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The Suburbanisation Process: Cultural Approach. Focusing on the process of suburbanisation as a modern urban development, this review article aims to present the culturalist perspective of urban studies. After presenting a brief historical context and the cultural conditions of suburbanisation, the article focuses on three main approaches: social network theory, the relational theory of social and symbolic boundaries, and studies of representations in popular culture. Based on examples of theoretical and empirical studies of suburban development in capitalist cities, the review endeavours to enrich the contemporary agenda of suburban research within a Central European, post-socialist context. Sociológia 2012, Vol. 44 (No. 1: 5-33)
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Social Economy: Concepts, Opportunities, Risks. The study’s aim is to contribute to conceptualization processes framing the phenomenon of social economy and introduce the issue to our professional context. Social economy, as an area connecting social aims and entrepreneurial procedures, has a long history. The current initiatives of social economy are a response to the welfare state crisis, new social risks and the crisis of employed society. The definition of social economy comes from research activities of the European research net EMES and the Said Business School of Oxford University. The author’s effort is focused on identifying the main assumptions for establishing these social innovations. The conclusion focuses on allocating opportunities for social entrepreneurship in the public sphere and public policies in Slovakia (employment policy, social inclusion policy, local social development, the delivering of public and social services, and civic participation). Sociológia 2012, Vol. 44 (No. 1: 83-108)
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European Integration – A Challenge for the Young Slovak Generation. The ICCS 2009 international research project is focused on how young people in various countries prepare to fulfill their civil roles in the 21st Century. This study consists of research on the knowledge and attitudes of 14-year-old Slovak pupils (a sample of 2970 respondents) towards Europe and the European Union. The goal was to find answers to the following two questions: “What do Slovak pupils know about Europe and the European Union?“ and “What is the attitude of Slovak pupils toward Europe and the European Union?“ Slovak pupils’ knowledge highly surpasses the international average. The attitude of Slovak pupils to Europe and the European Union is very open. They are interested in EU affairs and appreciate the EU's contribution to the development of Slovak society in all of the areas measured. Slovak youth is optimistic about the challenges of European integration related to the debt crisis in some EU member states and about the united currency stability after 2010, mainly thanks to the outcomes achieved in 2009 resulting from Slovakia's membership in the EU. Sociológia 2012, Vol. 44 (No. 1: 109-132)
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Merton and Lazarsfeld: Collaboration on Theory and Empirical Research. This article represents an excursion into the history of sociology and into the history of empirical sociological research. It looks at four outcomes of collaboration between Paul F. Lazarsfeld and Robert K. Merton. All of them draw on a combination of empirical research and sociological theory, and all of them were of significance for the cooperation between Merton and Lazarsfeld. First, they developed a pair of methodological tools: the programme analyser and the focused interview, and they created a functional model for the combined use of these two devices in research. Next, they co-edited a monograph titled Continuities in Social Research, in which they presented the results of the ‘American Soldier’ study and explained its contribution to the development of sociological theory and research methodology. Merton was a theorist and Lazarsfeld an empirically oriented scientist, and the fruits of this kind of collaboration are apparent in their joint article ‘Friendship as a Social Process’. The fourth example of their cooperation occurred with their efforts to assert Lazarsfeld’s idea for a centre for advanced training in social research that would focus on research training. The complementary roles that Lazarsfeld and Merton played are illuminated further by the memoirs of these two scholars, which reflect on their collaborative research work. Sociológia 2012, Vol. 44 (No. 1: 62-82)
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The Sociology of Anton Štefánek in the Context of Contemporary Sociological Journals. This text examines the sociology of Anton Štefánek, one of the first scholars in the field in Slovakia, in the context of the journals of that day. It especially examines the topics of Štefánek’s publications in relation to other articles in sociological journals, relying on the overall results of a content analysis of those journals. This presentation of Štefánek’s journal publications brings out some of his lesser-known or more difficult-to-find publications, and places them in the overall context of his sociology. The study shows that Štefánek’s sociological interests, which were dominated by the themes of the rural countryside and the nation, were not unusual either for the period between the wars, or after the Second World War. Nevertheless the breadth of Štefánek’s approach and his focus on Czechoslovak national unity (so-called Czechoslovakism) was somewhat unique in the context of academic journals at the time. Analysis of commentary in the journals on Štefánek’s sociology allows us to evaluate over a limited area his colleagues’ understanding of his importance. It shows that perceptions of his importance were different in the Czech and Slovak parts of sociological discourse (the Czech journals were dominated by attention given to Masaryk, about whom nothing was written in Slovakia, with attention being focused on Štefánek instead), even though he was a prominent figure not only in Slovakia but in the Czech lands as well, and was made even more important by his political involvement during the First Republic. Sociológia 2012, Vol. 44 (No. 1: 34-61)
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