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An education promoting scientific literacy (SL) that prepares the citizens to a responsible citizenship has persisted as an argument across discussions on curricula design. The ubiquity of science and technology on contemporary societies and the ideological requirement of informed democratic participation led to the identification of relevant categories that drive curriculum reforms towards a humanistic approach of school science. The category 'Science as culture' acquires in the current work a major importance: it enlightens the meaning of scientific literacy. Looking closely to the French term, culture scientifique et tecnologique, turns science simultaneously into a cultural object and product that can be both received and worked at different levels and within several approaches by the individuals and the communities. On the other hand, nonformal and informal education spaces gain greater importance. Together with the formal school environment these spaces allow for an enrichment and diversification of learning experiences. Examples of nonformal spaces where animators can develop their work may be science museums or botanical gardens; television and internet can be regarded as informal education spaces. Due to the above mentioned impossibility of setting apart the individual or community-based experiences from Science and Technology (S&T), the work in nonformal and informal spaces sets an additional challenge to the preparation of socio-cultural animators. Socio-scientific issues take, at times, heavily relevance within the communities. Pollution, high tension lines, spreading of diseases, food contamination or natural resources conservation are among the socio-scientific issues that often call upon arguments and emotions. In the context of qualifying programmes on socio-cultural animation (social education and community development) within European Higher Education Area (EHEA) the present study describes the Portuguese framework. The comparison of programmes within Portugal aims to contribute to the ...

Socio-cultural factors – shared values, norms and attitudes are significant, but less acknowledged sources of international competitiveness. Previous studies have found socio-cultural factors positively affecting various aspects of international competitiveness – entrepreneurship, innovation, productivity and international cooperation. These factors are more sustainable and less affected by external environment changes in comparison with the traditional factors. Socio-cultural factors provide an opportunity to develop competitiveness strategies based on unique advantages. This research aims to explore the impact of socio-cultural factors on international competiveness in small, open economies. Analysing relationship between 400 socio-cultural indicators and competitiveness indicators such as productivity, economic development, business and government efficiency, innovation capacity and infrastructure in 37 countries, six socio-cultural factors have emerged: Collectivism and Hierarchy; Future, Cooperation and Performance Orientation, Self-expression, Monochronism and Rationality, Economic Orientation and Social structure. The first factor – Collectivism and Hierarchy – tends to reduce the international competitiveness; the other five affect it positively.

Socio-cultural factors – shared values, norms and attitudes are significant, but less acknowledged sources of international competitiveness. Previous studies have found socio-cultural factors positively affecting various aspects of international competitiveness – entrepreneurship, innovation, productivity and international cooperation. These factors are more sustainable and less affected by external environment changes in comparison with the traditional factors. Socio-cultural factors provide an opportunity to develop competitiveness strategies based on unique advantages. This research aims to explore the impact of socio-cultural factors on international competiveness in small, open economies. Analysing relationship between 400 socio-cultural indicators and competitiveness indicators such as productivity, economic development, business and government efficiency, innovation capacity and infrastructure in 37 countries, six socio-cultural factors have emerged: Collectivism and Hierarchy; Future, Cooperation and Performance Orientation, Self-expression, Monochronism and Rationality, Economic Orientation and Social structure. The first factor – Collectivism and Hierarchy – tends to reduce the international competitiveness; the other five affect it positively.

The aim of this paper is to contribute to the cultural turn in retail studies by offering an overview of the interdisciplinary field of socio-cultural retailing and, based on this introduction, draw out and discuss what this body of work can contribute to the field of retail marketing. The paper reviews socio- cultural retail research from the disciplines of marketing, cultural geography, sociology and anthropology. Taken together this body of work clearly shows that retailing and shopping practices are anchored in and also work to reproduce wider social and cultural processes. Retailing does not exist part from socio-cultural processes of identity and meaning construction but is intrinsically interlinked with these processes. Therefore, to understand why some store concepts, marketing practices and products work and others fail; it is important to understand the socio-cultural processes underlying the practices of retailing, shopping and consumption. In addition, accepting that retailing practices and spaces are not only linked to socio-cultural processes but also actively work to reproduce these processes means acknowledging the political role of retailing. From this perspective, retail practices and spaces are actively involved in the construction of identities, meanings and worldviews; they shape, to some extent, the way we view the world and ourselves.

