Biographical Analysis Research Articles

Dějiny historické vědy. Normativní příběh vlastního oboru nebo reflexivní dějiny kulturní praxe?

This polemic article is a reaction to the collection Německá medievistika v českých zemích do roku 1945 / German Medieval Studies in the Czech Lands up to 1945. In it the author considers contemporary Czech scholarship on German historiography of the end of the 19th and first half of the 20th century and criticises the methodologically unexplained limitation of the work to medieval studies. He argues against the rigid division of German historiography into university and regional and the unambiguous definition of economic and social history as the matrix for distinguishing between two German historiographies. From the methodological point of view he challenges the use of almost any kind of normative assumptions when writing the history of historiography. He regards the best research approaches to be those that use biographical analysis to uncover the strategic practice of specific historians. Conversely he questions studies concerned with identifying the contribution of Germans historians to the crimes of Nazism and its legitimisation, and takes a sceptical view of the possibility of distinguishing between ideological "deformation" and "pure scholarship".

Quantum calculi and formalisms for system and network security: A bibliographic insights and synoptic review

AbstractQuantum calculi and formalisms are useful tools for ensuring security and computational capabilities in blockchain and cryptography. They aid in designing and analysing new cryptographic protocols for blockchain, determining the behaviour of quantum operations in blockchain‐based smart contracts, assessing the feasibility and security of quantum algorithms in blockchain applications, and building a quantum‐safe blockchain system. A comprehensive review of the applications of quantum calculi and formalisms in computer security and network security, along with a bibliographic analysis is presented. It is unique in that it combines bibliometric analyses with a technical review of the domain of quantum calculi and formalism. Bibliometric and biographic analysis in the field helps identify research trends, assess the influence of research, determine collaboration patterns, evaluate journals, and examine publication behaviours, among other things. It performs bibliographic and bibliometric analysis using a dataset collected from Scopus and Web of Science through different queries. The obtained results help identify important institutions, authors, organisations, collaboration networks, keywords, and more. The provided open challenges and future vision pave the way for further research in the direction of quantum calculi and formalism applications in computer security and network security.

Strategizing as polarity management: biographical analysis of leadership in the Polish furniture industry (1989–2015)

PurposeThis article aims to analyze the strategic work of Polish entrepreneurs in the furniture industry following the political changes in 1989. The authors examined how these entrepreneurs transitioned from local craftsmen or importers into leaders of international manufacturing companies and how their strategizing contributed to the unprecedented growth of the Polish furniture sector.Design/methodology/approachThe authors examined extant data, specifically biographical interviews conducted with 11 prominent leaders in the Polish furniture industry (Hryniewicki, 2015, 2018). They analyzed within a theoretical framework that integrates J.C. Spender’s theory of strategic management with Barry Johnson’s concept of polarity management. Polarity is a way of understanding and managing interdependent, opposing pairs of values or perspectives that give rise to conflict.FindingsThe analysis reveals key patterns of strategic challenges at the level of human agency, history and sense-making. The authors identified four key polarities: life and business, knowledge presence and absence, concordance and discordance, and instrumental and non-instrumental sense-making.Originality/valueThe polarity concept illuminates the interplay of agency and determinism in strategic decision-making, offering valuable insights for methodology and a deeper understanding of Poland’s furniture industry.

Life outcomes after paediatric kidney transplantation: a qualitative, biographical study in long-term survivors

ObjectiveThe objective of this study was to analyse the narrative life stories of children with end-stage kidney disease (ESKD) and their families to determine how health professionals can effectively support...

The Processual Nature of Volunteer Engagement: A Reconstruction of Career Patterns Based on the Narratives of Interviewees Involved in Non-Profit Activities

The article is intended to reconstruct the career stages of volunteers. As a result of the biographical data analysis, three stages of the volunteering career were outlined: preparation, institutionalization, and, potentially, professionalization. The conditions and contexts of their occurrence were also reconstructed. Secondly, the patterns of volunteering careers were described, namely, the ‘structured action scheme’ with its ‘axiological’ and ‘pragmatic’ variants; a ‘post-trajectory’ pattern, and the pattern of ‘mature participation’ and ‘biographical metamorphosis’. In this qualitative sociological study, transcriptions of narrative biographical interviews were analyzed. The procedures of the classic version of the grounded theory methodology were applied. Some concepts developed by Fritz Schütze in the field of the biographical analysis were also used.

