The four Visegrad states — Poland, the Czech Republic, Slovakia (until 1993 Czechoslovakia) and Hungary — form a compact area between Germany and Austria in the west and the states of the former USSR in the east. They are bounded by the Baltic in the north and the Danube river in the south. They are cut by the Sudeten and Carpathian mountain ranges, which divide Poland off from the other states. Poland is an extension of the North European plain and like the latter is drained by rivers that flow from south to north west — the Oder, the Vlatava and the Elbe, the Vistula and the Bug. The Danube is the great exception, flowing from its source eastward, turning through two 90-degree turns to end up in the Black Sea, forming the barrier and often the political frontier between central Europe and the Balkans. Hungary to the east of the Danube is also an open plain. The region is historically and culturally part of western Europe, but its eastern Marches now represents a vital strategic zone between Germany and the core of the European Union to the west and the Russian zone to the east.

Economy and Society

Bodies That Matter: On the Discursive Limits of “Sex”

/pdf/imperial-leather-race-gender-and-sexuality-in-the-colonial-e5g9c51q0j.pdf

Imperial Leather: Race, Gender and Sexuality in the Colonial Contest

In this editorial I feel compelled to write a general commentary about the presidential election. It is with great awe that I observe the level of competition presently taking place. The reasons to feel this way are numerous. Three impress me the most. First, one aspect that has certainly been inspiring is that no one is to be counted out. All three main presidential candidates, Senators Clinton, McCain, and Obama (in alphabetical order) had at some point been counted out for being too young or too willing to cross the aisle to seek compromise, or for being a woman, an African American, or a Vietnam veteran and former POW, and the list of reasons and naysayers goes on and on yet, these three individuals are still in the race. This is an important lesson for all of us seeking to improve the life of the world--whether addressing social or environmental issues, we should never give up. A second exciting aspect of this election is that it appears that it will come down to a race in which every eligible person who can vote must vote and every vote must be counted. Although it is disappointing that the percentage of people who vote is nowhere near what it should be and that not every vote has been counted in recent elections, there is hope that more and more people are registering to vote and that closer attention will be paid to properly counting every vote. In the context of every vote counting, I remember the sense of fair accompli many of my friends and I experienced in Hawaii during elections because the votes of a small state like Hawaii, with its fewer corresponding delegates, did not appear to carry much weight; all of that changed as a result of the past three elections in which the votes of the people in Hawaii certainly counted. It seems that small states once again are well poised to play another key role in the election of the Democratic candidate and in the final contest. I believe this is good for the country. The third exciting aspect of the election is the opportunity for a new administration to improve the quality of life for the world. The new person will have his or her work cut out tackling such issues as unemployment, poverty, terrorism, racism, nuclear proliferation, global warming, pollution, human rights, and so forth. This person will also have the opportunity to continue facilitating the country's ability to create and innovate in all aspects of our lives, from improving health and mental health care accessibility and delivery to building safer and environmentally friendlier vehicles, and making significant advances in stem cell research, among many other social, technological, and scientific transformations. …

The presidential election.

Class Counts An Overview and Response to Mr. Cooper's Review

In recent years, there has been considerable interest in the migration of Polish citizens within Europe, especially post EU accession. There is, however, little research on the movement of such migrants further afield, especially in the context of individualised lifestyle migration. This thesis is based on in-depth interviews and ethnographic observation/participation with Polish women living in United Kingdom and New Zealand/Aotearoa. Using Butler’s theory of performativity and Goffman’s dramaturgical approach to self-presentation I consider how class, gender and ethnicity intersect, and how they are expressed in Polish women’s behaviour in two very different geographical, socio-economic, cultural and political environments. My data show how Polish women’s femininity and gender practices change in a response to their different social location in both New Zealand and the UK, and how these are affected by varying levels of social inclusion of women, Poles and migrants in both these countries. My findings demonstrate that although in both NZ and UK Polish women feel more included as women, in the UK their ethnicity and migration status locate them in a lower societal strata. Further, in NZ Polish women felt more included as women, Poles and migrants, and the way they performed gender and ethnicity did not require ‘resistance practices’ to counteract ethnic and class stigma. I also show how discourses of migration to both these places are rooted in the history of the Polish-English and Polish-New Zealand relations, and inform the way Polish women narrate their experience. As I use an intersectional approach in both methodology and theoretical framework, the focus is on the intersecting nature of my respondents’ social identities, and the way their migrant experience is classed and gendered. Although my work is anthropological/sociological in its approach (ethnography) and subject (e.g. focus on class), I also draw on my background from crosscultural and social psychology (e.g. the work of Hofstede) to broaden the theoretical perspectives traditionally adopted in migration studies.

