolika posmatranja o etnografiji makedonskih Slovena” and “L’anexion de la Bosnie et la question Serbe”, were translated into Russian in the early 1900s and published in St. Petersburg. In Russia, too, there emerged a number of scholars pursuing the anthropogeographical vector of studies. Later it contributed greatly to the nascence of “ethnic mapping” and ethnoecology (anthropoecology) in this country. Cultural-geographical classification of various areas of the Balkan Peninsula, the so-called “civilization zones” developed by J. Cvijić, is in many aspects similar to the concept of “economic-cultural types and historic-cultural areas” proposed in the 1970s by Soviet scholars M.G. Levin and N.N. Cheboksarov. The discipline studying humans’ connection to and interaction with the environment is developing and progressing both globally and in Russian academia.

Recognition of regional features, outlining of the contours of regions, tendency to regionalize ethnic, economic, cultural and state-administrative space, and strengthening the ideology of regionalism in the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia, that is Serbia and Montenegro, appear as a practical and political but also as a theoretical problem which includes and combines several scientific disciplines. The phenomenon of regionalism is not contradictory although it is primarily expressed through the numerous conflicts of interests rivalry and antagonisms of political subjects. The problematic side of the phenomenon of regionalism includes the result of an extremely negative and existentially tragic experience of the several years-long disintegration of the complex Yugoslav state. During the partition and disintegration of the second Yugoslavia, there also happened the disintegration of the Serbian ethnic area Growth, support and instigation of regional tendencies occurred in the historical circumstances of secession and did not stop in the post-secession period. Particularization and segmentation of political area, as well as the disintegration of the former state, did not occur in accordance with the norms of internal and international law. Legality was late and was achieved within the transformation of power reflected in the changed territorial policy of the dominant alliance of great powers. The entire past decade was characterized by an extraordinary metamorphosis of political space. Secession trend had the territorial features which included the change of borders and had been long in the focus of the global geopolitical attention. Territories were divided and made smaller. Intensive territorial dynamics within the external silhouette of the de-stated SFR of Yugoslavia resulted in the creation of several state and quasi-state political formations. Former republics became semi-sovereign states. Dispersed and displaced Serbian ethnos was configured in the three territories: in the Republic of Serbia - from which Kosovo and Metohia were amputated and placed under the UN protectorate - in the entire Republic of Montenegro and in the Republic Srpska, located in one part of the former Bosnia and Herzegovina. Demopolitical result of the geopolitical destruction of the Serbian ethnos was a great movement of the Serbian population from the west to the east, and its concentration in the territory of the Republic of Serbia this implied that the Serbs were expelled from their millennia-long abodes in Croatia, parts of Bosnia and from Kosmet. The geo-economic result of the same process was the devastation of the national economic strength west of the Drina and in the southern province. Economic regression occurred also in the national parent-land state. Balkan re-arrangement of the spheres of interest in the post-bipolar period was in 1995. fixed by the interest arrangement of the great powers known under the name Dayton Peace Agreement. Redistribution of the territories from the destroyed state occurred in the post-communist period with the expansion of west-civilization structures to the European east Westernization of the eastern part of Europe, or entire Europe as the other pole of the global West, could be characterized as a dual mega-regionality. Namely, the west is composed of Europe and America; on the other side, there is the global East or its hybrid variation Eurasia. With the disappearance of their common state and its framework, south Slavs found themselves in the seemingly independent, and actually client states. Western delimitation of the south Slavic area moved from the Yugoslav borders towards a wider Balkan demarcation. One could say that the revitalized notion of the Balkans became a new, in many aspects obligatory framework for regional thinking. The Balkan macroregion is further determined by the intentions to expand the European Union. One of the Euro-centric concepts, which is being experimentally employed precisely in the Balkans, is the establishment of the so-called Europe of regions in the peripheral areas. On the other hand, even though the process of the disintegration of the Yugoslav Federation appears to be irreversible, the superordinate Euro-American factor does not give up the possibility of the mezzo-regional initiatives, cooperations, associations and integrations. This "middle" level of dealing with the specificities of the Yugoslav region is related to the states and nations from the former Yugoslavia, or the so-called West Balkans. Naturally, it is not the tendency to revive the silhouette of the previous state, but certainly there is a noticeable intention to achieve a regional linking of the related, now semi-sovereign territories which sometimes belonged to the same state framework. The fourth level deals with microregionalism, that is the relation between the different areas in the newly-created states. It is interesting that the regionalist discourse is mostly cherished exactly in the ethno-heterogeneous Serbian area, although other Yugoslav states also have or had regional tradition and mixed population, like, for example, Slovenia and Croatia Nevertheless, these former Yugo-republics