Suchergebnisse

The Lisbon revision of the primary law led to the confirmation of the pre-existing Commission's commitment to carry out 'broad consultations' while preparing European legislative acts. The aim of this article is to elucidate formulation of the Commission's public consultation practice and evaluate positions of the interest groups to the Commission's strategy. The attention is accorded to the analysis of the consultation's level of formalization and inclusivity, the two principal consultation' components. The analysis is built upon the study of the selected interest groups' positions brought forward during the years 2002-2012 and upon the reaction of the Commission to the interest groups' feedback. The available empirical data suggests that the interest groups appreciated the introduction of the minimum standards for consultation, however, they have been steadily alerting to their frequent breach and arbitrary application. Adapted from the source document.

The People's Republic of China (PRC) meets the criterions of a multinational state - on its territory there live more than three ethnic groups and with respect to their territorial distribution these nationalities have a certain degree of influence on the internal situation in the PRC. The majority nation in the PRC is comprised of the Han nation (92% of the population according to the 1990 census data). The relatively high homogenity of Chinese population might lead to an underestimation of the ethnic question in contemporary China. As the minority populations inhabit sensitive strategic border areas with rich natural resources, this problem should not be overlooked. (SOI : MO: S. 94)

This paper analyses the perception of the new member states of the EU (the 2004 and 2007 entrants) by the old member states' representatives. The text utilizes an updated version of image theory and it is based on 24 interviews with diplomats from permanent representations of the old member states in Brussels. It argues that the mutual perception between the EU member states has an impact on coalition building and thus also on the decision-making process of the EU. Although the newcomers are perceived positively in general terms, there are several differences between them in terms of their activities and behaviour at the EU level as well as in the cultural area. The paper therefore divides the newcomers into groups according to the image that is ascribed to them (the four general images are those of a close ally, a passive ally, a distant ally, and a detached ally). Adapted from the source document.

The spatial polarisation of society is open to various research perspectives. It takes several forms and involves various epiphenomena. Consequently, it is the subject of research interest to scholars in various fi elds, especially sociologists, economists, regionalists, and regional geographers. The article focuses on selected aspects of peripherality and peripheral regions. The first part is devoted to the theoretical aspects of the polarisation of society, developmental interactions between the centre and the periphery, the relationship between peripherality and levels of hierarchy, peripherality and time, and the primary criteria of peripherality in inland and borderland regions. The second part applies theoretical-methodological findings to regions of Slovakia using selected quantitative methods. The author attempts to describe peripherality in multidimensional terms, and to identify the interconnections between various types of peripherality. Based on detailed statistical data on municipalities, he uses a broad range of indicators divided into four groups: human resources, economic potential, personal amenities, and access to centres. In conclusion the author identifies and categorises the peripheral regions of Slovakia and notes the existence of peripherality at regional and local levels.

A squeamish Kurdish problem has not been solved yet. At time this transtate and ethnic conflict with international dimension was connected with arresting and deportation of PKK's leader Öcalan. Turkish authorities have been fighting the PKK's rebels at south-eastern Turkey and northern Iraq and especially civil population have suffered from these fights. Most of Turkish authorities knows that peaceful solution of the Kurdish problem should improve an image of Turkey abroad, for example a chance of Turkey to become a full-fledged member of EU. ... Kurds are often described as "stateless nation", "people without country", they are marked like the biggest stateless ethnic group of the countries of the Middle East. ... They are wide diffused in Turkey, Iran, Iraq, Syria, Armenia, Azerbaijan, but none of these countries they dominated in. They are a divided population even in Turkey: some of them were assimilated with Turkish society up to unconsciousness of individual ethnic awareness. Some of Kurdish groups from Turkey and other states have become political and they want autonomy. ... Previous Prime minister T. Ciller shortly mentioned about possibility of Kurdish community in Turkey to take a "Baskit model" of regional autonomy in autumn 1993. (SOI : MO: S. 35)

The aim of this article is to explore the various ways in which people represent social groups. The author shows that a prominent role in such processes is played by psychological essentialism. People represent some of their social identities as inherent qualities that are based on the sharing of a presumed 'essence': something unobservable, diffi cult to remove, irreversible, and causally responsible for overt behaviours. Empirical evidence suggests that no particular causal process of essence acquisition is constitutive for essentialism in folk models of society. Some authors believe that folk essentialism is necessarily connected with the presumed innateness of an essence (its biological transmission across generations). Innate potential and biological inheritance, however powerful they may be for the human cognitive mind in the domain of folk models for biology, are far from necessary in essentialist folksociological classifications. Essentialism in folk sociology is not defined by any particular causal process of essence acquisition. Even when it is possible to detect that a given group of people claim the innate essence of a particular folk sociology, it is always necessary to look for other features of essentialism (inherence, sharp boundaries, the immutability of identity, etc.). The article reviews some influential cognitive proposals concerning folk models of society (Astuti, Gil-White, Hirschfeld) and ethnicity, and provides arguments and empirical evidence collected in Western Ukraine in support of the claim that presumed innateness is not the constitutive part of folk models of society, let alone of psychological essentialism.