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The article describes the development of Czech social policy & the issues that have surrounded it since 1989. The author begins by describing the character of the communist welfare state & outlining its theoretical alternatives. Despite the introduction of energetic changes during the early years of transition, since the mid-1990s the area of social policy has been dominated by stagnation, & instead of any real & specific efforts in this area there are only debates. Despite all the problems that plague the current social policy, at present the system performs satisfactorily, as is evident in the very low rate of poverty. However, in the long run, concerns may arise over inadequate family situations, a frozen pension system, & poor work motivation. The 'reform' year of 2005 has seen the emergence of many different efforts relating to social policy, but it has not heralded any substantial changes aimed at a more efficient functioning of the system.

The analysis builds on existing empirical and theoretical literature in the field of job polarization, which is primarily focused on advanced economies. Hypotheses of the incidence of "skill-biased" and "routine-biased" technical change in the Visegrad group countries are verified in the analysis. The aim is to find out whether the impact of technical change on the labour market in the V4 countries is similar to or different than that in advanced economies. The analytical part is primarily performed on the EU-LFS. The results suggest that the structure of the labour market has changed in the V4 countries in a heterogeneous way. In Hungary and Slovakia, there was an apparent slight job polarization over the period under review. In addition, the evidence suggests that the technical change in these countries may be of a "routine-biased" nature. On the contrary, the pattern of "upgrading" was evident in the Czech Republic and Poland, where the evidence suggests "skill-biased" technical change.

Environmental change (including climate change) affects natural and socio-economic systems as well as migration patterns. Migration is a part of the cultural habits of various societies and serves as a survival or personal development strategy. If we focus on the relationship between migration and climate change (in terms of changes of temperatures, changes of precipitation patterns, extreme weather events occurrence, etc.), migration could be perceived as a short-term coping strategy or a long-term adaptation strategy. The main aim of the paper is to deal with the relationship between climate change and the migration strategies of various peoples who immigrate as a reaction to changes in their living conditions. Two case studies from South Asia and Sub-Saharan Africa demonstrate two different approaches of local communities to tackling the impacts of climate change. The empirical qualitative field research showed that the communities from South Asia perceived climate change as one of the significant factors encouraging migration, while in Sub-Saharan Africa migration on such a substantial scale in relation to climate change did not take place. Adapted from the source document.

The Czech Language Instit provides consulting services, viz, questions about current usage, to a wide audience, from curious laypeople to scholars, in an institutional (ie, academic) setting. The institute, represented by the Prague Linguistic Council of the Czech Academy of Sciences' Instit for the Czech Language, is accessible by phone, mail, & drop-in appointment to any interested speaker of Czech needing information on pronunciation, orthography, semantics, etymology, usage, et al. A staff of linguists is on hand to answer all relevant questions. The requests received & characteristics of those who have contacted the institute are described.

The article focuses on the changes in the determination of educational aspirations that took place in the Czech Republic during its social, political and economic transformation. The aim of the article is to contribute to a deeper understanding of the changes in the stratification system after 1989, which were significantly influenced by changes in the causal mechanisms behind the formation of educational aspirations. Those changes in the determinants of educational aspirations were themselves largely driven by the expansion of economic returns to education and thus the increasing significance of education for life success. The empirical research is based on a comparison of data from the 'Family '89' (Rodina '89) survey conducted in January 1989 and the Czech module of the longitudinal survey PISA-L 2003. The analyses were carried out with the hypothesis that the social origin of the background family had a much stronger direct impact on the educational aspirations of adolescents in 1989, while in 2003 social origin had a much stronger indirect influence. The stronger direct impact in 1989 was due to the very limited access to higher education under socialism and the role higher education played in the reproduction of the cultural elite. But with the gradual expansion of, and the rapidly increasing returns to, higher education during the transition period, social origin began to have a largely indirect effect on aspirations, particularly through the value pupils began to place on higher education as a means of ensuring a higher degree of life success. The authors' empirical findings confirm the hypothesis about the change from direct to indirect effects and highlight the importance of researching educational aspirations from a historical point of view and in the context of social change.

Text reflektuje úlohu vysokých škol ve společenských změnách, konkrétně v procesech transformace společnosti k udržitelnému rozvoji. Vychází z dokumentu Úmluva o vysokoškolském vzdělávání pro udržitelný rozvoj, který vznikl a byl představen u příležitosti konference Rio+20 v roce 2012 a který předkládá vizi celkové proměny univerzit související s celospolečenskými požadavky na udržitelné vzdělávání ‑ zahrnuje všechny aspekty života vysokoškolských institucí (výuku, správu, vzdělávací politiku). V tomto rámci autoři ukazují hlavní, v současné době probíhající změny ve vysokoškolském vzdělávání, a to v šesti okruzích, které zahrnují: hodnotové předpoklady akce, holistický přístup, změny v nakládání se znalostmi, důraz na procesy učení a na kompetence (jejichž význam mezi vzdělávacími cíli roste), a způsoby hodnocení kvality procesu a výsledku učení. Rekapitulují dopad těchto trendů v českém vzdělávacím prostředí i možnosti budoucího vývoje; ukazují, jak reálně probíhající změny souvisí s proměnou vědeckých paradigmat i vzdělávacích teorií. Navrhují popsat tento vývoj jako proměnu vzdělávacího žánru, tedy především s ohledem na to, jak jsou poznatky komunikovány, jak se proměňuje způsob jejich přenosu či sdílení ve vzdělávacím procesu. Ukazují, s jakými novými charakteristikami tohoto procesu bude postupně nutno počítat, a nabízejí možná budoucí výzkumná témata s tím související. ; This paper reflects on the role of universities in social changes, particularly in processes of societal transformation towards sustainable development. It is based on the document Peoples' Sustainability Treaty on Higher Education Towards Sustainable Development, produced for and introduced on the occasion of the Rio+20 Conference in 2012, which presents a vision for an overall transformation of universities related to the society-wide requirement for sustainable education involving every aspect of higher education institutions (curricula and teaching, campus operations, community engagement, cultural change). Within this framework, the authors demonstrate the main changes currently underway in higher education within six spheres that include: value-based preconditions for action, a holistic approach, knowledge management, an emphasis on learning processes and competencies (the importance of which is growing among education objectives), and methods of evaluating quality of learning process and learning outcomes . They recapitulate the impact of these trends within the Czech education environment and opportunities for future development; they show how real world changes in progress are related to the transformation of both scientific paradigms and education theories. They propose describing this development as a change of education genre, primarily with respect to how knowledge is communicated. They show what new processes in education will gradually have to be taken into account, and offer potential future research topics related to these.