Introduction. The article deals with the problem of discourse. The main trends of the doctrine of the discourse in historical perspective have been considered. It has been shown that the realities of modern life are the discursive manifestation through information and communication. The attention has been paid to the diversity of these approaches and definitions due to the ambiguity of defining the subject of study. Purpose. The objective of this work is to show that the use of discourse is not limited by linguistics, politics and etc. Discourse is a socio-cultural phenomenon with a certain empowered resource. Methods. In the article a method of comparative analysis and the methodological principles of power analysis of M. Foucault and P. Bourdieu have been used. Results. On the basis of works of M. Foucault and P. Bourdieu it has been proved that discourse is a socio-cultural phenomenon, which serves as a complex of communication events occurring between entities, which in their turn are endowed with a certain status and play relevant role games in the communication process. It is quite important to note that in today's society not institutions and norms become increasingly important, but directly acting personalities and their discourses: image, images, etc. The attention has been paid to the fact that discourse is always authoritative resource which at the present stage of human development is based on the availability of information and mass communication. Originality. It has been shown that in the modern world discourse serves as internalization of external determinations, and becomes on the one hand mental, deep, and on the other hand there are institutional restrictions ways to think, act and speak, which is entirely subject to conscious transformations and changes. Discourse as a set of acquired dispositions, is structured so that it reflects the social conditions in which it was learned. Conclusion. Discourse as social, socio-cultural phenomenon is over a human being as the institutions demand to recognize and to submit to the requirements of environment by means of socialization and adaptation. Thus, namely through such concept as discourse we can reveal the symbolic mechanisms of organization of the social world.

A socio-anthropological theoretical framework of the so-called Grid-Group Cultural Theory provides a typological model for understanding and mapping of cultural biases (shared values and beliefs), corresponding social relations and strategic behaviours. The starting argument of this paper is that this model can be used to illuminate and investigate the socio-cultural differences in peacebuilding approaches as the four theoretical ideal-types of individualism, egalitarianism, hierarchy and fatalism, correspond to different peacebuilding approaches used by different international actors and in different post-conflict contexts. This typological understanding of approaches to peacebuilding enables also a theoretical analysis of socio-cultural viability of different approaches in different socio-cultural context. The final argument of this paper is thus that viable approaches to peacebuilding are those that are synchronized with the socio-cultural context, i.e., with the cultural bias, social relations and strategic behaviours used by the major social and political actors in the local society.

This research is a field research by going directly to the community as informants to obtain data. The data were obtained through distributing questionnaires and interviews with young people in the Kobe District, Japan. These problems are summarized in a study entitled: Demographic Transition in Japanese Society One Socio-Cultural Study. In the data collection stage, a questionnaire method and Interview techniques were used. Meanwhile, the method used to analyze the data was descriptive method. In this study, the results of data analysis were presented using informal methods, namely explaining data by describing all elements descriptively. Factors causing the demographic transition experienced by Japanese society at this time include Japan's involvement in the World War, geographic contours that are prone to disasters, high cost of living, and the presence of sophisticated robots that are the choice of entertainers in Japanese society. From the problems that have occurred, there have been several efforts made by the Japanese Government, including announcing a special allowance program for families who want to give birth to more than three children. A working mother can use quite long leave both before and after giving birth.

Issues about Islamic education have gained much attention to various historical, political, and socio-cultural factors. The state of Islamic education is attached to a great extent to local and international developments. Islamic education, like other institutions in the Muslim world, has struggled with challenges of development, modernization and globalization. Islamic education faces challenges from within as well as the challenges that the system poses to communities and societies in the Muslim world and beyond. The challenges explained by categories of its position within the larger educational system, its education process and pedagogy, the efforts of Muslim scholars, and modernization, politicization and militarization of Islamic education. However, improvement of the existing achievements must be a continuous exercise. A certain kind of strategy has to be designed and regularly improved. Through this, Islamic education could be a leadingendeavor for the sake of harmonious and safe living for all mankind, irrespective of ethnic and religious orientations, and also could achieve the educational balance between tradition and enlightenment.

This article introduces a Special Issue of the Journal of Romance Studies on Mothering and Work in Italy in the Twenty-first Century: Culture and Society, rdited by myself, setting the English translation of Carmen Covito's short story 'Tempo parziale' ['Part time'] and two articles on mothering and work in contemporary Italy into the larger socio-cultural context. The article takes a historical approach to show the continuities and ruptures with past ideologies, ideals, and policies, with reference to maternity and parental leave legislation, increasing precarization of work, and high unemployment. An apparent return to the model of 'intensive mothering' poses interesting questions on the situation of Italian women vis-à-vis work and mothering.

