This text seeks to argue that the totality of social attitudes towards older people reflects the level of not only humanity, as the most frequently mentioned and most desirable value in contemporary ...society, but even more, also the care and awareness of one’s own future. A sustainable human society presumes a clear vision of the irreplaceableness of every person included in the social life, and when it comes to the personal contribution in terms of the functional role of the members of society, discourse about the importance of human capital is inevitable. For the future of society, this is the basic level of awareness that should be present among all the members of society, and especially in those social groups whose task is to plan and make long-term development decisions. The introductory section will discuss basic concepts that help understanding the idea that the humanization of social attitudes towards older people is inseparable from the humanization of the total society. After that, in the central part of the paper we will compare specific experiences of life in retirement; 20 retired senior citizens => 70, of whom 8 are from Croatia and 3 from Israel, Finland, England and Germany. Comparing their retirement life experiences opens the question of what are the basics of a long-term viable and self-renewing strategy of social attitude towards older people? At the same time, we will offer some specific possibilities that are available to every society, including ours, which do not require great sacrifice, but only a good sincere intention of decision-makers about the visions of social development.
Ovim se tekstom želi argumentirati kako ukupnost društvenih odnosa prema starijim osobama oslikava razinu ne samo humanosti, kao one najčešće spominjane i najpoželjnije vrijednosti u suvremenom ...društvu, već još više brigu i svijest o vlastitoj budućnosti. Održivo humano društvo podrazumijeva jasnu viziju o nenadomjestivosti svake osobe uključene u društveni život, a kad je riječ o osobnom doprinosu u smislu funkcionalne uloge članova društva neizbjžan je govor o važnosti humanoga kapitala. Za budućnost društva to je osnovna razina svijesti, koja bi trebala biti prisutna među svim članovima društva, a posebno u onim društvenim skupinama kojima je zadaća planiranje i donošenje dugoročnih razvojnih odluka. U uvodnom će se dijelu raspraviti osnovni pojmovi koji pomažu razumijevanju ideje da je humanizacija društvenih odnosa prema starijim osobama neodvojiva od humanizacije ukupnoga društva. Potom slijedi središnji dio rada, u kojemu će se usporediti konkretna iskustva života u mirovini 20 umirovljenih osoba starije životne dobi (= > 70), od kojih je osmero iz Hrvatske te po troje iz Izraela, Finske, Engleske i Njemačke. Usporedbom njihovih iskustava života u mirovini otvorit će se pitanje što su osnove dugoročne održive i samoobnavljajuće strategije društvenoga odnosa prema starijim osobama. Ujedno će se ponuditi i neke konkretne mogućnosti, koje stoje na raspolaganju svakom društvu, pa tako i našem, a za koje nisu potrebna bilo kakva velika odricanja, već samo iskrena dobra namjera donositelja odluka o vizijama društvenoga razvoja.
This text seeks to argue that the totality of social attitudes towards older people reflects the level of not only humanity, as the most frequently mentioned and most desirable value in contemporary society, but even more, also the care and awareness of one’s own future. A sustainable human society presumes a clear vision of the irreplaceableness of every person included in the social life, and when it comes to the personal contribution in terms of the functional role of the members of society, discourse about the importance of human capital is inevitable. For the future of society, this is the basic level of awareness that should be present among all the members of society, and especially in those social groups whose task is to plan and make long-term development decisions. The introductory section will discuss basic concepts that help understanding the idea that the humanization of social attitudes towards older people is inseparable from the humanization of the total society. After that, in the central part of the paper we will compare specific experiences of life in retirement; 20 retired senior citizens => 70, of whom 8 are from Croatia and 3 from Israel, Finland, England and Germany. Comparing their retirement life experiences opens the question of what are the basics of a long-term viable and self-renewing strategy of social attitude towards older people? At the same time, we will offer some specific possibilities that are available to every society, including ours, which do not require great sacrifice, but only a good sincere intention of decision-makers about the visions of social development.
The paper analyzes the correlation of political influence in the professional structures of public institutions with corruption risk. The goal is to determine, based on qualitative data, how ...favourable general political influence and political appointments in professional public institutions (as opposed to transparency and professional autonomy) are for the development and sustainability of corruption. Qualitative empirical research using the method of semi- -structured interviews was conducted with 60 participants from 10 countries, divided into two groups according to the Corruption Perceptions Index. Indicators of the presence of political influence in public structures are: participants’ experience on the mobility of institutional services, experience of the presence of political staffing in professional structures, and the experience of the possibility of predictable career management based on clear institutional criteria. The results of the interviews show that between societies which differ according to the perception of corruption there is an experiential difference in the presence of these indicators, and that the political influence of the professional structures of public institutions can be considered as a factor of corruption risk.
