Research made by the Public opinion research center team as a mothly part of the "Our Society 2012" project researching the views and opinions of Czech citizens. Data collection was done by the Public opinion research center interviewers network.
Research made by the Public opinion research center team as a mothly part of "Our Society 2006" project researching views and opinions of Czech citizens. Data collection was done by the Public opinion research center interviewers network.
The Concept of the Political is the first book by Carl Schmitt translated & published in the Czech Republic. As such it deserves a treatise that would put it into the larger context of Schmitt's life & work, which is the aim of this review essay. Therefore key concepts (not only) from The Concept of the Political are explained. The essay also goes beyond the classical labeling of Schmitt as realist & focuses also on his more general critique of modernity & of the technological thought characteristic of our epoch. This way we can better understand why Schmitt fascinates the contemporary left as well as right. It also shows his relevance to many current discussions, for example those concerning the War on Terror. How shall we classify Guantanamo? As an example par excellence of a decision of a sovereign in exceptional circumstances, or as a result of the depoliticisation of the political? This essay, however, does not give a specific answer to this question. Rather, it is intended as an introduction of this "Schmittian" debate to the Czech academic milieu. Adapted from the source document.
The article examines the meanings that space and things acquire in the context of ageing and old age. The author draws on a study that was conducted with the objective of understanding the signifi cance of autonomy in old age and the ways in which the elderly attempt to maintain it. The data from this study were subjected to a follow-up qualitative analysis based on the reformulated research question: 'What role do space and things play in the life of a senior as a person of a certain age at a certain period of life?' The results of the analysis are presented in the third part of the article, following sections devoted to the subject of space and things in sociological gerontology and to a description of the methodology used in the cited research. The analysis reveals that space and things are meaningful elements in the lives of seniors, who place them within three main frames: physical independence or personal autonomy and security, integration into informal social networks, and the home as a subjective centre of community. Space and things clearly become an important part of the strategies of 'coping with ageing'.
In the article, issues relating to the sociopolitical measures aimed at increasing flexibility in managing the relationship between the spheres of work & family on the individual level of life strategies are examined within the framework of the gender theories of organization. The environment of management is described as a gender regime in which an organizational masculinity functions. This a priori establishes unequal conditions for the formation of women's career patterns. On the basis of a case study of the life strategies of women in managerial positions & other results drawn from research on the management environment from a gender perspective, the author identifies strategies employed toward women, who in the management environment are in the position of tokens, by the gender regime & its actors in the highest positions of the organizational hierarchy, & identifies the strategies that in connection with these conditions are created by women who desire to succeed in an environment set up in this way. The certain degree of flexibility that on the individual level can be achieved in the management environment is founded on a gender contract, which in the end continues to disadvantage women because it emerges in connection with the given structure of set rules of the environment. If flexibility is to be introduced as a nondiscriminatory mechanism, organizational masculinity as such must be called into question.
A specifi c feature of Czech women today, who are timing the motherhood or staying childless after thirty, stems from their socialisation in a different political and demographical regime than they were in at the start of their reproductive period. The changes connected with the transformation of Czech society after 1989 affected their life courses. Instead of following the demographic behaviour of their mothers why do these women postpone motherhood to a later age or remain childless? What do the life courses and reproductive strategies of contemporary women over thirty look like? The qualitative research discussed in this article is based on in-depth interviews with primaparas over thirty and their childless peers conducted in order to examine the dynamics and character of their decision to become a mother. The research applied grounded theory and identifi ed fi ve different types of reproductive strategies: 'to have a child no matter what', 'to have a child with the right partner', 'waiting for the right time', 'hesitating over whether to have a child or not', 'not having a child'. Consequently the specific sources of these strategies were described. Background family experiences combined with the experiences from the period of childlessness in adulthood can lead to the development of an 'individualised habitus', which can block the transition to the motherhood phase. In the Czech context the development of an individualised habitus can be strengthened by the unequal distribution of gender roles in the family of origin as well as in partnerships in adulthood.
In this article the authors map the theoretical arguments on the gender dimension of the welfare state. They propose three integral dimensions of conceptualising the exercise of parenthood in Czech society in relation to gender equality in the labour market that co-determine the position of parents in the labour market. The authors analyse these dimensions using data from two representative sociological surveys. 1) The right to be a parent (to care for one's child) and the right to work: the measures provided in the Czech welfare state are based on the myth that there are two separate worlds of work and care in conformity with the gender principle, even though there are no significant differences between Czech men and women in terms of the value of work in their lives. 2) Equality or non-discrimination in parenthood: the right to work of mothers of young children is violated in the context of generally increasing gender inequalities in the labour market. 3) The opportunity to achieve a work/life balance: in Czech society flexible forms of employment are uncommon, working hours tend to have a fi xed start and finish, or there is negative flexibility, which renders a work/life balance impossible. The way in which state policy defi nes and employers apply the conditions of parenthood in relation to the labour market and in the context of the gender structure of Czech society makes parenthood a significant handicap for the social inclusion of women who are mothers of young children in the Czech Republic.
Current demographic trends are calling forth the need to redefine the meaning of old age and its place in society. The concept of active ageing can be seen as a reaction to these efforts to reconceptualise life in old age. This article first briefly describes the context that gave rise to the term 'active ageing' and how this concept is framed as 'ageing well' in national and international documents and in the discourse of gerontology. Based on ethnographic studies of two centres offering leisure activities for seniors (mainly using participant observation and in-depth and informal interviews with clients and employees), the article shows 1) how the idea of active ageing and generally of being active as an desirable or undesirable lifestyle in old age is constructed in the framework of the centre's general operations, and 2) how the clients themselves relate to this idea. The objective of the article is to reveal the significance of active ageing in the formation of a normative image of 'ageing well', which on the one hand helps seniors break away from stereotypical notions of ageing, but on the other hand generates new inequalities based on the ability or willingness to 'age actively'.
The aim of this article is to provide insight into the circumstances of long-term unemployed graduates of (mostly) non-GCSE vocational programmes from the perspective of their transition to adulthood. The analytical framework used for this research is life course theory, according to which it is possible to approach the transition from youth to adulthood as a multiple transition. This point corresponds well with reality because young people follow at least three trajectories on their way to adulthood: from school to work, from family of origin to family of procreation, and from dependence to independence. The data necessary for the analysis were collected through repeated biographical and semi-structured interviews with 14 long-term unemployed graduates of non-GCSE vocational programmes and 6 employed graduates of vocational programmes as a reference group. Their implicit theories of adulthood, progress on the path to adulthood, and everyday strategies were examined in a qualitative data analysis, with special attention paid to contextual aspects. As for the dominant form of transition, the author found that long-term unemployment has a delaying impact on the transition to adulthood, above all owing to financial strain. These people suffer from prolonged economical dependency on their parents and remain at the threshold of the socially constructed path to adulthood. Typically there social status is vague.