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Starting from the idea that modern security is no longer strictly a matter of state and military threats, the Copenhagen School has developed an extended security concept based on security sectors and securitization theory. In this context, it has developed a special security sector, called societal security, to address the conservation capacity of a society by preserving its identity, spiritual values and perennial character. From this perspective, contemporary societal security is the subject of a variety of risks and threats, among which those due to the process of regionalization and European integration occupy a central place. This article is focused on introducing the societal security concept and analyzing its mining in the current european geopolitical context.
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Societal security, as developed by the Copenhagen School of Security, is an extremely important area of the broader contemporary security concept which, in addition to military issues, also takes into account a number of other threats coming from the fields such as political, economic, societal or environmental ones. In the study of contemporary societal security, a number of concepts specific to the theory of complex systems, such as complexity, self-organization, the threshold of chaos, etc., have been borrowed, which have substantially enriched the hermeneutics of security discourse on the basis of non-mechanistic interpretations of social systems.This article aims to show that in the study of societal security the use of tools specific to the study of modern complex systems has produced quite interesting results, which could give a new meaning to the research in this field.
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Starting from the idea that modern security is no longer strictly a matter of state and military threats, the CopenhagenSchool has developed an extended security concept based on security sectors and securitization theory. In this context, it hasdeveloped a special security sector, called societal security, to address the conservation capacity of a society by preservingits identity, spiritual values and perennial character. From this perspective, contemporary societal security is the subject ofa variety of risks and threats, among which those due to the process of regionalization and European integration occupya central place. This article is focused on introducing the societal security concept and analyzing its mining in the currenteuropean geopolitical context.
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Societal security, as developed by the Copenhagen School of Security, is an extremely important area of the broadercontemporary security concept which, in addition to military issues, also takes into account a number of other threats comingfrom the fields such as political, economic, societal or environmental ones. In the study of contemporary societal security, anumber of concepts specific to the theory of complex systems, such as complexity, self-organization, the threshold of chaos,etc., have been borrowed, substantially enriching the hermeneutics of security discourse on the basis of non-mechanisticinterpretations of social systems. This article aims to show that in the study of societal security the use of tools specific to thestudy of modern complex systems has produced quite interesting results, which could give a new meaning to the research inthis field. At the same time, the paper presents some conclusions regarding the methodology of analysis specific to the scienceof complexity applicable to the field of societal security.
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In an increasingly interconnected and interdependent world, intercultural approaches contribute to ensuring and maintaining human security. In various forms of materialization, they promote open, tolerant, accepting and understanding attitudes, as well as the recognition and respect for cultural differences among people. Intercultural education, appreciated as a new level of education necessary for the realities of today’s world and a means of resolving intercultural conflicts, corresponds to the third pillar of education inscribed in the UNESCO Report on 21st Century Education – the habit of living together with the others. For human security, intercultural education has an essential role, contributing to reducing various and multiple challenges by promoting values and attitudes, such as: respect for dignity and human rights, tolerance, understanding, openness to cultural differences, civic spirit. The objective of this scientific approach is to highlight the fact that intercultural education involves an approach with an important contribution in support of human security; in order to achieve this objective, we will bring theoretical clarifications and we will highlight intercultural educational approaches at international and national level and within the European Union.
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In an increasingly interconnected and interdependent world, intercultural approaches contribute to ensuring and maintaining human security. In various forms of materialization, they promote open, tolerant, accepting and understanding attitudes, as well as the recognition and respect for cultural differences among people. Intercultural education, appreciated as a new level of education necessary for the realities of today’s world and a means of resolving intercultural conflicts, corresponds to the third pillar of education inscribed in the UNESCO Report on 21st Century Education – the habit of living together with the others. For human security, intercultural education has an essential role, contributing to reducing various and multiple challenges by promoting values and attitudes, such as: respect for dignity and human rights, tolerance, understanding, openness to cultural differences, civic spirit. The objective of this scientific approach is to highlight the fact that intercultural education involves an approach with an important contribution in support of human security; in order to achieve this objective, we will bring theoretical clarifications and we will highlight intercultural educational approaches at international and national level and within the European Union.
