Search results

1

Political Alienation and Government-Society Relations in Post-Communist Countries

100%

Mierina I.

Polish Sociological Review

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2014

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vol. 185

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issue 1

3-24

EN

On the basis of 1996 and 2006 International Social Survey Program (ISSP) data this paper explores the character of government-society relations in post-communist countries, and its dynamics. The use of comparative data and the application of Paige’s (1971) political alienation model and Woolcock’s and Narayan’s (2000) model of government-society relations allows to shed new light on citizen’s political attitudes by analysing them in the context of the overall political environment in the country. The results reveal that while citizens in most established democracies bear allegiant attitudes, citizens of post-communist countries feel alienated. Distrust of each other and of the political authorities leads to dysfunctional government-society relations. Since the time of transitional reforms people in post-communist countries have become more confident in their political capability, yet there is no general trend with regards to confidence in political authorities. Those at the margins of society often feel alienated, and dissident attitudes are on the rise, especially among youth.

2

Between politicisation and depoliticisation: restitution of church property in Czech Republic

100%

Frantová V., Haas P.

Sociologický časopis. Czech Sociological Review

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2023

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vol. 59

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issue 6

645-664

EN

Elaborating on the process of the restitution of church property in the Czech Republic after the fall of the communist regime, this paper stresses the discursive dimension of this process. To obtain information on the main arguments for and against restitution, we selected two mainstream daily newspapers, the centre-right Lidové noviny and centre-left Právo, and the ‘official’ church media of the two largest churches seeking restitution in the Czech Republic: Katolický týdeník, the official paper of the Roman Catholic Church, and the monthly Evangelical Church of Czech Brethren magazine, Český bratr. All selected sources covered the 1990–2019 period. Our analysis of the media debate helps to determine why restitution in the Czech Republic – an interesting case given that it is perceived as the most atheistic country of the Visegrad Four – took its unique direction. It took more than twenty years for the churches to receive their relatively generous compensation and, at the same time, become separated from the state. Linking the theoretical concept of discursive depoliticisation with an argumentative analysis allows us to show that emphasis of the spiritual contribution of churches to society did not play a key supporting role in legitimising the restitution. The enactment of restitution was aided by two widely shared, morally oriented depoliticised sentiments: a neoliberal emphasis on private property and efficient management and an emphasis on the defence of constitutionality reinforced by anti-communist sentiments.

3

The diverse economies of housing

88%

Soaita A. M.

Critical Housing Analysis

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2019

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vol. 6

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issue 1

32-41

EN

This paper questions the uncritical transfer of neoliberal concepts, such as financialisation and overreliance on conceptual dichotomies like formal/informal, as the lenses through which to understand practices of housing provision and consumption in the post-communist space. To this end, it introduces the newly-established ‘diverse economies’ framework, which has been used elsewhere to reveal existing and possible alternatives to advanced capitalism. Applied to the Romanian case, the lens of diverse economic practices helps shed light on the ways in which the current housing system was historically constituted, with implications for how housing consumption is now stratified across some related housing typologies. The paper invites debate on the theoretical usefulness of the diverse economies framework to study housing phenomena, particularly its implications for understanding patterns of inequality and poverty, its potential to devise useful analytical categories, and its effect of directing attention to acts of resistance to neoliberal capitalism.

4

Romania: re-shaping the CSO sector in difficult conditions

88%

Lambru M., Dobre A.

Problemy Polityki Społecznej. Studia i Dyskusje

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2020

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vol. 50

61-75

EN

Over the past 30 years, civil society organisations (CSOs) in Romania have evolved both in quantitative and qualitative terms. Following the democratic transformation of the Romanian society, the role of CSOs has changed - from mainly being an active critic of the mistakes of the incipient democracy of the ’90s and of the human rights status quo, to becoming an advocator and convener of citizens’ and communities’ interests in participating and benefiting from democratic development. This article represents an overview of the development and transformation of Romanian CSOs in a post-communist society characterised by low trust, corruption, difficult development conditions and weak state capacity. Starting from recent research, we provide information regarding the size, dynamics and specific development trends and current challenges faced by Romanian CSOs.

5

Life After a Sports Career: the Case of Polish Ex-fencers

88%

Kucharska A., Witold Kłopot S.

