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Item The Battle for the Church of St. Francis in a town in the Czech Republic between “Hipster-Culture” and “Tradition”: Discourses in Religiosity, Youth, and Intra-Parish Civic Engagement – A Case Study(2025) Váně, Jan; Kaňák, JanThe relationship between civic engagement and religiosity is an already relatively researched and described phenomenon. However, insufficient attention is paid to the phenomenon of civic engagement within the parish, and moreover in the context of various discourses of religiosity In the article, we present an answer to the question: How do various discourses and their dominant positions influence Intra-Parish Civic Engagement of Youths? To formulate the answer, we use elements of constructivist grounded theory. Based on the analysis of 14interviews and 36 documents, we describe the course of the process of dominance of traditional and hipster-culture discourse, which played varying roles in the involvement of young people in intra-parish civic engagement (IPCE) in the situation of long-term planning of the construction of a new church in a selected parish from the Czech Republic. The results of theanalysis show that the hierarchical structure of the parish enabled the dominance of hipster-culture discourse, emphasizing the horizontality of relationships, which entailed a moresignificant involvement of youth in the IPCE process. However, the increasing emphasis on horizontality began to be perceived as a threat to verticality. With regard to the financial limitsof the construction, and in the context of the hierarchical structure of the parish, the priests decided to emphasize verticality, the dominance of traditional discourse, and the diminution ofIPCE by the youths.
Item Exploring the Influence of Open-Mindedness and Social Identity on Opinion Polarization in a Modified Hegselmann-Krause Model(2025) Ramaswamy, Ashwin; Kalvas, František; Sanders-Jackson, Ashley; Slater, Michael D.In this article we further develop agent-based simulations on an extended Hegselmann-Krause (HK) model with social identity dynamics. In Kalvas et al. (2023) we introduced a model of opinion dynamics where agents were bounded in communication based on differences in opinion and identity, the latter of which was modeled as dynamic group assignments dependent on the state of the opinion space at any given time and the observer's sensitivity to opinion clustering. We had also previously presented regression results to demonstrate the effectiveness of identity as a polarizing factor. In this article we present an in-depth analysis of the macro-behavior of our model, specifically the effect on polarization of key variables such as open-mindedness (traditionally known as ε or uncertainty in the HK literature), and the granularity of social identity groups. We also examine the effect of the parameters of naturalistic distributions of these agent variables. We expand upon some known results in opinion dynamics such as the consensus-driving tendency of heterogeneity in ε, and also present results on how identity influences the relationship between openness and polarization.Item Public Opinion on the Minimum Age of Criminal Responsibility: The Role of Cognition and Emotions(2025) Hulmáková, Jana; Tomášek, Jan; Krulichová, EvaGiven that young people have a limited capacity to recognize the unlawfulness of their actions, the minimum age of criminal responsibility (MACR) presents an important subject of professional and political inquiry. In addition to the natural and legal sciences, public opinion is confirmed to influence the decision-making of legislators in the matter of criminal policy. Research on determinants of public opinion on the MACR is relatively scarce; however, some studies focusing on punitiveness in general suggest that it is influenced by both cognitive assessments as well as emotions and beliefs. Using a representative sample of Czech citizens, this study finds public support for a lower MACR to be particularly driven by their perception of children crime trend, mediated through people’s negative attitude toward the behaviour of today’s children.Item Jitka Navrátilová, Pavel Navrátil (eds.): Rodičovství za mřížemi. Dopady věznění rodiče na dítě(2025) Dirga, LukášRecenze knihy Jitka Navrátilová, Pavel Navrátil (eds.): Rodičovství za mřížemi. Dopady věznění rodiče na dítě. Publikováno v časopise Sociologický časopis.Item Inhumanity and Sexbots: On Incestuous Relations with Sexbots(2023) Kobes, TomášBritish multimedia artist K. Davis has joined