are structured as mono-national states, so the regional policy and ideology of regionalism are still not in the first plane. Regionalism within the newly-formed states could be supplemented with the micron level implying specific sub-regionalism of the highest degree, within the larger regions in the same state. This could be illustrated with Backa, Banat and Srem inside Vojvodina, understood as the northern Serbian region, or Kosovo and Metohia in the south of Serbia, in the province with the same name. In the part of Serbia outside the provinces, similar things could be said for Belgrade with its surroundings, Macva, Podrinje, Sumadija, Raska District etc. Thus, when it comes to the present FR of Yugoslavia, all five levels of regional dynamics have a principled, but insufficiently studied significance. Mega-regional level is related to the mark denoting the global belonging to the West. Macroregional level deals with the European loyalty, that is inclusion of the FR of Yugoslavia into the continental European trends. This trans-continental and continental direction of inclusion implies a historical teleology of the relative eastern belonging to the absolute West, that is Euro-America, and the entrance into the full structure of the European Union. All the mentioned problems of recognition and characterization of the regional phenomenology in the political topography of the world are motivated by the tendency to achieve as clear as possible spatial-temporal national and state orientation The direction is related to the so-called safety dilemma of the nation and the country faced with the change of size and essence of one's own state, with the different geopolitical position and redefined foreign-policy priorities. It is also the case of the changed alliance policy, and the innovated strategy of integration into the old and new global and regional political structures. On the basis of the indicated components of geopolitical context, one could say that the phenomenon of regions and their cognate correlates {regionally regionalization and regionalism) should not be understood exclusively through the legal categories of international law and the so-called constitutional solutions, that is administrative division of the state territory. Actually in the analysis of regions and regionalism in Serbia and the FR of Yugoslavia it is necessary first to discuss the pre-normative or meta-le-gal factors in the creation of the regional issue within the national and state issue, which have the form of the unsolved political problem. Meta-legality is located within the domain of the international relations and geopolitic. Meta-legal or pre-normative factors of the formation or recognition of regions and regionalisms deal with the possibility of the political constitution of the Serbian, that is Serbian / Montenegrin (still Yugoslav) society. Since the unique state area was destroyed in the four-year secession wars and there occurred significant demopolitical changes, war migrations, forceful displacements and expulsion of the population - the ethnic character of many areas was also drastically changed. At the same time, the post-secession existence of the FR of Yugoslavia could be also viewed through the optics of the state residuum. The remaining Serbia or Serbia (temporarily) without Kosovo is certainly not an equivalent for the Serbian ethnic space, nor for the entire Serbian lands. It is not even the FR of Yugoslavia, as a dual con federation of the Serbian / Montenegrin nation. Geopolitical reduction of the SFR of Yugoslavia to a residual creation of the FR of Yugoslavia was not deduced from the legality sui generis, but resulted from a conflict, the defeat of integralism and the victory of separatism, as well as from a new triumphal configuration of power. The impulse implying the statism of the collective rights from the former complex federal necessarily-multinational level was transferred to a lower mononational level. Therefore, the regionalist ideology in the post-secession reality of the residual state almost inevitably, as a tendency, nears the separatory particularism. Even the lost national state and the state entirety are openly denied within the requests for the territorization of the collective rights of various minorities. Naturally these requests do not carry the primary features of the development of democracy. On the contrary, in the majority of cases this implies the rise of parish and tribal consciousness prone to narrow-minded separation. Thus the post-secession requests for the regionalization are often just a slight rhetorical mask for real separatism. For example, they are expressed through the pseudo-national separation of Vojvodina from Serbia, as well as Montenegro from Serbia, or through the establishment of state-like entities in the territorial tissue of Serbia Alleged arguments are found in the unfinished disintegration of the SFR of Yugoslavia on the one hand, and in the prevention of the creation of the so-called Greater Serbia, even within the diminished Serbia That way, even in the post-secession, reduced Serbia one could easily recognize the tendencies of federalization and confederalization, even the amputation of its remaining state space. Additional arguments for the crawling secession and prolonged territorial destruction are found in the ideology of globalization and world trends of relativizing territorial integrity and state sovereignty. On the other hand, the idea about the principled insignificance of borders in Europe without borders, as well as Europe of regions, is emphasized. Thus, it is obvious that the new state and regional delimitations and demarcations are in contradiction with the vision of the trans-statal and trans-national integrity of the European continent. In Serbia itself, me problem of the restructuring of regions is determined by the inherited and unchanged triple division of its territory into the central part and two autonomous provinces in the north and south. Thus every idea for regionalization (expert, party, leader's, NGO and the