Report of the conference Miasto po obu brzegach rzeki – różne oblicza kultury [A city on both banks of a river – various aspects of culture]. ****************************************************************************************** * Hedvika Novotná ****************************************************************************************** Report of the conference Miasto po obu brzegach rzeki - różne oblicza kultury [A city on b river - various aspects of culture]. October 18-20, 2007, Warsaw, Poland. Organizers: Polskie Towarszystwo Etnologii Miasta, Muzeum Historyczne m. st. Warszawy, Muz Niepodległości, Archiwum Państwowe m. st. Warszawy, Czeskie Centrum, Instytut Słowacki Polish ethnology, in particular cultural and social anthropology, has been dedicated for a urban topics. This interest is expressed in the anchoring of urban studies in the Polish S Ethnology (Polskie Towarzystwo Etnologii Miasta) which came into being in the year 2000. T interest of this society is the problematics of the social-cultural identity of cities wit changes which, at least since the 19th century, accompany the growth of cities and with th regions. One of the most important activities of the Polish Society of Urban Ethnology is of international thematically oriented conferences - e.g., Sfera sacrum i profanum w kultu miast europy środkowej (The sacred and profane sphere in the culture of contemporary Centr cities (Warsaw - Pultusk, Sept. 16-18, 2004), ); Miejsca biesiadne. Co o nich opowiada ant for parties; what does an anthropologist have to say about them?) (Lodz, June 1-2, 2006) The most recent of a series of conferences - Miasto po obu brzegach rzeki - różne oblicza city on both banks of a river - various aspects of culture) was held October 18-20, 2007, of Warsaw museums. The topic of the papers was the city and the river from various perspec fact that the topic is broad was already apparent from the introductory block of contribut Kłosek-Kozłowska (Politechnika Warszawska) in a comparison of Rome, Florence, Paris and Pr urbanistic viewpoint followed the role of the river in the development of the city. Blanka (Univerzita Karlova in Prague, Czech Republic) talked about the Vltava as a symbol of Czec Czechoslovakness and, in from this point of view about the changes in the relationship bet Prague, oscillating in various historical periods and contexts between partnership and riv Beňušková (Univerzita Konstantina Filozofa in Nitra, Slovakia), taking the example of Brat Danube, demonstrated the function of the space on the banks of the river and changes of it present. The afternoon block of papers on the first day of the conference dealt with the theme "The connecting or dividing?" The introductory paper was to have been the contribution of Graży (Uniwersytet Łódzki) with the explicitly current topic "Mostar - the city with a bridge". scheduled for that time, it was presented the following day. The theme of the conference w captured by Halina Godecka (Fundacja Akademia Mediów) in her lecture "Cross-border TV - a river: the example of Těšín". Hedvika Novotná (Universita Karlova in Prague, Czech Republi question of continuity and discontinuity in an urban space in connection with some aspects in Prague in 2002. L'ublica Falt'anova (Ustav etnológie SAV, Bratislava, Slovakia) chose t business as a bridge over the river and discussed traditional and new elements in contempo The second day of the conference was, with one exception (the above-mentioned Mostar), ded cities through the eyes of Polish researchers. The morning block bore the title "Cities on (From Krakow to Toruń)". Krakow was introduced in four papers. Piotr Jordan Śliwiński (Kat Komputerowej UJ) presented a brilliant semiotic analysis of Krakow's river boulevard. Sewe (Kraków) lectured on Krakow as a city on the left bank of the Vistula. Róża Godula-Węcławo Etnologii i Antropologii Kulturowej UJ), using the example of religious festivals, discuss quarter of Krakow. An interesting contrast was an analysis of the right bank of Krakow as "worse" city quarter both in a historical and a contemporary perspective by Anna Niedźwied Etnologii i Antropologii Kulturowej UJ). In the second section of this block, the first lecturer, Justyna Słomska (Instytut Etnolog Kulturowej UAM w Poznaniu), discussed the role of the river in the development of the city of Wloclawek. The importance of the river from the perspective of cultural ecology was dis Artur Trapszyc (Muzeum Etnograficzne w Toruniu), who used the example of the city of Toruń contribution, Justyna Słomska concentrated on motifs of the river in folklore. The afternoon block entitled "Warsaw - a metropolis facing away from the river" began with presentation by Przemysław Pasek (Fundacja „Ja Wisła"). The panel discussion about Warsaw Handke (Instytut Slawistyki PAN), Karol Mórawski (Muzeum Woli), Paweł Michał Smoktunowicz architect, Warsaw), Joanna Angiel (Wydział Geografii i Studiów Regionalnych UW), Andrzej S Niepodległości) a Tomasz Sulewski (Warsaw) ranged from a historic-anthropological descript the Vistula in the second half of the 19th century (Sulewski) to characteristic difference bank and right-bank Warsaw (Handke) to a historical and ethnological analysis of the relat to the Vistula river (Stawarz, Mórawski, Smoktunowicz) and to a sociological probe of cont secondary-school youths and their view of the importance of the Vistula (Angel). On the third and final day of the conference, the "leftover" cities and topics were on the Sierny (Wydawnictwo Naukowe „Śląsk", Katowice) introduced the journal "Rzeki kultura, cywi historia" ( Rivers: culture, civilization, history). Jarosław Durka (Myszków) discussed th social-cultural development of the city of Opole, a city on the Odra River. The last two p from the motif of the river - the city of Lodž has no river. On the other hand, these were of discursive analysis (Aleksandra Krupa (IEiAK UŁ)) and historical anthropology (Katarzyn (Zakład Teorii i Badania Kultury Współczesnej UŁ)). It is apparent that the problematics of the city is an important topic of contemporary soc research. The opening up of this narrowly formulated theme clearly requires a multidiscipl Only thus can the approach of individual scientific disciplines to the various facets of t to the surface. What is important is, primarily, an emphasis on the connection between the data and the consequent accent on the structure of the resulting texts. These should conce research problems that are narrowly formulated, but elaborated in detail, problems which w the trends of contemporary society. A further step which the Polish Society of Urban Ethno preparing is a basic comparison of research from the field of urban anthropology based on formulated and long-lasting research projects. Hedvika Novotná [ URL "LM-276.html "]