Issue 2, Vol. 102 (2015)

The central problem of the study is the last phase of the forced ethnic homogenization of Bosnia and Herzegovina, unintentionally caused by the peace accord, concluded on the American base in Dayton in the year 1995. On the basis
of the border agreements the competing parties were forced to hand over some lands they were so far controlling to the hands of the enemy. This caused another wave of involuntary mass migrations. The most controversial transfer of territory has been the handing over of fi ve settlements of Sarajevo with mostly Serbian inhabitants to the Federation of Bosnia and Herzegovina in the fi rst three months of the year 1996. The circumstances of how exactly the majority of the Serbians were forced to leave their homes had so far not been fully clarifi ed. Besides analyzing the course of events of this and accompanying cases the present study focuses on the impact of the forced migrations on the fi nal destination of the migrants, i.e. the Republic of Serbia, as well as on trying to fi nd possible solutions of the situation of the Serbian migrants from part of local authorities. The fi nal part of the text evaluates who arguments that have often been mentions with respect to the weak minority repatriation of Serbians to the Federation of Bosnia and Herzegovina.

This text deals with the construction of national identity through sports discourse in media, with the main attention paid to the “failed” performance of Slovak sportsmen at the Olympic Games in London 2012. As Slovaks didn’t repeat their previous medal achievements in London 2012, therefore the media ironically labeled their performance as the “Bronze Age”. This study presents the fi ndings of a discourse analysis, which was applied to the sport commentaries published in Slovak press after the London 2012 Olympics. The method of analysis is based on the approach of Norman Fairclough, and therefore social identities, relations and systems of knowledge are distinguished within the studied articles. Theoretical basis of this work deals with the relationship between national identity, sport and the media, and the broader framework of the Slovak national and sporting identity. The study shows that identity forming processes within the sports discourse in the media are active, and yet they do not always take the form of celebratory patriotism.

The article focuses on roadside memorials (RSMs) created for the victims of traffi c accidents in the Czech Republic. It provides the results of longitudinal fi eld research conducted in central and northern Bohemia in the periods 2005–2008 (fi rst research wave) and 2011–2014 (second research wave). Attention is devoted particularly to the temporality of such memorials. The research, consisting of the study of a sample of 69 roadside memorials, was repeated after a period of around seven years and the data from both waves subsequently compared; the fi nal sample consisted of 89 memorials. Based on the research results, it can be confi rmed that the construction, tending and visiting of roadside memorials has become a popular rite of Czech mourning culture and that the phenomenon is fl ourishing. Most memorials remain in place for at least seven years and usually longer. Memorials which commemorate a fatality from ten to fi fteen years previously are very common. Since new memorials continue to be constructed it follows that an increasing number of RSMs can be seen throughout the Czech Republic. Around three-quarters of memorials in the sample feature a cross which, in most cases, symbolises death rather than a belief in Christianity. In conclusion, therefore, the maintaining and visiting of roadside memorials makes up a culturally acceptable element of the mourning process.

The aim of the study is to evaluate the circumstances revealed by the archaeological study of extinct medieval villages whose ground plans were staked out systematically, using some of the standard schemes of the times: that is, the possible direct proportion of the area, farmed by the individual homesteads, and the expanse of the plot of yards of these homesteads, or rather the width of the yards with respect to the village square. For the initial phase of the analysis were used the available early textual and cartographical sources from areas where such research was made possible by the earlier interconnecting of information about the history of settlement that allow for studying the older stages of social structure of the communities.

Perceiving work competition as a strategic practice of a selected social system the author of the article examines the relationship between work competition and (public) holidays in the period of the fi rst fi ve-year economic plan of the
Socialist Federal Republic of Yugoslavia (1947−1952). This relationship was mutual and similarly as in other socialist countries centrally planned as well as directed: holidays helped spreading the idea of competitive way of working as well as they helped structuring (working) time. On the other hand work competition helped rooting the new system of public holidays as well as it also structured and shaped holidays. Neverthless, a competition at a work-place, a category of work competition, which is most often mentioned in the literature, was only rarely referred to in people’s recollections. Only some forms of work competition, for example postwar voluntary restoration work or youth working actions, were memorised which, as the author suggests, is also infl uenced by the symbolic acknowledgment of work and workers during socialism and with the fact that cultural politics of the time was not perceived solely as a cynical manipulation of political elites.