Collection of Papers of the Faculty of Philosophy in Priština

Linguistic Landscape of the Town of Kovаčicа

Biljana B. Radić Bojanić — 2024-03-07

In researching the linguistic landscape of Kovačica, we analyze the linguistic diversity of this multicultural town with a focus on both official and public inscriptions. The aim was to ascertain how minority language policies regulate public language use, as well as to examine whether one of the languages is more dominant than the other and whether a certain language is used for certain domains. The research corpus consisted of 152 photographs and accompanying notes taken during fieldwork. Through a detailed analysis of the corpus, we come to the conclusion that the linguistic landscape of the town of Kovačica is diverse and in accordance with the structure of the population and the languages that are in official use in the territory of the municipality of Kovačica. Regarding official inscriptions, we notice that Serbian, as the official and majority language in the Republic of Serbia, is more dominant than Slovak, except for some situations, for example street names and inscriptions on local historical monuments. On the other hand, the Romanian and Hungarian languages appear only on official signs as a feature of a multinational municipality in which four languages are in official use, which means that those two languages do not appear in other domains of the language landscape of Kovačica. In addition, English is becoming more prevalent in the official language landscape of Kovačica, especially in the tourist sector, which reflects the impact of globalization and the need to communicate with a wider international audience. When public written signs are concerned, our analysis shows the indisputable dominance of the Serbian language, which indicates a tendency towards monolingualism in the public space. In addition, there are occasional deviations in the spelling and correct use of both the Serbian and Slovak languages in the public space. Overall, the linguistic landscape of Kovačica reflects the town’s rich traditional culture and confirms that the official use of languages is in line with Serbian legislation, but the private sphere does indicate a gradual shift from multilingualism towards monolingualism.

Personal Nicknames of Zaplanje’s Small Town of Gadžin Han

Sandra G. Savić — 2024-03-04

The paper analyzes the personal nicknames of Gadžin Han from a linguistic perspective. The personal nicknames are part of the anthroponomic system of Zaplanje, the geographic area to which the small town of Gadžin Han belongs.

The research material, collected during the fieldwork from conversations with the town residents, includes 230 personal nicknames. It is categorized into two semantic groups: male personal nicknames (199) and female personal nicknames (31), and then further assigned to more specific semantic groups. For male nicknames, there are fifteen narrower semantic groups, and for female nicknames, there are six. The smaller number of female nicknames suggests a patriarchal culture within the community.

The largest number of nicknames is motivated by family names and personal names of relatives, followed by occupation, as well as physical appearance. The index of nicknames, together with the reason given for the origin of the nickname, is also provided.

A Comparative-Contrastive Analysis of Punctuation Use (and Spelling) in Serbian and English

Saša S. Čorboloković — 2024-03-04

The paper investigates punctuation rules and their application in Serbian and English, focusing on the examples that comply with different normative solutions in the two languages. The main goal of the research is to compare and contrast the results obtained from a survey done by a group of seventh-grade primary school students. The paper aims to determine how well the respondents apply punctuation rules in Serbian and English, to examine whether there is interference in the application of rules, and to investigate to what extent the detected errors illustrate the tendency of spreading pseudo-norms that violate the orthography of both languages. The results show that the respondents use punctuation marks with more precision in Serbian than in English. The percentage of incorrect answers to each question and the types of errors indicate interference and the creation of hybrid forms that are incorrect in both languages, which represent the creation of pseudo-norms. Furthermore, the results show a greater influence of the application of the rules adopted in the Serbian language on the English language, which can be interpreted by the bigger number of Serbian classes and clearly stated topics within the syllabus of the Serbian language course.

