People’s Aid during the Second World War was the only organization in the Latvian general area that could legally operate in the field of social assistance to the population, which included medical, practical, and other help. Despite its important role in supporting the population, the organization’s activities are still not fully explored due to various aspects, one of which is that the organization took over the functions of many relief societies and other organizations that operated during the time of independent Latvia. The question of the initiative to set up such an organization has not been fully answered either, although it is clear that both the occupying power and the local people had an interest. Despite the fact that it was sometimes necessary to comply with the orders of the occupying power, which was not in the interests of the people, what was done in the assistance field was undoubtedly vital for the population.

Every era sets its own requirements, trends, and challenges for the sustainability of education. Among the major global trends in the world, there are demographic changes, the development of the new economy, the need for new competencies and skills, ecological and humanitarian crises, and the ever-expanding wealth of information. The goal of this research is to elaborate work forms for the sustainability of visual art education that can be recommended for fostering a person’s self-expression and conducting practical research. The research considers several aspects: Which forms of work can become significant when implementing the teaching process of visual art education for sustainability? Is it possible to integrate the work forms applied in art therapy into educational practice? In the result, the above-mentioned reveals the need to integrate the work forms employed in art therapy in the process of teaching visual arts in the general education system.

The issue of anthropogenic climate change has been topical for more than three decades. Recently the term “climate crisis” also has been widely used. Its managing is typically formulated as a global “fight” against climate change. So far, this fight has not achieved the expected results. In this article, we offer an interdisciplinary approach to the issue of climate change. First, we look at the history of this topic, which includes not only scientific but also political aspects. Then we assess the role of mass media as mediators between scientists and society. When we turn to political aspirations to fight against climate change, the question arises – can climate crisis be understood as a problem with a clear solution at all? In the article, we consider the possibility that the term “wicked problem”, used in social sciences, is appropriate for understanding this problem. Wicked problems are characterized by the feature that the attempts to solve them typically lead to new problems, so it is hard or even impossible to find a completely successful solution. Finally, we offer another philosophical understanding of the fight against climate change – understanding it not as a problem to solve but as the expression of utopian and mythological thinking.

New forms of work based on new technologies are emerging in the EU economy. One of the significant changes in the labor market is the pluralization of the type of employment relationship and changes in the way work is done. The article deals with atypical employment – employment relationships that do not meet the standard full-time, permanent work for an indefinite period and office work. Atypical employment is also an employment relationship where the employee works for different employers. Non-standard forms of work played an increasingly important role in the labor market, especially during the pandemic; they became especially important, noting the increase in the proportion of atypical contracts. Job instability is a new way of life today. Part of the unresolved labor market problem is structural unemployment and uneven integration of all groups into the labor market: people with disabilities, young students, and the elderly. Legal protection of non-standard workers is relevant. Such persons are not always well insured in terms of social security, unemployment insurance, or access to pensions.

The internet is gradually becoming the main channel for the distribution of retail goods. It is also a binding distribution channel for the sale of fashion goods. It allows the retailer to post photos, video, and audio material showcasing their latest collections and sell the goods directly to the consumer through a website. According to data from the Interactive Media Retail Group, for example, the UK’s online retail turnover increased by 42% in September 2020, 35.7% in October, and 39% in November compared to the previous year. eBay also confirms this trend – every 7 seconds a product is sold on their site. The aim of this article is to analyze research about online fashion retailers conducted by US and British researchers and the results of surveys among Indian and Latvian students. Who sells fashion items online? A survey of Indian college students (Shanthi, Kannaiah, 2015) and 126 Latvian university students, as well as different researches, show that retailers offering a narrow range of goods are best represented. On the other hand, companies with recognizable brands do not use the internet. There is a conflicting opinion about the involvement of designers in the implementation of their models thru the internet. The next issue addressed in the research and surveys was what helps to create a good fashion website. Then (1999) considers three important visual aspects of a successful website for clothing buyers: - an online image of the goods that most closely matches the actual product; - demonstration of similar products; - ability to view the product from different angles (preferably in three dimensions). In the survey, Latvian students noted the following aspects: - information (information corresponds to the respective task); - possibility to perform electronic transactions; - response time. How do fashion retailers design websites? Ashwort (2005) has summarized different approaches and offers a five-step method. He believes that the success of retailers is determined by the amount of knowledge they have – moving from one stage to another. There are also differences in business planning and strategy choice, and no single dominant strategy exists. For example, some companies take a detailed, formal, well-thought-out approach to decision-making, but some have spontaneous decision-making. Who buys online? There is an opinion in life and also in literature that shopping through a catalog and mail is financially insecure. However, e-commerce is complicated further by the seemingly higher risks of securing on the internet. Respondents of foreign researchers note the possibility of buying goods without leaving home as the main positive reason. For Latvian students, the reasons are much lower prices than in local stores and more original goods unavailable in the local market. Key findings: Competition between websites is based on the way information is presented and what information is provided by website retailers. Information relevant to the task, opportunity to make a purchase, response time, price, and incentive programs are important factors in predicting customer satisfaction. There is no difference in consumer behavior between fashion innovators and ordinary buyers of fashion goods.

The paper aims to analyse the second “block”, mentioned in the statutes of one of the most popular female sociopolitical organisations, the Latvian Women’s Association, with a case of its branch of Liepāja city – Commission for the promotion of women’s welfare in Liepāja – female political agency. The paper continues research published in 2021. In interwar time, female success at the elections in the Parliament of Latvia (Saeima) was related to unifying in the “Common female list”. Predictably, in the second most significant cultural and political centre, Liepāja, massive competition for the members and influence in society of the most significant organisation could be observed, and female organisations were not an exception.

