Кръгла маса на тема „Може ли егоизмът да бъде добродетел?“
Round Table Discussion : „Can Egoism be a Virtue" - see https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V1yZLrWh2UA
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Round Table Discussion : „Can Egoism be a Virtue" - see https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V1yZLrWh2UA
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This article analyses the role of foundations, funding, and/or carrying out research and innovation programmes, supporting the development of science and scientific institutions, and how these influence the social mobility of scholars. Empirical data were collected through a large-scale survey (EUFORI) of EU foundations and NGOs that fund, and/or are engaged in, research and innovation programmes, a survey that was conducted in the period 2013–2014 in all EU Member States plus Switzerland and Norway. For the purposes of the context of the topic, this article is focused on one main indicator in the EUFORI survey – the role of foundations for the research mobility and career development of scholars, features that are definitely and directly related to the social status of researchers, i.e., to their positioning in the middle class.
More...СПЕЦИФИЧНИ VERSUS СПЕЦИАЛНИ ОБРАЗОВАТЕЛНИ ПОТРЕБНОСТИ НА ДЕЦАТА С УВРЕЖДАНИЯ
In the framework of semiotic realism and in the perspective of complex hierarchical systems, the article analyzes how the meanings of the terms “special” and “specific” are constructed, and the consequences of the in-troduction of the former into the so-called complex system sign (term) “special educational needs of children with disabilities”. The author grounds the need to replace the term “special” with the term “specific” in reference to educational needs.
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The article deals with the problem of employment and poverty in Bulgarian rural areas. The emphases of the discussion are on the slow pace of creation of new employment there, the lack of stable and long-lasting employment in villages and small towns, which results in lower employment rates and hence, greater risk of poverty. Moreover, there has been a significant decrease of the employment rate among young people aged up to 24 years and of elderly people aged 60 and over. The authors discuss how this negative trend, designated as ‘stable’ by the official statistics, could be overcome. The first part of the article is focused on the concepts used in poverty research and the methodology of the study; the second part analyses specific indicators of the employment situation in rural regions. In the last part of the article, the authors present generalized characteristics of poverty in Bulgarian rural areas.
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The article focuses on the socio-demographic determinants of work-life balance in Bulgaria. With the development of post-industrial societies, the life-work balance becomes particularly important. The article provides a theoretical overview of the leading concepts on work-life balance. Data from the European Social Survey conducted in 2010 in Bulgaria was used. A descriptive statistical analysis was carried out and a logistical regression model was applied in order to highlight the factors that affect the balance between private and professional life. The analysis shows that there are significant gender differences in the satisfaction of the balance between private and professional life among men and women in Bulgaria. Education and occupational status of individuals are significant predictors of the satisfaction of the life-work, as they are directly related to the profession that individuals exercise. Higher education is related with higher satisfaction of the balance between private and professional life. Individuals who have their own business (self-employed) have significantly lower satisfaction of the balance between working and personal life.
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The text presents an original interpretation of informality in economic relations, systematized and described through the habituses of informality, within which individuals apply different deviant models of economic behaviour. Each of the identified behavioural patterns has a strongly recognizable specificity, both in value normative aspect and in terms of preferred means (legitimate or illegitimate) to achieve the personally significant goals. The behavioural patterns described are empirically captureable, thus making them easy to be recognized and accessible for research.
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The article proceeds from the general assumption that in an anomic society, such as the Bulgarian society in course of transformation, eight basic patterns of economic behavior can be identified, only one of which can be classified as normal, while the other seven models are burdened with different components of deviance. The deviance of individuals is specific, depending both on their attitude towards the goals set by culture in society and on the preferred means of achieving these goals (legitimate or illegitimate). While normal behavior is marked by the category of social conformism, we refer to deviant behavioral patterns of innovators, ritualists, retreaters, rebels, maximizers, neutralizers and alternators. The author employs abundant empirical material regarding the presence of these eight behavioral models in contemporary Bulgarian society.
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Educational (in)equality can be expressed in terms of the extent to which the success of the students in the education process is (in)dependent on out-of-school factors (e.g. gender and origin). However, in recent years, more and more research on the topic shows that inequality within the country is significantly greater than that across the countries. This draws the interest of the research community to the local and geographical disparities, covered by the same education system. To provide a deeper understanding of the local educational inequality in Bulgaria the following research presents a comparative analysis of the average scores, based on the results from the national external examinations (NESE) in all the 28 regions in Bulgaria. The results from the statistical analysis showed that the gap in the average scores (measured by a coefficient of variation) of the schools in the period 2008-2018 is growing wider which is an indicator of the rising inequality in the education system. At the same time, the analysis of the results from the ESE in 2018 shows that there is a difference in the average score across the regions. It seems that depending on the grade, one could observe a correlation/link between the average score of the region and the internal homogeneity in the score of the local schools. One could also arguably find a correlation/link between the NESE average scores and factors like average income, ethnic composition, and types of schools in the regions. Income inequality can account mostly for the average score in the 12th grade (lower in the other grades), where the predominant type of school in the region is an even stronger factor. The ethnic ‘profile’ of the regions mostly can account for the differences in the score for the 4th and 7th grade in the regions with a higher percentage of Roma population. The higher percent of Turkish population can account for the difference in 4th and 12th grade.