like) faces the inherited, too narrow constitutional framework and easily slides to the federalization or confederalization of the Republic, and in extreme cases to the independence and sovereignty of ethnic, religious, linguistic and other minorities. Roughly put, the tendencies for territorial separation from the Republic of Serbia still exist in several neuralgic and unstable areas or regions. In Vojvodina, the presented tendencies have the character of a meaningless internal - Serbian autonomy, autonomism, latent separatism. Authentic Serbian autonomy lost its original character long ago and deteriorated into an internal national re-statism. On the other hand, in the furthest south of Serbia, in Kosmet, the UN protectorate is established, but the region is actually occupied and thus the status of the Province is "frozen". In the three municipalities in the south of Serbia, with the relative Albanian majority, Albanian separatism smolders within the platform of the so-called east Kosovo. In the Raska region (Sandzak) there are also strong tendencies for separateness on the religious-ecclesiastical, so-called Bosniac platform, with religious solidarity, and ethnic and territorial unity of all Bosniacs. In the meta-legal or pre-normative situation - which most often denotes political and geopolitical context implying interests, power and force - the inclinations for territorial design are faced with the conflicting ideology of regionalism. Therefore, the constitutional-legal solutions of the former, present and future regions, generated within the self-created legality which does not respect meta-legal, political and geopolitical impulses regardless of how aestheticized and "humanized" they may be - at the end face the practical impossibility of realization.

We have prepared a new issue of Contemporary Military Challenges. I am well aware that there are many topical texts and media information that catch the eye of Slovenian public more than military and defence-related subjects. This is complete- ly understandable, since we feel safe in our country, while the security situation in other parts of the world is significantly different. In those remote unstable regions, the Slovenian Armed Forces comes into play as one of NATO, EU or UN members contributing to international peace and stability. The Slovenian Armed Forces work in the service of their country. We remain fai- thfully on our track, performing our duties and fulfilling the military mission to the best of our abilities. Some of our colleagues wrote in the Doctrine of the Slovenian Armed Forces that the values of the Slovenian Armed Forces are a driving force of mission implementation. They result from general civilization values, values of Slovenian society and the nature of military operations. We often like boast about the results of the Slovenian public opinion research regarding the trust of citizens in Slovenian institutions, according to which the Slovenian Armed Forces have ranked among the highest since 2005. Moreover, since 2010, the Slovenian Armed Forces has been on top. Indeed, such an outcome can be attributed to the fact that the rate of trust in other institutions has declined. Nevertheless, it is important that the proportion of those who trust the Slovenian Armed Forces has over the past two years remained constant or even increased. I am aware that the results of the Public Opinion and Mass Communication Research Centre at the Faculty of Social Sciences are only one of the mirrors showing our quality, but this is enough to remain optimistic regarding our future work. Values are therefore an important part of the functioning of the Slovenian Armed Forces work, the state and the society. Throughout the history, they have often been put to the test and it seems so today as well. Jasna Fedran wrote an article Basic ethical terms – an attempt to make a review of (un)ethical conduct where she introduces the values that challenged discussions with Aristotle, Thomas Aquinas and many others in the past and today. Her text will reveal more about the findings. A lot has been written about contemporary security challenges and changes that remain a constant and incite new security threats. In his article, Analysis of NATO 2010 strategic concept, Aljaž Fabjan describes how the Alliance defined it responses to threats around the world and what are its priorities. The article Participation of Slovenian Armed Forces in international operations and missions in light of the foreign policy of the Republic of Slovenia by Branko Podbrežnik highlights international, political and legal frameworks that affect and define the functioning of the Slovenian Armed Forces in the turbulent international environment. Srečko Zajc in his article The role of civilian experts in international operations and missions – Slovenian lessons learned in PRT – ISAF, Afghanistan shared with us his experience from the operation of Slovenian civil military experts in that part of the world. Cross-border education and risk to national security is a topic which inspired the writing of Valentina Jošt Lešer, who among other things discusses what brain drain means for national security. Impact of human resource management on the enhancement of security culture in corporate security environment was discussed by Karmen and Denis Čaleta. Security culture is therefore a value in organizations that are strongly linked and dependent on the leadership and management. Bojan Zevnik has shared some of his experiences and suggestions, which he considers to be able to contribute to the improving of the quality of action. They are presented in the article Professional superiority in the management of communicati- on and information systems in the Slovenian Armed Forces. Despite the high intensity of daily events at work and privately, we kindly invite all who are interested in defense and military contents to write, especially in our future issues. In 2013, we celebrate the fifteenth anniversary of Contemporary Military Challenges (formerly Bulletin of the Slovenian Armed Forces).

