Louis Adamic (1898–1951) was the most successful Slovenian émigré writer. Virtually all his books deal with social and cultural issues of his two homelands, Slovenia and the U. S. This fact alone testifies to his pronounced bi-national socio-cultural involvement. Although he wrote in English, the balance between the Slovenian and the American component part of his cultural identity was never shaken. Adamic’s insight into the immigration topics of his new homeland was fairly complex as he was able to observe them as an insider and as an outsider. For this reason his concepts and views on various aspects of national, ethnic and cultural identities as well as on intercultural relations (especially those within a multiethnic nation) have been recently rediscovered and found as credible and topical as they were when he published them.
KEY WORDS: Slovenian émigré literature, Louis Adamic, immigrants to the United States, cultural pluralism, writer’s socio-cultural role

Louis Adamic (1898–1951) was the most successful Slovenian émigré writer. Virtually all his books deal with social and cultural issues of his two homelands, Slovenia and the U. S. This fact alone testifies to his pronounced bi-national socio-cultural involvement. Although he wrote in English, the balance between the Slovenian and the American component part of his cultural identity was never shaken. Adamic’s insight into the immigration topics of his new homeland was fairly complex as he was able to observe them as an insider and as an outsider. For this reason his concepts and views on various aspects of national, ethnic and cultural identities as well as on intercultural relations (especially those within a multiethnic nation) have been recently rediscovered and found as credible and topical as they were when he published them.
KEY WORDS: Slovenian émigré literature, Louis Adamic, immigrants to the United States, cultural pluralism, writer’s socio-cultural role

This article discusses the narrative of a woman that experienced the loss of those close to her as a child because of migration, thereby shedding light on the part of the migration process referred to as the consequences and impact of emigration on the lives of the individuals that remain (in the home environment). This narrative is biographical in that the narrator recalls her cousin, but from the perspective of the narrator and the narrative it is equally autobiographical. Three groups of narratives that were important to the narrator are thematicized, thus more clearly expressing her consideration of the motives for migration, the encounter between two life worlds, and objects as symbols of identity.
KEY WORDS: (auto)biography, impact of emigration, motive for emigration, encounter between two realities, objects as symbols of identity

This article discusses the narrative of a woman that experienced the loss of those close to her as a child because of migration, thereby shedding light on the part of the migration process referred to as the consequences and impact of emigration on the lives of the individuals that remain (in the home environment). This narrative is biographical in that the narrator recalls her cousin, but from the perspective of the narrator and the narrative it is equally autobiographical. Three groups of narratives that were important to the narrator are thematicized, thus more clearly expressing her consideration of the motives for migration, the encounter between two life worlds, and objects as symbols of identity.
KEY WORDS: (auto)biography, impact of emigration, motive for emigration, encounter between two realities, objects as symbols of identity

Life stories are relevant for the analysis of social phenomena because they represent the complexity of social action and enable us to re-define concepts on new presuppositions. Life stories therefore need to be analysed, not merely collected and reproduced. This article analyses and critically evaluates the biographical narrative method and the narrative interview. It focuses on practical experiences with the biographical narrative method and reflects upon the working alliance between the researcher and the interviewee, highlighting certain practical dilemmas of this type of research based on actual fieldwork experiences. The article introduces into the Slovene context certain new theoretical and practical reflections on the use of the biographical approach and the method of the biographical narrative interview.
KEY WORDS: biographical research method, Fritz Schütze, biographical narrative interview, working alliance, migration research

Life stories are relevant for the analysis of social phenomena because they represent the complexity of social action and enable us to re-define concepts on new presuppositions. Life stories therefore need to be analysed, not merely collected and reproduced. This article analyses and critically evaluates the biographical narrative method and the narrative interview. It focuses on practical experiences with the biographical narrative method and reflects upon the working alliance between the researcher and the interviewee, highlighting certain practical dilemmas of this type of research based on actual fieldwork experiences. The article introduces into the Slovene context certain new theoretical and practical reflections on the use of the biographical approach and the method of the biographical narrative interview.
KEY WORDS: biographical research method, Fritz Schütze, biographical narrative interview, working alliance, migration research

The paper concentrates on the meaning of “rootedness” or locality in one of the southern Albanian villages, Dhërmi (official, Albanian name) or Drimades (local, Greek name) and question its relatedness to land and property. Nowadays with the process of privatisation which often involves land conflicts the meaning of locality is becoming conditioned with individual claims for land ownership. The paper illustrates how the villagers who are “on the move” negotiate, manage and contest their locality through which they seek to ensure their ownership and property and vice versa. Based on the fourteen months of fieldwork in the mentioned village I particularly focus on the returnees who own the tourist facilities on the village’s coastal plain and the emigrants who continue to regularly return to their natal village Dhërmi/Drimades. I argue that when expressing their feelings of locality and belonging, people continuously reconstruct their past in order to reassure their present, reconstitute and corroborate their ties to the land, create order to control their own labour, products and income and negotiate their sense of mastery.
KEY WORDS: migrations, return migrations, locality, property, land tenure, postcommunism, southern Albania

The paper concentrates on the meaning of “rootedness” or locality in one of the southern Albanian villages, Dhërmi (official, Albanian name) or Drimades (local, Greek name) and question its relatedness to land and property. Nowadays with the process of privatisation which often involves land conflicts the meaning of locality is becoming conditioned with individual claims for land ownership. The paper illustrates how the villagers who are “on the move” negotiate, manage and contest their locality through which they seek to ensure their ownership and property and vice versa. Based on the fourteen months of fieldwork in the mentioned village I particularly focus on the returnees who own the tourist facilities on the village’s coastal plain and the emigrants who continue to regularly return to their natal village Dhërmi/Drimades. I argue that when expressing their feelings of locality and belonging, people continuously reconstruct their past in order to reassure their present, reconstitute and corroborate their ties to the land, create order to control their own labour, products and income and negotiate their sense of mastery.
KEY WORDS: migrations, return migrations, locality, property, land tenure, postcommunism, southern Albania

This essay discusses the concept of intercultural dialogue as it is defined in the European and Slovenian documents which refer to the European Year of Intercultural Dialogue in 2008, in view of some findings of the international research project Needs for Female Immigrants and their Integration in Ageing Societies, which was carried out in Slovenia between 2006 and 2007. The essay seeks to explain whether intercultural dialogue is a “moral compass” for the future image of the EU, or an established practice of an already effective exchange of views between the cultural carriers and/or participators in groups with various sociocultural backgrounds.
KEY WORDS: intercultural dialogue, foreigners, migration, female migrants, Slovenia

This essay discusses the concept of intercultural dialogue as it is defined in the European and Slovenian documents which refer to the European Year of Intercultural Dialogue in 2008, in view of some findings of the international research project Needs for Female Immigrants and their Integration in Ageing Societies, which was carried out in Slovenia between 2006 and 2007. The essay seeks to explain whether intercultural dialogue is a “moral compass” for the future image of the EU, or an established practice of an already effective exchange of views between the cultural carriers and/or participators in groups with various sociocultural backgrounds.
KEY WORDS: intercultural dialogue, foreigners, migration, female migrants, Slovenia