Physical Culture and Sport. Studies and Research

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2013

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vol. 58

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issue 1

61-75

EN

The present study focuses on the issue of the achievement of stability in life by former amateur fencers in the context of post-communist Polish society. The main aim of the study was an analysis of non-sport spheres of life of former fencers, such as occupation, material situation, family life, and health. The sample consisted of 51 former Polish fencers. A diagnostic survey was conducted with the use of the questionnaire technique. It was revealed that the subjects successfully achieved social stability after they retired from sports. However, since they had been amateur athletes, they had been forced to choose appropriate strategies and actions during their sports careers to ensure professional, economic, and family stability in their future lives. Those who experienced difficulties in combining the role of athlete with other social roles were most often forced to give up fencing. The former fencers observe a multidirectional impact of sports on all aspects of their lives.

6

Diverging paths among Central Eastern European mothers? The degree of incongruity between employment preferences and their actual experiences (1994-2012)

88%

García-Faroldi L.

Sociologický časopis. Czech Sociological Review

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2021

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vol. 57

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issue 6

707-736

EN

This paper examines the congruity between mothers' preferences and actual experiences when raising preschool children, using data on mothers of reproductive ages (18–49) from the Czech Republic, Hungary, and Poland from the International Social Survey Programme (ISSP) (1994, 2002, and 2012). The findings show that (i) with one exception, in all the countries and years, mothers whose preferences were congruent with their actual employment statuses outnumbered those whose preferences and employment statuses were incongruent; (ii) whereas Czech mothers improved their situations during the period (the congruity increases), Polish mothers - who began the period with the highest congruity - experienced a decrease in congruity, while Hungarian mothers showed the lowest congruity and saw a slight improvement in their situations (they achieved more congruity); and (iii) women who had their children during the communist regimes were more likely to experience incongruity because they worked more than they desired to, while women who became mothers during the post-communist period were more likely to experience congruity when they stayed at home, but they were also more likely to experience incongruity because they were inactive and considered working desirable. Therefore, the results confirm similar trends and diverging paths among the three countries. The high degree of incongruity between preferences and actual experiences is a sign of the problems faced by mothers attempting to reconcile work and family life and also impacts other phenomena, such as female employment, gender equality and fertility.

7

Wolni zniewoleni. Współczesna Rumunia w filmie „Policjant, przymiotnik” Corneliu Porumboiu

88%

Łomanowska I.

Przegląd Wschodnioeuropejski

|

2016

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vol. 2

169-182

EN

The main research problem in the article is the problem of the post-dependency condition of the contemporary Romanian society. The author reminds us of the specific political transformation and situation after 1989 in this region, and briefly presents the current political-economic state of the country. Elements of the previous political system still functions there and affects the mentality of Romanians. This thesis is presented in the movie “Police, Adjective” (2009) by Corneliu Porumboiu. Having analyzed it, the author argues that the result of the unfinished revolution twenty years ago was the rise of a not fully democraticstate. Decades of, firstly, the communist regime, then dictatorship, and finally the post-communist reign still has a strong impact on Romanian society, so it can be considered as mentally enslaved.

8

Transformation of Beliefs: an Evaluation of Economic Risk under Uncertainty

88%

Śliwiński A., Klapkiv L.

Olsztyn Economic Journal

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2017

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vol. 12

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issue 1

21-36

EN

This paper presents the results of a study of the risk-taking behavior of investors in some Eastern European countries in the post-soviet period. A unique transformation processes in society at the transition from the 20th to the 21st century caused the value of this point of view. Individual risk philosophy was on the way to being built under the factors of a changing society from command (full regulation of the environment) to a free market relationship. We investigate the influence of heuristics on the awareness of subjective risk evaluation in the case of a “sollective” investment activity in a trust company,MMM in 1994. The study confirms the bias in human behavior in the case of a high–risk situation. Some results, such as the influence of educational level on risk and reduced income values in terms of absolute growth, contradict the previous findings.

9

Reply to Disclosure Scandals in Romania Political Parties and the Romanian Orthodox Church

88%

Mica A.

Polish Sociological Review

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2020

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vol. 165

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issue 1

39-62

EN

In this paper the evolution of specific types of scandals within the field of transitional justice in Romania is shown. Furthermore, the study makes an inquiry into the reactions of different actors, socio-professional categories and organizations to the implementation of the disclosure law in Romania and to the flourishing of several legislative proposals on lustration and decommunization in the years following the 1989 anti-communist revolution. The actors under scrutiny are main political parties and the Romanian Orthodox Church respectively. The cases under review indicate that scandal is a quite versatile institution, and that the outcome of the disclosure scandals might as well be the advancement of disclosure and lustration measures, as well as also the hampering of such initiatives.