Frequency of Anglicisms in Vebal Associations of English Language Students

Danijela G. Kulić — 2024-03-17

The paper deals with the research on the prevalence of recent anglicisms in the everyday language of the students at the Department of English Language and Literature of the Faculty of Philosophy in Kosovska Mitrovica. Since the anglicisms that have entered the Serbian language in the last two decades are the result of progress in information and computer technology, the goal of this research is to assess the most common English-origin vocabulary, especially in the speech of older adolescents. Although the sample was a group of English language students (N=50), it is assumed that their everyday language reflects the language of the wider population of students of English language and literature, which should be examined by including a much larger number of English speakers from different universities in Serbia, in order to reach more reliable results. One of the tasks of the linguists is to preserve the Serbian language from the influx of foreign words, while the role of lexicographers is to publish new dictionaries including all foreign words that enter the Serbian language and persist there. New words of English origin multiply every day in contact with content found on the Internet, starting from social networks, blogs that offer advice for various problems, sites that are full of lexical units originating from the English language, films, series, and so-called “tutorials” that are especially followed by the younger population. This paper will not discuss the justification of the use of anglicisms found, but an attempt will be made to find those that are most frequent, and thus the lexicon that, whether we like it or not, entered the Serbian language. The study relies on the free verbal association method to identify frequent lexical units originating from English. Comparative analysis is performed using the latest dictionaries Речник нових речи у српском језику 1 (Оташевић и др. 2022), abbreviated as RNR, and Srpski rečnik novijih anglicizama (Prćić et al. 2021), abbreviated as SRNA. Consequently, the paper highlights the most frequent lexical units from the students’ perspective that are not listed in the dictionaries RNR (2022) and SRNA (2021). Through free verbal associations, students wrote anglicisms they use in their speech. The diversity in the choice of alphabets, as well as forms that the students chose while writing anglicisms, would be determined. This research, although it has shortcomings in terms of the small number of respondents, can still provide valid data in the field of lexicography and contact linguistics.

Linguistic and Stylistic Means for Expressing Ethnocultural Heterostereotypes in Serbian Electronic Media

Jelena Lj. Spasić — 2024-03-04

The paper presents the analysis of the most frequent linguistic and stylistic means for expressing ethnocultural heterostereotypes in Serbian electronic media. The analysis has been conducted on concrete linguistic excerpts from Serbian electronic media. The paper aims to show characteristics of linguistic and stylistic means for expressing ethnocultural heterostereotypes. The research is a contribution to journalism stylistics. The most frequent linguistic means of ethnocultural heterostereotypes in Serbian electronic media are phraseology with ethnics and metaphors. The analysis of newspaper texts in Serbian digital media showed common choices of phraseology as expressive linguistic means, used to attract and sustain attention. The use of phraseology with ethnics makes factual newspaper text more expressible and draws attention, which also has an impact on shaping ethnocultural stereotypes among readers. In reports and columns, which belong to the publicistic genre, journalists use linguistic and stylistic means for expressing ethnocultural heterotereotypes not to reinforce stereotypes, but to encourage readers to rethink established ideas about other ethnocultural communities.

Wars, Traumas, and Identities in the Serbian Novel 1991–2021 (II)

Tihomir D. Brajović — 2024-03-04

The second part of the paper deals with the testimonial-representative paradigm as a choice based on the personal expression of unique experiences of traumatic events as a frame for contemporary concrete understanding and a kind of cathartic solution to identity contradictions. The outcome shows that both paradigms could also be productive in articulating adequate identity politics and/or principle understandings of identity problems only if they consider each other as balancing possibilities.

Humor and Satire in the Modern Pictorial Novel "The Bodyguard" by Radivoje Bojičić (from ethnopsychological anecdote to social criticism)

Marija S. Jeftimijević Mihajlović — 2024-03-07

Starting from Northrop Frye’s claim that one of the main characteristics of satire is the element of humor based on the feeling of the grotesque or absurd, but that satire is a critical presentation of social, political and other situations, this paper discusses the elements of humor and satire in the novel The Bodyguard by Radivoje Bojičić, which is already defined in the title as a “pictorial novel”. Although pictorial novels in Serbian literature do not have a long and solid tradition, Bojićič’s novel about a bodyguard, who as a kind of anti-hero tells about his life’s vocation full of temptations and risks, with strong touches of irony, satire and parody, as well as humor that affirms values contrary to those that are recognizable at first glance, enters the ranks of original and self-contained achievements, thus strengthening the humorous-satirical tradition embodied mostly in the work of Branislav Nušić and of Branko Ćopić.

The writer achieves a special dimension of the comic in the novel by using the procedure of comic characterization of the main character, the procedure of comic exaggeration (caricatural, hyperbolic, grotesque), the procedure of inserting intertextual sections, in which the main character parodically refers to well-known phrases, platitudes and quotations from domestic literature and culture, and using a linguistic corpus and terminology appropriate to the world in which the main character found himself, but putting in the foreground precisely the language of the main character and highlighting his origin, social status and special dialectal “literacy”. Because of all this, it is possible to read this novel not only as a humorous and satirical piece but also as an ethnopsychological anecdote about a primitive, aggressive and naïve man who must be first in everything – especially in heroism.

