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The main objective of the article is to present the development of social work in Lithuania. The conception of social work and the social work definition problems are discussed in the first part. The absence of general social work theory and multfifunctionality of social work practice are obstacles for the unified conception of social work. The development of social work profession is discussed in the second part of the article. The roots of social work are the pseudoaltruistic behavior of animals and the proper altruistic behavior of hominids. There are eight stages of social work development in Lithuania according to author: GDL and the Union with Poland, period of Tsarist occupation, interwar independence, Models of Soviet social security, Formal acceptance of the notion of social work, professionalisation of social work, professional social work, social euro-integration. The contextual factors of social work in Lithuania are discussed in the third part of the article. The main contextual factors of social work are: socio-economical situation, legislative basis, international context, social service givers. The research in social work and the future development of social work discipline in Lithuania is discussed in the last part.

The environment, as modified and created by people, is largely about the use of information, its generation and exchange. How do recent innovations in the technologies of information management and communication affect our use of space and place, and the way we perceive and think about our surroundings? This volume provides an international, exploratory forum for the complex phenomenon of new information and communication technology as it permeates and transforms our physical world, and our relation to it: the architectural definition of our surrounding, geographical space, urban form and immediate habitats. This book is a reader, an attempt at registering disciplinary changes in context, at tracing subtexts for which most mainstream disciplines have no established language. The project is to give voice to an emerging meta-discipline that has its logic across the specializations. A wide range of professionals and academics report findings, views and ideas. Together, they describe the architecture of a postmodern paradigm: how swiftly mutating the proliferating technology applications have begun to interact with the construction and reading of physical space in architecture, economics, geography, history, planning, social sciences, transport, visual art - but also in the newer domains that have joined this spectrum through the very nature of their impacts: information technology and telecommunications. The space navigated in this volume is vast, both in physical terms and in its virtual and analogous form. It ranges from the space that immediately encompasses, or is simulated to encompass, the human body - as in buildings and virtual tectonics - to that of towns and regions. We stay clear of molecular-scale space, and of dimensions that are larger than earth

The article presents an analysis of the main methodological principles and schemes of social preferences experimental research, which are determined as a fundamental concept to understanding the behavior of decision-makers in the process of resolving social dilemmas. The models presented in the article include an analysis of the factors that determine social preferences. Among them are the factors of trust, reliability, reciprocity, rejection of inequality, unconditional altruism and competitive advantage. The article provides a description of the strengths and weaknesses of the classic methods for studying social preferences, which usually take the form of ultimatum game, dictator game, trust game and public goods game. The study reveals the importance of the Nash equilibrium as a way to interpret human behavior in resource allocation during the game. Analysis of numerous literary sources shows that the ultimatum game is a classic scheme for studying the altruistic behavior of people. The submission of a proposal and its acceptance is an example of Nash's ideal equilibrium. Deviation from this balance can be interpreted as altruism. In turn, the trust game is a classic scheme for studying the reciprocity and prosocial orientation. If the behavior of players deviates from Nash's equilibrium, it is interpreted as being caused by trust and reciprocity. The dictator game is a classic scheme for studying the rejection of inequality. The subject's behavior can be interpreted as a rejection of inequality or altruism, but not as a rejection of risk, as the offer of Player 1 is mandatory for Player 2. Public goods game is a classic scheme for studying the competitive orientation. Nash's ideal balance in this form of play is to do nothing for public consumption, but deviating from this rule is interpreted as altruistic behavior that is the opposite of competitive orientation. As a result, the design of psychological research is presented, which most accurately typologies the social preferences of the subjects and can contribute to the creation of a representative model of decision-making process.

"This book provides a comprehensive view of blogging as a global practice, looking at the new virtual world--a blogosphere--populated with opinion leaders and information purveyors, political pundits and activists, human and animal rights defenders and abusers, corruption fighters and truth seekers"--Provided by publisher

SummaryA controlled comparison study was completed using interview data from 80 women each experiencing their first pregnancy whilst single. Half of the women continued their pregnancy, in some cases marrying the father. The other half obtained an abortion. Two interviewers, one male and the other female, each completed an equal number of interviews with both groups of women.The women selected for the study had the following traits: (1) never married before this, their first conception; (2) aged 17–30 years; (3) white ethnic status; (4) had not delivered or terminated the pregnancy at the time of the interview. The sample consisted of volunteers from the ante-natal and gynaecology clinics at St Mary's Hospital Medical School and Samaritan Hospital for Women, London, W.2, and Kingston and Richmond Hospitals, Surrey.Almost all topics examined in the pre-conception period turned out to be characteristic of women experiencing their first illegitimate conception, whether or not they continued the pregnancy. A detailed examination of contraceptive background revealed no significant differences between the two groups of women, with two exceptions. Women having abortions were more likely, at the time before they conceived, to have accepted the idea of using contraception. A small number of these women were also more likely to have made an effort to obtain a clinical contraceptive device.The only other pre-conception factor found to be associated with abortion involved the relationship with the father up to the time of conception. If that relationship was uncertain, less meaningful than previous ones, or a social rather than a romantic one, the woman was more likely to terminate the pregnancy.In contrast to the pre-conception period, almost all analyses of events subsequent to conception revealed differences between the two groups of women. Both concern over being discredited by other people and concealing information about the pregnancy were traits associated with having an abortion, but in a qualitative rather than an absolute sense. These aspects of social stigma were common to all women before the first pregnancy test, but became more evident amongst women having abortions once the pregnancy had been clinically confirmed. Both concern over being discredited and concealing the pregnancy were experienced in relation to particular persons. For women terminating their pregnancies these were usually their parents.The degree of acceptability of abortion and unmarried motherhood differed between the groups, but they were similar in their views on the acceptability of marriage with pregnancy and adoption. These four alternatives were further examined in terms of the women's preferences and here the two groups differed.Finally, there were differences between the groups in the effect of the pregnancy on the relationship with the putative father. Women having abortions were more likely to find themselves in a relationship that had either finished or was likely to finish after the father knew of the pregnancy. Some were pregnant by a social acquaintance which precluded either marriage or joint parenthood.The findings are discussed in terms of the relationship between contraception and abortion for the single woman and consideration is given to the implications for fertility research and contraceptive and pregnancy services.