Suchergebnisse

The article deals with theoretical and practical possibilities for collaboration between universities and social partners. Service-learning is presented as one of the possible university-society collaboration strategies, which might help to meet new educational, societal and economic demands. The experience service-learning sociocultural adaptation at higher education institutions in Northern Lithuania is presented and analysed aiming to identify sociocultural factors and conditions under which service-learning was transformed into locally accepted form of this method, i.e. cooperative studies. The analysis showed that service-learning adaptation in Lithuanian socio-educational system is very much dependent on specific and unique, historical, social and cultural contexts. The distinct historical and sociocultural differences between US and Lithuania were the major drivers, which fostered the constitution of a new term of cooperative studies. Service-learning which is based on pragmatic, utilitarian and communitarian ideals in US aims at fostering the development of the democratic, multicultural and civil society. On the contrary, the Lithuanian perception of service is related to religious connotations or to soviet legacy. Therefore the term service was replaced by the more suitable term of cooperation, which emphasizes utilitarian collaboration and responds to the national need to strengthen the civic mission of universities and to the global ideas of knowledge-driven economy and society. Due to the new term, the method content has changed. Cooperative Studies are described as a creative scientific construct of service-learning and cooperative learning. Cooperative studies emphasize not only the collaboration with local communities, but also the integration with other social partners, i.e. non-governmental organizations, business enterprises, public sector institutions.

The article deals with theoretical and practical possibilities for collaboration between universities and social partners. Service-learning is presented as one of the possible university-society collaboration strategies, which might help to meet new educational, societal and economic demands. The experience service-learning sociocultural adaptation at higher education institutions in Northern Lithuania is presented and analysed aiming to identify sociocultural factors and conditions under which service-learning was transformed into locally accepted form of this method, i.e. cooperative studies. The analysis showed that service-learning adaptation in Lithuanian socio-educational system is very much dependent on specific and unique, historical, social and cultural contexts. The distinct historical and sociocultural differences between US and Lithuania were the major drivers, which fostered the constitution of a new term of cooperative studies. Service-learning which is based on pragmatic, utilitarian and communitarian ideals in US aims at fostering the development of the democratic, multicultural and civil society. On the contrary, the Lithuanian perception of service is related to religious connotations or to soviet legacy. Therefore the term service was replaced by the more suitable term of cooperation, which emphasizes utilitarian collaboration and responds to the national need to strengthen the civic mission of universities and to the global ideas of knowledge-driven economy and society. Due to the new term, the method content has changed. Cooperative Studies are described as a creative scientific construct of service-learning and cooperative learning. Cooperative studies emphasize not only the collaboration with local communities, but also the integration with other social partners, i.e. non-governmental organizations, business enterprises, public sector institutions.

Public participation is a key element in nature conservation in Europe and a necessity for collecting broad scale data on biodiversity and its dynamics. However, vast societal differences exist between eastern and western European countries, resulting in problems for public participation in post-communist states as compared to western countries. Here, we compare diversity in monitoring practices and public participation in countries with different political histories. Drawing on in-depth ethnographic studies conducted in Lithuania and Poland, as well as a rapid assessment in Denmark, we have focused on the historical, cultural and social determinants of the volunteers' participation in biodiversity monitoring. Our results indicate the reasons why volunteer involvement—as an expression of a participatory approach—has a lower incidence in the post-communist countries, compared to voluntarism common in occidental democracies. We discuss our results in the context of the main social factors considered to be a legacy of the Soviet regime.

Public participation is a key element in nature conservation in Europe and a necessity for collecting broad scale data on biodiversity and its dynamics. However, vast societal differences exist between eastern and western European countries, resulting in problems for public participation in post-communist states as compared to western countries. Here, we compare diversity in monitoring practices and public participation in countries with different political histories. Drawing on in-depth ethnographic studies conducted in Lithuania and Poland, as well as a rapid assessment in Denmark, we have focused on the historical, cultural and social determinants of the volunteers' participation in biodiversity monitoring. Our results indicate the reasons why volunteer involvement—as an expression of a participatory approach—has a lower incidence in the post-communist countries, compared to voluntarism common in occidental democracies. We discuss our results in the context of the main social factors considered to be a legacy of the Soviet regime.