Problems of Cultural Integration in Transition Societies – Case Study of Bulgaria

The paper studies the opportunities of integrating minorities with the rest of the population, turning them into an indivisible part of the society. To realize better this integration many conditions are needed including change in the social attitude to minorities, a rise in their standard of living, overcoming the prejudices existing in society toward them, etc. Creating new jobs and proper investment in the regions populated with minorities would facilitate their cultural integration as the first step in this process. Its efficient realization depends strongly on social capital generated in these communities as a precondition for formal and informal associating with the rest of population. Social capital is expected to play the role of feedback, which would steer the adequacy of the process of integration. Its study is of paramount importance to reveal the mechanism of integration of minorities with the rest of society. The results of the quantitative and qualitativ analysis based on collected primary data are presented for detailed study of the mechanisms of social capital and the way the minorities could be integrated. Among the measures, which could help to cope with the situation are: rise in the access to education, increasing opportunities to find a suitable job, more adequate participation in the political and economic life of the country, etc. In conclusion recommendations are formulated to change the policy toward minorities and to improve the overall economic conditions allowing better social realization and integration.cultural integration, gypsy minority, social capital study

Casimir amplitudes in a quantum spherical model with long-range interaction

A $d$-dimensional quantum model system confined to a general hypercubical geometry with linear spatial size $L$ and ``temporal size'' $1/T$ ($T$ - temperature of the system) is considered in the spherical approximation under periodic boundary conditions. For a film geometry in different space dimensions $\frac 12\sigma <d<\frac 32\sigma$, where $0<\sigma \leq 2$ is a parameter controlling the decay of the long-range interaction, the free energy and the Casimir amplitudes are given. We have proven that, if $d=\sigma$, the Casimir amplitude of the model, characterizing the leading temperature corrections to its ground state, is $\Delta =-16\zeta(3)/[5\sigma(4\pi)^{\sigma/2}\Gamma (\sigma /2)]$. The last implies that the universal constant $\tilde{c}=4/5$ of the model remains the same for both short, as well as long-range interactions, if one takes the normalization factor for the Gaussian model to be such that $\tilde{c}=1$. This is a generalization to the case of long-range interaction of the well known result due to Sachdev. That constant differs from the corresponding one characterizing the leading finite-size corrections at zero temperature which for $d=\sigma=1$ is $\tilde c=0.606$.Comment: 10 pages latex, no figures, to appear in EPJB (2000

Isomorphism of Commutative Modular Group Algebras

∗ The work was supported by the National Fund “Scientific researches” and by the Ministry of Education and Science in Bulgaria under contract MM 70/91.Let K be a field of characteristic p > 0 and let G be a direct sum of cyclic groups, such that its torsion part is a p-group. If there exists a K-isomorphism KH ∼= KG for some group H, then it is shown that H ∼= G. Let G be a direct sum of cyclic groups, a divisible group or a simply presented torsion abelian group. Then KH ∼= KG as K-algebras for all fields K and some group H if and only if H ∼= G

Trouble makers : Laura Poitras and the problem of dissent

This review article considers three works by the distinguished documentary film-maker Laura Poitras: My country, my country (2006); The oath (2010); and the recently released Citizenfour (2014), focusing on the whistle-blower Edward Snowden. Poitras describes these works as a trilogy about American power after 9/11, but they are also about disobedience and resistance, or the problem of dissent. The article argues for the significance (and the virtue) of Poitras's project, as film maker and troublemaker, and for the necessity of what Solzhenitsyn calls civil valour.PostprintPeer reviewe