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The objective of this article is to show how issues concerning women in science and the problem of gendered science, often treated separately, are interconnected. To examine how research on women in science and research on gender and science relate to each other, some feminist epistemological perspectives, mainly feminist contextual empiricism, are used in order to show how the feminist philosophical conceptual framework may be useful for understanding the problems currently faced by women in science. After reflecting and elaborating on the very thesis of gendered science, the author analyses in more detail the concept of epistemic communities and the concept of trust as an epistemic factor. Through these concepts the author argues that philosophical/epistemological considerations are fruitful for studying the experience of individual women in science. Both of these interrelated concepts are considered highly relevant in the search for an epistemological framework facilitating the thematic study of women in science on a theoretical level and research on the current situation of women in the academic world in Slovakia.

The aim of this article is to explore the various ways in which people represent social groups. The author shows that a prominent role in such processes is played by psychological essentialism. People represent some of their social identities as inherent qualities that are based on the sharing of a presumed 'essence': something unobservable, diffi cult to remove, irreversible, and causally responsible for overt behaviours. Empirical evidence suggests that no particular causal process of essence acquisition is constitutive for essentialism in folk models of society. Some authors believe that folk essentialism is necessarily connected with the presumed innateness of an essence (its biological transmission across generations). Innate potential and biological inheritance, however powerful they may be for the human cognitive mind in the domain of folk models for biology, are far from necessary in essentialist folksociological classifications. Essentialism in folk sociology is not defined by any particular causal process of essence acquisition. Even when it is possible to detect that a given group of people claim the innate essence of a particular folk sociology, it is always necessary to look for other features of essentialism (inherence, sharp boundaries, the immutability of identity, etc.). The article reviews some influential cognitive proposals concerning folk models of society (Astuti, Gil-White, Hirschfeld) and ethnicity, and provides arguments and empirical evidence collected in Western Ukraine in support of the claim that presumed innateness is not the constitutive part of folk models of society, let alone of psychological essentialism.

In the current issue of international relations we bring readers an interview with Professor Peter Drulak. It follows on interviews with important figures in the field of international relations, which we published in 2010 and 2011 Petr Drulak is a researcher at the Institute of International Relations (DPE), where from 2004-2013 he worked as a director. He teaches at the Department of International Relations at the Institute of Political Studies Faculty of Social Sciences of Charles University. Monograph is the author of several textbooks including the first Czech Theories of International Relations (Drulak 2003) and political research methodology (Drulak 2008a). He published many scientific articles and chapters focusing on international relations theory, European integration and the Czech foreign policy. In his last book, Politics disinterest (Drulak 2012) is devoted crisis policy in the Czech Republic and the West. In 2000-2004 he was chief editor of International Relations, is currently a member of the editorial board. Adapted from the source document.

"The aim of this paper is to introduce one of the classical sociological research conducted by Paul F. Lazarsfeld and Elihu Katz in the city of Decatur (Illinois) in the Midwest of United States in 1955. The subject of the research was nonformal everyday interpersonal influence in areas of marketing, fashion, public affairs and movie going and the object was the population of women older 16 years (n = 718). By means of indicators of life cycle, social status and gregariousness the research report describes the profiles of opinion leaders in given areas and provides an answer to question if the two step flow of communication hypotheses is applicable in mentioned spheres of social life." (author's abstract)

The spatial polarisation of society is open to various research perspectives. It takes several forms and involves various epiphenomena. Consequently, it is the subject of research interest to scholars in various fi elds, especially sociologists, economists, regionalists, and regional geographers. The article focuses on selected aspects of peripherality and peripheral regions. The first part is devoted to the theoretical aspects of the polarisation of society, developmental interactions between the centre and the periphery, the relationship between peripherality and levels of hierarchy, peripherality and time, and the primary criteria of peripherality in inland and borderland regions. The second part applies theoretical-methodological findings to regions of Slovakia using selected quantitative methods. The author attempts to describe peripherality in multidimensional terms, and to identify the interconnections between various types of peripherality. Based on detailed statistical data on municipalities, he uses a broad range of indicators divided into four groups: human resources, economic potential, personal amenities, and access to centres. In conclusion the author identifies and categorises the peripheral regions of Slovakia and notes the existence of peripherality at regional and local levels.