A Contribution for the Analysis of the Economy of the Socialist Autonomous Province of Kosovo 1974–1981

Uroš D. Miketić — 2024-03-12

The economy of Kosovo entered the period 1974–1981 burdened with numerous problems. Constitutional changes led to the economy of the republics and provinces being divided into special systems. The leaders of Kosovo were adamant about using raw materials instead of the manufacturing sector, which would create more jobs. As a result, agriculture fell further and further behind, so the difference in development between industrial and agricultural municipalities was increasingly visible.

Yugoslavia and Serbia generously financed Kosovo through the Development Credit Fund for Economically Underdeveloped Areas and supplementary budget funds. Additionally, Kosovo had the greatest access to International Bank loans of any region. The more developed republics demonstrated little interest in funding Kosovo’s extravagant spending and incorrect economic policies, and Serbia was forced to allocate more money for Kosovo than for impoverished towns within its smaller borders. It was a common rumour in Priština that insufficient funds were allocated for Kosovo. The growing lag was not the result of a lack of funds but of the galloping birth rate of the Albanian community. Citizens, especially Albanians, believed that Serbia and Yugoslavia were taking advantage of them, which had political consequences in the 1981 demonstrations.

One particular economic issue was unemployment. Given the policy of balancing the total number of employed Albanians with their participation in the population in terms of Albanian birth rates, it reflected more on Serbs and Montenegrins. The proportion of Albanians among the staff rose sharply and continuously, while the proportion of Serbs increased slightly, and the proportion of Montenegrins either decreased or stagnated. Due to the national key policy, one Serb or Montenegrin was employed for every ten Albanians (sometimes up to 20). Albanian separatists were successful in making bilingualism a requirement for employment in job competitions, regardless of whether it was specifically requested or preferred. International relations within enterprises were disrupted. The disorder was manifested through verbal and physical pressures in which the Serbs and Montenegrins, being the few, were inferior. Separatists successfully pursued a policy of removing Serb-Montenegrin cadres and workers to make them leave. In roughly 15% of cases, economic issues were the catalyst for Serbs and Montenegrins to leave Kosovo. The majority of Albanians also left for these reasons, but to work abroad.

Reactions and Plans of the State Leadership of Serbia and Montenegro during the Crisis in Kosovo and Metohija (March 17–19, 2004)

Nemanja S. Dimitrijević — 2024-03-17

The article analyzes the reactions and plans of the state leadership of Serbia and Montenegro during the crisis in Kosovo and Metohija in March 17‒19, 2004, when radicalized groups of Kosovo Albanians expelled more than 4,000 Serbs from their homes. The same radicalized groups burned and destroyed 35 churches of the Serbian Orthodox Church. The state leadership of Serbia and Montenegro monitored the situation in Kosovo and Metohija and was ready to engage the army with the task of creating the humanitarian corridor for the evacuation of Serbs from Kosovo and Metohija to Serbia. During the crisis, the state leadership of Serbia and Montenegro did not send the army to Kosovo and Metohija because KFOR units stopped the expulsion of Serbs and the destruction of the cultural heritage of Serbian people.

Evolutionary Development and International Legal Regulation of Mercenaries

Žaklina S. Spalević — 2024-03-20

Mercenary, as a social phenomenon, is a constant companion of the historical development of humanity. There have always been, and still are, individuals, independently or organized in groups, who will offer their services of skills and knowledge of warfare on the world market. On the other hand, in the long series of centuries of human existence, almost everyone who had a sufficient amount of money and had a clearly expressed interest in and goal for such a thing hired individuals skilled in warrior skills and other knowledge and abilities that could be used on the battlefield for the realization of various economic, political, geo-economic, and geo-political goals of their employers.

The use of private violence was brought under state control after the Peace of Westphalia in 1648, where regular military service is the key guarantor of the cumulative survival of the relevant elements of statehood, i.e. the exercise of sovereign powers. However, this did not abolish the practice of mercenary work, but changed it somewhat and adapted it to the new social circumstances. Through the process of social evolution, mercenary military units are transformed into efficient, highly profitable and modern corporate structures which employ diverse, highly qualified personnel, manage them, and provide a wide range of military and security services to various and numerous state and non-state entities – clients.