the campaign against sexbots initiated in 2015 by K. Richardson and E. Billing in the project Logging on to Love. Using photography, video, and sound design, she draws attention to how sexbots rearticulate thewidespread treatment of humans as objects and underlines the commodification of sex. For Davis, sexbots in this sense are not simply human products, but anti-humanist tools. On the other hand, sexbot creators and their proponents argue that sexbots can aid people in their occasional loneliness, but also in reducing the sex trade or becoming an effective therapeutic tool. Therefore, sexbots are a controversy creating boundaries between humanity and inhumanity. By examining these differences, I argue in this paper that being human or inhuman in relation to sexbots can only be fully understood with regard to incest, which can contribute to understanding sexbots in a more symmetrical sense than the one offered by their critics and defenders.Item The inhumanity of people living in Slovak Roma settlements: on the creation of the focal images(2023) Kobes, TomášThis text deals with convergence and divergence in relation to the formation of images of inhumanity in Slovak Roma settlements. Slovak media, social networks, and television reports often contain negative images emphasizing the Roma’s backwardness, irrationality, superstition, and cruelty, and aiming to highlight their inhumanity. This approach has become prevalent even among official state authorities such as the police of the Slovak Republic, shaping the perception of the Roma as monsters. It represents a mobilization strategy that connects and disconnects various disciplinary apparatuses, forming concrete images of monsters. By examining moments of convergence and divergence, which mainly focus on the killing and consumption of canines, the text clarifies the social and material ordering that contributes to the particular arrangement of significance used by the Slovak media and other officials.Item Barbora Spalová – Ivana Lukeš Rybanská a kol.: Vize zdaru, vize zmaru. Proměny církví v Česku a na Slovensku v kontextu restitucí(2024) Dirga, LukášRecenze knihy (Barbora Spalová – Ivana Lukeš Rybanská a kol.: Vize zdaru, vize zmaru. Proměny církví v Česku a na Slovensku v kontextu restitucí) publikovaná v časopise Sociológia - Slovak sociological reviewItem Směřujeme k dalšímu podoboru sociologie? K problematice vězeňských útěků(2024) Dirga, LukášKrátká esej na téma vývoje penitenciární sociologie a vězeňských útěků publikovaná v Sociologickém bulletinu 2023.
Item Sekce sociologie náboženství(2024) Váně, JanCílem příspěvku je představit činnost a aktivity sekce sociologie náboženství při České sociologické společnosti. Jde o představení aktivit a událostí v roce 2023.Item Pomáhajícími profesionály vnímané potřeby pozůstalých při využívání služby časné intervence – pilotní případová studie vybrané organizace(2024) Kaňák, JanČlánek odpovídá na otázku: Jaké potřeby truchlících v akutní fázi jsou percipovány pracovnicemi organizace, která poskytuje distanční služby vycházející z principů časné intervence? Konceptuálně vychází z pojetí časné intervence v návaznosti na přístup označený jako Dovednosti pro psychickou úzdravu. Potřeby jsou vymezeny v návaznosti na jejich pragmatické pojetí. Komunikační partnerky popsaly pět oblastí potřeb: potřeby informačně rozhodovací, potřebu copingu, potřebu validizace, potřebu zvládnout vinu a potřeby kontaktu. Pro rozvíjení služeb časné intervence se v rámci rozhovorů zdá jako podstatné promýšlení oblasti míry naplňování potřeby kontaktu.Item Hare Krishna in the Czech Republic after Thirty Years: Success or Failure?(2023) Lužný, DušanThe study tries to evaluate the development of the Hare Krishna Movement (ISKCON) in the Czech Republic. It points out that after a period of great openness and the emergence of non-traditional religious groups after the Velvet Revolution in 1989, the spread of this movement gradually stagnated. After a period of “anti-cult” attacks, the movement did become part of the standard religious scene, although its attractive- ness decreased. Based on two models (the model of religious success and the concept of religious memory), the study shows the limits to the wider success of the move- ment. However, given the widespread secularization and the prevailing “religious apathy” of Czech society, the Hare Krishna Movement’s impact in Czech society can be considered a limited success.Item Privatisation of the privatized: forms of coresonance between old age and spirituality among Czech