10

Two Periods of the Peripheric Capitalist Development: Pre-Communist and Post-Communist Eastern Europe in Comparison

88%

Norkus Z.

Polish Sociological Review

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2015

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vol. 190

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issue 2

131-152

EN

In the long term perspective two post-communist decades in the Eastern Europe weremost recent attempt to close the economic development gap with the West after the communist “detour from the periphery to the periphery” (Iván Berend). The 1989 revolutions involved the restoration of capitalism and new integration into the capitalist world system. The paper compares the performance of post-communist capitalism in the reduction of the economic disparity with that of the pre-communist capitalism in 1913–1938. For almost all countries covered by the long-time diachronic comparison, the periods of catching up alternated with those of falling behind. All Eastern European countries except Romania decreased during pre-communist period their GDP gap separating them from the capitalist world system hegemonic power (U.S.). The catching-up performance of post-communist countries widely varies: best performers during post-communist time performed better than the best performers in the 1913–1938 period, while the worst failures under post-communism performed worse than the weakest performers in 1913–1938.

11

Reorganisation of the ‘Polish’ Space of Lviv as a Component of the Process of City Space Identity Reconstruction after 1991

88%

Szczepański J.

Acta Poloniae Historica

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2023

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vol. 126

101-122

EN

The article describes the process of the reconstruction and protection of the Polish minority and Polish heritage in Lviv after 1991. This process is presented in the context of Polish-Ukrainian relations. The author indicates the most important actors in this process, focusing on presenting this phenomenon in spatial terms. Next, he describes achievements and possibilities for further development, in addition to the causes and effects of the phenomenon.

12

Regime Change as a Trigger of Corruption: Experience from Post-communist Countries

75%

Dvořáková V.

Politologická revue (Czech Political Science Review)

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2019

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issue 2

101-126

EN

The fall of communism initiated the deepest social, economic, and political changes of modern history. These changes installed new regimes which, irrespective of their current character, are infested by corruption. Why and how did this happen? Are we witnessing a continuity of the communist past or is it a new phenomenon? Is the current corruption a product of former clientelistic networks which adapted easily to the new conditions while using a persisting political, legal, and economic culture? Contrarily, is corruption in the postcommunist countries a new phenomenon resulting from a unique process of transformation? The answer includes and combines both alternatives. The roots of systemic corruption are to be found in a mutual interaction of elements, both from the past and brought into existence by this radical change, described herein: the social structure of the communist societies, which lacked capitalist structure (capital, “capitalists”); the character of the communist state, which was not substantially rebuilt during the transformation and was taken over by new/old political actors; economic transformation, which enabled those who controlled the state to form an economic society (economic actors, economic regulations), having at their disposal and using for this goal a huge amount of the state-owned property during the process of privatization. In summary, it was the character of the (post)communist state and the social structure of the (post)communist societies which influenced the shaping of basic institutional settings and the formation of key political and economic actors. Together with the huge resources available through the privatization of state-owned property and the historical cultural approaches regarding the maintenance of social, political, and economic positions, there was almost no chance of avoiding corruption and its metamorphosis into a systemic form.

13

Diverse Voices: Czech Women’s Writing in the Post-Communist Era

75%

Sokol E.

ARGUMENT: Biannual Philosophical Journal

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2012

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vol. 2

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issue 1

37-57

EN

Różne głosy: Pisarstwo Czeszek w okresie postkomunistycznym. This essay offers an overview of the diversity of women’s prose writing that emerged on the Czech cultural scene in the post-communist era. To that end it briefly characterizes the work of eight Czech women authors who were born within the first two decades after World War II and began to create during the post-1968 era of ‘normalization’. In this broad sense they belong to a single generation. With rare exception their work was not officially published in their homeland until the 1990s. The writers included are: Lenka Procházková, Tereza Boučková, Alexandra Berková, Zuzana Brabcová, Daniela Hodrová, Sylvie Richterová, Iva Pekárková, and Eva Hauserová. The overview is followed by a concise comparative analysis of texts by three very different writers (Procházková, Pekárková, and Hodrová), using a feminist critical approach. There is also an appendix of works by these writers available in English translation.

14

Religion: An Unsolved Problem for the Modern Czech Nation

75%

Nešporová O., Nešpor Z. R.

