Suchergebnisse

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 focuses on the role of informality in the life of post-communist societies in Central Europe. Its goal is to question the current negative connotation of informal networks in the context of post-communist society. For this purpose it analyses the criteria used in the relevant literature to distinguish between 'good' and 'bad' informal networks. Two main factors (the situational factor and the factor of relationship quality) are analysed from the perspective of their impact on the orientation of informal networks and their ability to predict which networks will have a positive or a negative influence on societal development. The author argues that neither of these two factors alone can fully explain the positive or negative orientation of a particular informal network in a given society. Instead he proposes a solution that combines several dimensions of both factors. In conclusion he identifies five types of informal networks in post-communist society: predatory, redistributory, helping, operating, and participative networks.

Although the Czech Republic is usually regarded as one of the most secular countries in Europe, current sociological surveys indicate that there is still a strong interest in supernatural and spiritual questions. This article begins by documenting the popularity of various religious concepts and then proceeds to analyse the socio-demographic factors that influence religious beliefs. The author tries to answer the question of whether and how people who believe in some kind of religious phenomenon differ in terms of sociodemographic characteristics from those who do not believe. There are two dimensions behind religious statements: a 'traditional' Christian outlook and an 'alternative' view connected with a belief in the power of magic. Further analyses indicated that traditional and alternative religious beliefs are connected with numerous socio-demographic characteristics, the most important of which is religious socialisation, measured by the frequency with which a person attended at religious services as a child and by the religious denomination of a person's mother.

The article seeks to describe & interpret recent trends within the Swedish party system. The point of departure for analysis is twofold: (1) to describe past development of patterns of cooperation & conflict among Swedish political parties, (2) an examination of P. Mair's concepts on the structure of party system competition & party system change, which are applied to the Swedish case. Special attention is given to the process of formation of the right-wing as well as the left-wing blocs. The aim of the article is to explain why & under what circumstances these blocs emerged, considering the fact that these blocs were at times almost invisible, at times only slightly salient. Moreover, party cooperation often took place across bloc lines. This analysis of past trends serves as a basis for understanding up-to-date developments within the right-wing bloc & particularly left-wing parties, which -- for the first time in the Swedish party politics history -- have recently declared their intention to form an election alliance & even a government coalition after the 2010 parliamentary elections. The article also discusses the question of whether these trends might lead to a specific version of the two-party system. Adapted from the source document.

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 aim of the paper is to discuss the issue of innovation from the perspective of relevant sociological interpretative frameworks. The discussion starts with an assessment of evolutionary and institutional economic studies of innovation, which have contributed to a better understanding of the role of institutional and social factors in the formation of innovation resources and the performance of (innovating) firms and (innovating) nation states. The concepts of a national innovation system (Nelson), the learning firm (Lundvall) and the social system of production (Hollingsworth) are discussed to explain this contribution in more detail. They indicate a set of socio-cultural factors and circumstances that can be identifi ed not only as implications of the techno-economic power of innovation but also as the autonomous factors that shape the performance of innovating actors. The EU Lisabon strategy is faced with a similar challenge: to balance the issue of competitiveness with environmental issues and social cohesion. The current debate over fulfilling its goals (the Kok report) offers good arguments as to how techno-economic and socio-cultural resources of innovation could be theorised and governed. In this article, selected methodological frameworks and databases (EIS 2005, EXIS) are applied in an analysis of the social forms and structures of national innovation systems. The final discussion refers both to the relevant concepts (the learning economy, knowledge societies, reflexive modernisation) and the analytical data in order to suggest a concept of innovation, which understands both economic and social factors to be productive resources of current innovation performance. The suggested interpretative framework is used to assess the structural dependencies and challenges of the innovation system in the Czech Republic.