Torun International Studies

7

Authors: Olena Cherniavska

This article examines the main factors and pre-conditions which caused the emergence of technoglobalism in the 20th century. The author identified the role of the research activity of transnational corporations in making this process more intensive, and also the main attention is concentrated on national and foreign approaches to understanding of such a new phenomenon as “technoglobalism”.

8

Authors: Nadia Kindrachuk

This article investigates anti-Ukrainian language policy in Ukraine during the 60’s – 70’s of the twentieth century, whose main objective was artificial exclusion of the use of the Ukrainian language and the acceleration of the Ukrainians’ assimilation. Narrowing the Ukrainian language in higher educational institutions of Ukraine was felt especially painfully, where the younger generation of the Ukrainians was trained and brought up. Teaching most special and general subjects in higher education resorted to Russian more and more frequently. Those features of Ukrainian higher education showed the wealth of the national language, culture, facilitated the study of their national history, promoted a national idea, the ideas of Ukrainian statehood were leveled under the influence of the Russification policy. Also, the paper examines the denationalization of the titular nation – the Ukrainian SSR by the media, which were a part of the informational space of the Soviet totalitarian state. The article reveals the destructive role of the media in narrowing the Ukrainian national outlook and “undermining” their social and psychological stability, showing a ban on national-patriotic materials in the Ukrainian printed word, radio, television. Russification of all spheres of the Ukrainian people significantly reduced the use of the Ukrainian language and formed the status of its inferiority and laid the basis for all intensive large-scale assimilation of the Ukrainians.

8

Authors: Beata Stachowiak

In this paper, the author considers the alterations that occurred in the international scientific communication. It is mainly technological development that exerts the influence over these alterations – particularly the emergence of new media. The major part of this paper is dedicated to the issue of the use of social networking sites in scientific communication. In her considerations, the author refers to the world-wide research pertaining to social media in the meantime demonstrating the attitudes of Polish scientists in connection with the former. This paper also contains the results of the research on the attendance to social networking sites of the academics from the Nicolaus Copernicus University with the particular attention paid to Research Gate. The considerations lead to the conclusions that in Poland scientists approach the possibilities offered by social media with the slight skepticism.

11

Authors: Katarzyna Kącka

The end of the Second World War necessitated making arrangements as to the future of Germany. The decisions were to be made by the allied countries – winners of the war. In the end, the decisions of the so-called “big four” states were of arbitrary nature, and German officials were not permitted to participate in talks about the future of their country. The years 1945-1947 have brought numerous important resolutions and final settlements, but were also a period of growing disagreement within the victorious coalition. True end of their collaboration came about in 1947, and the matter of Germany became a bargaining chip in the Cold War conflict. The aim of this study is, above all, to present the role of the most important decision-making institution after the war: the Council of Foreign Ministers. The paper also presents the respective positions of the four great powers as to the participation of Germany, Poland and so-called “small countries” in determining the future of Germany.

12

Authors: Oleksii Chugaiev

The article provides a review of national economic image, brand, and soft economic power evaluation methods based on opinion polls or objective indicators. The author elaborates and tests a webometric method for evaluation of specific components of national economic image and soft power. National economic image is measured as the share of positive messages in total number of messages about economy of a country. Soft economic power is described as national economic image adjusted for absolute amount of positive economic information about a country. Various key words and expressions are used for web search query to analyze specific components of economic image (trade, inflation, finance, budget, quality, competitiveness, investment, business, corruption, corporate governance, wages, economic cooperation or conflicts, economic growth or crisis). The advantages and limitations of the suggested approach are discussed. The sample for testing the method includes Poland, Ukraine, Russia, Turkey, Romania, Germany, and Moldova. Germany and Poland have almost no major weaknesses, while Russia and Ukraine have almost no major strengths among economic image components. Germany is a soft power leader in the majority of areas, followed by Russia, Turkey and Poland. Ukraine, Romania, and Moldova can improve their image and soft power by better real economic performance and wider coverage of positive economic information about these countries.

14

Authors: Magdalena Redo

Economic changes in the Eastern bloc countries which currently belong to the European Union can be characterized as incredibly strong and important. In the process of catching up with the general development, some problems have been reduced. Unfortunately, other issues are starting to increase. The main aim of the present review is to show changes of the period 2003-2014 in major economic areas of these countries and also to point out potential sources of economic issues in the future