It has been two years since the European migrant crisis. In autumn 2015, Europe was flooded by a refugee wave that people neither expected nor imagined. It was a surprise in every way. Modern technology, reputable institutions, and leading global experts from different fields did not anticipate what happened. The European legal order, human rights, the Schengen regime, and the ideas of the West dissolved quickly and left people faced with a naked reality. Where are the refugees now, how many are there, and how do they feel? How did the refugee crisis affect the national security system and the common European defence and security policy? The media rarely reports on this now, two years later. Instead, there is much talk of terrorist attacks in European cities, the UK’s exit from the European Union, the US President, Donald Trump, and the Korean rockets that ruffle the Japanese sea. Years ago, Samuel P. Huntington wrote a book The Clash of Civilizations. It was published in Slovenia in 2005. His assumption was that the main reason for the clash of nations in the future would be their cultural and religious identity. He predicted that the greatest threat would be extreme terrorism. Different ideologies would be replaced by self-oriented individuals, who would no longer be concerned about the common good, but focused on themselves and their benefits. The absence of ideologies would be replaced by a return to ancient traditions. Responses to Huntington's work were very different; some were enthusiastic, others sceptical. We can, however, conclude that his theory, first presented in 1992, was confirmed in the case of the war in the Western Balkans. When the ideology of former Yugoslavia died, the nations and nationalities returned to their roots, which resulted in a war that claimed the lives of many people. Robert D. Kaplan also wrote about the fact that the Western Balkans is a crossroads of different cultures. The most famous of his works is Balkan Ghosts, in which Kaplan examines in detail the historical and cultural turbulence in the immediate neighbourhood of the cradle of Western civilization, which has been the driving force behind the development of the West for the past two thousand years. This issue of Contemporary Military Challenges is therefore interested in what is new on the Old Continent, emphasizing security, defence and the military. In his article Geostrategic Shifts in Contemporary Europe, Uroš Tovornik examines the geostrategic significance of the relationships between France, Germany and the United Kingdom, the countries that shaped the fate of Europe in the past. With the UK's decision to leave the European Union, the former classic geostrategic triangle can now turn into other decisive geostrategic links which could greatly change the Old Continent. József Kis Benedek writes about the consequences of events in North Africa and the Middle East. In the recent past, some authors have wondered whether the Arab Spring would be followed by Arab Winter; however, what followed was the European migrant crisis and the escalation of terrorist attacks in Europe. In his article Challenges Posed to the European Union by the Iraqi, Syrian and Libyan Crises, the author focuses on the participation of foreign fighters in crisis areas, coming from Europe to aid. Economic Intelligence: an Inevitable Choice is the title of an article written by Laris Gaiser. It stresses the urgent need for Slovenia to devote greater attention to this area in order to ensure greater benefits for its citizens. Slovenia has come a long way since 1991, but modern security guidelines stipulate that, besides classic tasks in the intelligence and security field, economic intelligence is also important. What is the situation in Slovenia and what else should we do? For several years, the Slovenian Armed Forces have been involved in the international operation and mission in Bosnia and Herzegovina. Slovenia is accompanied by many other European Union member states, ensuring peace and order in the country. How long will this go on, and how successful are the international security forces in the area? It is this and some other questions that the authors Ivana Boštjančič Pulko, Johanna Suhonen and Kari Sainio try to answer in the article Assessing the Planning and Implementation of the EU Missions and Operations: Case Study of EUFOR Althea in Bosnia and Herzegovina. Cybernetics, cyberspace and cyber attacks are commonly known terms of which much has been heard and read about recently. How well do we really know these terms? Is there a legal basis at the national level and how is this field regulated in the international environment? This is a challenge requiring strategic and concrete answers. One of the possible answers can be found in the article Legality of Low-Intensity Cyber Operations under International Law by Pika Šarf. Military aviation is an integral part of the modern armed forces. Slovenian military aviation is relatively young and has, in its short history, experienced several development phases, both in the field of aeronautics and in the organizational military sense. The quality of cooperation of Slovenian military pilots in international operations, missions, and international military exercises testifies that we are on the right track. But how to proceed? In his article, Characteristics of the Slovenian Armed Forces Air Force: Now and 20 Years in the future, the author Mitja Lipovšek refers to the idea that history is a debate of the past with the present for the future. We wish you an interesting read, and invite you to also participate as authors of articles.

