Attitudes Towards COVID-19 Pandemic. Culture as Behavioral Driver under Risk and Uncertainty

The article deals with the issues of cultural determinants of decisions under risk and uncertainty, with emphasis on consumer behavior during the COVID-19 pandemic. The analysis of the crisis response has been based on D. Kahneman’s prospect theory, which was used to compare social behaviors in Poland, Italy, Great Britain and Singapore at an early stage of the pandemic. The main purpose of the considerations is to present the scale and level of impact of cultural determinants on national survival and security strategies against the COVID-19 crisis. The analysis and diagnosis of national survival strategies facilitates creation of products in accordance with behavioral and cultural determinants of consumer attitudes and preferences. In addition, the article presents some automatic systems supporting personnel management during the COVID-19 pandemic. Contemporary technological solutions monitoring employee behavior in the working environment can be implemented to increase the level of mental well-being and sanitary safety.

Myths of Albanian National Identity

Many elements of modern Albanian national ideology developed outside the Albanian lands themselves; this essay examines the ideas about the identity of the Albanian people which were put forward by an influential group of writers in early-twentieth-century America. The key figures were Fan Noli, Faik Konitsa, Kostandin Çekrezi and Kristo Dako. Although they wrote mainly in émigré papers, their arguments sought a much wider audience, especially in the period 1912–21, when the fate of Albania lay in the hands of the major Western powers. Four main categories of ‘myth’ or talismanic doctrine are identified and discussed. The myth of origins and priority claimed that the Albanians were the most ancient people of south-eastern Europe, having preceded even the ancient Greeks. The myth of ethnic homogeneity and cultural purity asserted that the Albanian people had never undergone any large-scale processes of admixture or dilution by foreign populations and foreign cultures. The myth of permanent national struggle maintained that Albanians had always fought to throw off rule by non-Albanians, whether Roman, Slav or Ottoman. And the myth of indifference to religion said that for the Albanians, religion had never been a primary marker of identity, and that their changes in religion had typically been tactical moves, made for the higher purpose of national survival. This mutually reinforcing pattern of claims thus offers a classic example of the mythic style of identity formation.

The COVID-19 Pandemic, Authoritarianism and Rejection of Sexual Dissenters in Poland

Results of a three-wave longitudinal study conducted in the first four weeks of the COVID-19 pandemic in Poland (N = 889) indicate that right wing-authoritarianism increased as the pandemic unfolded, predicting significant growth in national cohesion and in the belief that non-traditional women and sexual minorities threaten the national survival. Latent growth curve modeling indicated linear, inter-related increases in those variables (but not in self-reported political conservatism, social dominance orientation, ambivalent sexism or outgroup hostility) across the three waves. Cross-lagged panel analysis supported the predicted directionality of the relationships. The results are in line with terror management theory predicting that self-continuity concerns increased under mortality salience should motivate investment in cohesive groups and rejection of those dissenters who threaten the prospects of national survival. The results are also in line with findings that the threat of infectious disease increases conformity and ingroup cohesion and sexual prejudice.

Politics of Ethnic Identity in China

The People’s Republic of China (PRC), in the eyes of its leadership, has been perceived as a unitary multiethnic state (duo minzu guojia), comprised of the Han majority and fifty-five ethnic minorities. State propaganda routinely emphasizes the inseparability of the Han from other ethnic groups that have seamlessly cohered into one harmonious whole in the course of five thousand years of history. The “ethnic minorities” (shaoshu minzu) concept attained its meaning during the minority identification project (minzu shibie) of the mid-1950s shortly after the establishment of the PRC. Yet, the ideas and principles of the Chinese national model formalized through the ethnic identification project are informed by the centuries of the Chinese central state’s expansion and absorption of new territories and people into its domain. The articulation of the Chinese territorial and cultural borders went hand in hand with the development of new forms of categorization and demarcation of difference encountered as Chinese borders expanded. Prior to the Republican period (1911–1949), to be Chinese was a matter of accepting and converting into Confucian norms. According to the rules of the governing order of imperial China, tianxia, practicing the Confucian ritual and ethical principles was sufficient to become Chinese (huaren). In the period of China’s forced opening-up to the outside world in the mid- to late 1800s, the formulation of national principles was part of the process of negotiating what constituted China and who the Chinese people were. The concepts of ethnicity and nation developed at the intersections between Chinese state’s relations with its domestic Others and its turbulent interactions with the outside world. The themes of national survival, territorial unity, cultural cohesion, stability of borders, and the development of the Chinese nation into a strong modern state are closely related to the formation of the politics of ethnic and national identity.

Diaspora Policies, Consular Services and Social Protection for Hungarian Citizens Abroad

This chapter presents Hungary’s policies for nationals abroad. First, it discusses the different types of Hungarian diaspora groups (including the Hungarian national minorities in Hungary’s neighbouring countries) and their relation with the homeland. Second, the chapter introduces the general institutional framework by which Hungarian authorities interact with ethnic kin communities and nationals abroad, as well as the engagement policies with this population abroad outside of the area of social protection. Third, it offers an overview of the policies, programmes and services offered by the home country authorities to respond to the social protection needs of nationals abroad. The chapter argues that Hungarian policies for nationals and ethnic kin communities abroad primarily focus on culturally and politically engaging this population and on strengthening their national identity, while the effects of these policies in terms of social protection are less characteristic. The current Government’s policies emphasize national survival and interest, and since Hungarian groups abroad have an important role in this agenda, the homeland’s focus on the diaspora’s identity and attachment to Hungary logically follows from the government’s nationalistic goals.

The Fall of the Habsburg Monarchy and the Crisis of Modern Europe: A Historical–Sociological Comparison

The Habsburg Empire was for several centuries a major European power centre, and represents a highly instructive case of state formation. Its final failure has been the subject of a highly diverse debate, ranging from moral accusation to the acceptance of historical inevitability. A closer focus on structural reasons will highlight the question of military efficiency and the centrifugal impact of multiple nationalisms, exacerbated by parliamentarisation. Looking at recent crises of the European Union (centrifugal tendencies of and within member states, inability to act in emergency situations), we can observe striking similarities with the Habsburg Empire. European decision-making at the highest levels is reminiscent of debates in the Austrian Reichsrat. Both these supra-national survival units, as Norbert Elias would call them, can be described as economically efficient agencies of modernisation. A key difference is that the Union lacks both an army and an imperial charisma. Its military arm is external: the US as the pacifier of Europe. But attempts to change that are likely to end in disaster.