What is the attraction of far-right organisations to middle class centrists? Social anthropologist Agnieszka Pasieka observes activists up close to investigate how far right-wing extremist groups are making inroads into the centre of society through social engagement. Pasieka’s analyses diverge from traditional narratives of exclusion and losers. Continue reading “The appeal of the right-wing scene”
With the advent of the postcard, written correspondence experienced a boost everywhere, including Lower Styria. A project funded by the Austrian Science Fund FWF now illustrates through postcards the coexistence and clashes between the German and Slovenian languages in the final decades of the Habsburg Monarchy. Continue reading ““Greetings” from Lower Styria”
Eleven regimental languages and countless dialects: the Habsburg army was a Babel of languages. In a project funded by the Austrian Science Fund FWF, the historian Tamara Scheer explored how the Emperor, the army, soldiers and the military bureaucracy coped with this linguistic diversity. Her conclusion: in an imaginative and flexible way. Continue reading “Linguistic strife in times of war”
Among members of the ethnic-religious Druze minority in the Middle East, reincarnation is a generally accepted phenomenon. The social anthropologist Gebhard Fartacek documents cases of reincarnation and the concomitant social consequences, debates and conflicts. Continue reading “Transmigration of the soul – social disruptor or bond”