The paper analyzes appearance and acceptance levels of the various deviance forms in Croatian society and the spread of the belief that crime pays off, while honesty and knowledge do not. The vicious ...circle notion, from sociological theories on poverty, will thereby be used to describe the same logic underlying both crime prevention and its growth. Crime growth can be described via four phases. The first is excess level, followed by the organized crime level, still figuring as acceptable in the developed rules of law (state with its mafia), up to the level lacking the rule of law (mafia with its state), and finally the level at which deviant norms and values govern social relations. The ideal-type concept of the well-ordered society, from John Rawls’s theory, will thereby be applied. It refers to a society with stabilised democracy and efficient rule of law, where crime triggers the perpetrator repression mechanism, which creates the image of crime not being worth a while. Sanction efficiency has multiple preventive effects regarding crime. If individual deviance remains unpunished or a crime is justified because of a “higher cause”, excess becomes regular. In case material goods acquired by fraud remain in the hands of offenders, virtues of diligence and justice cannot be perceived as efficient concerning objective attainment. The potential to break the “vicious circle” resides with political elites, who hold most social power and should direct it towards harmonising economic and cultural capital with human potential in order to create a stimulating social climate.
This paper is looking into the purpose and function of police as a social institution and is aimed at determining whether sociology of police can be established as a sociological subdiscipline. The ...first chapter analyses the need for security as one of the basic human needs, endangered by various kinds of deviant behaviour, and the process of institutionalization of police as a form of social activity that fulfills and satisfies that basic need. The second chapter provides the chronology and the examples of the development of police as an institution from ancient and primal societies up to the modern ones. The third chapter proceeds to define police as a social institution, emphasizing its social function. Accordingly, the definition is based upon the fundamental elements of the sociological definitions of institution, some of the general definitions of police, enumerating its specific expected activities, and the possible conclusions about the functions of police in contemporary society within the basic orientations of sociological theory. The fourth chapter indicates possible social disfunctions of police as deviations from the serve and protect principle, taking for example some activities of secret police. The fifth chapter defines the purpose of police in society by analysing the principle of sociability in the sense that police and society are mutual in functionally sharing common values and activity principles. In the conclusion, the basic concepts outlined in the paper are applied as elements contributing to the establishment of sociology of police. In addition to that,
The aim of this paper is to analyze the origin of different interpretations of the events connected with terrorism, with special emphasis put on different interpretations of causes and consequences ...of terrorism. The objective is to show that the same logic has perpetrated the causes of the problem and is being used to solve it. This research into the social causes of terrorism leans against a critical theoretical perspective and uses a historical comparative method aimed at deconstructing some taken-for-granted perspectives regarding terrorism and its actors. It brings the understanding of the causes of terrorism into connection with the history of mutual relationships between today's main actors of global terrorism and anti-terrorism in the wish to explain the consequences of terrorism as resulting from the stable and continued relationship between the main actors. The analysis has shown that current approaches to dealing with the problem of terrorism are so strikingly unsuccessful because, among other reasons, they rely on the same logic that led to the problem in the first place and thus cannot be used to solve the problem. Current power relations between the actors of "terrorism" and "anti-terrorism" point to the need for a possible alternative approach to preventing the mutually complementing "terrorist" and "anti-terrorism" violence. The greatest value of this analysis is that it offers a view of the problem of terrorism based in the tradition of sociological theory, particularly that of deviance, serving thus as an important complement to more customary criminalist, criminological, psychological and legal perspectives. Without such historically grounded and sociologically informed approach, critical perspective would not be possible.
In creating the predominant social and individual standards, the new age paradigm is based on belief in the scientific method as the only proper approach to knowledge and the influence of unlimited ...material progress achieved through constant economical growth and the refutal of nature in order to oblige the needs of the technical system. Established by human action based on instrumental rational principles, the technical system is acting by far more autonomously. The constructivist logic implanted in it by humans sometimes seems so impeccable that it tends to become a desirable pattern of human behaviour, activity and continuing construction of the social system. This is due mostly to an efficient application of technical rationality, which in many fields facilitates living, but ultimately sustains irresponsible human economy and the desire to conquer its environment, Le. nature, completely.
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