Changing Societies & Personalities, 2019 Vol. 3, No. 1, pp. 4–5 http://dx.doi.org/10.15826/csp.2019.3.1.056 Received 6 March 2019 © 2019 Elena A. Stepanova Published online 1 April 2019 stepanova.elena.a@gmail.com EDITORIAL Editor’s Note The articles in the current volume of Changing Societies & Personalities explore the main theme of the journal – value changes – from different perspectives. Aurea Mota and Peter Wagner in The Rhino, the Amazon and the Blue Sky over the Ruhr: Ecology and Politics in the Current Global Context consider the rise of ecological issues as a global concern. They state that the tremendous socio-political transformations of last fifty years, which gave born to a notion of “multi-polar” globe, did not change the depletion of the earth resources, and concentrate the analysis on the political and social aspects of the ecological crisis in a global context. The article draws examples from different regions in the world, namely, the threats to Amazon rainforest, rhino poaching in RSA, on one hand, and improvement of air and water in Europe, on the other hand, and discuss ecological issues in the light of “de-industrialization” of so-called “advanced industrial societies”, which in practice was the industrial relocation from there to other regions all over the globe. The main concern of the authors is asymmetric externalization of environmental damage, especially in climate change; they assume that it “imposes an interpretation that recognizes that the instrumental transformation of the earth is strongly related to past domination and appropriation”, and interpret the Paris Agreement of 2015 as the recognition of historical injustice done by developed countries to developing countries. The article raises an important question concerning the ways of the shift towards post-material values including ecology in “developing” countries. Ekaterina Purgina’s paper Spatial Imaginary in “Western” Travelogues about Russia analyses three travel narratives about Russia, which are focused on specific aspects of the life in the country and its background. Purgina describes the features of travelogue as personal account of a journey, which expresses the individual vision, as well as her/his context, providing the picture of an alien place through the lens of another culture, thus making it perceptive by the native audience of the writer (narrator). She underlines that spatial imaginary of the travelogue is unique due to the use of “vivid images, gripping stories that are told by those who have the first-hand experience” in the described realities. Purgina is particularly interested in revealing the image of Russia’s type of modernity as it is presented in travelogues. Through the analyses of the centre/periphery, past/present, and political/personal dichotomies, she demonstrates both the peculiarities of the picture given in travelogues and the reality behind them, thus provoking the reader of the paper to justify or judge the controversial image of Russia from her/his own perspective. https://changing-sp.com/ Changing Societies & Personalities, 2019, Vol. 3, No. 1, pp. 4–5 5 In her provocative paper Self-Shooting Uterus-Owners: Examining the Selfies of Pregnant Transmen within the Politics of Human Reproduction, Aireen Grace T. Andal analyses transpregnancy from philosophical point of view. She stresses that in spite of the fact that transpregnancy is seen by many as a deviation, in the age of digital media it becomes public and requires adequate interpretation. Examining transpregnancy through selfie as new visual genre, Andal argues for the need to analyze its character and raises the question of its place “in the struggle for trans-identity expression in the context of a constant digital public scrutiny”. She reviews various discourses on transbody and transpregnancy and underlines that they are usually seen as “problematic relationship between trans-identity and health”. In the course of the paper, Andal makes interesting conclusions concerning the nature and goals of transmen selfies as digital images, and proves that they go beyond the issue of trans-identity and recognition being the way of self-reflection of modernity’s individuals. The RESEARCH NOTE section presents Neža Prelog, Fayruza S. Ismagilova, and Eva Boštjančič with the paper Which Employees are Most Motivated to Share Knowledge – the Role of Age-Based Differentiation in Knowledge-Sharing Motivation. The authors explore the problem of age diversity in the workplace in the light of intergenerational knowledge sharing. Based on interviews with the employees of several Slovenian companies, the authors review different knowledge-sharing mechanisms and models and explain the reasons of choosing cognitive model as the foundation for the empirical part of the research, which is aimed at studying “the correlation between intergenerational differentiation and knowledge-sharing motivation, that is, the willingness of employees of different age groups to share their knowledge”. This is a pioneer approach since there are no studies based on correlation of these two concepts. The results prove significant differences between age groups in their motivation of knowledge-sharing, and explain the reasons for them. The current issue of CS&P also includes two book reviews. The first one is of Hate, Politics, Law: Critical Perspectives on Combating Hate (2018), by Andrey Menshikov. The reviewer questions the reduction of discriminatory attitudes and bias-motivated violence to “hate”, and strengthens the need to approach the dangers of hate in contemporary society more reasonably. The second review is of Kelly, Mark G. E. (2018) For Foucault: Against Normative Political Theory by Daniil Kokin. The reviewer makes some critical remarks on the book and recommend it to those who are interested in Foucault’s political thought, as well as in normative political theory and its alternatives. Discussions on the topics raised in the current issue will be continued in the subsequent issues of our journal, and new themes will be introduced. We welcome suggestions for thematic issues, debate sections, book reviews and other formats from readers and prospective authors, and invite them to send us their reflections and ideas! For more information, please visit the journal web-site: https://changing-sp.com/ Elena A. Stepanova, Editor-in-Chief https://changing-sp.com/ https://changing-sp.com/