Klaipėdos universitetas

The article examines the issue of money in special circumstances in the towns of Klaipėda and Šilutė in 1918–1923. The main focus is on trying to find out when this money was put into circulation and how long it circulated, as well as to indicate the reasons for its use and to provide new information about the circumstances of the creation of this money. The research has made it possible to reveal many unknown facts: to clarify the dates, to identify new reasons for issuing the money, and to learn about the people who contributed to the creation of this money.

The debate on gastronomic culture and identity, the national heritage, national products and gastronomic nationalism, is one of the most active and popular in the contemporary public discourse. The increased importance of different identities in contemporary networked society drives the popularity of these topics. As a form of the intangible heritage, gastronomic culture is an evolving system that easily links past and present societies. In this way, the gastronomic heritage and the history of gastronomy are easily transferred to contemporary culture, and become the basis for various identities. Given that the intangible heritage operates in society through tangible representations, and that in gastronomic culture one of the most visible representations is dishes, this study analyses the communication of one of them, šaltibarščiai (cold soup), on the social network Facebook. The study aims to determine how the representation of a specific intangible element of the heritage is used to construct the Lithuanian national identity. The research has identified the most important topics of discussion, the discourses involved, and elements of the reality that are important for constructing the national identity and their interrelationships.

A number of different Midsummer celebration models can be distinguished in Lithuania Minor: the most archaic (14th to 19th century), 20th century, and the modern St John’s Day celebration models. The most archaic celebrations were rich in vestiges of the Baltic world-view and mythology: nature, fire and water were worshipped, and people cast spells to protect themselves from evil forces and ensure a good harvest and a happy life. The 20th-century ritualistic St John’s Day tradition of Prussian Lithuanians lost its existential importance as rituals became customs with new forms and symbolic meanings. The most important features of the celebration are the burning of witches in St John’s fire, and general merriment for youth. In the modern celebration model, there is an attempt to combine ethnic traditions with the needs of the consumer society. Fireworks replace ritual Midsummer fires, as bonfires lose their mythological significance. Although the institutionally organised Midsummer celebrations follow a more or less Lithuania-wide scenario; the centralised organisation of cultural events may be beneficial in fostering local forms of the Lithuanian celebratory tradition by highlighting typical elements of St John’s Day in the region of Lithuania Minor.

The problem of quality of governance is one of the most important issues raised nowadays by international and local organisations. In order to adapt to the rapid processes of globalisation and glocalisation, various methods are being sought to optimise forms of democratic governance in Western countries or among countries which are leaning towards the West. The aim of the article is to increase government accountability and responsibility, promote citizen involvement, and strengthen government-societal relations and trust. In order to achieve this goal, the European Union proposes to give more powers to local government institutions, because they are closest to the citizens, can more effectively assess their needs, and attain them more effectively. To achieve this goal, the 12 principles of Good Governance, recommended by the Council of Europe, are used, and ELoGE (European Label of Governance Excellence) is used as a tool to assess the existence of these principles in local government. The purpose of this article is to identify factors that determine the implementation of the principles in local government, and to ascertain the most important characteristics that would influence the implementation of Good Governance in local government, taking into account the ELoGE evaluation methodology.

Employers currently emphasise primarily the importance of the personal and social characteristics of employees, and focus less on their professional and business skills. Contrarily, employees often consider deep professional knowledge and skills to be their key strengths, and pay little attention to personal growth and the development of personal characteristics. The aim of the research is to compare the soft skills most frequently required by potential employers in job advertisements for the position of administrator to the employee soft skills predominantly identified by the students on the Tourism Administration course. A study designed to identify employer expectations was conducted in 2019 and 2021. In order to determine the opinions of students in 2021, a written questionnaire survey of higher education students on the Tourism Administration course was conducted. The analysis of the opinions of students, and an examination of employer expectations, demonstrate that employer expectations regarding the skills of potential employees, especially personal or soft skills, and student opinions, do not always match. The impact of the pandemic created a paradoxical situation in the labour market: before the pandemic, progressively more attention was being paid to employees’ soft skills; in the post-pandemic world and working in a hybrid way in the labour market, not all personal skills remain important.

The significance and novelty of this article is in the fact that the study has explored the consumption of alcohol among vocational pupils, in order to connect the phenomenon with social and cognitive factors. The article analyses the period of adolescence, changes during the period of adolescence, and factors that determine the problem of alcohol consumption in adolescence: parents, peers, individual personality characteristics, behavioural and emotional problems, etc. The study confirmed the characteristics of alcohol consumption by adolescents, their parents and peers, adolescents’ resistance to alcohol, their strengths and difficulties, and the interrelationships between these factors. Although the parents of adolescents play an important role in the process of developing an adolescent’s resistance to alcohol, the study highlighted the importance of the attitude of the adolescent’s mother. The study confirmed that the expression of adolescents’ resistance to alcohol is directly influenced by the alcohol consumption of parents and friends, their attitude towards alcohol consumption by adolescents, and the adolescent’s strengths (sociality scale, meaning social skills) and difficulties.

The traditional rites of the last week before the beginning of Lent were well known in various ethnographic regions of Ukraine until the middle of the 20th century. The most archaic are the traditional rites, the actions of which are related to the being of the mythical Kolodiy (Колодíй): his “birth”, “baptism”, “funeral”, thus testifying to the summarized life cycle. All this was played out every day during the entire week: married women tied wooden sticks («колóдки») to the bodies of guys and girls who had not been married for too long, they all together destroyed the jackstraw of Kostrub (Кóструб), men’s physical competitions (fisticuffs) were held, known since Kyivan Rus’ times. Here, the tradition of feasting on flour and sour milk dishes was directly related to the cult of the Heavenly Lights and promoted a faster disappearance of the winter manifestations in nature. All the mentioned rites were accompanied by special songs dedicated to them.

Having acknowledged the importance of leadership, it seems there is lack of research in the field of developing the leadership skills of healthcare workers. Therefore, this article aims to answer the problem question: what leadership abilities of healthcare workers are important, and what are the opportunities to develop them in healthcare institutions? Theoretical insights and quantitative research have been used to answer this question. The questionnaire survey of healthcare workers conducted confirms that the expression of leadership is inseparable from motivation, being an example, help and cooperation, the ability to mobilise the team to act in one direction and achieve the set goals. The study shows that the development of leadership skills is achieved through personal development, the formation of positive attitudes towards changes, the dissemination of leadership competence, independent activity, and mutual interaction. The study is significant in that it can help understand factors for the improvement of the subject under consideration, and make a targeted intervention in ongoing processes of the development of leadership skills, improving them and achieving better results in the development of the leadership skills of healthcare workers.