Percepcja walorów turystycznych przez osoby niesłyszące na tle słyszącej części społeczeństwa w Polsce

The article aims at showing similarities and differences in the perception of tourist attractions among tourists with and without hearing impairment. The first part depicts perception problems from the theoretical point of view. Complexities of studies on the perception system have been described. The perception itself is channelled via senses, including mainly sight (reception of approximately 87% of outside factors), hearing (7%), smell (3–5%), touch (1–5%) and taste (1%) (Visual Landscape… 1994, after: Pietrzak 2008). The data suggests that people with hearing impairment, owing to dominative position of sight perception and to other senses (except hearing), should perceive outside factors similarly to people with no hearing impairment, also in terms of tourist attractions. Is this really a fact? The attempt to answer this question resulted in conducting questionnaire study among the tourists, both with and without hearing impairment. The data was collected, based on questionnaire study, conducted nationwide in years 2004–2010 among the 292 deaf (for whom Polish Sign Language is the main method of communication) and 1780 people without hearing impairment. The aim of this study was to reveal, if tourists with hearing dysfunction have different tourist preferences than those without any hearing disabilities and to indicate which tourist attractions are the most significant for tourists with hearing impairment. The percentage values and the level of signi-ficance (p), calculated on the basis of Pearson’s chi-square test (with border value of p ≤ 0.05), were used in the analysis It was determined, that in case of perception of natural tourist attractions, there is a major similarity (both, people with and without hearing impairment indicated such attractions as sea, lake, clean natural environment, natural landscape, climate and diversified land relief, including mountains). As far as cultural attractions are concerned, a similarity in perception of both studied groups can also be observed. The most popular attractions include those, which can be perceived with sight: monuments, historic landmarks, museums, open-air museums, places of worship and modern architecture. The biggest differences are related to culture and entertainment, which indicates a social aspect of the disability of people with hearing impairment (a discomfort of being in environ-ment, where sound is the main carrier of information). The conclusions from the conducted analyses are applicative in their nature. They contain hints for tour operators, involved in creating tourist offer for people using Polish Sign Language, taking into account their preferences, perception abilities and ensuring pleasant tourist experience.

Piękny czy dobry? Moralny wymiar upiększania ciała

The main purpose of the article is to point outsome relations between beauty and good in contemporary reality. The main question that arises here is as follows: is the relationship of beauty and moral good still relevant? The concept presented in the thesis refers to the ancient idea of kalokagathia. It stated that beauty is inseparable from moral good. As far as this ancient perspective is concerned, it can be treated as the background for contemporary considerations about the main issue of beauty and good. The article refers to the concept of aestheticization by Wolfgang Welsch. He defines aesthetics as the primary guiding value, where as experience and entertainment have become the guidelines for contemporary culture. Moreover, the thesis mentions the concept of the consumer society and new ethics of the relation to the body as it is described by Jean Budrillard. Then the narration of the article focuses on the following problem: in what sense can we talk nowadays about moral motivation for beauty treatments of body? One assumption leads to the case of looking after one’s body. Another point of view mentions the need of harmony which manifests itself in beautiful body. Eventually, the central question emerges whether contemporary practice of beautifying the body can be a part of the concept of the good life or not.