Abstract. The article addresses the international affairs of the National Technical University of Ukraine ‘Ihor Sikorskyi Kyiv Polytechnic Institute’ (KPI) amidst martial law. The scope and forms of the KPI’s international engagement changed when Ukraine was granted the candidate status for the European Union membership, and the international community recognised that our country is in the vanguard of the struggle for the values of civilisation. The author of the article emphasises the respect for Ukraine demonstrated not only at high-level meetings, where words of solidarity with Ukraine were spoken, but also in cooperation agreements with universities of Finland, Germany, Slovenia, the UK, the US, and the polytechnic universities of Bucharest, Poznań, and Warsaw. At a time of limited budgetary funding, foreign sources of financial support become virtually the only means by which the University can develop its educational, scientific, and research facilities and stimulate its staff. And for the faculties, institutes, and academic departments, they ensure confidence in the ability to compete for applicants, the allocation of financial resources, the influence on the science and education policy within particular branches of knowledge, the content of educational programmes, and the capacity for preserving scientific and pedagogical schools. The KPI has experienced positive quantitative and qualitative changes in its project and grant activities as the Ukrainian academic environment began to gradually bridge the mental gap with Europe. Integration into the European education and research area does not only mean a potential increase in the number of education and science projects and financing, which all departments and all academic staff of KPI should experience. At the same time, it is also a civilizational change that affects all aspects of the University’s activities. Thus, joining the family of European universities is an important task for the international activities of NTUU KPI in the coming years. Keywords: Ihor Sikorskyi Kyiv Polytechnic Institute, Europe, integration, universities alliances, educational and research area, international affairs, civilizational change.

OPENING Welcome to this special feature of Approaches, which was inspired by the 1st Mediterranean Music Therapy Meeting. Organised by the Giovanni Ferrari Music Therapy School of Padua, with the support of the Italian Association of Professional Music Therapists (AIM) and the Italian Confederation of Associations and Music Therapy Schools (CONFIAM), this event took place on 22nd September 2018 in Padua, Italy. Reflecting the theme of this meeting, Dialogue on Music Therapy Interventions for Dementia and End-of-Life Care: Voices from Beyond the Sea, this special feature aims to raise awareness and promote dialogue around music therapy in the Mediterranean region with a focus on dementia and end-of-life care settings. The special feature contains brief country reports. Although reports vary in writing style and depth of information, each report has a two-fold overall focus: to outline briefly the current state of music therapy within each country and to describe particular applications of music therapy within dementia and end-of-life care contexts. Additionally, this special feature contains a Preface by Melissa Brotons, who was the keynote speaker at the 1st Mediterranean Music Therapy Meeting, as well as a conference report outlining key aspects of this meeting. THE SEA AROUND US: A NOTE ON THE MEDITERRANEAN The name of the Mediterranean Sea originates from the Latin mediterraneus, meaning “middle of the earth”. This name was first used by the Romans reflecting their perception of the sea as the middle or the centre of the earth. Interestingly, while perceived as a middle point, the Mediterranean was also experienced as something that surrounded people. Thus, both the Ancient Greeks and the Romans called the Mediterranean “our sea” or “the sea around us” (mare nostrum in Latin, orἡ θάλασσα ἡ καθ’ἡμᾶς [hē thálassa hē kath’hēmâs] in Greek). The Mediterranean Sea is linked to the Atlantic Ocean. It is surrounded by the Mediterranean basin and enclosed by land: on the north by Southern Europe and Asia Minor, on the south by North Africa, and on the east by Western Asia. Since antiquity the Mediterranean has been a vital waterway for merchants and travellers, facilitating trade and cultural exchange between peoples of the region. The Mediterranean region has been the birthplace of influential civilizations on its shores, and the history of the region is crucial to understanding the origins and evolvement of the modern Western world. Throughout its history the region has been dramatically affected by conflict, war and occupation. The Roman Empire and the Arab Empire are past examples with lasting footprints in the region; while ongoing conflicts in