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This paper provides a framework for the analysis of social movements, drawing on political process theory (PPT). The author argues that the concept of political opportunity structure is still adequate, although it has to be re-conceptualized at various points. Firstly, when analyzing contentious politics or collective action, it is much more suitable to handle the social movement as the unit of analysis rather then the protest event. Attention should also be paid to how the concept is applied. Finally, cultural aspects & the context of multilevel governance are implemented into PPT. This framework is used in the second part of the paper to analyze the Czech women's movement between 1989 & 2006. Adapted from the source document.

Ten topics are identified for future sociological research in the Czech Republic, noting that it must shift its focus to adequately cope with the qualitative historical & societal changes of today's world: (1) the history of sociology, (2) the globalization process, (3) the sociology of networks, (4) modernization problems, (5) the postcommunist societal transformation (testing the theory of convergence), (6) the socioprofessional structure, (7) the Czech brand of multiculturalism, (8) the sociology of economics, (9) postmodern criticism of traditional sociological conceptual apparatus, & (10) the sociology of ecology & the ecological issues in the risk society.

The author reviews the theory of socio-economic inequality in health & concludes that the use of cultural values to explain the ubiquitous association between the socio-economic standing (SES) of individuals & their health is becoming increasingly prominent. Inspired by this, the author examines whether & to what extent several aspects of lay knowledge about & attitudes towards health can explain the social gradient in subjective health in Central & Eastern Europe. The author uses data from the second round of the European Social Survey & limits the analysis to data from the Czech Republic, Hungary, Poland, Slovakia, & Slovenia. The data show that while there is a strong relationship between education & subjective health & also a relationship between education & various measures of lay knowledge about health, beliefs about health are only very weakly related to subjective health & thus fail to account for its dependence on SES. The author concludes that this may be the result of reciprocal causation between lay knowledge & subjective health. More enhanced research designs would be required in order to gain a better empirical evaluation of the causal relationships between SES, lay knowledge, & health.

Peripheral regions are most often described in terms of economic geography. However, this study stresses more the sociological aspects of peripheries, studying not only the causes, but also the social effects of life in peripheral regions. The authors use the term 'inner peripheries' because most of the peripheral regions detected in their analyses are located in the inner parts of the country, mainly along the borders of the administrative regions (kraje). Their approach combines the concept of the life world (espace vécu) as defined by A. Frémont and A. Giddens when describing the social and cultural consequences of living in peripheries, and a modified version of G. Myrdal´s theory of cumulative circular causation when trying to explain the origin and growth of peripheries. In the Czech Republic inner peripheries are usually the peripheral zones of metropolitan areas and regional centre areas. In the mid-1990s population numbers stopped declining in some peripheries as a result of suburbanisation processes, but in other peripheries depopulation processes continued. This last category of inner peripheries can be described as the hard core of Czech peripheral regions and in the authors' opinion they warrant the development of specifi c regional policy measures, stressing the creation of new jobs, the improvement of public transport, greater accessibility of service centres, and co-operation among communities.

The article discusses the normative responses of the tradition of Rawls's political philosophy to the fact that globalization is not working according to the principles of distributive justice and that the existing global distribution of income and wealth is highly unjust. The first section presents the cosmopolitan theories of Charles Beitz and Thomas Pogge, both of whom draw their concepts from Rawls's masterpiece "Theory of Justice". These advocates of the Rawlsian approach see our world as forming one basic global structure that entails complex economic, political and cultural relationships across state borders. These relationships have important distributive implications that require the application of Rawlsian principles of justice at the transnational level. In the second part, Rawls's work developed in "The Law of Peoples", which is the extension of his own approach to the transnational domain, is critically examined. Its major notions (Society of Peoples, liberal and decent peoples, outlaw states and burdened societies, etc.), as well as the reasons for rejecting this approach from a cosmopolitan point of view are closely analyzed. In the third part, globalism and statism are conceived of as two main paradigms of current debate on global and international justice. The article concludes with the thesis that Rainer Forst's conception of transnational justice may provide the possible transcendence of this opposition. Adapted from the source document.