Universities with multicultural disrupted past: what meanings current students attribute to them?

• Authors: Olena Dobosh
• Languages of publication: EN

Abstracts

EN

The changing of pre-war borders of Central and Eastern Europe after WW II caused not only belonging of certain territories to definite countries but also the massive forced relocation of population from those territories. The total change of the population in the multicultural cities affected also institutions, such as universities by changing their staff, language, and national profile. Nowadays, when modern universities are facing post-modernity challenges it is extremely difficult to talk about role, mission, and meaning of this  institution, especially in the context of disrupted historical tradition. Look at the problem from the different perspective, from inside will show the tendencies of meanings  current students of the universities with long but disrupted historical past attribute to their Alma maters. Are they aware of the presence of representatives of different national groups that created university community before WW II? This article will present results of three studies conducted at three universities that changed their national profile after WWII: Vilnius University in Lithuania (formerly a  Polish university), Lviv University in Ukraine (formerly  a Polish university) and Wrocław University in Poland (formerly a  German university). Both at Vilnius University and Lviv Universiy 150 university students participated in the study. At Wrocław University 152 university students participated in the study.   The present analysis will try to explore the variety of meanings current students of those three universities attribute to their place of study. It will try to show if current students are aware of the university’s complex history and, if they include/exclude historical meanings connected with representatives of the different national group? Also, it will look at the possible differences between meaning attribution and perception of the university past among representatives of these three universities. Lviv, Wrocław, and Vilnius Universities had similar historical traces, but currently, they are developed in three different independent countries with different cultural and historical politics which might have an influence on the perception of the place’s past (Lewicka, 2011)

Keywords

EN

University; Place meaning; Central-Eastern Europe

• Publisher: Fundacja Pro Scientia Publica
• Journal: Journal of Education Culture and Society
• Year: 2016
• Volume: 7
• Issue: 2
• Pages: 33-50

Dates

published

2016-09-10

Contributors

author

Olena Dobosh

• Graduate School for Social Research, Institute of Philosophy and Sociology of Polish Academy of Sciences, Nowy Świat 72, 00-330 Warsaw

References

• Agnew, J. (1987). Place and politics: The geographical mediation of state and society. Boston: Allen and Unwin.
• Altman, I., & Low, S. M. (Eds.). (1992). Place attachment. New York: Plenum.
• Assmann, J. (2008). Pamięć kulturowa. Pismo, zapamiętywanie i polityczna tożsamość w cywilizacjach starożytnych. [Cultural Memory and Early Civilization: Writing, Remembrance, and Political Imagination]. Warszawa: Wydawnictwo Uniwersytetu Warszawskiego.
• Bumblauskas, A., Butkevičienė, B., Jegelevičius, S., Manusadžianas, P., Pšibilskis, V., Raila E., & Vitkauskaitė D. (2004). Vilnius University 1579-2004. Retrieved from: http://www.vu.lt/site_files/InfS/Leidiniai/Vilnius_University_1579_2004.pdf.
• Canter, D. (1977). The psychology of place. London: Architectural Press.
• Cresswell, T. (2004). Place: A short introduction. Oxford: Blackwell Publishing.
• Gustafson, P. (2001). Meanings of place: everyday experience and theoretical conceptualization. Journal of Environmental psychology, 21, 5-16.
• Hidalgo C., M., & Hernandez, B. (2001). Place attachment: conceptual and empirical questions. Journal of Environmental Psychology, 21. 273-281.
• Kmet V. (2011). Lviv Jesuit University (1661-1773), In: Vakarchuk, I., Lozynskyj M., Shust R., Kachmar V. (Eds), Encyklopedia. Lvivskyj Nacionalnyj Universytet imeni Ivana Franka, V 1. Lviv: Lviv Ivan Franko National University.
• Kulak T., Pater M., & Wrzesiński W. (2002). Historia Uniwersytetu Wrocławskiego 1702-2002 [History of Wrocław University]. Wrocław: Wydawnictwo Uniwersytetu Wrocławskiego.
• Lewicka M. (2012). Psychologia miejsca [Psychology of place]. Warszawa: Wydawnictwo Naukowe SCHOLAR.
• Lewicka, M. (2008). Place attachment, place identity and place memory: Restoring the forgotten city past. Journal of Environmental Psychology, 28, 209-231.
• Lewicka, M. (2010). What makes neighborhood different from home and city? Effects of place scale on place attachment. Journal of Environmental Psychology, 30, 35-51.
• Lewicka, M. (2011). Place attachment: How far have we come in the last 40 years? Journal of Environmental Psychology, 31, 207-230.
• Manzo, L. C. (2005). For better or worse: Exploring multiple dimensions of place meaning. Journal of Environmental Psychology, 25, 67-86.
• Pelikan, J. (2009). The Idea of the university: a reexamination. (translation from English). Kyiv: Duh i Litera.
• Proshansky, H. M. (1978). The city and self-identity. Environment and Behavior, 10, 147-169.
• Prytula J., & Tarnavskyj R. (2011). Jan Kazymyr University in Lviv (1918-1939). In: Vakarchuk, I., Lozynskyj M., Shust R., Kachmar V. (Eds), Encyklopedia. Lvivskyj Nacionalnyj Universytet imeni Ivana Franka, V 1. Lviv: Lviv Ivan Franko National University.
• Redzik, A. (Ed.). (2015). Academia Militans. Uniwersytet Jana Kazimierza we Lwowie [Academia Militans. Jan Kazimir University in Lviv]. Kraków: Wydawnictwo Wysoki Zamek, Instytut Pamięci Narodowej.
• Relph, E. (2008). Place and placelessness. London: Pion Limited.
• Rowles, G. D., & Chaudhury, H. (Eds.). (2005). Home and identity in late life: International perspectives. New York: Springer Publishing Company.
• Sixsmith, J. (1986). The meaning of home: an exploratory study of environmental experience. Journal of Environmental Psychology, 6, 281-298.
• Spartz, J., T., & Shaw, B., R. (2011). Place meanings surrounding an urban natural area: A qualitative inquiry. Journal of Environmental psychology, 31. 344-352.
• Stedman, R. C. (2003). Is it really just a social construction? The contribution of physical environment to sense of place. Society and Natural Resources, 16, 671-685.
• The Editors of Encyclopædia Britannica. (2016). Retrieved from http://www.britannica.com/topic/university.
• Tuan, Y. F. (1974). Space and place: Humanistic perspective. Progress in Geography, 6, 233-246.
• Tuan, Y. F. (1987). Przestrzeń i miejsce [Space and place]. Warszawa: Państwowy Instytut Wydawniczy.

Identifiers

DOI

10.15503/jecs20162.33.50