Syria, Israel and the Occupied Palestinian Territories are contemporary examples, some of which have led to a refugee crisis in the region. As such, the history of the region has been accompanied by endeavours and struggles to define and redefine national identities, territories and borders. Interestingly, Cyprus is one of just two nations, and the first one in the world, to include its map on its flag (the second is Kosovo – a Balkan country close to the Mediterranean region). The sea touches three continents, and today the Mediterranean region can be understood, framed and divided differently based on varying geopolitical and other perspectives (see, for example, the Eastern Mediterranean Region of the World Health Organization [WHO, 2020]). For the purposes of this special feature, we understand the Mediterranean region as including 12 countries in Europe, five in Asia and five in Africa. These countries, in clockwise order, are Spain, France, Monaco, Italy, Malta, Slovenia, Croatia, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Montenegro, Albania, Greece, Turkey, Cyprus, Syria, Lebanon, Israel, Occupied Palestinian Territories, Egypt, Libya, Tunisia, Algeria and Morocco. Despite its relatively small geographical area, the Mediterranean region is characterised by the richness of cultures, religions and musical traditions. Likewise, there is a dramatic diversity in terms of political and socio-economic situations. This diversity is equally reflected in the development of dementia and end-of-life care in these countries. Regarding dementia care, in 2016, the Monegasque Association for Research on Alzheimer’s Disease, published the Alzheimer and the Mediterranean Report where is underlined that “[in] many Mediterranean countries, there is still little knowledge about the problems surrounding Alzheimer’s disease, which remains under-estimated and insufficiently documented” (AMPA, 2016, p.7). The report identified a concerning rise in the number of people with Alzheimer’s disease and related disorders in the Mediterranean area, but little biomedical, fundamental and clinical research, unequal and unspecialised access to home care services, and also a general lack of training among professionals and a lack of status recognition for family carers. In terms of end-of-life care, in 2017 the first systematic attempt to map and assess the development of palliative care in the WHO Eastern Mediterranean region was published (Osman et al., 2017). Results demonstrate that palliative care development in Eastern Mediterranean countries is scarce. Most countries are at the very initial stages of palliative care development, with only a small fraction of patients needing palliative care being able to access it. This situation also applies to the integration and provision of palliative care within care homes and nursing homes offering long-term care for older people (Froggatt et al., 2017). Recent reviews also demonstrate that palliative care is variable and inconsistent across the region, while various barriers exist to the development of palliative care delivery. Examples of such barriers include the lack of relevant national policies, limited palliative care training for professionals and volunteers, as well as weak public awareness around death and dying (Fadhil et al., 2017). Similar barriers around legislation, training and public awareness are met in the development of music therapy in many Mediterranean countries. Music therapy, as a contemporary profession and discipline, and indeed its applications in dementia and end-of-life care, are equally limited and characterised by diversity across the region. As such, this special feature is a modest attempt to bring together perspectives and present initial information for areas of work which are not widely developed, explored or documented so far in most Mediterranean countries. Hopefully this publication will raise further awareness and inform the future development of music therapy with specific reference to its potential applications to dementia and end-of-life care in each country. This becomes even more relevant considering the increase of non-communicable diseases (NCDs), including cancer, in the region (Fadhil et al., 2017). BEHIND THE SCENES Inviting authors Although the 1st Mediterranean Music Therapy Meeting included speakers only from a few Mediterranean countries, this special feature attempted to include authors from every single Mediterranean country. In addition to inviting the speakers from the meeting to contribute to this special feature, we invited authors from each of the other Mediterranean countries. After listing all the countries, we tried to identify music therapists in each of them. We drew on our own professional networks, as well as information available on the websites of the European Music Therapy Confederation (EMTC) and the World Federation