Suchergebnisse

Intergroup competition and conflict create pervasive problems in human society, giving rise to such phenomena as prejudice, terrorism, ethnic cleansing, and interstate war. Citizens, policy makers, social workers, schoolteachers, and politicians wrestle with these problems, and with difficult questions these issues pose:What causes conflict to escalate?How should we manage conflict within communities, and also in society at large?Is conflict always bad, or does it have other more beneficial consequences?Social Confl.

Social psychology, as a discipline, has a long tradition of empirical and theoretical research in the field of prejudice and racism, and these are core elements of undergraduate and postgraduate teaching. Many researchers have emphasized that a variety of theoretical and conceptual approaches are necessary to fully understand this social phenomenon

An important consensus today is that intolerance and social conflict have a substantial economic dimension. This article models a person's "returns" to acts of intolerance in terms of social approval or disapproval that this person's peer-group may offer. It is found that high levels of intolerance may persist (that is, society is "in equilibrium") even as this imposes economic costs.

This paper consists of two parts. The first part, in a theoretical-hypothetical manner, discusses social organization, conflicts and criminality, while the second discusses some specific problems related to corruption and organized crime in Serbia. The first part expounds the hypothesis that the social conflicts (war, external sanctions and the breakdown of the regime) led to a deep crisis and destruction (disorganization) of the Serbian society, which directly caused the sharp increase in all kinds of criminality in Serbia. Starting from the assumption that criminality has the characteristics of a total social phenomenon as well as many faces and seamy sides, the author distinguishes three sociologically most significant social roots and forms of criminality in Serbia, that is the systemic, anomic and transitional ones. The second part specially discusses corruption as a form of systematic and transitional criminality and as the backbone of organized crime in Serbia. The author believes that the deepest causes of corruption have their roots in the old socialist system and recent transitional regimes in which the public property (state and social property) was managed by the powerful individuals and privileged groups, usually according to their own will. In that sense, the author concludes that corruption and organized crime are, on the one hand, the consequences of war and disintegration of the socialist system and the heritage of the former regime, and on the other the consequences of interest blockades in the construction of new and more efficient institutions of social control and regular mechanisms of modern development, so in that sense they are a newly-created transitional phenomenon of the unfinished democratic system. Therefore, the paper points out that the reformed and strengthened public institutions are the only serious and efficient obstacle to corruption and all other forms of organized criminality. In the first place, reforms should imply the withdrawal of the state from the direct administrative management of economic activities, leaving them to a legally ordered market. Strengthening of public institutions would imply more efficient minimal state functions; all other institutions should get, on the one hand, real means and mechanisms to implement their duties, and on the other they themselves should be under public control in their work which has to be more "transparent" than it is today.

Current migrations in Europe are the result of numerous geostrategic, political, regional, local and individual causes. They are multidimensional phenomena, whose research requires an interdisciplinary approach. The work examines the social conflicts between the domestic and the settled population, especially those based on religious fundamentalism. Firstly, the most important characteristics of contemporary Christianity and Islam, as the most dominant religions in post-secular Europe are analyzed, described and explained. It points to their prevalence, basic values, and religious (non) tolerance. It is emphasized that the misunderstanding of these religions is often the cause of religious and other conflicts. Then the social conflicts in different environments and the place the religion has in them are explored. The authors proceed from the thesis that conflicts between the domestic population (regardless of religiosity) and contemporary migrants are the result of historical, cultural, political and other social factors. Conflicts in the name of religion are just one type of social conflict, which often conceals other causes. In short, the root causes of the conflict of the local population and migrants in the areas where the aforementioned religions are dominant are explored. The most important forms, dynamics and consequences of these conflicts are listed. It is concluded that religious conflicts and contemporary migrations are another factor in the crisis and (dis)integration of Europe.