For modern times, in this sense, the appearance and actions of mercenaries during the decolonization process—conventional mercenary formations, on the one hand, and private military companies as a sort of contemporary quasi-mercenary phenomenon which do not themselves fit into the glossary, on the other—are indicative of the so-called legal qualification of classic mercenaries as they are recognized and explained by the key international documents in the field. The very emergence of private military companies led to a fundamental disruption in the perception of the term mercenary. It is no longer contained by, nor capable of being a strictly individual phenomenon. Also, over time, private individuals, multinational corporations, and even international organizations are becoming more and more prevalent among the interested parties seeking to hire mercenary services, in addition to the state and its agents.

International documents pertinent to the mercenary issue are Supplementary Protocol I (from 1977) and two conventions specifically created for this issue—the UN Convention against the Recruitment, Use, Financing, and Training of Mercenaries (from 1989) and the Convention of the Organization of African Unity for the Elimination of Mercenaries in Africa (from 1977). In these documents, mercenaries are “stigmatized” as the only entity of interest in international humanitarian law devoid of any legal protection within that particular subsystem of international law. However, the definition of a mercenary is quite restrictive. The provisions concerning the conditions and circumstances under which a person can be treated, that is, declared a mercenary, are difficult to apply in practice. Due to the restrictive nature of their “defining” aspects, the existing rules on mercenaries are difficult to apply in practice and make it difficult to achieve the ultimate goal of those international documents, which is to suppress and prosecute perpetrators of incriminated mercenary behavior and mercenary practices. On the other hand, the mercenary category is not very helpful when it comes to the qualification and legal positioning of private military companies as international corporate enterprises, which include various military potentials, military or paramilitary assets, personal skills and specialties of the employed personnel, and whose main goal is to make a profit, i.e. profit.

Although they are often defined as mercenaries in public discourse, private military companies deviate from representations shaped by reminiscences from the distant and recent past, primarily military mercenaries from the Middle Ages, times of religious wars, colonial conquests, and participants in post-colonial wars of the 20th century, which were particularly infamous for violating international humanitarian law and human rights during the suppression of national liberation movements on African and Asian soil. The key difference between conventional mercenaries and private military companies, apart from the fact that mercenaries are criminalized by the provisions of international humanitarian law, is the existence of a corporate element in the provision of military services.

This security sector is still not precisely defined and legally shaped, but it is undoubtedly influenced by the fundamental principles of international humanitarian law and other subsets of the international law system that would be directly or indirectly involved in the activities of these organizations or their employees in such delicate and important areas of international life as security and the use of force in international relations are.

Memorial Church in Gornji Adrovac as a Symbol of Serbo-Russian Cultural, Political, National, and Artistic Ties in the Late 19th and Early 20th Century

Ana D. Kostić — 2024-03-04

During the Serbo-Turkish wars (1876–1878), a Russian volunteer, Colonel Nikolaj Nikolajevich Raevsky, died in a battle at Golo Brdo, the place near the village Gornji Adrovac. One of the monuments built in his honour is a memorial church erected in the place where he was shot. This paper discusses the erection of the memorial church in light of the political circumstances and the national ties between Russia and Serbia during the second half of the 19th and the beginning of the 20th century. The Church in Gornji Adrovac itself stands as a representation of good political, national, and religious ties between Serbia and Russia, as well as an example of artistic transfer and aesthetical ideal in the religious art of the time.

On the Origins of the Context and Meaning of the Motif of Dolphin on the Ship-Shaped Oil Lamp from the Museum of Smederevo (4th Century AD)

Anđela Đ. Gavrilović — 2024-03-04

The dolphin motif on the ship-shaped oil lamp treasured in the Museum of Smederevo (4th century AD) has complex iconography, multi-layered and complex symbolism, and a long history. This article presents and explains how its iconography and meaning were gradually formed and developed in ancient Greek and Roman art, as well as the peculiarities of its gradual transformation into a Christian symbol. It is found that the context of the appearance of the dolphin motif in art during different epochs is not a mere coincidence, but the expression of a clear intention on the part of particularly learned artists and commissioners of works of art. Since there are no written records of this motif that would explain its iconography and meaning, and since the motif itself is by nature very hermetic, and at the same time very rare, the characteristic context of the appearance of the dolphin motif in art is also a decisive parameter for analyzing its meaning and its gradual formation.

