Latvian sandstone caves as cultural phenomena

This article examines academic cooperation in the Baltic Sea Region. Academic networks are being discussed as indicators of regionalization, but research on the empirical basis is scarce. In the article, the regional networks of 70 higher education institutions in the Baltic States and the German federal state Mecklenburg–Western Pomerania are analyzed. The analysis shows a heterogeneous pattern for the regional higher education area. Regional embedding depends on the focus of an academy and its participation in regional networks. The article concludes with a discussion of options to be considered by regional organizations in order to strengthen regional academic cooperation.     

Authoritarianism And Political Ideas Of Latvian Nationalist Intellectuals

This article explores the authoritarian elements of Eastern European nationalism from an historical point of view. The focus is on the case of Latvian nationalist ideas and particularly the authoritarian nationalism serving the interests of the Kārlis Ulmanis regime between 1934 and 1939. The evidence is collected from the political writings of nationalist intellectuals, who are treated as the authors of Latvian nationalist philosophy. It is concluded that the nationalist intellectuals were willing to accept authoritarianism as a realization of their visions of perfect national existence. Consequently, Latvian nationalism lost its conceptual independence and became an instrument of Ulmanis’ political rhetoric. Thus, the article provides insights about the complex relations between intellectuals and political power.     

Latvian CDI: methodology,developmental trends,and cross-linguistic comparison

ABSTRACT

In this article, we report the results of a large-scale population study based on the Latvian adaptation of Communicative Development Inventories (CDI) – a parental report tool aimed at mapping the lexical and grammatical development of children under the age of three. Two CDI forms are discussed: CDI I: ‘Words and Gestures’ (8–16 months), and CDI II: ‘Words and Sentences’ (17–36 months). This article discusses the Internet-based methodology used for the data collection, reports the main developmental trends of the lexical development of Latvian children, and compares these trends to analogous data from American English, Norwegian, and Russian.