Epiphany - Journal of Transdisciplinary Studies

16

Authors: Elvira Islamovic, Nermina Blazevic

Throughout history, education has not only been a carrier of culture, but also an integral part of communication between different cultures. Challenges faced by educational and cultural institutions in most modern pluralistic societies are higher than in earlier societies. The legacy of ethnic conflict in the war in Bosnia and Herzegovina, in which traditional value of multicultural and multi-religious life was undermined, had immediate implications for social, cultural and educational policies. Educational policy, based on the assumption of a national culture that promotes national exclusivity through textbooks and educational practice, should overcome in recognition of cultural diversity and dialogue in a globalized world where differences should be considered an advantage and not deemed an obstacle to common life and cooperation. The paper highlights the importance of introducing interculturalism as an important component of the overall educational practice. Teaching the value of diversity, the affirmation of universal values that underlie a democratic society, a sense of responsibility to themselves and to each other, the rejection of exclusion and differentiation of others on any basis, solidarity and cooperation, are current issues of the modern pedagogical and sociological discourse. These concerns must receive a stronger affirmation and application in the educational process of Bosnia and Herzegovina.

18

Authors: Bisera Mavrić

This paper deals with the phenomenon of national identity as well as with its connection to personal and collective self-esteem. National identity and associated phenomena have so far mainly been investigated as part of sociology, anthropology and political science, since psychology was less engaged in the issue. The national identity out of all kinds of social identity had the greatest influence on historical events. The consequences for the human race, through history, have been both positive and negative. Understanding the importance of this phenomenon has not only theoretical but also practical value for encouraging international tolerance. In recent years, national identity is a topic of interest for many researchers, mainly because of political events and frequent conflicts that are associated with ethnicity. This concept is especially important for Bosnian citizens who are still struggling with consequences from the recent conflicts in this multiethnic country. Most previous scientific papers explain their results within one of three theoretical frameworks: the social identity theory, theories of acculturation and cultural conflict, and the development of the theory of identity formation. Due to geopolitical changes in Europe, the growing interest of psychology to national identity is present, and thus the number of diverse research in this area. In many of them, there is a question about whether reinforces strong identification with the national group as a positive self-image and self-esteem contributes to it.

19

Authors: Selvira Draganović

A state of well being in which one realizes own potentials, can cope with every day stressors, can work productively and is able to constructively contribute to community is called mental health. Many stressful and negative events can interfere with these abilities and thus endanger someone’s mental health. Migration is one of them. With its’ pre and post phases/stages, migration represents great sources of stress and stressors. Immigrants need good personal and social resource in order to lessen down negative effects of migration on their mental health. The aim of this study is to explore presence of mental health problems in non clinical population of Bosnian immigrants (N=101, F=48, M=53) in Switzerland. It was assumed that migration stress acts negatively on immigrant’s mental health. General health questionnaire was used to test this hypothesis. Participants mean score results on total GHQ28 questionnaire were M=51.06, S.D. =14.30, its subscales on depression M=10.12 S.D.=3.75, somatic complaints M=13.04 S.D.=4.5, anxiety/insomnia M=13.34 S.D. 4.8, and social dysfunction M=14.37 S.D.=3.5. This indicates presence of mental health problems among Bosnian immigrants. At the same time, the study shows presence of social support seeking (N=83 subjects listed family and friends) as primary coping strategy used by Bosnian immigrants while dealing with difficulties and problems rather than seeking professional help (N=3 subjects listed professional help seeking). Thus, social support seeking acts positively on mental health of Bosnian immigrants.

23

Authors: Muhidin Mulalić, Mirsad Karić

The Energy politics is today at the center of the Russian and the Western Balkans relations. It is widely known that Russia has been playing significant role in world energy supply. Therefore, Russian energy companies have taken a leading role in the promotion of their businesses in the Western Balkans. The Western Balkans region has become geostrategic partner as a transit route for the integration of Russia into the global energy world market. With regards to the transportation of gas Western Balkans as a transit route is determined to fully realize South Stream project. In contrast to “a buffer zone” role, in the past few decades the Western Balkans gained an attention from Russia and became an important geopolitical bridge towards Western Europe. Such geopolitical and geostrategic planning of Russia is apparent with regards to gas and oil. Due to Russian South Stream gas pipeline project the Western Balkans became an important European energy transforming center. These new geostrategic games over the pipeline have also revived the Russian historical interests in the Balkans. This paper aims to analyze Russian-Western Balkans relations with special emphasis on energy politics and geopolitical and geostrategic interdependence of Russia and the Western Balkans.

27

Authors: Mustafa Akdag, Mustafa Cingi

Internet, already a part of our lives far surpassing its limits as a means of communication, seems to have shaped most fields in human life and changed most of our daily habits and as a consequence the digital natives are observed to be completely living in Internet culture. One of the reflections of this culture and arenas in the Internet, social media has substantial impacts on gaming habits of digital natives. Up to the period in which Internet has interfered in man’s life, the games played by parents were passed from older generations to the new ones as a tradition, so generations used to play the same games; when the children of a previous era became parents they described the games they used to play to their kids thus paving the way to the sustainability of this game tradition. While different generations used to play the same games, today with the dissemination of Internet and social media caused a change of format in the traditionally played games and street games started to give their places to those played on the computers. Therefore, children started to play games on the Internet, an endless space whether negative or positive. The fact that parents are alienated from this arena, enabled the children to play violent games without any boundaries and to take place in social media arenas that could have negative impact on children’s worldly and spiritual well-being. The study is highly important in the sense that it clarifies the extent to which Internet and social media, which is actually the agent of change in children’s gaming habits, environments changed parents’ gaming habits among themselves and with their children. Surveys are conducted to the parents of primary school students as a field work to identify the changes originating from Internet and social media. According to research results, social media and Internet are found to be altering gaming habits of parents with their children. It is identified that parents keep themselves away from online environments in which their kids take place thus possibly breaking off the communication relationships between kids and parents.

31

Authors: Yılmaz Çolak, H. Hüseyin Tekin, Recai Aydin

This study aims at exploring the flows of transit migration to North Cyprus by type: whether or not it is labour, refugee or asylum. To determine that, the question of which push factors lay behind transit migration in the origin country tries to be answered. Also this study seeks to analyze origins, routes and destinations of transit migrants in TRNC from 2004 to 2008. In addition, the paper analyzes what kind of measures TRNC government was taking to deal with illegal transit migrants, human trafficking and smuggling through its borders, and how non-state institutions in TRNC considered and dealt with transit migrants and especially refugees.