Class, Gender and Ethnicity Performance Amongst Polish Women in the United Kingdom and New Zealand/Aotearoa: an Intersectional Perspective

The ‘Invisible Poles’ project looked at how British-born people of Polish descent have experienced the recent increase in the Polish population of the UK, as well as easier access to Poland since Poland joined the EU in 2004. The twenty-eight interviewees came forward because they had stories to tell about becoming more ‘visibly’ Polish – visible to Polish-born Poles in the UK and Poland, but also to their families and friends. Their stories are gathered together in Invisible Poles: a Book of Interview Extracts, an open access book which can be downloaded here.

Invisible Poles: A Book of Interview Extracts

With almost 18000 km between Warsaw (the capital of Poland) and Wellington (capital of New Zealand) it could be expected that these two cultures did not, in the course of history, have much to share. Quite unexpectedly however, Polish-New Zealand liaisons have always been more frequent and closer than their geographical and cultural distance would lead us to anticipate. Polish history has always been turbulent, with Poland disappearing from the map at one point for 123 years. Indeed, all 'organized' settlements of Poles in New Zealand seem to be connected directly to the difficulties they were undergoing at home. According to the 2006 census there were 2,004 Polish born residents living in New Zealand. In addition a further 1,965 claim Polish identity and belong to more than one ethnic group (Statistics New Zealand, 2006).1 While Polish culture is celebrated, especially among the 'old' generation of Poles, for their children and grandchildren it is not easy to maintain. New Zealand is physically isolated: its nearest large neighbor, Australia, is 1500 km away. Travelling to Europe is expensive and lengthy. According to the Ministry of Tourism only 5% of nearly 2 million outbound journeys by New Zealanders in 2008 were made to Europe. In 2009 there were only 792 trips from New Zealand to Poland (Ministry of Economic Development).

Pole with a twist: The performance of class, gender and ethnicity of polish women living in New Zealand

Handle everyday research tasks with reliable, citation-backed results

Your personal Research Agent to handle research tasks with citation-backed results

Popular Tasks used by Researchers

How can I help with your research?

Meet SciSpace

Get more enhanced response by uploading the PDFs you want me to reference.

No relevant PDFs in your library

SciSpace is the AI research assistant for academics. Run systematic literature reviews on 280M+ papers, and write papers with cited sources. Trusted by 1M+ students, PhDs & researchers.

SciSpace | AI for Research

Analyze PDFs

Code & Manuscripts

Funding & Grants

Literature & Patents

Medical & Clinical Data

Systematic Review

Visualize & Present

Web & Data

Build a Google Scholar-like website for your research.

Build a website

Create charts and images for your research

Create a Chart

Write a paper for submission to a journal

Draft a manuscript

Patent Search

Design eye-catching scientific posters in minutes.

Scientific Poster Generation

Systematic Literature Review

One task is running at the moment. Your messages will be shown right after.

Drag and drop or click here to browse

Loved by <highlight>1 million+</highlight> researchers

Extract a list of specific topics and their sources from unstructured text

Topics

Compare and analyze relevant papers that matches with your search

Papers

Get insights from PDFs and bookmarked papers from your library

My library

Recent searches

Try searching for:

Catch AI-generated content in scholarly and non-scholarly content

{ai} Detector

Ai Writer

Get PDF Summaries, highlighted text explanations 

Chat with PDF

Effortlessly create in-text citations and bibliographies in APA and 2,500 other formats

Citation generator

Get explanations, summaries, and answers on academic papers

Ease up your research workflow with {scispace}'s cohort of exciting AI tools

Elevate your academic writing skills and convey your ideas the way you want

Paraphraser

Explore our range of reading and writing tools

Your file is being prepared and should be ready in a few minutes. If it's a large file, it might take a bit longer. You can close this window, and we'll email you the file when it's done.

You have reached a maximum limit of <strong>{limit}</strong> columns in the table. Remove at least <strong>1</strong> column to add or create another one.

K. Goodwin

Author Tools

Chat about Author

Papers

Class, Gender and Ethnicity Performance Amongst Polish Women in the United Kingdom and New Zealand/Aotearoa: an Intersectional Perspective

Invisible Poles: A Book of Interview Extracts

Pole with a twist: The performance of class, gender and ethnicity of polish women living in New Zealand