Suchergebnisse

A reply to Jan Keller (2007), Jaroslaw Kilias (2006), & Johann Arnason (2007) as critical reviewers of Machonin's Ceska spolecnost a sociologicke poznani. Problemy spolecenske transformace a modernizace od poloviny sedesatych let 20. stoleti do soucasnosti ([The Czech Society and Sociological Knowledge. Problems of Social Transformation and Modernization from the Mid 1960s to the Present] Prague: ISV, 2005). Keller's critique is found to be fed by his personal, 'hyperskeptical' & overly pessimistic, view of modernization. Kilias misreads the book in the context of his own theoretical-methodological conceptions. Arnason's criticism is discussed in more detail, addressing the following issues: (1) the variety & diversity of epistemological approaches in sociological research, (2) the liberal thought in classical Marxism & the notions of social liberalism & democratic socialism, (3) the theory of multiple modernities, & (4) the concept & term 'state socialism' & the question whether state socialism, as practiced in the Soviet bloc countries, qualifies as a special type of modernity.

This contribution is dealing with an evaluation of tourism position in the Czech society in the end of the 19th century and in the first decades of the 20th century. Tourism depending on social and economic state of society is examined as one of the attributes of modern society. The attention is preliminary paid to tourism development trends in the 19th century and to its position in the modernizing Czech society. The main part analyses tourism importance for individual social strata of the Czech society in the period under consideration. Analysis of tourism form from individual tourists' view and their preferences didn't stay out of attention.

The article presents an analysis of the performance of regional governments -- the institutions representing the self- governing regions in the Czech Republic. The authors try to answer the question of whether regional governments function similarly or whether they vary in terms of performance, & if they do vary, how structured & how large are these differences. After a review of the position occupied by the regions in the Czech public administration system, & after assessing the ways in which regional government performance can be understood & measured & the accessibility of necessary data, indicators are proposed & used to create an aggregate index of regional government performance. An analysis based on these indicators shows that there are considerable differences between regional governments in terms of the structure & the level of their performance. Based on the performance index it was possible to distinguish regions with above- average, average, & below- average regional government performance. The territorial distribution of these groups & some other factors confirm the validity of these measurements.

The results of students at different basic and secondary schools vary largely in the Czech Republic compared to other countries, and there is a strong connection between the results of students and family background. The Czech education system is also highly stratified, and student tracking begins at a young age. In this respect the most controversial element in the system are the multi-year gymnasia, the existence of which is nonetheless strongly supported by the public. This support is based on the conviction that multi-year gymnasia provide the most talented students with a good education, enable more rapid cognitive development for these students, and thus help cultivate Czech elites. This article sets out to verify whether multi-year gymnasia genuinely fulfi l the function associated with them. Hypotheses about the role of multi-year gymnasia are tested using data from the OECD PISA 2000 and OECD PISA 2006 surveys, the PISA-L longitudinal survey, and Higher Education Studies 2004 survey. The main analytic methods used are multi-level modelling and logistic regression.

This article considers the position of sociology in a nonsociological context, that is, the Czech Agricultural U in Prague. The substance of the paper is a consideration of the role of sociology in relation to rural issues, including their practical dimension as relates to rural development. The background of the paper is constituted by both discussions in the Czech lands & abroad, which address the role & position of sociology & its relation to the lay public, & the question of how (& also if) it is possible to cope with the skepticism of lay people (a skepticism that the authors have experienced in the exercise of their professional activities) in relation to the findings & information provided by sociology. The authors suggest that the possibility exists of presenting non-trivial findings & information for lay people. Sociologists have at their disposal many instruments for mapping the actions & ideas of specific people when investigating such issues. If the results of sociological research are embedded within specific practical measures addressing rural issues, then the chance for social acceptance increases & the project is more likely to be sustainable. In such a situation, sociology is both related to concrete practices & circumstances (the doubts of lay persons about its meaninglessness disappear), yet it also retains its academic discourse, as a part of sociology, as a science. As a reflection of the latter, the article demonstrates the interconnections between general sociology & rural sociology, because of the centrality of the countryside & agriculture in contemporary society.

The following text is based on the outcomes of a long-term field research carried out in eastern Slovakia, and it focuses on the character and specifics of religiosity of the Romany settlements inhabitants. One of the characteristic features of this religiosity is the fact that its core is still based on magical practices while Christianity only covers it on the surface. We will attempt to document this feature by examining a particular example of a chosen institution, this institution being the ritual procedure of the oath at the cross. Even though this practice is commonly known and frequently mentioned in literature, we are of the opinion that most references have so far been of the character of a mere record without an attempt to comprehend its inner nature. Thus, our objective is to explore the intrinsic logic of this institution, which may moreover be helpful in terms of illuminating the whole of the religious system of the Romany settlements inhabitants because in many aspects it may be treated as a model example of a magical procedure concealed under the garb of Christianity. Consequently, this concrete consideration may be generally valid on the structural level.

Kvalitu veřejné správy lze definovat jako stupeň splnění požadavků občanů na kvalitu života v jejich komunitě, regionu či národa. Pokud se podíváme na vývoj ukazatelů kvality správy, vidíme značné rozdíly nejen mezi jednotlivými zeměmi, ale také uvnitř těchto zemí. Navzdory těmto zjištěním, je tato oblast stále velmi málo prozkoumána. Současné průzkumy jsou založeny na předpokladu, že rozdíly na národní úrovni jsou významnější než rozdíly regionální a že rozdíl v kvalitě správy v evropských zemích jsou velmi malé. Tento dokument analyzuje pravděpodobně jediný přístup k posuzování kvality veřejné správy na regionální úrovni. Analýzou indikátoru The European Quality of Governance Index byly zjištěny významné rozdíly v regionální kvalitě veřejné správy. U některých zemích je hodnocení kvality správy na národní úrovni velmi zavádějící, jelikož jeho sub-národní posouzení se může v některých regionech výrazně liší. ; Quality of governance could be defined as the degree of fulfillment of the requirements of citizens for the quality of life in their community, region or nation. If we have a look at the development of any indicators of quality of governance, we can see significant differences not only between countries, but also within these countries. In spite of these findings, this field is still very little explored. Current surveys are based on assumptions that differences at the national level are more significant than the regional differences and that difference in the quality of governance across the European countries are very small. This paper analyzes probably the only approach for assessing the quality of governance on the regional level. Using European Quality of Governance Index were revealed significant differences in the regional quality of governance in some European countries. For some states the evaluation of national-level quality of governance is very misleading, as its sub-national assessment may differ considerably in some regions. National variability data may exhibit even a higher degree than the variability international in some cases.

The fight against illegal migration has become one of the key issues in EU politics in recent years. The author of this publication deals profoundly with the way how EU protects its borders and with the role that the European Agency for the Management of Operational Cooperation at the External Borders, generally known as FRONTEX, plays in border protection. This young agency, which was established only in 2005, has gained a position in the area of border protection in the EU. The aim of this book is to analyse the space FRONTEX has for autonomous action vis-a-vis the positions of the member states which perceive border protection to be one of their important competences