How Many Intersections? Theoretical Synergy as a Rationale for Intersectional Biographical Analysis

This article develops an innovative approach to intersectional biographical interviewing for researchers working with highly diverse, partly unknown populations and focusing on systems of intersecting inequality, rather than “groups” or “lists” of intersections. Drawing on fieldwork with Black and Muslim Italian migrants with different class backgrounds, the article discusses theoretical synergy as a tool to redraw analytical boundaries vis-à-vis emergent knowledge of intersecting inequalities, and to connect different analytical dimensions in biographical analysis. Moreover, I introduce field-specific questions as a technique that captures the contextual effects of intersecting inequalities, minimizing the risk of essentialising minority ethnic participants.

A biographical analysis of Spanish athletics coaching pioneers (1939–1992)

ABSTRACT Athletics in Spain was a very minority practice until the 1950s, when athletics underwent a progressive development and institutionalisation that included the appearance, for the first time, of the role of the coach. Through the biographical study of five coaches of the first generation, this research aims to illuminate how the figure of the coach was built. Thus, the profession of coach arises first from the few existing athletic clubs, and later through the profession of physical education teacher. Starting in the 1960s, coaches had access to greater institutionalisation through the growth of the federation and the internationalisation of Spanish sport. The arrival of democracy also allowed them to enter the new regional institutions and take over new power positions in local politics. Finally, the organisation of the Olympic Games in Barcelona in 1992 meant the final athletics institutionalisation.

The creative development process: Biographical insights on innovation in Anglophone music

Orientation: This qualitative study follows a process of inductive theory development.Research purpose: Focussing on recent ‘pop icon’ musicians, the aim was to weave systemic insights into a holistic model that identifies some characteristics of creative development.Motivation for the study: Within the diverse literature on creativity, what seems missing is an integrative perspective of similarities in the creative path-dependent development process.Research design, approach and method: Following an in depth review of publicly available data about iconic Anglophone musical artist-musicians of the period spanning the 1960s–1980s, including Dylan, Cohen, Young and Springsteen, bibliographic and life turning-point analysis was applied to derive propositions about a path-dependent process of creative development.Main findings: The study finds that such individuals typically trace a ‘path-dependent’ trajectory of creative transition across seven stages. Sequentially, these are the stages of: (1) Pathology, (2) The Rage to Master, (3) Authenticity, (4) Perseverance, (5) Practice, (6) Perspective and (7), Accessing Flow. Drawing insights from Gardner’s theory of creative asynchrony, after which asynchronies that seem to characterise a process of negotiation and transition of conflicts across these stages was derived.Practical/managerial implications: The model derived provides useful insights into how to enable creative development for those in similar contexts.Contribution/value-add: The study provides a conceptual ordering of key biographical milestone stages and intrinsic influences explaining aspects of creative development. Thus, the study builds on previous work on the creative career development of individuals in a music industry genre and extends the literatures related to biographical analysis including personality, individual differences and turning points.

Political Elite of Kaluga Region: Structure Analysis. . . . 136 Kopus T.L. Traditional and Mass Open Online Course “Business Communication”: Perspectives for Higher Education

The article analyzes the structure of the political elite of the Kaluga region. By means of biographical analysis, the composition of the political elite of the region in the executive, legislative and judicial branches of government is considered. In practical terms, research interest is concentrated around 35 personalities who are part of the regional elite and included in the sample for analysis. Appealing to the network approach as the methodological basis of the research, the authors, based on the results of the analysis, identify four political networks, each of which has its degree of institutionalization in the region. The last contour of the research is the analysis of the posts of elite representatives in the Kaluga region. During the research it is revealed that the key distribution posts are occupied by politicians from the first two levels of political networks. The authors propose to consider the successful indicators of the Kaluga Region as a consequence of a well-structured configuration of elites, where key posts are occupied by politicians with political influence in the region, which contributes to the formation of conditions for effective management of the region.