Numerous studies have confi rmed that caring for small children is still the domain of women in Slovakia. Maternity as such is considered the natural and expected role of women and is part of the construction of femininity in Slovak society. At the same time, it is expected and routine that Slovak women participate in the labour market, and the prevailing form of employment is full-time work. This complicates efforts to harmonise work with the need to care for a small child. It is not just the country's legislative and institutional framework that shape notions about caring for small children; they are also influenced by the views and attitudes of society towards this issue. The image of a good mother is constructed, and women then try to approximate it when performing their maternal role. The prevailing ideal is of a mother who devotes herself full-time to caring for a child for the first three years of the child's life. The author of this article focuses on the context surrounding the construction of the image of a good mother as one who cares for her child until the age of three, and examines how the image of the good mother is reflected in the opinions of women on returning to work and on work/life balance. The data in this analysis are drawn from public opinion polls about early childcare and the reality of caring for small children in Slovakia and from in-depth interviews with mothers of small children. The mothers are aware of the views of society, refl ect on them, and many try to fulfil them so that they are perceived as 'good' and not 'inadequate' mothers.

Тематски Зборник Свакодневна култура у постсоцијалистичком периоду настао је као резултат научне сарадње Етнографског института САНУи Етнографског института и музеја БАН. Велике политичке и друштвене промене током деведесетих година 20.века озбиљно су се одразиле на свакодневну културу балканских земаља. Управо у периоду кризе, две суседне етнолошке установе, бугарска и српска, које више деценија током социјалисатичког периода нису сарађивале, отпочеле су заједнички рад на истраживању свакодневне културе. Зборник показује у ком правацу су се одвијали културни процеси у Србији и Бугарској, које су сличности и разлике међу њима, али и шта се дешава у постсоцијалистичком периоду у појединим сегментима свакодневне култура Словака, Руса и Македонаца. ; The Collection of Papers entitled ―Everyday Culture in post-socialist period is a result of collaboration between the Institute of Ethnography, Serbian Academy of Sciences and Arts, and the Institute of Ethnography and Museum, Bulgarian Academy of Sciences. The enormous political and social changes during the 1990's influenced also everyday culture of the Balkans states. After decades of hinder, and precisely in the period of crisis, two neighboring ethnological institutions, the Bulgarian and Serbian, started to cooperate together in the study of everyday culture.The Collection of Papers demonstrates the directions of the cultural processes in Serbia and Bulgaria, accentuating the differences and similarities among the two states, and also explains the deeds within certain segments of everyday cultures of Slovaks, Russians and Macedonians. ; Зборник радова Етнографског института САНУ 22 / Collection of Papers of the Institute of Ethnography SASA 22

The survey Values and Society During the Covid-19 Pandemic (HODYSE 2020) was designed and conducted by researchers at the Institute for Sociology of the Slovak Academy of Sciences to obtain up-to-date data on public opinion in six thematic areas: social trust, politics and democracy, conspiracy theories, vaccination, environment and leisure.
The year 2020 was a year of significant socio-political changes. Since the beginning of the year, the most important topic in the public debate and in the media has been the global pandemic of COVID-19 disease. The pandemic became a central issue of both the ending and the new government after the parliamentary elections in February 2020.
Findings from opinion polls have allowed us to capture how a pandemic has changed the traditional view of values, and how traditionally examined values have taken on new meanings. The data also document the severity of the pandemic situation during which the research was conducted (November 2020). In this context, the topics that resonated most in the public debate on COVID-19 were addressed - questions about vaccination, health concerns and the economic situation of respondents, or compliance with the measures.

It is clear from political science literature that political parties are not static entities. Similar to other political institutions, they tend to transform with time, in response to changes in their surrounding environment. If the economic, social, cultural and political parameters in society are to substantially change, it is possible to deduce a change in the role of a political party and its organisational structure. The transition from totalitarian to democratic societies in Central, and partially in Eastern Europe, presents a process so unique that one may legitimately question if this has not resulted in a serious modification of the catch-all party type. In the region of Central Europe, Czechoslovakia - and after 1993 the Czech Republic - presents a special case, where during political and economic transformation next to general features, specific factors were also enforced, which eventually influenced the set-up and formation of parties in their early stages. It is left to consideration and further scrutiny to decide whether the unrepeatable environment of the Czech-Moravian melting pot, has not cultivated the clientelistic form of political party. Adapted from the source document.