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In the state socialist system sociology could establish its reason for existence and construct its identity by merely emphasizing the objectivity of its scientific investigations (since to the „real” processes even the power had to pay attention). In this role-interpretation – that can be called ‘socialist modernity’ – the missionary zeal of science, its faith in development, scientific objectivity and in the cognizability of social reality concealed the inevitable, indirect effort of the ideology of power. The discipline has built up it myths in accordance with that concealment. The conclusions of historical studies on state socialism – seemingly well grounded and referenced – are often not only based on the phenomena examined but are also coloured by the period’s accepted conceptual framework. Our present knowledge about the society of the era is, to a large extent, based on these concepts, too. It is this lack of conceptual self-reflection with regard to historiography that explains why several historians believe they are discussing social reality, but are in actual fact only interpreting categories formulated in the wake of various party decrees. Unless we are able to uncover the effects of the identity policy that worked to create the virtual reality of state socialist society, unless we recognize the nature and operation of the various discourses of power and science, we cannot reach a reliable understanding of the period’s phenomena.
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The paper discusses the collaboration network of local governments through their tendering activity. Although many tenders in the Hungarian tendering system have given special attention to those joint actions that targeted cross developments of multiple localities, collaboration between local governments in the tendering activity cannot be considered typical. This observation is corroborated by our research conducted in 2009–2010, mapping all tender collaborations by local governments in the Kaposvár sub-region, a total of 54 localities. Our research identified a social network with structural holes of tender collaboration between local governments in the sub-region. Network structural holes allow the presence of a ‘third party’ that profits from this network structure. This paper seeks to identify which actors benefit from the structural characteristics of the collaboration network of local governments in tendering activity.
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Since the outbreak of the financial and economic crisis in 2008, protests against austerity and raising social inequality have increasingly taken place in many regions of the world. Central and Eastern Europe is one of those regions, and has recently experienced several large-scale protest movements. These protests were partially triggered by intensified austerity measures, higher unemployment rates and growing dissatisfaction with democracy. However, the particular reasons to protest are diverse, ranging from environmental to social or anti-corruption issues. Despite the differences that exist in Central and Eastern Europe countries, we argue that they share a common pattern in terms of the societal environment of protest. As a first step, we will critically assess the forms of protest participation in Central and Eastern Europe and map out common features of the identified crisis-prone development since 1989. In the subsequent part, we will argue that such features as the growing gap between the political elite and citizens, harsh individual economic conditions and a high level of frustrated expectations have become more visible and have heavily contributed to the increasing unrest. We conclude that the crisis-prone development since 1989 has created an ambivalent ecology of protest in Central and Eastern Europe. The vast majority of citizens face economic hardship and do not have the means to interfere with or participate in democratic processes as effectively as the political and economic elites do. A growing number of citizens, however, appear to be more willing to raise their voices visibly in public. Secondly, the increase in protests indicates a deeper societal crisis. In this sense, Central and Eastern Europe can be understood as a “laboratory” for testing the social conditions of democracy.
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The European Social Model involves among other things: fundamental social rights, social protection and social dialogue. The neoliberal path chosen by Europe combined with the financial crisis led to the introduction of austerity measures that endanger key elements of that model. Europe and its Member States have common and national mechanisms to ensure distributive justice, citizens’ participation and the continuity of the European Social Model even when it is threatened by international financial conditions or the political choices of its rulers. As a part of the ETHOS Struggles for Justice – Impact of Social and EU Charters in times of crisis project, our research aims to answer two leading questions: to what extent is the national social dialogue a democratic instrument that uses horizontal and democratic processes and whether it is a powerful instrument for the preservation of the European Social Model? Our paper reports on the actual status and functioning of social dialogue as a mechanism to produce a more effective enjoyment of labour rights between the different political and social actors in Hungary. We interviewed key actors of trade unions and confederations, lead character of an employers’ association, and analysed the relevant international and national legal framework concerning social dialogue. The case studies focus on two special – strongly polarised and politicised – areas: healthcare and public education. Interviews conducted with sectoral representatives aim to find out the different perceptions about the practices of social dialogue and social partners’ views on the role of the state in social dialogue.
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Partisan attachments have a strong effect on how people perceive political actions and how they evaluate new political information. Accordingly, people perceive less corruption, have more trust in the national government, and are more satisfied with how political institutions and democracy work in their countries if their preferred party is in office. This paper investigates whether partisan cues have a similar effect outside the political world, namely, whether being attached to an incumbent party predicts one’s happiness. The analysis uses data from the European Social Survey, including seven survey rounds from 30 European countries between 2002 and 2015. Regression models suggest that being attached to an incumbent party increases happiness. Moreover, the interaction effects show that the closer people feel to their preferred party, the larger the happiness gap is between government and opposition supporters. These results show that partisan motivations are in play in the non-political sphere of life as well, and they complement earlier research showing an intense, but short-term effect of winning an election on voters’ happiness.