Teachings of economic policy were present at the VSE from its inception in 1953 needless to say that most activities were highly influenced by the ruling political climate. Despite all limitations there were some achievements of value, esp. works of prof. Olsovsky and his team in 50s and early 60s. Till the economic reform of Ota Sik was real engagement people from the VSE in economic policy limited (Kurt Rozsypal arrived to the VSE years after his reform was already enacted). 70s were again years of high political influence characterized by creation of Institute of Marxism-Leninism where consisting of all original social science departments 80s were characterized by the hidden duality of teaching when dominating teachings of political economy of socialism was supplemented by teachings of political economy of capitalism mostly in a guise of history of economic theories. In 90s a full renaissance of economic policy as a subject followed. Adapted from the source document.

Pátý svazek Soudobé sociologie je venován rozmanitým teoretickým prístupum k problematice sociální zmeny. V protikladu ke všemu, co je statické, znamená sociální zmena dynamiku a diskontinuitu. Týká se sociálních struktur, kulturních vzorcu, spolecností, jejich subsystému, organizací, institucí a skupin. Kniha se zabývá problematikou evolucní teorie, sociokulturní zmeny, moci, revoluce, formování státu, utvárení národní identity a demokracie. K dalším tématum patrí promeny casovosti, individualizace, modernizace, teorie závislosti, globalizace, sociální hnutí, v neposlední rade i metodologické

This article deals with the Europeanization of the German parliament as a difficult process of finding a relationship between the German government (Bundesregierung), upper chamber (Bundesrat) & lower chamber (Bundestag) concerning EU-related affairs. One of the results of the recent process of Europeanization is the loss of influence of parliaments in EU member countries. The decision-making process within the Council of the EU can hardly be followed by parliaments & parliamentary committees. This has led to adaptation processes within the polities of EU member countries. This article follows the development of EC & EU-related institutions & committees in both chambers of the German parliament, as well as agreements & changes to the German constitutions adopted in order to assure that the parliament would not lose its influence in EU-related affairs during the period from 1957 to 2006. The conclusion is that there were differences between both chambers of parliament in the way they tried to secure their interests. However, both chambers partly lost their influence although they changed their structures & negotiated new agreements trying to secure their positions. Adapted from the source document.

This article examines the relationship between transitional justice and reconciliation in Bosnia and Herzegovina. The author aims to answer the question how, to what extent and on the basis of what mechanisms transitional justice contributes to reconciliation. In the first, descriptive part of the article she introduces the term and the mechanisms of transitional justice, and in the second, analytical part she examines their concrete form in Bosnia and Herzegovina and their contribution to the process of reconciliation, which is understood here as a renewal of relationships between individuals and a recognition of one's own responsibility for past wrongs. The author concludes that transitional justice contributes to the reconciliation process only in a limited way because of its low trustworthiness, its low visibility and the overly small investments in its measures. To bring about a societal change transitional justice needs to be implemented better, in a more thorough and sensitive way and especially visibly, above all in terms of restorative justice and truth telling. Adapted from the source document.

Název článku věrně vystihuje jeho podstatu – jde o bilancování práve ukončené politické kariéry jeho autora, poslance slovenského parlamentu a dvojnásobného předsedy environmentálního výboru. Dozvíme se, jak proběhl loňský rok 2015, a především, co se v něm dělo za parlamentními zdmi. Text je tak vhledem do způsobu vládnutí (nejen) na Slovensku (a nejen) v uplynulém období – ukazuje, jak rozumné přístupy a řešení vždy podléhají politickému kalkulu. Nejpoctivěji vyznívá osobní krédo Mikuláše Huby, které by se dalo shrnout jako: Pracovat a nebát se, stát si za svým. ; The title of this article precisely captures its essence – it is a review of the political career of its author, member of the Slovak Parliament and twice-chairman of the environmental committee. We learn about last year's events, and especially what was happening inside the walls of the Parliament. The text is also an insight into governance (not exclusively) in the Slovak Republic (and not only) in the recent period – it shows how reasonable approaches and solutions are always subject to political calculus. The honest-sounding personal credo of Mikuláš Huba can be summarized as: To work and not be afraid, to stand up for yourself.