Mapping the meaning of "difference' in Europe: A social topography of prejudice

This paper draws on original empirical research to investigate popular understandings of prejudice in two national contexts: Poland and the United Kingdom. The paper demonstrates how common-sense meanings of prejudice are inflected by the specific histories and geographies of each place: framed in terms of ‘distance’ (Poland) and ‘proximity’ (United Kingdom), respectively. Yet, by treating these national contexts as nodes and linking them analytically the paper also exposes a connectedness in these definitions which brings into relief the common processes that produce prejudice. The paper then explores how inter-linkages between the United Kingdom and Poland within the wider context of the European Union are producing – and circulating through the emerging international currency of ‘political correctness’ – a common critique of equality legislation and a belief that popular concerns about the way national contexts are perceived to be changing as a consequence of super mobility and super diversity are being silenced. This raises a real risk that in the context of European austerity and associated levels of socioeconomic insecurity, negative attitudes and conservative values may begin to be represented as popular normative standards which transcend national contexts to justify harsher political responses towards minorities. As such, the paper concludes by making a case for prejudice reduction strategies to receive much greater priority in both national and European contexts

The Julianna pegmatite vein system at the Piława Górna Mine, Góry Sowie Block, SW Poland – preliminary data on geology and descriptive mineralogy

The newly discovered Julianna pegmatitic system from the Piława Górna Quarry (the Góry Sowie Block, Sudetes Mts., NE margin of the Bohemian Massif) is described in terms of geological setting, petrography and descriptive mineralogy. The system represents the largest pegmatitic occurrence in the Polish Sudetes and consists of a complex network of cogenetic rare-element granitic pegmatites that intruded into tectonized amphibolite as discordant dikes. The pegmatites range from barren and weakly zoned to texturally well-differentiated ones that are composed of a fine-grained border zone, coarse-grained wall zone, graphic and blocky feldspar intermediate zones and a quartz core. Unidirectional and skeletal solidification textures are well-developed. The Julianna pegmatites consist of rock-forming plagioclase (ŁAn39), microcline, quartz and biotite accompanied mostly by accessory to minor muscovite, tourmaline, garnet and beryl. They crystallized from anatectic melt of hybrid NYF (niobium-yttrium-fluorine) + LCT (lithium-cesium-tantalum) geochemical characteristics. Pegmatites with a low to moderate degree of fractionation, that dominate in the Julianna system, bear NYF-signature accessory minerals, such as allanite-(Ce), columbite-, euxenite- and samarskite-group minerals, fergusonite-(Y) and gadolinite-(Y). However rare dikes that attained a very high degree of fractionation contain typical minerals of LCT-signature including tourmalines of the elbaite-olenite-rossmanite series, lepidolite, lithiophilite, spodumene, Cs-rich beryl and pollucite

Between recognition and the struggle for survival : Lemkos at the beginning of the twenty-first century

During Poland's communist period, Lemkos-Ruthenian highlanders whose indigenous territory is in the Carpathians - were officially considered to be ethnic Ukrainians. The process of political transformation at the beginning of the 1990s revealed the emancipatory aspirations of certain Lemko leaders. It allowed the institutionalization of identity divisions in the group, wherein some members considered themselves part of the Ukrainian nation, while others saw themselves as a separate ethnic group. The Polish authorities, having accepted the Lemko bid for emancipation, financed cultural activities and education. The group gained formal recognition in 2005 with the adoption of the law on minorities, which names the Lemkos as one of four ethnic minorities (Ustawa… 2005). This success, however, has not ended identity disputes within the group, and its separateness is still called into question. What determines the contemporary condition of the Lemko community is its small numbers and territorial dispersion resulting from post-WWII forced displacement. In this chapter, I present the challenges that active Lemko leaders have faced since their legal recognition. On the one hand, they benefit from the protection of minorities now guaranteed by Polish law and take measures to maintain and preserve Lemko culture. However, they must also deal with both intragroup and external opponents who contest emancipatory aspirations