Sociologický časopis. Czech Sociological Review

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2009

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vol. 45

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issue 6

1215–1237

EN

The Czech Republic is widely known as ‘the least religious’ country in the world and most Czechs are quite proud of that fact. The authors, however, challenge both of these characteristics. Czechs might better be considered unchurched than atheist, with various forms of modern New Age spirituality steadily gaining in popularity. Moreover, their reputation for irreligiosity is somewhat questionable, since it is most often based upon communist (and other more historically deep-rooted) anticlerical notions, while people have little real knowledge of the ideas which they so readily reject. These assertions are based both on quantitative data, provided by census returns and ISSP surveys on religion, and on qualitative data, collected in local ethnographic research in the town of Česka Lipa in northern Bohemia, designed along the lines of the Lancaster University Kendal Project in Great Britain. The Czech population can be divided into three ‘blocks’, religionists, spiritualists, and atheists/unbelievers, none of which, however, can be considered uniform in terms of membership or truly mutually exclusive. The authors conclude that traditional religionists of various denominations, the followers of New Age movements, and the ‘rest’ of the population can be seen as three distinctive groups within society and that mutual understanding and acceptance are by no means the norm.

15

„…wobec rozmiarów Zagłady świat doświadczył ogromnej winy…”. Debaty wokół nauczania o Holokauście

75%

Ambrosewicz-Jacobs J.

Studia nad Autorytaryzmem i Totalitaryzmem

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2016

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vol. 38

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issue 2

19-33

EN

In Europe a strong association with a sense of victimhood based on the memory of terror and murder in many cases creates conflicting approaches and generates obstacles to providing education about Jewish victims. Suppressed shame and tension together with conflicts related to insufficiently acknowledged victimhood of one’s own group intersect with political agreements on teaching about the Shoah such as the signing of the Stockholm Declaration and membership in the IHRA and other IGOs. The text presents selected challenges and the dynamics of education about the Holocaust and poses questions such as whether it is possible to identify clear concepts, strategies and good educational practices, whether there are links between education about the Holocaust, education against genocides and human rights education, and how education about the Holocaust relates to attitudes toward Jews? In many European countries disparities have grown between Holocaust research and education about the Holocaust. Empirical studies in the field of education reveal that there is a gap between research and education in some aspects of the way the Holocaust is presented, particularly with regard to the attitudes of local populations towards Jews during the Shoah. Nevertheless, the number of educational initiatives designed to teach and learn about the Shoah is steadily increasing.

16

Identity, Otherness, Crime: Detective Fiction and Interethnic Hazards

75%

Dobrescu C.

Acta Universitatis Sapientiae, Philologica

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2013

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vol. 5

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issue 1

43-58

EN

The topic of Otherness has been investigated from the point of view of popular culture and popular fiction studies, especially on the basis of the multiracial social environments of the United States. The challenges of addressing real or potential conflicts in areas characterised by an ethnic puzzle are to some extent similar, but at the same time differ substantively from the political, legal, and fictional world of “race.” This paper investigates these differences in the ways of overcoming ethnic stereotyping on the basis of examples taken from post-World War II crime fiction of Southern Europe, and Middle East. In communist and post-communist Eastern Central Europe there are not many instances of mediational crime fiction. This paper will point to the few, although notable exceptions, while hypothesizing on the factors that could favor in the foreseeable future the emergence and expansion of such artistic experiments in the multiethnic and multicultural province of Transylvania.

17

Ekonomiczny nurt analiz społeczeństwa obywatelskiego

75%

Dzwończyk J.

Zeszyty Naukowe Uniwersytetu Ekonomicznego w Krakowie

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2011

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issue 870

5-15

EN

Through the lens of economic categories, the article describes civic society in post-communist countries. The author first presents three analytic trends at work in civic society in Eastern Europe countries: sociological, economic and cultural. She then briefly describes the dysfunctional elements of civic society functioning in ex-USSR satellite countries, emphasising the pauctiy of deliberations on economic issues. The last part of the paper concentrates on the consequences of the lack of a middle class that typifies post‑communist societies yet which is considered to be the main agent in creating civic society.

18

The Role of Trauma in Romania’s Ontological Security

75%

Salajan L. C.