The Post colonial society in India has witnessed the turmoil to come out from the widespread control and influence of colonialism. The socio-cultural life of a society with all its dynamics is reflected in realistic forms of literature. The social events and human experience are drawn into a new creative form and are given to the reader as a new understanding and perspective of life. It enables the reader to understand the essence of life and motivates him to prepare for a positive change. After India becoming free from the colonial rule in 1947, systematic efforts were made by central and state governments and institutions to limit the role of English and simultaneously enlarge the function of Indian languages by planning in a strategic manner. The eighteen languages recognized as national languages are having very rich literatures. Telugu language is one among the Dravidian language family and is widely spoken by a majority of people. The post colonial socio-cultural factors were very well reflected in Telugu literature. The anti-colonial, reform oriented, progressive, post modernistic trends in Telugu literature are nothing but creative reflections of the post colonial society. This paper examines the major socio-cultural reflections in Telugu literature of the post colonial period.

The specifics of political and socio-cultural risks in the context of globalization is revealed, the formation factors of geopolitical and local risks are described and the content models of contemporary geopolitical scenarios are analyzed

The specifics of political and socio-cultural risks in the context of globalization is revealed, the formation factors of geopolitical and local risks are described and the content models of contemporary geopolitical scenarios are analyzed

The specifics of political and socio-cultural risks in the context of globalization is revealed, the formation factors of geopolitical and local risks are described and the content models of contemporary geopolitical scenarios are analyzed

Specific research on the socio-cultural context of population programs has rarely been undertaken. If one wants fo find material on this issue, it is always related to other more general subjects such as women's status, traditional cultures, family life, health services, married women, family planning and developing countries. This is astonishing, when we stop to consider the planet's enormous population growth and the urgent need for us to react. It is by now well known that population programs are only successful in the long run if they can be recondiled with the socio-cultural background of the population they are intended to reach. Children in developing countries are wanted for specific reasons; people are not just bringing them into the world with no purpose. These reasons find their roots, in large part, in the socio-cultural background and once these are understood, arguments against them or solutions to them can be found. From this point on population programs can be effective to fight the population growth. Taking Muslim societies for example, the reasons for rejecting family planning methods vary between religion, morality, fear of side effects, and husband's disapproval. The religious and moral reasons can be countered with religious arguments, which, once laid out, can be understood by Muslim societies who may, in turn, change their behaviour. One of these arguments could be the fact that Shari'ah, as seen by several schools of Islamic law, and conferences on Islam and family planning, has room to allow the application of modern methods of contraception. Apart from that, it is said that Islam is a religion of ease and not of hardship, which will inevitably be the case if unchecked population growth continues. Thus there is a religious argument against the religious and moral opposition of Muslim societies to family planning. The fear of side effects of contraceptives, often mentioned by women, can be solved by appropriate explanations; and the husband's diapproval may end when he as well is addressed by the population program and has the opportunity to ask questions concerning the matter, perhaps in private. Regarding the great influence of the extended family, for example in Africa, India and Bangladesh, population programs should include them as well. The same goes for traditional healers, since they are often consulted by the local community and enjoy their prestige and trust which is not always the case for outsiders or experts working in a population program, unless they are recruited from the local community. Institutions like bridewealth, dowry, ancestor worship and poligamy are much more difficult to counter with good arguments, especially when dowry, like in India, is an easy way to gain money in times of economic crisis. But all this implies also that the socio-cultural context of population programs needs much more future attention.

Modern Ukrainian society is characterized by constant transformations which affect the socio-cultural conditions of people's life: social groups and institutional structures come through various changes, new economic and political institutions appear. A transformational society is characterized by the presence of various social groups that have their own life plans, values and beliefs, which affect the construction of their life strategies. The processes of current transformation in Ukrainian society significantly influenced its social structure, and thus none large social community was left out of attention. Therefore, the needs and priorities of the younger generation are constantly changing, so there is a need to explore their life strategies. The study of human life strategies is complex and multidimensional, as it involves the investigation of various mechanisms for its formation. Researchers distinguish two levels, in the context of which one can consider the development of life strategies, namely the individual level and the level of a society. The concept of self-determination in the first place characterizes the degree of subjectivity of the individual, his/her readiness and ability to independent activity in various spheres of life, namely: economic, political, cultural, educational, family, ideological, religious, etc. The construction of individual's life strategies can be divided into three main periods associated with the process of self-determination: a search period, a period of active integration and a period of productive activity. Polish sociologist P.Shtompka emphasizes above all the dynamic characteristics of the social. The sociologist examines not only social changes, but also the constant phenomena that determine the identity of any society. The transformational processes in Ukrainian society are quite controversial, since the experience of Ukraine shows that the more changes occur in society, the more contradictions appear. It is social transformation that can intensify various manifestations of sociocultural tendencies, particularly the ones that define self-determination of youth in modern society. Younger generation is one of the subjects of this interaction, therefore, it is the youth that become the driving force in the formation of socio-cultural characteristics of the prospective Ukrainian society