This article deals first with the relative affordability of owner-occupied housing in Prague compared to the situation in the Czech Republic in general. The relative position of Prague in this region is then assessed in a cross-national comparison and determined to be specific. The article's main objective is to uncover the main demand factors behind the high prices and the low affordability of owner-occupied housing in Prague. The authors focus on factors that derive from the specifi c economic position of Prague and the specific culturally-rooted preferences of Czech citizens for owner-occupied housing. Findings from numerous sociological studies and experiments have proved both of these factors to be very important, and their future development will thus largely be influenced by the affordability of housing in Prague.
This article focuses on the connection between fi nancial aid systems in higher education and the development of inequalities in access to higher education. Although the student financial aid system is just one of a number of factors that infl uence a person's chances of studying in higher education, its role in a person's decision to pursue higher education may be of fundamental significance for those with lower socio-economic status. Therefore, the authors of this article focus on the effect of the fi nancial conditions of study on the chances that individuals from families with low socio-economic status have obtained higher education. The analysis looks at developments in the Czech Republic and the Netherlands, because Czech and Dutch student financial aid systems have been evolving in very different directions over the last two decades, while their secondary school systems continue to share very similar features. The analysis reveals that student financial aid based primarily on direct financial support (as in the Netherlands) was accompanied by a decline in inequalities in access to education, even though students had to pay tuition, while a system of financial aid primarily involving indirect support (as in the Czech Republic) applied over the same period did not inhibit increasing inequalities, despite the fact that during the period under observation students were not required to pay tuition.
Text reflektuje úlohu vysokých škol ve společenských změnách, konkrétně v procesech transformace společnosti k udržitelnému rozvoji. Vychází z dokumentu Úmluva o vysokoškolském vzdělávání pro udržitelný rozvoj, který vznikl a byl představen u příležitosti konference Rio+20 v roce 2012 a který předkládá vizi celkové proměny univerzit související s celospolečenskými požadavky na udržitelné vzdělávání ‑ zahrnuje všechny aspekty života vysokoškolských institucí (výuku, správu, vzdělávací politiku). V tomto rámci autoři ukazují hlavní, v současné době probíhající změny ve vysokoškolském vzdělávání, a to v šesti okruzích, které zahrnují: hodnotové předpoklady akce, holistický přístup, změny v nakládání se znalostmi, důraz na procesy učení a na kompetence (jejichž význam mezi vzdělávacími cíli roste), a způsoby hodnocení kvality procesu a výsledku učení. Rekapitulují dopad těchto trendů v českém vzdělávacím prostředí i možnosti budoucího vývoje; ukazují, jak reálně probíhající změny souvisí s proměnou vědeckých paradigmat i vzdělávacích teorií. Navrhují popsat tento vývoj jako proměnu vzdělávacího žánru, tedy především s ohledem na to, jak jsou poznatky komunikovány, jak se proměňuje způsob jejich přenosu či sdílení ve vzdělávacím procesu. Ukazují, s jakými novými charakteristikami tohoto procesu bude postupně nutno počítat, a nabízejí možná budoucí výzkumná témata s tím související. ; This paper reflects on the role of universities in social changes, particularly in processes of societal transformation towards sustainable development. It is based on the document Peoples' Sustainability Treaty on Higher Education Towards Sustainable Development, produced for and introduced on the occasion of the Rio+20 Conference in 2012, which presents a vision for an overall transformation of universities related to the society-wide requirement for sustainable education involving every aspect of higher education institutions (curricula and teaching, campus operations, community engagement, cultural change). Within this framework, the authors demonstrate the main changes currently underway in higher education within six spheres that include: value-based preconditions for action, a holistic approach, knowledge management, an emphasis on learning processes and competencies (the importance of which is growing among education objectives), and methods of evaluating quality of learning process and learning outcomes . They recapitulate the impact of these trends within the Czech education environment and opportunities for future development; they show how real world changes in progress are related to the transformation of both scientific paradigms and education theories. They propose describing this development as a change of education genre, primarily with respect to how knowledge is communicated. They show what new processes in education will gradually have to be taken into account, and offer potential future research topics related to these.
