Er(r)go,
culture
cultures culturalism multiculturalism transculturalism localization globalization glocalization other others otherness
I
thou
third
i.e. whatever concers difference, identity, and the spaces that encompass them (Ewa Kosowska). These relations, however, are no longer accommodable in the cosy inside of a home, nor is the outside sufficient for them. What is needed is the "third space": "a peculiar kind of hybridization in effect of which the real space and its simulations [...] become inseparable." We may be shocked by the "end of old ontologies of space," but we at the same time realize the necessity of working out "new, critical ontologies" (Ewa Rewers). Otherness forces us not only into an endeavor of understanding, but also into a toil and privilege of tolerance. Life certainly would be easier if no thought of "human waste," of the refuse of social order disturbed our peace of mind (Zygmunt Bauman). There would be no need to cover one's eyes to avoid the sight of the human garbage, or to clean one's conscience by means of social sanative practices. Yet tolerance should not become a blindfold preventing us from seeing that none of the inhabitants of cultural spaces is free from ethical obligations. Identity is a task: it is becoming obliged with respect to the other, but also giving the other an obligation (Wojciech Kalaga). The suffering and misery of the third must not become the price for the care for the other. A dilemma then arises in macrosocial terms (Andrzej Szahaj; Edward Możejko): assimilation (the melting pot), i.e. the possibility of oppression and symbolic violence, or multiculturalism (the salad bowl), but also the aporias of equality, hierarchy, axiology, and the possibility of political deviations, masochistic self-castigation and exultation over any mediocrity of otheress? Hybrid questions, hybrid answers.
A new section introduced in this issue opens its boundaries to past themes (continuations: an essay by Grażyna Gajewska returns to the theme of history), to future themes (anticipations: Bartosz Kuźniarz evokes Luhmann's theory) and to themes having no relations to any of those themes (varia).
Wojciech Kalaga
No. 49 (2024)
Published: 2024-12-30