Reason in the Context of Man’s Vocation in Plato, Aristotle, and Descartes

Luka M. Kešeljević — 2024-03-19

The paper addresses the problem of reason in antiquity (Plato and Aristotle) and in modernity (Descartes). The first section introduces the question of reason as man’s vocation; the second section deals with the question of rationality in Plato and Aristotle; the third section discusses the problem of reason in modern philosophy with Descartes, while the final section considers a possible step forward from modern metaphysics to anthropology. The discussion of philosophical anthropology’s foundations permeates throughout the entire paper.

Personality Traits, Self-Esteem and Menstrual Cycle as Correlates of Consumer Impulsiveness and Regret

Tanja M. Vujović — 2024-03-04

The paper examines consumer impulsiveness and post-purchase dissonance among female students as well as their relationship with personality traits, self-esteem and menstrual cycle. The study involved 253 female students pursuing Bachelor’s, Master’s and PhD degrees at the Faculty of Economics, Faculty of Medicine, Faculty of Law, Faculty of Philosophy, Faculty of Technical Sciences and Faculty of Arts of the University of Priština in Kosovska Mitrovica. The instruments used in the study were the impulsiveness scale, the consumer regret scale, and the self-esteem scale. The analysis indicated that these are highly reliable instruments whose items can be regarded as homogeneous and representative. The results obtained show that consumer impulsiveness among the female students is at an average level, whereas the post-purchase regret is at a lower level compared to the theoretical average. In addition, a positive correlation was found between consumer impulsiveness and neuroticism, while self-esteem has a negative correlation with consumer impulsiveness and is its significant predictor. On the other hand, there is a negative relationship between post-purchase regret and cooperativeness, conscientiousness, openness to experience, and self-esteem. Conscientiousness and self-esteem can also be identified as predictors of post-purchase regret among female students, with self-esteem having a greater independent contribution.

Problematic Mobile Phone Use and Mental Health Problems in Adolescents with Mild Intellectual Disability

Bojana B. Arsić — 2024-02-05

In the last few decades, more people have been using mobile phones, even people with intellectual disabilities (ID). The most common consequence of excessive use of mobile phones is the emergence of mental health (MH) problems. This research aims to determine the predictors and correlation between problematic mobile phone use and MH problems in adolescents with mild ID. The sample comprised 54 adolescents of both genders who have mild ID and who attend the Vocational High School in Belgrade. The Problematic Cellular Phone Use Questionnaire was used to measure the characteristics of the respondents’ use of mobile phones and the Depression, Anxiety and Stress Scale was used to measure MH problems. It was found that adolescents with mild ID have a statistically significantly high degree of problematic mobile phone use. Younger adolescents, those who use a mobile phone more time during the day and adolescents who use psychoactive substances have a higher degree of problematic mobile phone use. Girls have more MH problems compared to male adolescents. In addition, adolescents with mild ID who have a higher degree of problematic mobile phone use have more MH problems, and the presence of MH problems in one domain is positively correlated with the presence of others. In conclusion, we highlight the limitations as well as recommendations for future researchers and practitioners working with this population.

Tourism as a Part of Sustainable Rural Development in the Area of Novi Pazar

Dragan V. Petrović — 2024-03-04

In insufficiently developed areas of Serbia, natural and anthropogenic tourist values are of great importance for sustainable rural development. In this study, a survey was conducted using the method of selecting respondents, where the analysis of economic, social, cultural, and environmental aspects took into consideration the current situation, with the goal of clearly defining all the strengths and weaknesses of rural settlements in Novi Pazar. The average values of related issues were used to calculate the value of the indicators, while the Sustainable Rural Development Index (SRDI) was determined by the average values of all indicators. The final outcome of the SRDI is 0.94, indicating that the area holds the potential to develop sustainable tourism. The results of the research can be used to plan the possibilities for further development of rural settlements in the researched area in order to minimize weaknesses and threats and maximize strengths and opportunities with the help of tourism based on sustainable development.