elders(2024) Kaňák, Jan; Váně, JanGrowing number of studies pointed to the importance of the topic of spirituality and religiosity among older people. However, these studies are conducted in countries with high religiosity. The Czech Republic is one of the most secular regions in the world. These facts led us to question the relationship between old age and spirituality in the environment of the Czech Republic. In thirteen semi-structured interviews with seniors from the Czech Republic (age 65+) we focused on the relationship between spirituality and old age. The qualitative analysis procedures formulated by Miles and Huberman for generating meaning were used for the analysis itself. Findingsrevealed only a limited association between spirituality and old age. Spirituality was used by the elderly for the purpose of expressing gratitude or as a function, which was a response to the particular topic of the old age as control of skills, maintaining relationship or activity.Item Recenze monografie Dirga, L. & Váně, J. (2023): Náboženství za mřížemi. Stále(é) i nestálé. Praha: Barrister & Principal(2023) Krulichová, EvaRecenze knihy Náboženství za mřížemi. Stále(é) i nestálé pro časopis Česká kriminologie. Zhodnocení obsahu a přínosu monografie pro vědeckou obec.Item Universities in crisis? The impact of academic capitalism and McUniversities on czech social science and humanities(2024) Kaňák, Jan; Váně, Jan; Lužný, DušanSince the beginning of their existence, the social sciences, like the humanities, have been gradually formulating and searching for both the central elements of their activities, and how their findings can be applied to society. A significant part of this search takes place in universities. Currently, academic capitalism and the McDonaldization of universities are entering this process. Using data (both qualitative and quantitative) on the economic, cultural, and political frameworks of science and development from the Czech Republic, the paper identifies potential threats and crises in the social sciences and humanities. The results point to a long-term underfunding of the humanities and social sciences and the risk of their being relegated to the position of auxiliary sciences to the natural, medical, or technical sciences. Here we see a possible identity crisis in the humanities and social sciences, particularly in the role of critical reflection on the system or individual areas of human existence.Item No Algorithmization Without Representation: Pilot Study on Regulatory Experiments in an Exploratory Sandbox(2022) Reshef Kera, Denisa; Kalvas, FrantišekThe exploratory sandbox for blockchain services, Lithopy, provided an experimental alternative to the aspirational frameworks and guidelines regulating algorithmic services ex post or ex ante. To understand the possibilities and limits of this experimental approach, we compared the regulatory expectations in the sandbox with the real-life decisions about an “actual” intrusive service: contact tracing application. We gathered feedback on hypothetical and real intrusive services from a group of 59 participants before and during the first and second waves of the COVID-19 pandemic in the Czech Republic (January, June 2020, and April 2021). Participants expressed support for interventions based on an independent rather than government oversight that increases participation and representation. Instead of reducing the regulations to code or insisting on strong regulations over the code, participants demanded hybrid combinations of code and regulations. We discuss this as a demand for “no algorithmization without representation.” The intrusive services act as new algorithmic “territories,” where the “data” settlers must redefine their sovereignty and agency on new grounds. They refuse to rely upon the existing institutions and promises of governance by design and seek tools that enable engagement in the full cycle of the design, implementation, and evaluation of the services. The sandboxes provide an environment that bridges the democratic deficit in the design of algorithmic services and their regulations.Item Institucionalizace české akademické sociální práce a možný dopad na rozvoj akademické kariéry: konceptuální reflexe vztahu(2024) Kaňák, Jan; Váně, JanCÍLE: V textu předkládáme odpověď na otázku: Jak je možné popsat, na základě odborných textů, vztah současného stavu institucionalizace české akademické sociální práce a rozvoje akademické kariéry? TEORETICKÁ VÝCHODISKA: V textu vycházíme ze sociologické perspektivy a využíváme teorii institucionalizace