In the collective volume: Thessaloniki and Plovdiv in Parallel Routes. History, Art, Society (18th-20th Century), pp. 195-215
Proceedings of the international conference on the same subject
Thessaloniki: Northern Greece Entrepreneurs Cultural Society, 2000
Abstract
This chapter - based on the results from a theoretical and empirical research that used semi-structured interviews - introduces one of the more than 60 communities in Thessaloniki. The study considers the functions of the culture and the arts important for the coexistence of different ethnic and cultural communities in the same region and significant for the cohesion of the immigrant communities in general. In this respect, the profile of this immigrant community includes specific references on its culture and its artistic expressions. A short historical retrospection and the presentation of different aspects and institutions related with this field in the community life, completes the profile, while several other of its aspects (economic, political etc.) are discussed in other parts of the study.
Objective of this study is to contribute for a complete profile of this particular community, given the fact that too little has been done in this respect. As a result of this shortcoming in the local social research, the comprehension of the specific features, needs and peculiarities of different social groups, is rather incomplete, a fact that hardly favors the planning and implementation of cultural, educational, social and other types of policy, consistent and relevant with a multicultural society. This study addresses these issues - being part of a wider research that applies a holistic approach on the more than 60 ethnic and cultural groups that compose the local society.
Article in the peer-reviewed journal:
Greek Review of Social Research, 103 (C 2000), pp. 83-105
Athens: National Centre for Social Research
GR ISSN: 0013-9696
Abstract
This article analyzes the introduction and implementation of new media and forms of mass communication using new technologies, in the primary and secondary education. The theoretical and empirical research presented in this study support the main conclusion that this implementation is consistent with a systematic cultivation of conformity and adaptation rather than the advance of a culture of critical orientation in social reality. Furthermore, this can be seen also in the general tendency to transform education into training and to substitute apprenticeship for the development of enhanced cultural skills. The analysis shows that this tendency reflects wider cultural changes, as well as changes in the nature of the social bond.
The analysis is based on data collected through a quantitative empirical research with questionnaires. The research explored the representations of teachers about the introduction and the uses of the computers and the internet in primary education. The analysis summarizes the dominant theoretical approaches and considers also several documents on the education policy of the Greek state. The article closes suggesting the basic principles of an alternative approach to the introduction of new forms and media of communication in the education system.
Virtual School, The Sciences of Education Online, volume 1, issue 3, December, 1998
Thessaloniki: School of Primary Education, Aristotle University
ISSN 1108-2356
Abstract
The article discusses the cultural significance of the arbitrariness and the human symbols. The age-long discussion on the arbitrariness of linguistic sign does not seem to consider the scope of arbitrariness itself, neither its meaning for civilization and human culture. This article attempts to extract from naturalist and cognitive approaches the "tools" to be used for analyzing the fabrication of symbols as an intrinsic aspect of human activity. The analysis shows that it is necessary to explore new ways to control the functions of mechanisms for the management of symbols and symbolic systems (like the mass media). For democracy to function in the cultural field also, this issue is considered most important.
According to the suggested approach, arbitrariness is peculiar to human beings; an intrinsic feature of signifying, and of communication in general - including the cultural and artistic communication. It is this feature that enables the development and refinement of the contemporary opaque mechanisms for knowledge and information management. These mechanisms require fresh forms of literacy and critical thought, and this is a field of research that still remains open.
The article focuses on the historical and systematic analysis of arbitrariness as a feature of civilization par excellence. From this point of view its significance is methodological, in order to comprehend some of the functions of the symbolic production and distribution.
Musicology, 10-11/1998, pp. 148-157
Athens: Nissos Publications
ISSN 1012-0203
Abstract
Kurt Blaukopf provides a methodological synthesis in his book Musical Life In A Changing Society: Aspects Of Musical Sociology (Musik im Wandel der Gesellschaft), in order to approach music and its changes from a sociological point of view. Max Weber's method, as well as the method founded by K. Marx and F. Engels and elaborated by Antonio Labriola in his theory of factors, are basic elements of Blaukopf's synthesis. A fundamental methodological thesis of Blaukopf is that starting-point for an approach of music should be musical action itself and not any preformulated concepts.
Blaukopf defines musical action in a Weberian sense. Nevertheless, he restricts the specific sociological nominalism and the elements of neokantianism that reside in Weber's method. This restriction results from the thesis that determinations of musical behaviour are possible to be found and therefore causal relations may be searched for in this section of social reality. Besides, studying musical action itself ensures a severe restriction of any arbitrariness implicit in an approach based on ideal types.
There are two main reasons for which the concept of mutation, used by Blaukopf to underline discontinuity in the evolution of musical behaviour, seems rather inappropriate. First, the contents that is seeked to be defined is already designated by the term "qualitative leap" that seems more appropriate to use in social sciences. Second, the term "mutation" is loaded with connotations of early positivism and may be misinterpreted.
A couple of very important elements may be pointed out in Blaukopf's synthesis:
- First, any reductionism (economic, technological, etc.) is excluded by applying a dialectical approach of social reality using the theory of factors.
- Second, Blaukopf does not pursue the construction of a total teleological concept on music and its changes that would neglect the particularities of different musical cultures.
Especially the latter element seems to be of utmost importance in terms of the contemporary cultural condition.
Musicology, 9/1997, pp. 82-98
Athens: Nissos Publications
ISSN 1012-0203
Abstract
The sociology of music is interested in musical material as an historically preformulated object and as the substratum of certain expression and communication forms. This article explores musical material as a product of history and as a social product that "codifies" in a specific and unique way the human approach to reality in general (not only to sonic reality). At the same time, it elaborates certain concepts of the sociology and the aesthetics of music - two fields of study that do not have a long tradition in Greece.
The article discusses the scope and the object of the sociology of music and makes some methodological notes on the approach of music as a total social phenomenon.