Bitcoin аnd the “Fourth Wave” of Globalization

Srđan M. Radulović — 2024-03-05

The tendency to transform individual social communities into a universal, unified society which knows no boundaries (or at least does not insist on them), with the necessary dose of simplification, is the conceptual definition of globalization. Since it is a tendency, globalization naturally has its own temporal dimension. The process of determining the time coordinates of this phenomenon is extremely complex and the results may vary depending on the scientific approach and point of view. However, we believe that it is possible to reach a consensus that the process of globalization is not continuous, but has several phases.

We tend to think that there are three main phases of globalization. Of course, we fully respect other competing systems of periodization and argumentation on which they are based. Nevertheless, we do not doubt that proponents of different periodization would agree that a new phase of globalization began recently, although it is difficult to determine the exact moment when it was initiated.

Namely, on October 31, 2009, a mysterious developer, or more likely group of developers, behind the fictious name of Satoshi Nakamoto, published the so-called White Paper titled Bitcoin: A Peer-to-Peer Electronic Cash System. More than ten years later, on March 11, 2020, the World Health Organization declared the outbreak of SARS-CoV-2 pandemic. These two, at first glance unrelated events cumulatively initiated chain of new transformations, all leading toward a more unified society. Probably the most important change, one that is the focus of this paper, is the transformation of centralized localized monetary systems into completely decentralized, digitalized, totally independent, almost entirely self-sustaining, and self-regulating global financial structure.

This paper presents a part of the results collected through the theoretical-empirical research conducted previously on both legal and socio-economic moments that initiated a new phase of globalization. These results refer mostly to events that initiated a new phase of globalization, their connections, and problems of periodization. The remaining results, results on the scope and expected overall effects of this phase, will be presented in the next article in this series.

All the results of the research and conclusions were collected based on different analytical-synthetical methods, mostly abstraction and generalization. In this paper specifically, different techniques of the normative method were used. Also, special techniques of legal norm interpretation were used in the process.

Onomastics of Aleksinac’s Village of Korman

Dušan R. Stefanović — 2024-03-07

This paper presents the onomastic material from Korman, a village located in the northwestern part of Pomoravlje of Aleksinac. After some remarks about the village itself, the paper contains a list of microtoponyms as well as a list of anthroponyms, including surnames, male personal names, female personal names, male nicknames, female nicknames, male hypocoristics and female hypocoristics. The main reason for extracting the onomastic material from Korman is that it has not yet been presented to the scientific public and the material presented in this paper will serve for future broader onomastic research.

The Impact of Stereotypes on Intercultural Communication

Jovana G. Vilimonović — 2024-03-07

Broadly speaking, stereotyping is a cognitive mechanism that underlies all aspects of intercultural processes—the way individuals perceive members of other groups shapes their attitudes and behavior towards them and influence different types of intercultural interactions and worldviews.

Based on the assumption that positive stereotypes about people who come from other cultures are used in human communication as an expression of each person’s need to simplify all impressions and representations in order to understand the world and the people around them, positive stereotypes can facilitate communication. On the other hand, negative stereotypes in intercultural communication can lead to complete misunderstandings because it is assumed that all people within a certain group have the same characteristics.

Therefore, both positive and negative stereotypes in intercultural communication can result in unfounded generalisations, false evaluations and oversimplifications, thus forming the basis for unfair behavior and labelling towards those to whom they refer, in addition to discrimination and interpersonal conflicts.

In the search for a model for successful intercultural communication, the principle that culturally specific information should not be applied to all members of a cultural group and that the uniqueness of each member of the group must be respected can be considered extremely important. Stereotypical classifications should not be resistant to change as they relate to relationships between people, which are highly susceptible to change. Successful intercultural communicators should be able to form an opinion

based on their communication experience and independent observations, free from stereotypes that they may have consciously or unconsciously gained.

Also, viewing the world from the prism of others, not only from our own egocentric and ethnocentric position, and not allowing stereotypes to act as “filters”, which allow in only what is similar to our cultural behavior, are important in preventing the adverse effects of stereotypes on communication.

Therefore, a recommendable model of successful and efficient intercultural communication is unburdened by bias and stereotypes towards the members of cultural groups different from our own.