Název článku věrně vystihuje jeho podstatu – jde o bilancování práve ukončené politické kariéry jeho autora, poslance slovenského parlamentu a dvojnásobného předsedy environmentálního výboru. Dozvíme se, jak proběhl loňský rok 2015, a především, co se v něm dělo za parlamentními zdmi. Text je tak vhledem do způsobu vládnutí (nejen) na Slovensku (a nejen) v uplynulém období – ukazuje, jak rozumné přístupy a řešení vždy podléhají politickému kalkulu. Nejpoctivěji vyznívá osobní krédo Mikuláše Huby, které by se dalo shrnout jako: Pracovat a nebát se, stát si za svým. ; The title of this article precisely captures its essence – it is a review of the political career of its author, member of the Slovak Parliament and twice-chairman of the environmental committee. We learn about last year's events, and especially what was happening inside the walls of the Parliament. The text is also an insight into governance (not exclusively) in the Slovak Republic (and not only) in the recent period – it shows how reasonable approaches and solutions are always subject to political calculus. The honest-sounding personal credo of Mikuláš Huba can be summarized as: To work and not be afraid, to stand up for yourself.
The Roma minority is one of the most vulnerable social groups in Slovakia, they are affected by poverty and social exclusion. Most of the marginalized Roma face low education level, long-term unemployment and very low Incomes (they are mostly dependent on the social benefits). In this paper we focus on time preference rates of the marginalised poor Roma. The measurement of time discounting and present-biased preferences is based on standard methodology where the respondents are asked to choose between receiving smaller amounts earlier at the time of interviewing or larger amounts with three months delay. The same choices are asked at a future time frame (smaller amounts in six months and larger amounts in nine months). In order to control for potential confounds due to lower credibility the 'front end delay' method is introduced. According to the results there are almost 48 percent of people with time-inconsistent preferences (27 % have present-biased and 21 % future-biased preferences). Men and people with higher level of education are more likely to have consistent preferences than women and people with lower level of education. Adapted from the source document.
The study evaluates the potential impact of alternative models of university entrance exams – a model based on field-specific knowledge and a model relying on general aptitude tests – in the context of the Czech education system since 1998, a system that can be described as highly stratified and suffering from a notable excess of demand for higher education over supply. Using the dataset Sonda Maturant 1998, the authors show that entrance exams based on general aptitude tests may outperform the field-specific knowledge model in terms of providing access to talented students from a lower socioeconomic background. The simulations show that under the general aptitude regime the relative chances of an applicant with a university-educated father are only one-quarter higher than the relative chances of a student with a less educated father, compared to more than a one-third difference in the case of the regime emphasising field-specific knowledge. For mother's education, the respective odds ratios differ by the even larger margin of 28 percentage points.
The article focuses on the changes in the determination of educational aspirations that took place in the Czech Republic during its social, political and economic transformation. The aim of the article is to contribute to a deeper understanding of the changes in the stratification system after 1989, which were significantly influenced by changes in the causal mechanisms behind the formation of educational aspirations. Those changes in the determinants of educational aspirations were themselves largely driven by the expansion of economic returns to education and thus the increasing significance of education for life success. The empirical research is based on a comparison of data from the 'Family '89' (Rodina '89) survey conducted in January 1989 and the Czech module of the longitudinal survey PISA-L 2003. The analyses were carried out with the hypothesis that the social origin of the background family had a much stronger direct impact on the educational aspirations of adolescents in 1989, while in 2003 social origin had a much stronger indirect influence. The stronger direct impact in 1989 was due to the very limited access to higher education under socialism and the role higher education played in the reproduction of the cultural elite. But with the gradual expansion of, and the rapidly increasing returns to, higher education during the transition period, social origin began to have a largely indirect effect on aspirations, particularly through the value pupils began to place on higher education as a means of ensuring a higher degree of life success. The authors' empirical findings confirm the hypothesis about the change from direct to indirect effects and highlight the importance of researching educational aspirations from a historical point of view and in the context of social change.