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Inequality, either economic or social, has been a major issue for the societies from ancient times and there is no equality reached for all the possible dimensions so far. Moreover, the existence of inequality and its enlargement leads to instability and conflicts in certain countries and regions. Thus, more and more attention is paid to the diversities in the society and to their possible aspects. The economic inequality is reviewed according to the income, wealth and living standard (well-being). These three indicators are analyzed in the paper, as well as the EU budget possibilities for their reduction.
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Individuals and social groups in a given country may feel socially “useless” when they are not taken into account by statistics and by political policies. This leads to the questions as to what counts and does not count in a society, upon what shared values and hierarchy of values a society is grounded, what happens to those values in a time of intense transformations of the economic, social and political system? Based on a few examples related to bringing out of a kind of social invisibility those who are referred to in France as “forgotten by the Republic”, the article shows that such a situation holds several potential risks: the risk of intense social tension, the risk of self-encapsulation of individuals, the risk of encapsulation of identities, the risk of breakdown of a nation’s unity. It also involves growing difficulties in defining what is considered the common good, i.e., what counts in the eyes of all people and binds together a nation.
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Speaking a foreign language implies more than knowing its vocabulary and grammar. As such, teachers of foreign languages should keep this in mind and consider also other aspects than the ones mentioned. Attention should be paid to pragmatics and cultural issues, among others. The present essay aims to highlight the importance of raising foreign language students’ awareness of national and international linguistic and cultural behaviours. It describes briefly the field of cross-cultural pragmatics, focusing on speech acts and their culture-sensitive features. Then, it turns to one of the most important types of speech acts, namely compliment exchanges. Taking into consideration the key role played in crosscultural communication by the appropriateness of compliments and their expected answers, the article proposes several activities to do in class in order to (1) raise students’ awareness regarding the importance of compliments for successful communication, (2) present them the usual patterns, topics, and cultural particularities of compliments, (3) familiarise students with possible communication threats, and (4) provide them with possible strategies to answer compliments. The activities are not restricted to students of foreign languages in general but are recommended also to those studying specialised subjects in foreign languages, such as communication, translation and interpreting.
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Bosna i Hercegovina je brojnim svojim zakonima i konvencijama zagarantovala jednaka prava za muškarce i žene u svim oblastima i premda ima prostora za izmjene, zakoni su dobri ukoliko se krene sa njihovom primjenom. Međutim, njihova implementacija je velik problem a ovdje usmjeravamo pažnju na implementaciju Zakona o ravnopravnosti spolova, koji vrlo precizno definira prava manje zastupljenog spola i obaveze države u pogledu uspostavljanja društva s osiguranim pravima za sve njegove građane i građanke. Postoje mnoge oblasti u kojima je neravnopravnost spolova javno vidljiva, a mi smo se u ovom istraživanju bavili neravnopravnom zastupljenošću žena u upravljačkim strukturama javnih preduzeća u vlasništvu Bosne i Hercegovine, Federacije BiH, Republike Srpske i Brčko distrikta, odnosno u upravama javnih preduzeća i nadzornim odborima. U prvom dijelu istraživanja navodimo podatke o broju preduzeća koja su u vlasništvu države, entiteta i distrikta i broju članova/članica uprave i nadzornih odbora svih preduzeća u vlasništvu jednog od pomenutih nivoa vlasti. U drugom dijelu smo se bavili analizom pravnih akata preduzeća, tačnije statutâ, kako bismo utvrdili da li je statutima zagarantovano ravnopravno učešće oba spola u upravljačkim strukturama, te da li statuti sadrže odredbe koje bi posredno onemogućile žene da obavljaju neku od rukovodećih funkcija. Na kraju smo, na osnovu dobijenih nalaza, izveli preporuke koje bi država trebala sprovesti kako bi se osiguralo ravnopravno učešće žena u upravljačkim strukturama javnih preduzeća. Ovo istraživanje ne predstavlja analizu cjelokupnog stanja u Bosni i Hercegovini u pogledu učešća žena u organizacionim strukturama preduzeća i potrebno je podrobnije istraživanje kako bismo imali sveobuhvatne informacije, ali se nadamo da će biti dobra polazna tačka za dalje analize.
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An Interview with Ghassan Hage. Ghassan Hage is Future Generation Professor of Anthropology and Social Theory at the University of Melbourne. He is a Fellow of the Australian Academy of the Humanities and the Australian Academy of the Social Sciences. He has held many visiting professorships around the world including at Harvard University, the University of Copenhagen, the University of Amsterdam and the École des Hautes Études en Sciences Sociales in Paris. [...]
