Social Disjuncture: Lithuania and the World

November issue of “Sociumas” – e-magazine about society – presents:

Gypsies are one of the few non-territorial minorities in Europe and the unique national minority that has never claimed for territory. According to the data of Lithuania’s census taken in 1989, 2718 people of gypsy nationality were the residents of Lithuania. It is obvious enough that this group is not common in the general Lithuanian context - both for the estimation it receives and for its actual situation. The article “Social Exclusion: Lithuanian Gypsies” continues series of articles in which Viktorija Jonikova is analysing various social exclusions in Lithuania.

From the beginning of society as such and financial differentiation, the poverty versus prosperity is far the most discussed problem. Philosophers have always been trying to find out why poverty divides people into separate groups and makes them to fight among each other. Many possible answers were given, but none of them appeared to be the best one. The discussion about poverty, but in the new shape, continues until now. Books are being written, conferences on recently discovered social evil - social exclusion, are being held. You are welcome to read an article on this topic "Social Exclusion and Inclusion – the predecessor of Poverty" written by Marius Kuitiniauskas.

After the Soviet system had collapsed, the transformation of social morphology started and this became characteristic to all post-communist countries, including Lithuania. The intelligentsia is one of the most rapidly disappearing social levels in Lithuania as in all post-communist countries. This division of the intelligentsia as a social stratum into intellectuals, professionals, service sector workers and the bourgeoisie is discussed in the article of Darata Surdokaite “The intelligentsia or intellectuals?”.

Our guest of the month of November is Skirmantas Valiulis, famous public man, lecturer and cinema’s critic, who shares his ideas about nowadays situation of Lithuanian cinema in our country and Europe as well. Is it really true Lithuanian cinema is dead and still dying, as mass media frequently states? Read about it in “Sight of the Month”.

O apie „tinkamà“ pasirengimà tëvystei, kompiuterines þmonas ir ðeimyniniø santykiø peripetijas skaitykite naujuose „Sociumo“ anekdotuose lietuviø, anglø ir rusø kalbomis.

Read the new “Sociumas“ anecdotes on “proper” preparation for the parenthood, computer wives and family relations peripeteia in Lithuanian, Russian and English.