The article explores the connections between the performance of the Czech regional governments, the economic development of the regions, & the level of social capital in the regions. Analyses suggest that there is no relationship between regional government performance & the economic performance of the regions, & no relationship between regional government performance & the level of social capital in the regions. Government performance does not appear to be dependent on either of these two factors. Some positive statistical relationships do exist between the level of social capital & the economic performance of the regions. This relationship is stronger when the dynamics of the changes are evaluated -- economic growth in the period between 1995 & 2004 was significantly higher in regions with a higher level of social capital. Analyses also revealed the strong effect of another factor -- the level of human capital as measured by the education of the population -- on all the other observed parameters of the regions. The regions with more educated inhabitants recorded more rapid economic growth, a higher level of social capital, & better performing governments.
The situation on the labour market in East Germany is difficult since the beginning of economic transition in the early 90's. The reasons for such a situation are complex. The implementation of single currency, the collapse of East Germany's foreign trade, the privatization method & high wages should be mentioned above all. The macroeconomic reasons for the persistently high unemployment rate are supported by microeconomic reasons, too. The unification of Germany was not perceived as a unique chance to reform the outdated German labour market. Active labour market policy measures known from the old Federal Republic of Germany were not as effective as expected. Graphs, References. Adapted from the source document.
This article deals with the phenomenon of invalid voting which has appeared in regional elections in the Olomouc region in the Czech Republic. First, contemporary theories of invalid voting are introduced. Second, the given hypotheses, which include both institutional and socio-economic factors that, according to the theories, contribute to higher levels of invalid voting, are tested. Statistical analysis such as linear regression is employed in the research. The dataset is comprised of municipalities (cases) in which regional elections were held. The results show that higher levels of invalid voting are associated with concurrent elections (elections to the regional assembly and elections to the upper house (the Senate) of the Czech Parliament) in those municipalities in which residents are older and less well-educated. If regional elections are held without concurring elections, socio-economic variables have a smaller effect on invalid voting. Therefore, the state authorities should consider a revision of respective electoral law and simplify the electoral process involved in concurrent elections. ; This article deals with the phenomenon of invalid voting which has appeared in regional elections in the Olomouc region in the Czech Republic. First, contemporary theories of invalid voting are introduced. Second, the given hypotheses, which include both institutional and socio-economic factors that, according to the theories, contribute to higher levels of invalid voting, are tested. Statistical analysis such as linear regression is employed in the research. The dataset is comprised of municipalities (cases) in which regional elections were held. The results show that higher levels of invalid voting are associated with concurrent elections (elections to the regional assembly and elections to the upper house (the Senate) of the Czech Parliament) in those municipalities in which residents are older and less well-educated. If regional elections are held without concurring elections, socio-economic variables have a ...
Does higher turnout support left-wing parties, as many previous studies assume? And does communist legacy somehow project on the mentioned relationship? The theoretical discussion is still relatively unclear. This study proposes three different explanatory mechanisms of examining aggregate-level relationship between turnout and electoral support for political parties in the post-communist milieu. The mainstream hypothesis, based on the assumptions of a successful re-stratification of the society and the relevance of class voting, states that higher turnout benefits the left. The second option is derived from the Michigan model of party identification. In this case, political parties with less loyal electorate should profit from higher rates of electoral participation. However, this article makes a case for a third possible explanation, which turns the conventional hypothesis upside down and can be termed simply as "mobilization against the left". The idea is that the more people come to the polls, the stronger the post-communist right wing parties will be. Moreover, I include in my analysis only two electoral districts (regions) that can be said to be the farthest away from each other in their socioeconomic and political characteristics. Such an approach makes it possible to answer the question whether the expected effect is uniform or unequal across electoral districts in one country. Based on the analysis of election results in 1444 constituencies of two electoral districts in the Central Bohemian and Moravian-Silesian regions in the 2010 Parliamentary elections, I conclude that the proposed approach to the issue of party support and voter turnout has strong empirical support. ; Does higher turnout support left-wing parties, as many previous studies assume? And does communist legacy somehow project on the mentioned relationship? The theoretical discussion is still relatively unclear. This study proposes three different explanatory mechanisms of examining aggregate-level relationship between turnout and ...