The research reveals the contacts between the authorized representatives of the Lithuanian Society, the members of the Lithuanian National Council (in Lausanne), the members and the head of the Lithuanian Information Bureau (in Lausanne), the members of the committee Lituania and the heads and servants of Spanish legations abroad, Prince Alfonso of the Bourbon dynasty of Spain and the representatives of the Spanish society in Barcelona. It also covers information about Spain, Spanish legations abroad, their functions in forwarding letters and transferring money to the territory under German occupation inhabited by Lithuanians (Ober Ost), the division of the committee Lituania in Barcelona, and the articles of the Lithuanian Society in the periodicals published by the Lithuanian Information Bureau in Lithuanian and foreign languages and the Lithuanian party press. The research covers the chronological period from 25 August 1915 to 11 November 1918, i.e. from the establishment of the Refugee Registration and Information Bureau (in Petrograd) to the formation of the Provisional Government of Lithuania. The research is based on published (press, published documents) und unpublished sources (from the Political Archive of the German Foreign Office, the Manuscripts Department of the Wroblewski Library of the Lithuanian Academy of Sciences, the documents of the Manuscripts Department of Vilnius University Library). The research employed the methods of qualitative analysis and synthesis (the new material of the sources was supplemented with the information circulating in historiography), the comparative method (the facts found in Lithuanian manuscript collections, German archives and the press are compared), the descriptive method and the inductive method. To process the primary sources in Lithuanian, German and Russian languages, the logical-analytical method was applied (the notional content and information analysis was conducted). The research consists of three parts. In the first part of the research, the author investigates the role played by Spanish legations abroad in sending letters and money to the Lithuanian territory under German occupation and back (1916–1918) and states that the analysis of the press and published memoirs of the period in question leads to the conclusion that Spanish legations abroad played a crucial role in sending inquiries about family and friends as well as money into the Lithuanian territory under German occupation (Ober Ost) and back (1916–1917). It was the safest way to send and receive information and money. An alternative to the Spanish legation in sending money to the largest cities of Lithuania occupied by Germany, namely Vilnius and Kaunas, originated at the end of 1917 and in 1918 when Stockholms Enskilda Banken opened its branches in Vilnius, Kaunas, Suwalki, and Białystok. In the second part of the study, the author reveals the attempt of Juozas Gabrys to elect Spanish Prince Alfonso as King of Lithuania and concludes that after investigating the minutes of the sessions of the Lithuanian National Council (in Lausanne) of 1918 and the documents of 1918 kept in the Political Archive of the German Foreign Office, it turned out that the head of the Lithuanian Information Bureau, Juozas Gabrys, and the members of the Lithuanian National Council (in Lausanne) maintained a close contact with Spanish Prince Alfonso residing in Switzerland (Zürich) and shared Lithuanian realities with him. It should be noted that even after Wilhelm of Urach was elected as King of Lithuania Mindaugas II, Gabrys did not lose hope to change the situation to the benefit of Spanish Prince Alfonso by also involving the representatives of the German Foreign Ministry and other persons interested in this matter or inspired by him. The third part of the study reveals the circumstances of establishing the Spanish division of the Committee Lituania and its activity fields. After systemising the episodes of the information, which appeared in Lithuanian periodicals, it became clear that the establishment of the division of the committee Lituania in Spain in 1917 was driven by several factors: first, the Lithuanian Day declared by the pope (7 May 1917) in the Catholic churches of the world on which collections were organized in favour of the Lithuanian war victims and, second, the attempt to inform the Spanish society about Lithuanians and Lithuania if Spanish Prince Alfonso should by any chance be elected as King of Lithuania. Public relations were the major focus of the Barcelona division of the committee Lituania: to spread as favourable information about Lithuanians and Lithuania as possible.

The fast progress of the IT industry has created a new social phenomenon – the influencer movement. In cooperation with entrepreneurs, these leaders of opinions play an increasingly important role in marketing. They advertise various goods and services while also receiving payment for it. The most successful influencers can turn these activities into their primary source of income. However, their knowledge of the legal nuances of fair commercial practices is often weak, but it does not significantly affect the value orientation of different social groups. Their other professional competencies are also often questionable. The code of ethics for professional influencers has not been clearly defined yet. The aim of the study was to find out whether and how the most popular influencers in Latvia are able to manipulate the thoughts and behavior of their target audiences.

During the spring of 1921, for the first time in history, the government of Latvia plunged into crisis. As a result of an interpellation by the Latgalian Peasant Party, on the 1st of June, Kārlis Ulmanis’s government fell. On the preceding day, 31st of May, the government responded to the interpellation, and subsequent debates were held, during which an argument between the deputies of the Constitutional Assembly Andrejs Bērziņš representing the Labour Party and Juris Pabērzs from Latgalian Peasant Party was ignited. The dispute escalated into a physical conflict when Bērziņš face-slapped Pabērzs. The research aims at extending the scope of existing perceptions regarding certain spectacular political events during the Constitutional Assembly period. The tasks of the research are a reconstruction of the course of the mentioned political event, as well as an analysis of different views and comments on the respective happening. Sources of the research are Latgalian periodicals published in 1921, such as “Latgalits”, “Jauno Straume” and “Latgolas Vords”. Methods applied: source method and linguistic interpretation method. The research can be classified as regional as the central figures researched are deputies elected from the Latgale region.