for Music Therapy (WFMT), along with relevant publications in the open access journals Approaches: An Interdisciplinary Journal of Music Therapy and Voices: A World Forum of Music Therapy. In countries where we could not identify a music therapist (with or without direct experience of working in dementia and end-of-life care), we attempted to identify and invite other relevant professionals with an explicit interest in music therapy. When this second option was impossible, no authors were invited. There were also cases where potential authors who met the above criteria did not respond to the invitation. As such, this special feature does not include a report from every Mediterranean country. The absence of reports from some countries, however, does not necessarily reflect the lack of music therapy work in these countries. Some of the contributing authors are members or representatives of professional associations and some are not. In either case, their contribution to this special feature aims to represent their views and experiences as individuals without claiming to represent national or other professional bodies. Depending on the position of each individual author, different aspects of music therapy may be explored, prioritised, silenced or challenged in each country report. We want to be clear: these reports are not about absolute ‘truths’ and do not provide comprehensive accounts of music therapy and of its applications in dementia and end-of-life care in each country. Instead of being a ‘full stop’, we see these reports as an opening; as invitations for dialogue, debate, critique and mutual growth. We encourage readers to engage with the contents of this special feature critically; being informed by their own experiences and practices, as well as by related literature and historical trajectories in the field (e.g. De Backer et al., 2013; Dileo-Maranto, 1993; Hesser & Heinemann, 2015; Ridder & Tsiris, 2015a; Schmid, 2014; Stegemann et al., 2016). The challenge of the review process All reports were peer-reviewed. Although we strived to ensure a ‘blind’ review process, this was difficult to achieve in certain cases due to the nature of the reports and the small size of the music therapy communities in certain countries. We invited music therapists living and working in Mediterranean countries to serve as reviewers. We also invited some music therapists living in other parts of the world, given their experience and role within international music therapy bodies and initiatives. Reviewers were requested to evaluate not only the accuracy of the information provided in each report but also the reflexive stance of the authors. This comes with acknowledging that in some instances authors and reviewers came from diverse professional and disciplinary spheres, where music therapy can be understood and practised differently. This was particularly relevant to country reports where we could not identify reviewers with ‘inland’ knowledge of the music therapy field and of its relevance to local dementia and end-of-life care contexts. Towards hospitality Professionalisation issues – which seem to be a common denominator across the reports of this special feature – are often an area of controversy and conflict, where alliances and oppositions have emerged over the history of the music therapy profession within and beyond the Mediterranean region. Writing a country report, and indeed reviewing and editing a collection of such reports, can be a ‘hot potato’! Although it is impossible to remain apolitical, we argue (and we have actively tried to promote this through our editorial and reviewing work) that a constructive dialogue needs to be characterised by reflexivity. It needs to be underpinned by openness and transparency regarding our own values and assumptions, our pre-understanding, our standpoint, as well as our invested interests. Professionalisation conflicts within some Mediterranean countries have led to the development of multiple and, at times, antagonistic associations and professional bodies. In Spain, for example, there are over 40 associations (Mercadal-Brotons et al., 2015), whereas in Italy there are four main associations (Scarlata, 2015). In other countries, such as Greece (Tsiris, 2011), there are communication challenges and conflicting situations between professional association, training programmes and governmental departments. Although such challenges tend to remain unarticulated and ‘hidden’ from the professional literature and discourse, they have real implications for the development of the profession within each context and for the morale of each music therapy community. Overall, this special feature aims to promote a spirit of open dialogue and mutual respect. It is underpinned by a commitment to remain in ongoing dialogue while accepting that we can agree to disagree. As editors we tried to remain true