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The aim of the study is to investigate Hungarian citizens’ associations with democracy through the data of the Participation, Representation, Partisanship (NKFI-119603) research. Beyond examining Hungarian citizens’ interpretation of the concept the paper also explores correlations to political beliefs, economic performance and demographic differences. We also present the change in satisfaction with democracy and partisan polarization over time in Europe, using data from the European Social Survey (ESS). Our results, in line with party polarization theories, prove that satisfaction with democracy is related to political preferences: pro-government voters are far more satisfied with democracy than opposition voters. Among the examined European countries, the difference is outstandingly large in Hungary, moreover, it has been growing steadily in recent years. However, partisanship prevails not only in terms of satisfaction with democracy, but also regarding the interpretation of democracy. Pro-government voters described democracy in different words than opposition voters, who came across as very disappointed in 2018.
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Although political followership is a spectacular and vital process in modern politics, political science and political leadership studies do not pay enough attention. Political scholars have to face various distorting effects and conceptual problems when looking for the answers to why and how followers relate to their leaders and what is the role of followership in politics. So, our knowledge is incomplete and limited. This ‘stateof-the-art’ review undertakes to understand the role of political followers and followership on a theoretical and conceptual level supported by empirical results. I formulate two specific goals. On the one hand, I show how political science and political leadership studies describe the relationship between leaders and followers, pointing out their conceptual limitations. On the other hand, I intend to introduce follower-centric models of generic leadership studies with a cognitive and social psychological background to political science to gain more insight into political leadership and a deeper understanding of the role of followers in the political world. To do this, I synthesise leadership relationship processes described by these models and summarise their relevant empirical results. The follower-centric perspective can establish a promising research agenda for future studies in political science.
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Starting from an inquiry made with Romanian intellectuals, from ananalysis of books published by intellectuals of various professions (philosophers,sociologists, historians, psychologists), and from the texts published in the pressof the time, especially in the review ‘22’ of the Group for Social Dialogue, wewould like to study herein the relation between intellectual engagement throughjournalism end the interest for science of intellectuals after 1989. We are goingto identify hereby the possible functions of the intellectual engagement, as wellas the benefit and the risk it may encounter along with the form of politicalengagement of the intellectuals. The question here points to the assertion for anew authority of alumni and young intellectuals aiming at achieving a universitystatute and at building a new competence in order to satisfy the demands forrenewal in social science and the humanities.
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On the Discussion between the Czech Media Mainstream and its Leftist Alternative from the Perspective of the Left. This paper deals with the quality and the character of the interaction between actors in the Czech media sphere. The research fills the research gap by addressing the specific interaction of ideological opponents between journalists. The analysis begins with a quantitative finding that whereas the alternative media left publishes reactions to the mainstream media in its own media outlets, it does not publish them in the mainstream and the mainstream does not react to the leftist alternative. The factors that contribute to this one-sidedness according to the authors of the collected reactions include the lack of interest to publish opinion reactions on the side of the mainstream, the expectation of this lack on the side of the alternative, easier communication with the alternative leftist outlets, and a lack of space for reactions in the mainstream. The impact of such a disruption in one form of the public debate is according to the alternative left the building of opinion bubbles and a general threat to the democratic public discussion. Sociológia 2021, Vol. 53 (No. 6: 549-576)
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Why do People Vote for a Populist Radical Right? Geographical Analysis of Populist Radical Right Support in Czechia and Slovakia. Nowadays, the electoral success of the populist radical right is increasing across Europe. The objective of the study is to identify social factors which can potentially explain the geographical variability of the populist radical right in Czechia and Slovakia. The empirical analysis was based on multiple regression analysis. The results have shown that populist radical right parties in Czechia have larger support in districts with a lower voter turnout in the elections to the European parliament. And the share of the population with Slovak nationality is the most crucial factor for populist radical parties in Slovakia. Sociológia 2021, Vol. 53 (No. 6: 577-598)
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Social Policies and Emotions. A Look from the Global South, by Angélica De Sena and Adrian Scribano (Palgrave Macmillan, 2020)
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The article deals with the topic of the information bubble and various translations of the English term filter bubbles into Polish. It proposes a division into a filter bubble and a selection bubble, which together form an information bubble. In addition, it analyzes the advantages and disadvantages of individual bubbles. The research covered comments of Internet users on websites and on Facebook posts of Gazeta Wyborcza and wPolityce.pl to check the differences and similarities between the liberal and conserva- tive bubble, as well as the selection and filter bubble.
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"Wars of modern tribes" - an interview with Professor Michał Paweł Markowski
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