a jejího dopadu na rozvoj akademické kariéry. METODY: Opíráme se o metodu teoretické syntézy, kterou využíváme pro formulování konceptuálně zaměřených závěrů ohledně vztahu akademické sociální práce a akademické kariéry. VÝSLEDKY: Na základě rámcové reflexe institucionalizace akademické sociální práce lze předpokládat různorodost ve vymezení místa angažovanosti profese. Z toho důvodu považujeme za nutné vymezit koncepci vztahu ve všech jeho možných variantách. Tím získáváme komplexní model vazby umožňující reflektovat dílčí povahy vazby mezi oblastí institucionalizace a rozvoje akademické kariéry. IMPLIKACE PRO SOCIÁLNÍ PRÁCI: Zjištění jsou podstatná především pro akademickou sociální práci, v rámci níž postuluje základ pro zkoumání vztahu podoby akademické sociální práce a podoby akademické kariéry. Ve vztahu k tématu institucionalizace může zprostředkovaně být využit i jako podklad pro diskusi o tématu oborové specificity.Item Mýty o truchlení dospělých a dětí(2024) Kaňák, JanČlánek základně pojednává o mýtech, které se vztahují k podobě truchlení u dětí, dospívajících a dospělých. Základně vymezuje podoby truchlení a popisuje potenciality podpory ve školním kolektivu.Item Encounter of Religions in Papua New Guinea—Toward a Relationship between Christianity and Original Traditions(2023) Lužný, Dušan; Soukup, MartinThe text introduces Papua New Guinea as a region where an encounter of various cultural and religious traditions occurred in the last several centuries and which still happens today. Christianization has posed a significant cultural change that has taken place recently and at the same time as modernization. Using examples from Papua New Guinea, the study demon- strates that although Christianity can dominate in a particular society, elements of original Indigenous religions can exist in parallel or can create a syncretic synthesis. The aim of the study is to analyze the types of this coexistence and to identify the factors of maintenance and transformation of Indigenous traditions as a result of Christianization as part of the process of globalization. The study is a contribution to the discussion on the forms of world Christianity.Item Trust in maternity care: challenges for healthcare professionals and migrant women(2024) Pařízková, Alena; Glajchová, AlenaMigrant women have a greater potential to experience limits when using maternity care than non-migrant women; therefore, they have a greater risk of vulnerability. Vulnerability and barriers to maternity care have the potential to erode trust, which is an important aspect of maternity care in general. In this exploratory qualitative study, we analyzed factors influencing trust in interactions between migrant women and healthcare professionals in maternity care. In total, 71 in-depth interviews were conducted with migrant women and healthcare professionals in the Czech Republic. Migrant women generally trust medical care, and healthcare professionals trust the capacity of women's bodies and their expertise. Unfortunately, in relation to women giving birth, healthcare professionals do not see the importance of building or strengthening trust but appreciate obedience, no matter what it is based on. In this context, healthcare professionals are limited by the routinization of care and a lack of time. Consequently, migrant women have a higher probability of being excluded from maternal care as active agents, which increases their vulnerable position.Item Srovnání integračních politik vybraných evropských států ve vztahu k držitelům mezinárodní ochrany(2024) Pařízková, Alena; Hirt, Tomáš; Rumpík, Viktor; Glajchová, Alena; Řezáč, Karel; Pěchota, JanCílem následující studie je porovnat politiky evropských zemí týkající se zacházení s držiteli a držitelkami mezinárodní ochrany, zejména v počátečních fázích integračního procesu. Předmětem analýzy jsou politické rámce pro integraci držitelů a držitelek mezinárodní ochrany a to, jak se tyto rámce odrážejí v příslušných politických dokumentech. Porovnáváme 12 politik optikou teoretického modelu sociální integrace Hartmuta Essera. Ve studii identifikujeme čtyři hlavní zjištění: (1) definici integrace držitelů a držitelek mezinárodní ochrany v EU paradoxně nejlépe odpovídají veřejné politiky zemí mimo EU; (2) trh práce je stále vnímán jako klíčová oblast integračního procesu; (3) navzdory deklarovanému principu obousměrnosti je téma odstraňování překážek integrace opomíjeno; (4) pojem komunita je používán výhradně ve vztahu k místnímu, sousedskému kontextu, nikoliv ve vztahu k (etnickému) "původu".