Tsarist Counterintelligence in Faces.
 Investigators for Especially Important Cases (1908–1915)

The results of many years of archival search and research work in the federal archives of Russia made it possible to find specific documents that canshed light on the unpublished pages of the personalized history of Russian counterintelligence. The purpose of the article is to reveal new facets of professional competence and previously unheard characteristics of outstanding counterintelligence officers and investigators of the Russian Empire. To implement the author's intention, the following methods of historical knowledge were used: actualization, retrospective, descriptive, biographical analysis, generalization of
 independent characteristics, deduction, content analysis.
 The achieved conclusions and deductions helped to get closer to a complete picture of the historical and psychological profile of the «cloak and dagger knights», who functioned mainly in the territory of the Privislinsky region (and later in the Active Army) before and during the First World War. The results of
 the research conducted in this article can be used in research and teaching activities on the history of domestic state security agencies.

THE ART OF CLOTH WEAVING WITHIN THE SCOPE OF INTANGIBLE CULTURAL HERITAGE AND EXAMPLE FOR LIVING HUMAN HISTORY MASTER TEACHER EMİNE ÖZKAN

The urge to survive and exist has always pushed human beings to live as a community, unlike other beings. This necessity has caused each society to build its own identity over time, and the reflex of transferring this to the next generations has provided the basis for the existence of culture and, in connection with this, cultural heritage. In this respect, intangible cultural heritage, which has a very important place under the main heading of culture, is one of the most important elements of the genetics of existence of societies. The mission of master trainers, who carry an identity more than just a teacher, is in a much more privileged position in the transfer of this heritage, which we can embody with the tradition of handicrafts, to the next generations. It is of great cultural importance to make a biographical analysis of the people who perform these arts in order to research and keep alive the handicrafts that are about to be forgotten. In this context, the subject of the study is the art of cloth weaving, which is one of the forgotten handicrafts, and the biographical research of Emine ÖZKAN, who has been teaching this art to her trainees for about 30 years. In the research, a literature review was made within the framework of Intangible Cultural Heritage at first. Later, in line with this information, Emine ÖZKAN, who has been working as a master trainer for years at the weaving looms established in Ankara Polatlı Public Education Center, how she met the cloth weaving handicraft, It is aimed to conduct research on how this art is made and what are the examples of traditional handicrafts reflected today. The products that emerged with this handicraft, which has survived from the past to the present, and the contributions of these products were collected as data in the research. The findings obtained as a result of the research show that the art of cloth weaving is tried to be kept alive, people are still willing to take lessons to learn this handicraft, and after the art of cloth weaving, qualified and various products have emerged. Also, in handicraft examples, it can be the most concrete equivalent of not only the motifs that reflect the taste of today's cultural perception, but also the reflection of this cultural accumulation, It is seen that there are also motifs inspired by the symbols of the ancient city of Gordion, which was the capital of the Phrygian Kingdom, especially in the district of Polatlı. It is possible to say that the art of cloth weaving is given importance and that there are efforts to transfer this heritage to future generations by enabling its sustainability through various collaborations, that the traditional handicrafts that have been uncovered also have a share in the economic development and promotion of the district, and that this and similar arts should be further supported. It is possible to say that the traditional handicrafts unearthed have a share in the economic development and promotion of the district, and that this and similar arts should be supported even more. It is possible to say that the traditional handicrafts unearthed have a share in the economic development and promotion of the district, and that this and similar arts should be supported even more.

The role of Nicolo Grimaldi (Nicolini) in the Italian opera development in London in the early 18th century

The subject of the research is the artistic phenomenon of Nicolo Grimaldi, an outstanding Italian operatic castrato of the early 18th century. The author examines the creative biography and focuses on the analysis of the stage skills of the singer, who set the bar high for dramatic art in England. Nicolo Grimaldi (1673–1732) became famous under the pseudonym Nicolini (or Nicolino). His name became widely known thanks to the legendary performances on the stage of the Royal Theater in London in 1708–1712 and 1715–1717. The reconstruction of the vocal-dramatic profile of the singer, based on reliable historical sources, required to employ a comprehensive methodology, including historical, cultural and linguistic research methods. Information about Nicolini’s life and work has been still unknown to the Russian musical community and is being published in Russian for the first time. Various sources of information about Nicolini have been preserved: music-critical reviews in London newspapers, scores and librettos of operas, essays, letters and memoirs of contemporaries who testified to the character of the artist’s vocal and acting skills. They served as material for a historical and biographical analysis, the results of which will be of interest to both practicing singers and researchers of Italian baroque opera. The historical significance of Nicolini lies in the fact that, as an excellent singer and actor, he influenced the strengthening and development of Italian opera in the early period of its existence in London.