Polish Political Science Yearbook

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2018

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vol. 1 (47)

67–76

EN

This paper analyses Romania’s foreign policy during the first post-communist years, by employing a theoretical viewpoint based on ontological security and trauma. It uncovers the elite efforts to secure the post-totalitarian state’s identity and international course. Romania’s search for ontological security featured the articulation of narratives of victimhood, which were linked with its proclaimed western European identity. The Romanian identity narrative has long struggled between “the West” and “the East”, trying to cope with traumatic historical events. These discursive themes and ontological insecurities were crystallized in the controversy surrounding the Romanian-Soviet “Friendship Treaty” (1991). Key Romanian officials displayed different typical responses to cultural trauma and debated the state’s path to ontological security, which was reflected in the foreign policy positions.

19

Civil Society in China in the Eyes of a Polish Researcher of Civil Society

75%

Kościański A.

Polish Sociological Review

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2009

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vol. 167

|

issue 3

445-460

EN

This article is situated in the humanistic sociology and social anthropology approach. In this approach, civil society is viewed as a society’s style of culture with respect to individual participation in group life based on common moral order. Its objective is to try to determine the extent to which western conceptions of civil society can be transferred to Chinese culture. It also strives to reconstruct civil behaviour patterns in China from a historical perspective. The basic tenet of this article is that, in the course of its evolution, Chinese culture developed various motivation and action patterns which may be the beginnings of a civil engagement. It is possible to formulate such a tenet on the assumption that civil society in contemporary China is largely based on tradition. It is tradition which defines the forms of non-institutional, self-organizing “second society.” One of the consequences of the adoption of this tenet is this article’s focus on analysis of the barriers against, and opportunities for, further development of civil society in contemporary China.

20

Divergence Not Convergence. The Strengthening of the post-Communist Welfare State Model in Central and Eastern Europe After European Union Expansion

75%

Piotrowska K., Rae G.

Polish Sociological Review

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2018

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vol. 203

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issue 3

303-320

EN

This paper analyses the welfare states in the post-Communist countries from Central and Eastern Europe,which are members of the European Union. It applies the welfare regime typology methodology, partly developed by Esping-Andersen, as a framework for this research. The paper examines the two main predictions that emerged from the literature on the future of the welfare states in Central and Eastern Europe. Firstly, was the thesis that these welfare states would not fit easily into any of the existent models in Western Europe. Secondly, that these welfare states would gradually converge with one or more of the welfare regimes existent in the West. We have used hierarchical cluster analysis to check the extent of this welfare convergence/divergence over the first ten year period after the eastern expansion of the European Union (2004 and 2014). We discovered that in 2004 the post-communist countries were divided between two clusters, although by 2014 all of the post-Communist countries (apart from Slovenia) had grouped together in one separate cluster. Therefore a process of divergence from the western European welfare models and a convergence between the post-Communist welfare states had actually occurred.

Refine search results

Political Alienation and Government-Society Relations in Post-Communist Countries

Between politicisation and depoliticisation: restitution of church property in Czech Republic

The diverse economies of housing

Romania: re-shaping the CSO sector in difficult conditions

Life After a Sports Career: the Case of Polish Ex-fencers

Diverging paths among Central Eastern European mothers? The degree of incongruity between employment preferences and their actual experiences (1994-2012)

Wolni zniewoleni. Współczesna Rumunia w filmie „Policjant, przymiotnik” Corneliu Porumboiu

Transformation of Beliefs: an Evaluation of Economic Risk under Uncertainty

Reply to Disclosure Scandals in Romania Political Parties and the Romanian Orthodox Church

Two Periods of the Peripheric Capitalist Development: Pre-Communist and Post-Communist Eastern Europe in Comparison

Reorganisation of the ‘Polish’ Space of Lviv as a Component of the Process of City Space Identity Reconstruction after 1991

Regime Change as a Trigger of Corruption: Experience from Post-communist Countries

Diverse Voices: Czech Women’s Writing in the Post-Communist Era

Religion: An Unsolved Problem for the Modern Czech Nation

„…wobec rozmiarów Zagłady świat doświadczył ogromnej winy…”. Debaty wokół nauczania o Holokauście

Identity, Otherness, Crime: Detective Fiction and Interethnic Hazards

Ekonomiczny nurt analiz społeczeństwa obywatelskiego

The Role of Trauma in Romania’s Ontological Security

Civil Society in China in the Eyes of a Polish Researcher of Civil Society

Divergence Not Convergence. The Strengthening of the post-Communist Welfare State Model in Central and Eastern Europe After European Union Expansion