The Development of Lower Vocational Schools in Niš from the End of the 19th Century until 1914

Miroslav D. Pešić — 2024-03-04

This paper provides a brief overview of the development of lower vocational schools in Niš from their establishment until 1914, i.e., until the beginning of the First World War. In that period, there were three lower vocational schools in Niš: the Trade School of the Niš Trade Youth, the Women’s Workers’ School of the Women’s Society, and the General Vocational Sunday-Holiday School. Despite the challenges it encountered during its establishment, the Trade School of the Niš Trade Youth began its work in 1893. As early as 1895, the Niš Trade Youth joined forces with the craftsmen, and the association became known as the Niš Trade-Craft Youth. The association and the school were suspended from 1897 to 1901 due to disagreements between merchants and craftsmen, but they continued to operate under the old name. The Women’s Workers’ School was founded in 1883 by the Niš branch of the Women’s Society through the use of its own finances. It was the women’s worker’s school for embroidery, white linen, and dresses, where the majority of classes were focused on professional subjects and practical work. The General Vocational Sunday-Holiday School was established in 1903 as an evening, weekly holiday general-type school. The General Vocational Sunday-Holiday School aimed to develop competent craftsmen-masters from students through theoretical, professional, and practical instruction. This paper considers the establishment of these schools, the problems they had to face, and their significance for the development of the city of Niš.

Competitiveness of Knowledge in the Context of the Fourth Industrial Revolution

Filduza R. Prušević Sadović — 2024-03-04

Knowledge and ability represent the crucial requirements for an individual nowadays. Knowledgeable people find it easier to solve problems and overcome difficult situations. Knowledge is a valuable commodity in the modern world which, if updated regularly, never goes out of style or significance. The paper explores the concept of competitiveness of knowledge in the context of the Fourth Industrial Revolution and how it impacts an individual’s social and economic standing. As a result of the revolution, which is brought about by the development of digital and nanotechnology as well as artificial intelligence that permeates every aspect of a social being, new roles are imposed on individuals. The knowledge and skills that people should possess in today’s world are discussed, along with how they relate to technology advancements.

Learning is the potential energy of a person capable of accepting rational needs as motivations and transforming them into actions through activity. Since everyone has a unique personality and learning is an individual act, everyone acquires knowledge in their own way. Learning occurs continuously throughout life, connects to all human endeavors, validates an individual’s resolve, and enables the selection of a value system and way of life. Throughout history, learning needs have changed, grown, and been greatly impacted by the social environment. The intersection of various learner characteristics with the situations that shape an individual’s life and interests is known as the culture of learning. To address problems with content presentation and learning style, an individual can shift from one form and method of learning to another, as well as from one location to another. We are discussing various learning patterns that point to the most successful, advantageous, and adaptable learning ranges. They represent the state of knowledge in the most significant spheres of life and action at any given time. They line up with societal norms. However, learning varies not only among individuals but also among societies, cultures, and civilizations. Science, education, learning, and knowledge are the most reliable foundations for the future. Changes that are more profound than any other in human history have resulted from the abrupt leap in social development and the evolution of the Third to the Fourth Industrial Revolutions. Thanks to digital media and the Internet, society is becoming a “global village” where information can be accessed in a split second. A person is exposed to a large amount of information every day and their working environment is ever-changing. Man is compelled to adjust to the new environment as modern means assume his roles. Being open to change and improvement throughout one's life is one of the best ways to stay competitive in the labor and knowledge markets, if not the only one. Lifelong learning and being open to change and improvement are two, if not the only, ways that an individual can stay competitive in the labor and knowledge markets. Gone are the days when a person began and ended his career at the same place of employment. The imperatives of the modern era are the knowledge society and the learning society. They include the entire vertical of the educational system, the economy, and all social and economic structures. A society that prioritizes lifelong learning, makes learning content available, provides conditions for learning, and supports the individual to balance work and learning is essential in the modern world.

To prepare today’s students for the workforce of the future and the society they will inhabit, it is imperative that the current educational systems be updated. This shift necessitates modifying the learning content to include the human and technical skills required to create inclusive, growing economies. To enable the creation of a comprehensive education system, significant changes can only take place if there is collaboration among education ministries, educators, and the private sector.

On the Contribution and Importance of "Dictionary of Personal Nicknames of Serbs from Kosovo and Metohija"

Jugoslava G Rakić Mladenović — 2024-03-07