to this commitment, and this became particularly evident in cases where reported practices and concepts were at odds with our own perspectives and understandings of music therapy and its development as a contemporary profession and discipline in Western countries. Indeed, the perspectives presented in some of the reports may sit on the edge or even outside the ‘professional canon’ of music therapy as developed in many contemporary Western countries. In line with the vision of Approaches, this special feature opens up a space where local-global tensions can be voiced (Ridder & Tsiris, 2015b), allowing multiple translations, transitions and borders to be explored. What becomes evident is that definitions of music therapy are inextricably linked to cultural, including spiritual and political, meanings and practices of music, health and illness. Mediterranean people are known for their hospitality but also for their passionate temperament. We hope that this special feature creates a hospitable and welcoming environment for professional and intercultural exchange where passion can fuel creative action and collaboration instead of conflict. We invite the readers to engage with each report in this spirit of openness and reflexivity. This special feature will hopefully be only the start of future dialogue, debate and constructive critique. To this end, we also invite people to add their voices and perspectives regarding music therapy in the Mediterranean region in relation to dementia and end-of-life care. Music therapists, palliative care practitioners and other professionals are welcome to submit their own papers in the form of articles, reports or letters to the editor. References AMPA (2016). Alzheimer and the Mediterranean Report 2016: Overview – challenges – perspectives. Retrieved from https://ampa-monaco.com/files/MAA_Rapport_GB_web_sml.pdf De Backer, J., Nöcker Ribaupierre, M., & Sutton, J. (2013). Music therapy in Europe: The identity and professionalisation of European music therapy, with an overview and history of the European Music Therapy Confederation. In J. De Backer & J. Sutton (Eds.), The music in music therapy: Psychodynamic music therapy in Europe: Clinical, theoretical and research approaches (pp. 24-36). London: Jessica Kingsley Publishers. Dileo-Maranto, C. (Ed.). (1993). Music therapy: International perspectives. Saint Louis, MI: MMB Music, Inc. Fadhil, I., Lyons, G., & Payne, S. (2017). Barriers to, and opportunities for, palliative care development in the Eastern Mediterranean Region. The Lancet Oncology, 18(3), e176-e184. Froggatt, K., Payne, S., Morbey, H., Edwards, M., Finne-Soveri, H., Gambassi, G., Pasman, H. R., Szczerbinska, K., & Van den Block, L. (2017). Palliative care development in European care homes and nursing homes: Application of a typology of implementation. Journal of the American Medical Directors Association, 18(6), 550.e7-550.e14. Hesser, B., & Heinemann, H. (Eds.). (2015). Music as a global resource: Solutions for social and economic issues (4th ed.). New York, NY: United Nations Headquarters. Mercadal-Brotons, M., Sabbatella, P. L., & Del Moral Marcos, M. T. (2017). Music therapy as a profession in Spain: Past, present and future. Approaches: An Interdisciplinary Journal of Music Therapy, 9(1), 111-119. Retrieved from https://approaches.gr/mercadal-brotons-a20150509 Osman, H., Rihan, A., Garralda, E., Rhee, J.Y., Pons, J.J., de Lima, L., Tfayli, A., & Centeno, C. (2017). Atlas of palliative care in the Eastern Mediterranean region. Houston: IAHPC Press. Retrieved from https://dadun.unav.edu/handle/10171/43303 Ridder, H. M., & Tsiris, G. (Eds.). (2015a). Special issue on ‘Music therapy in Europe: Paths of professional development’. Approaches: Music Therapy & Special Music Education, Special Issue 7(1). Retrieved from https://approaches.gr/special-issue-7-1-2015/ Ridder, H. M., & Tsiris, G. (2015b). ‘Thinking globally, acting locally’: Music therapy in Europe. Approaches: Music Therapy & Special Music Education, Special Issue 7(1), 3-9. Retrieved from https://approaches.gr/special-issue-7-1-2015/ Scarlata, E. (2015). Italy. Approaches: Music Therapy & Special Music Education, Special Issue 7(1), 161-162. Retrieved from https://approaches.gr/special-issue-7-1-2015 Schmid, J. (2014). Music therapy training courses in Europe. Thesis at the University of Music and Performing Arts, Vienna, Austria. Stegemann, T., Schmidt, H. U., Fitzthum, E., & Timmermann, T. (Eds.). (2016). Music therapy training programmes in Europe: Theme and variations. Reichert Verlag. Tsiris, G. (2011). Music therapy in Greece. Voices: A World Forum for Music Therapy. Retrieved from https://voices.no/community/?q=country-of-the-month/2011-music-therapy-greece World Health Organization (WHO) (2020). Regional Office for the Eastern Mediterranean Countries. Retrieved from: http://www.emro.who.int/countries.html