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The term “ghetto” is used with increasing frequency, and in various senses, both in modern research literature and in everyday speech. The meaning of the term is gradually expanding, which is especially evident when its present-day transformation is compared with the historical context of its origin. In seeking how the term first came to be used, and the origin of the concept, various motives and circumstances are pointed out, deserving of scholarly attention. The need to lend greater clarity and veracity to the nature of the concept of “ghetto” obliges us not to disregard the etymology of the term. Its use increasingly expands the field of social events with which it is associated, as well as the territorial distribution of communities. New suggestions are added to their subcultures, and innovations are introduced that encompass even the extreme forms of social facts – such as poverty and wealth
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The focus of this paper is on the concept of poverty and its implementation into regulations, policies and practices for the protection of the poor during the period in which socialism was the official doctrine in Yugoslavia (1945-1991). The introductory part of the paper is followed by the Marxist explanations of poverty and their adaptation in socialist Yugoslavia. The description and analysis of poverty during the socialist period in Yugoslavia, as well as its ideological and administrative constructions and reconstructions in and through the social welfare system are put forward in the central part of the paper. The objective of the paper is to present the way that the concept of poverty was framed in the policy field, how it was interpreted, as well as how thesepolicies were implemented with a view to guaranteeing “freedom from necessity” in the society of post-war Yugoslavia. The methodological approach deployed is the qualitative analysis.
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U vrijeme Jugoslavije, domaći dramski pisci igrali su se nekako podjednako na pozornicama od Vardara pa do Triglava, a jedino pitanje bilo je leži li nekome na primjer više Miroslav Krleža ili Branislav Nušić, Ranko Marinković ili Duško Kovačević. Naravno, u vrijeme socijalizma bilo je i tzv. disidenata, “zabranjenih” pisaca i tabu tema, u slučaju kojih bi se ljudi od teatra dosjetili jadu pa bi se provokativni komadi, kao recimo “Oslobođenje Skoplja” ili “Karamazovi”, prema tekstovima Dušana Jovanovića i u režiji turbo provokativnog Ljubiše Ristića, najprije igrali u Zagrebu pa onda bilo gdje drugdje. Slično je bilo i sa “Šovinističkom farsom” Radoslava Pavlovića koja se, uz škrgut zuba partijskih komiteta, malo igrala u Beogradu, malo u Zagrebu. [...]
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Sustainable development is connected to socio-economic development. Because of this, the position and development of the middle class in Southeastern European countries is crucial in understanding the challenges for climate policies. From the outset, it seems that the middle class in the Southeast is more concerned with living standards and jobs than with climate change, as voiced by political leaders. However, in this paper I argue the middle class in the Southeast is seriously worried about climate change. The nature of the climate problem has a tragic element, that is rooted in its long time span and potential catastrophic impact. The middle class is typically associated with long-term thinking and responsibility across generations. Because of this, I argue that it would be surprising for it to not be a concern to the middle class. This is backed up by the data, which shows a great concern for climate change among the population of the Southeastern countries. Hence, support for climate policies might be much larger than indicated by the statements from politicians, including the role of the EU in this process.
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Young people are an important factor in every society, particularly in post-socialist societies, that have experienced mostly formal, but not quite substantive changes. Basing on the perspective of sustainable change, this paper aims to explore the openness to change as the value among young people in post-socialist countries of Southeast Europe. At the beginning of 2019, the voluntary and anonymous online survey was conducted on the sample of 1419 young people in seven post-socialist countries of Southeast Europe: Bosnia and Herzegovina, Croatia, Hungary, Montenegro, North Macedonia, Serbia, and Slovenia. Shalom Schwartz’s model (1992; 2012; 2017) on basic human values was used as a research tool. Openness to change, according to Schwartz, means “freedom of thought and action and a propensity for change” as opposed to the value of conservation, which means “obedience and limiting one’s actions to maintain the status quo” (Schwartz, 1992). The results of the MANOVA indicate that there are no statistically significant differences in the respondents’ level of openness to change across the observed countries. Still, there are statistically significant differences concerning the economic status of respondents: openness to change is more important to respondents of lower economic status. One can assume that young people who live in poverty are more affected by transitional problems of their societies and need sustainable changes more than their peers who have an average or above-average economic condition.
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The analysis is set within the broader field of Internet sociology and focuses on the overlap between the economic, social, and technological structures. It looks into the processes behind the historical rise and transformation of the Internet infrastructure and the market of internet service providers in Bulgaria (1990-2000). It uses the Actor-Network theory and methodology, specifically M. Callon’s Theory of translation, to explore the intermingling between online piracy and the construction of a technological infrastructure for the telecommunication market. The main idea of the research is that the widespread piracy among domestic users structures and determines the direction for the particular technological trajectory that Bulgaria took. The text shows how piracy emerges during market competition and the post-socialist breakdown of the old institutional ties between the numerous economic actors that build an alternative market for access to pirated internet content. The outcome from this is a local infrastructure adapted to the transfer of large amounts of data that peer-to-peer users (p2p) share with each other. Different types of strategies by consumers are differentiated between, as well as the ways they affect the technological transfer and their link to the economic actors/stakeholders/parties that implement the new technologies. For the purpose of the analysis, data has been collected from online discussion forums, where the demand and the supply side meet.
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