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Numerous Czech studies have been conducted on how the education system reproduces inequalities. While most of them have dealt with the reproduction of class inequalities, relatively few have focused on the reproduction of gender inequalities. In this article, the authors apply a conceptual understanding of the category of gender to research on education, an approach that avoids both universalising the category of woman, as well as the opposite extreme of individualisation. We claim that female students, even though they differ among themselves in various social and personal ways, are serialised as women by institutions in the education system. They are expected to perform differently, with different motivations, their performance is valued differently and they are expected to follow different professions than male students. The paper focuses in detail on the gendered nature of educational institutions, both in terms of the gender segregation of fi elds and levels of study, as well as in terms of the importance of the interaction that occurs during the processes of teaching and ascribing value and significance to the performance of male and female students. The authors argue that education, generally expected to function as a social ladder and a route to better-paid jobs in the labour market, serves men and women in segregated ways.

This article is based on a qualitative analysis of in-depth interviews with women and men suffering from fertility problems. It analyses the negotiations between partners confronted with the diagnosis of infertility and seeking the best solution. The analysis examined how men and women define their roles in the treatment of infertility, how they perceive their partners' coping and involvement, and confl icting and controversial topics and situations. Data suggest that the burden of infertility is unequal. While treatment involves a woman fully in the physical and the psychological sense, the involvement of the man and potential father in the treatment process is reduced to his provision of genetic material on demand. The research revealed two factors that infl uence and separate the experiences of men and women: the different time/age frame of the reproductive experience and the physical aspect of infertility and reproduction. Both factors are anchored in the praxis of assisted reproduction. The treatment process is administered in a way that, instead of reshaping or challenging traditional defi nitions of parenthood or gender roles, confi rms the status quo.

The article focuses on an analysis of the situation in which information is obtained from respondents in questionnaire surveys. From the perspective of the cognitive aspects of survey methodology the article takes a complex view of this situation and applies theoretical concepts and empirical evidence in order to explain the close connection between the interview situation and the quality of the information obtained. The interview situation is portrayed in its twofold form: personal aspects (the mental operations of respondents) and social aspects (the interaction and communication between the interviewer and the respondent). The analysis of the interactive aspects of the interview situation draws attention to the rules of standard communication, which interfere with the ordinary concept of the standardised interview and the course of mental processes. The cognitive aspect of responding to questions is analysed from the perspective of the wider understanding of context effects, the author refers to the most important theoretical concepts relating to individual effects and empirical evidence of some effects that infl uence the response process. The article takes a somewhat untypical approach to some aspects of data collection in questionnaire surveys and into the Czech context introduces the cognitive aspects of the methodology of questionnaire surveys.

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 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.

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.

The article provides an analysis of youth values in Croatia in the socialist and post-socialist periods, comparing them with values of older citizens and of the political elite. The comparative analysis is based on data obtained through four empirical investigations conducted in 1986, 1999 and 2004. The results show that the predominant youth values remain stable, with minor oscillations in rank. The aspects in which the young are different from the older citizens are a broader variety of interests, a greater acceptance of post-materialistic values, and a lesser acceptance of traditional and political values. It is also shown that the optimism of youth is constantly on a high level, as well as their satisfaction with life, which is more pronounced than with older citizens. In all analyzed segments the political elite is noticeably different from both above-mentioned groups. The overall findings confirm that the acceptance of observed values varies depending on the social-political context, and the age and social status of the respondents. Since the scope of the variations is limited, the author concludes that this analysis gives one more confirmation of the relative stability of values, and of the fact that they are transmitted from generation to generation in a way which does not endanger social continuity. Adapted from the source document.

The objective of this article is to contribute to the analysis of the factors that influence the educational aspirations of boys & girls in the Czech Republic & vertical inequality in the Czech education system. Drawing on Mateju & Strakova's monograph Unequal Chances in Education, the authors enhance the discussion with a look at the gender aspect of choices of educational trajectory. The authors review existing theories to present the main arguments from research on educational aspirations by gender. They point out the ambiguity of studies to date on the effect of gender in the education system, as they have often arrived at contradictory findings. The authors look at the theories in which the differences in educational aspirations are related to gender & the theoretical & empirical arguments that reject gender as a category for distinguishing educational aspirations. The authors summarize the research to date on gender segregation in the education system, & then offer their own conclusions, based on a secondary analysis of data from the PISA-L in 2003. Their results reveal, in conformity with the analysis by Mateju & Strakova, that while according to these analyses gender does not have an effect on differences in the educational aspirations of boys & girls, it does have an effect on some aspects of the resulting segregation of the education system & thus on a student's choice of secondary school.

The article provides an overview of the main theoretical approaches to research on educational choices and anticipated labour-market opportunities from a gender perspective. It then presents the results of three quantitative analyses of secondary data. The objective is to help facilitate a complex understanding of the mechanisms of the reproduction of gendered social
structures. The genderedness of the social institutions in the education system and the labour market in relation to the socialising trends in the family is described in three parts: 1) gender segregation in employment in the context of segregation in education – the author shows that the horizontal dimension of these social institutions plays a more signifi cant role than the vertical dimension; 2) the factors that condition girls' and boys' educational aspirations and choice of schools – the author demonstrates how secondary school choices are gendered (though the analysis did not reveal the differences between the factors that infl uence girls' and boys' aspirations); 3) the factors that condition parents' educational and class aspirations for their sons and daughters – the author uncovers several aspects of the socialising effect of the reproduction of the two traditional career trajectories based on gender. In conclusion, the article answers the question of how structurally gendered expectations cohere with individual career trajectories, and based on the three analyses formulates questions for further research and offers a revised theoretical conceptualisation of gender as an analytical category.

The article provides an analysis of youth values in Croatia in the socialist and post-socialist periods, comparing them with values of older citizens and of the political elite. The comparative analysis is based on data obtained through four empirical investigations conducted in 1986, 1999 and 2004. The results show that the predominant youth values remain stable, with minor oscillations in rank. The aspects in which the young are different from the older citizens are a broader variety of interests, a greater acceptance of post-materialistic values, and a lesser acceptance of traditional and political values. It is also shown that the optimism of youth is constantly on a high level, as well as their satisfaction with life, which is more pronounced than with older citizens. In all analyzed segments the political elite is noticeably different from both above-mentioned groups. The overall findings confirm that the acceptance of observed values varies depending on the social-political context, and the age and social status of the respondents. Since the scope of the variations is limited, the author concludes that this analysis gives one more confirmation of the relative stability of values, and of the fact that they are transmitted from generation to generation in a way which does not endanger social continuity. Adapted from the source document.

The article argues that many failures of economic policies, especially in the developing world, are accountable to the methodological biases of the underlying mainstream economic science. While the new institutional and development economics have substantially improved economic models, they still rely on the neoclassical assumptions of methodological individualism and utilitarism. Therefore, they cannot fully grasp the gender and cultural aspects of the societies living in developing countries, the dynamic character of their economies and their embedment in the natural, social and institutional environment. These scientific biases are analysed from the standpoint of four heterodox economic schools: those of feminist economics, evolutionary economics, ecological economics, and economic anthropology. The subsequent failure of the economic policies is documented by the cross-cutting example of the Structural Adjustment Programmes of the Bretton Woods institutions. The article concludes by emphasizing the common points of the heterodox schools and advocating for a methodological plurality in the Czech economic research and education. Adapted from the source document.