СУЧАСНА УКРАЇНСЬКА ФІЛОСОФСЬКА СИНОЛОГІЯ В НАЦІОНАЛЬНІЙ АКАДЕМІЇ НАУК УКРАЇНИ: КЛАСИЧНІ ТА ІННОВАЦІЙНІ ШЛЯХИ ДО ВИТОКІВ

B a c k g r o u n d . According to the genre characteristics, the article is a form of publicizing analytical conclusions from the experience of research in the field of the philosophical Chinese studies at the National Academy of Sciences of Ukraine from 1991 to the present day. The material for understanding was supplied from the environment of scientific professional activity of prominent figures of Ukrainian philosophical Sinology from the H. Skovoroda Institute of Philosophy of the NAS of Ukraine and the A. Krymskyi Institute of Oriental Studies of the NAS of Ukraine. The scientific achievements of academic Sinologists, who are leading researchers of Chinese philosophical education, science and culture from the archaic to modern times, are highlighted. They are, namely: V. Kiktenko, V. Pyrohiv, V. Hamianin, S. Kapranov, Y. Hobova and A. Usyk. M e t h o d s . The article uses an analytical approach based on the study of historical and philosophical sources. The methodological basis of the research is the main methods of historical and philosophical science: problem-categorical analysis, socio-cultural analysis and biographical analysis. At the same time, the methods of situational and contextual analysis of scientific texts are applied. R e s u l t s . Four conditional thematic vectors of the progress of academic philosophical Sinology in modern Ukraine are classified, namely the study of: 1. the history of ancient Chinese philosophy, especially Confucianism; 2. the history of Chinese philosophy in the 19th – early 21st centuries; 3) the history of Ukrainian Sinology in the 18th – early 21st centuries; 4. the history of modern foreign Sinology. The director of the A. Krymskyi Institute of Oriental Studies of the NAS of Ukraine and the head of the Ukrainian Association of Sinologists V. Kiktenko very effectively studies all these vectors, especially the last three of them. His colleagues at the institute V. Pyrohiv, V. Hamianin and Y. Hobova mainly research the first of these vectors, and primarily the history of Confucianism. Employees of the H. Skovoroda Institute of Philosophy of the NAS of Ukraine S. Kapranov and A. Usyk are also focused scientific attention on the history of Confucianism, in particular, the second of them studies social ethics and anthropology of Confucius. C o n c l u s i o n s . As a result it was established that modern domestic philosophical academic Sinology is a qualitatively new and innovative direction of Oriental studies in independent Ukraine. This discipline was formed as a result of the two-century progress of Ukrainian Chinese studies from the era of Hetmanshina until now. V. Kiktenko and his colleagues have made a significant and already internationally recognized contribution to the study of both the classical philosophical schools of Ancient China and their ideological heirs, in particular, the leaders of the PRC and the CCP from Deng Xiaoping to Xi Jinping during these thirty years. V. Kiktenko also laid the foundations for the study both of the history of Ukrainian Chinese studies and of modern foreign, primarily Western European and North American, Sinology.

The Recruitment of Elitesto the Cabinets of Iran: a Biographical Analysis (1979–1989)

The article highlights the main patterns of recruiting ministers in the Iranian governments at 1979–1989. The work is based on the theoretical foundation of the study of the elites. Structural biographical analysis is the research method in the article. The paper analyzes the biographies of 183 ministers at the first 7 governments of Iran using aggregated form based on secondary data published by other researchers. The results of the work show that the first 3 years of the existence of the executive branch were the most conflicting: 5 governments existed consequently. 55–65% of all ministers had technical education. At the same time, the share of members of governments with humanitarian specialization decreased; the military and doctors had been replacing them. According to the place of education, the only balanced government was the Bazargan government, later the share of ministers with Iranian education increased, and with Western education decreased. The governments of Bazargan and the Council of the Islamic Revolution were balanced, where bureaucrats, scholars and professionals were relatively evenly represented. The main profession becomes bureaucratic. During this period, new elite groups emerged in governments: Shiite clergy and veterans of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps. The share of clergy from remains stable and fluctuates in the range of 9–14%. At the same time, the yield of veterans of the IRGC increases with each new government, reaching 21% in the second government of Mousavi. 60–70% of ministers came from regional capitals, and Tehran and Isfahan were the key provinces to recruit ministers.

“The Polish Peasant in Europe and America”: Socio-Political, Biographical and Scientific Contexts

The authors focus on the history of the famous sociological work The Polish Peasant in Europe and America, as well as on the biographies of both authors, William Thomas and Florian Znaniecki. The combination of biographical analysis with socio-political context and the work in the genre of scientific biography makes it possible to understand not only the background of the creation of this major sociological project, but also to clarify the role of the sociologist-intellectual in social life. The appeal to the nonlinear fate of this work was stimulated by the drama of its realization and perception by the scientific public. The authors, relying on contemporary scientific commentaries, reconstruct this process from the description of the socio-political context, the strategies of the scientific careers of both authors till biographical facts, and the result of their common work. Discussing the process of transition of scientific knowledge, the authors consider the reception of the ideas of W. Thomas and F. Znaniecki during the process of perception and rooting of qualitative-interpretive sociology in Russia. Here, the ways of concepts and ideas transitioning themselves acquire significant interest, i.e., not only the translation of certain scientific works, but the very order of embedding ideas in the context of the ‘host’ scientific environment. More specifically, we consider the phenomenon of asymmetry (more Znaniecki, less Thomas), which accompanied the further scientific fate of both authors in the context of various national scientific schools, and primarily in Russia.

ГЕНДЕРНОЕ ПРЕДСТАВИТЕЛЬСТВО И ПОЛИТИЧЕСКИЙ ПОТЕНЦИАЛ ЖЕНЩИН В ПУБЛИЧНОЙ ПОЛИТИКЕ

In Russian society, women make up the majority, but their share in the Russian parliament as of 2023 is 19.6%, which indicates a persistent gender imbalance. The article is based on the results of quantitative biographical analysis and data on the presence of women in both chambers of the Federal Assembly of the Russian Federation. In total, the positions of 383 women who used to be or are currently deputies of the State Duma or the Federation Council (from 1993 to the present) were analyzed. The authors analyzed not only the fact of the presence of women in legislatures but also their place in the parliamentary hierar-chy, their political habitat, their legislative activity and its orientation. The data showed a slow increasein the presence of women in legislative bodies, which is explained, in the opinion of the authors, by the presence of a «glass ceiling», which has not yet been overcome. One of the possible reasons is the policy of «gender tithing», which is when the political system allows an increase in the representation of women to a certain limit (at the level of 10–15%). There are still political zones that are practically inaccessible to women (these are issues of foreign and defense policy), and the influence of the «weaker sex»on poli-tics, although expanding, still remains within the traditional roles associated with the regulation of social policy, issues of motherhood, childhood, ecology, tourism, sports. Such an approach hinders the integra-tion of women into the political process and needs to be adjusted in the interests of gender equality.

The Social Field of Elite Trade Economists: A Quantitative Social Studies of Economics Perspective

The evolving research field of social studies of economics (SSE) has shown that economics as a profession has gained influence on public debate and political power in many countries and in different social contexts. The channels of influence for economists are complex and widespread, i.e., there are multiple channels through which economists are able to influence public policy issues. In this article, we provide an in-depth analysis of a sample of the 85 most published authors of trade-related research in top economics journals to characterize the social field of elite economists and show how position in that field correlates with influence and power in and outside academia. More specifically, our data include information on their academic careers, their professional social networks, and their involvement in a variety of possible intermediaries between academic economics and policymaking (e.g., institutions such as think tanks or the media). We apply multiple correspondence analysis (MCA) and cluster analysis to show how different configurations of intra-academic capital are associated to policy-relevant extra-academic capital. The overall results of this analysis are threefold. First, the biographical analysis of elite trade economists reveals a remarkable degree of concentration of different forms of capital, which indicates a strong hierarchical order within the elite segment of trade economists. Second, and in line with this, despite the overall unequal distribution of capital within this elite sample, different forms of intra-academic and extra-academic capitals become visible. Third, while the cluster analysis reveals a main “average core” of (trade-)policy-oriented economists, the group of economists with very high capital is separated into two smaller clusters: The “ivory elite” cluster consists mainly of academic capital variables, while the “public econs” cluster is also composed of non-academic variables from the policy and media channels. So, even among elite trade economists, it is only as small number, who really is successfully gaining political and societal impact.

Социальная мобильность и конкурс «Лидеры России»

Introduction: the collapse of the Soviet Union had a destructive effect on social mobility: the boundaries of social classes were blurred, and new social elevators were not created. This problem was particularly acute for the upper ruling class, which was left without working tools for personnel search and training, and for the society having lack of understanding of the selection and promotion to the top principles. Since the 2000s, the government has been actively working to institutionalize new mobility channels. However, their closed and non-transparent nature did not fully address the problems. Awareness of these limitations brought to life a new mechanism of social mobility – “The Leaders of Russia” competition. Objectives: to assess the role of “The Leaders of Russia” competition as a channel for vertical social mobility. We presume to address the question: is “The Leaders of Russia” an effective social elevator or is it primarily aimed at creating an image of equal and open opportunities that legitimizes political career advancement? Methods: a sociological biographical analysis of information on 313 winners of the competition (2017–2020). Results: the research covered the data on the further career advancement of competition winners; the competition’s role in expanding the social recruitment pool of the political elite, rejuvenating it, and overcoming gender asymmetry. Conclusions: “The Leaders of Russia” competition acts as a significant social elevator in contemporary Russian society and provides processes of vertical social mobility. But it should be noted that this does not apply to all the competition winners, as many of them do not get political appointments and career development. At the same time, winning the competition provides upward social movements for representatives of large state corporations or people already in public service who are possibly enjoying the different kind of support or driving forces that are not obvious. These factors may indicate the nominal openness of the competition and the leading role of its PR function.

The Early Political History of the Eastern Jin and Chancellor Wang Dao (279-339 AD)

The article is devoted to a historical study of the political career of a Shandong aristocrat from the Langye district and the first chancellor of the southern Chinese dynasty of the Eastern Jin, as well as to identify factors that contributed to his rapid rise. Particular attention was paid to the religious and ideological aspects of the historical and political processes that took place at the court and the capital of the Eastern Jin. In the course of the study, we used specific historical methods of textual, historical-biographical and historical-geographical analysis of events and personalities associated with the personality of Chancellor Wang Dao. The main source of information about Wang Dao's political career is the official dynastic history "Jin shu" ("History of the [dynasty] Jin"), namely, chapter 65 (section "Liezhuan"), dedicated to representatives of the Shandong Wang clan. As a result of the historical and biographical analysis, it was found that the decisive factors in Wang Dao's successful career were personal business qualities, a successful matrimonial strategy for the ruling house of Sima, who founded the Eastern Jin dynasty, as well as the active support of influential Chinese Buddhist hierarchs. Family and confessional ties of court supporters of the Buddhist sangha with famous dignitaries and glorious men of the Eastern Jin were reconstructed.

THE ORIGIN OF LANDSCAPE IN LATVIAN TEXTILE ART. RŪDOLFS HEIMRĀTS’S SCHOOL

The article provides insight into development processes related to professional education in Latvian textile art. Special attention was made to the textile artist Rūdolfs Heimrāts and his crucial role in the history of Latvian textile art. He was permanently leading the Textile art department at the State Academy of Arts of Latvian SSR for more than thirty years. Heimrāts established his original educational model based on a deep understanding of Latvian textile culture heritage. The new generation of artists educated by Heimrāts completely changed visual content and technical capabilities of textile artwork. It raised the Latvian textile art to an unprecedented level of artistic expression. Heimrāts’s unique personality, creative interests, and set goals influenced Latvian textile art development for several decades. Textile artists who had acquired education under the leadership of Rūdolfs Heimrāts created their special contribution to Latvian textile art known as Heimrāts’s School. One of the unifying features of Heimrāts’s School became the predominance of landscape theme in artists’ oeuvre. The article aims to analyse the phenomenon of Heimrāts’s personality, his educational method, and his contribution to the development of Latvian textile art. Special attention was paid to determine the circumstances that affected the topic selection of weavings. Research methods include the study of archival material and publications, formal analysis of the artwork, biographical analysis, interviews, historical research, and field notes.