Central settlements in Slovenia in 2016 Nared, Janez; Bole, David; Breg Valjavec, Mateja ...
Acta geographica Slovenica : Geografski zbornik,
01/2017, Volume:
57, Issue:
2
Journal Article
Peer reviewed
Open access
This article presents central settlements in Slovenia and their main characteristics in 2016. We defined central settlements based on services of general interest and the population of an individual ...settlement, and developed the analysis further by using competitiveness indicators. We defined 360 central settlements at six levels of centrality, among which the significance of Ljubljana as a national center of international importance and the significance of intermunicipal, local, and rural centers are increasing. The significance of certain regional centers at the second and third levels of centrality is decreasing. The level of services of general interest supplied to Slovenian territory is relatively appropriate, but it should be improved by promoting competitiveness, especially in centers of national and regional importance.
Based on a study of gender equality issues in a research organisation in an Eastern European post-socialist country, the paper argues that the increasing precariousness of academic employment and ...project-based work lead to workplace dynamics that must be considered in a specific setting. The results of a survey of employees at ZRC SAZU show how one‘s position within the academic hierarchy and structure, as well as the nature of the work regime, shape employees‘ opinions. The largest differences in opinion exist between junior female researchers and senior male ones, but there are also relevant differences in the views of women working as research and as administrative staff. The results indicate that an analysis that takes into account the forces of the neoliberal academic market has the potential to illuminate regimes of inequality that are gendered through the relationship between work and social reproduction rather than through identity categories as such.
Based on the latest climate change projections for the 21st century, high exposure to climate change is expected in Vipava Valley, Slovenia’s sub-Mediterranean agricultural area. An ...irrigation-decision support system was developed and implemented on 35 farms in the period of 2016–2020 to increase agricultural climate-change resilience. Farmers have shifted from irrigation scheduling based on experience and assumptions to irrigation scheduling based on real-time soil-water monitoring to partially implement irrigation based on irrigation-decision support systems. Simulations show that if farmers continue to practice justified irrigation applications and gradually transition to replenishing soil water reservoir content to 85%, they will achieve a 25% reduction in total irrigation-volume consumption, a 24% reduction in energy requirements and a 24% reduction in CO2 emissions. Future agricultural innovation policies should extend actions beyond the financial to those facilitating the establishment of multidisciplinary agricultural innovation teams with corresponding infrastructures to better enable the mutual exchange of knowledge, learning and development of a transparent institutional framework.
This article discusses the organisation of community care for older people in two rural municipalities in Slovenia, which are contrasting in terms of “wellbeing” attained. The two case studies are ...part of a wider research project on community care in the country, aiming to establish the typology of institutional care for older people at the level of municipality. As a follow‑up to the initial research, both cases assessed the typology “on the ground”. The various actors were selected by snowball sampling and interviewed about past and present forms of caring for older people. Contrary to the typology, the results of both cases show that institutional forms of care exist in both municipalities but differ in the field of cooperation among various formal and informal local care‑practitioners. Care within families, still the prevalent informal care provider in both communities, hides the financial inability of locals to use some formal care services in their community. Uniform national standards for organisation of formal care notwithstanding, the results show the communities’ peculiar adjustments to population ageing and their partial integration into society.
In this work, we aim to shed light on how co-resourcing and actors' practices impact the agricultural innovation process.
In a first step, we conceptualized agricultural innovation as the process ...during which actors exchange solutions that enable innovation to emerge. To provide these solutions, actors integrate operand and operant resources while simultaneously changing the context within which the innovation process takes place through their practices. By using three case studies, we present how co-resourcing and actors' practices catalyze agricultural innovation.
Actors participate in solution networks having different aims. After setting forth value propositions, they engage in co-resourcing processes, using a wide array of practices (even 'dark' ones) to extract value from the innovation.
This study suggests the need for both research and policy to pay close attention to the process of co-resourcing and the practices used by actors involved in agricultural innovation networks.
The present work reveals that actors who have access to or own key resources take dominant positions in innovation networks, thus having the potential to form institutions in a way that serves their individual interests.
This study uncovers that actors' practices during co-resourcing catalyze the agricultural innovation process.
Statistics from all over the world show that agriculture is one of the riskiest work environments in terms of occupational health and safety. In Slovenia, the health statistics on people who farm are ...of poor quality; only data on occupational accidents are available, and even these are underestimated. This article discusses the need for solid farmer and farm worker health statistics in Slovenia, as well as the obstacles and pitfalls faced by potential data owners and their users. As part of the anthropological research project Changes in Agriculture Through the Farmers' Eyes and Bodies, this study reflects on material obtained in three focus groups with the owners of health and health-related national databases and other representatives of various governmental and nongovernmental agricultural organizations. The results show that research participants are interested in health statistics about people who farm. However, they expand on several factors and circumstances that need to be considered to ensure the quality of data collection, as well as the benefits of such data to farmers and farm workers themselves.
The necessity of gender equality in agriculture has been identified as a relevant political issue and incorporated into strategic documents and programmes of the EU. However, until now, not much has ...been examined about the actual contribution of these policy actions and programmes to the everyday life of farm women; there is a considerable gap in the data about women in farming across Europe, particularly for new member states. The article addresses this issue by focusing on the situation of gender equality on farms in Slovenia. Pertaining to two measures of The Rural Development Programme 2004-2006 - the Setting Up of Young Farmers and the Early Retirement of Farmers - the aim of the analysis is to compare the beneficiaries and non-beneficiaries of these two measures at family farms in terms of their development capacities and their inclination towards gender equality. Results based on the survey data 'Generations and Gender Relations on Slovenian Farms 2007' revealed the above-mentioned measures did indeed reach those family farms that showed better development capacities in terms of economic and demographic conditions. However, the farms did not show significant development in terms of gender equality as examined through division of work and decision-making on family farms. The rigidity in gender statuses and roles on family farms is explained and discussed through the issue of unequal access of women to farmland ownership and agricultural education, and through persistently weak institutional support to increase political participation and power for farm women.
Purpose: Considering current debates on ecosystem services' effectiveness and the AIS/AKIS functioning, in this study we suggest a new, systemic way to evaluate extension systems (ESs). Using this ...model, we compared the effectiveness of ESs in three countries with essential differences but also characteristic similarities in their agricultural sectors: Greece, Italy and Slovenia.
Design/methodology/approach: Initially, we defined 'extension system' as a wide range of actors integrating resources with the aim of co-producing value (not for but with) farmers. To capture the value flow within this constellation of actors we distinguished between the notion of 'value in production' - i.e. the value embodied in service offerings - and the value emanating when service content is used in real settings or 'value in use.'
Findings: Our approach revealed that, despite their structural and organizational differences, the ES in the three countries share common problems arising from a limited focus on the issue of value in use.
Practical implications: The application of a systemic approach - seeing farmers as co-creators and not as end-users of extension services - in the evaluation of ESs contributes to better understand the complexity of value flow within the system and can strengthen extension systems' effectiveness.
Theoretical implications: The present study, by reconsidering traditional evaluation approaches and by focusing on value co-production, offers an alternative value-centric framework for the conceptualization of extension services and points out to the need for refining the evaluation criteria of ESs.
Originality/value: Our work, by emphasizing the reciprocal creation of value within ESs, and by adding the concept of value in use, offers a new systems approach worth considering when evaluating ESs within different organizational and sociocultural contexts.
To effectively organize cooperation with stakeholders in the planning and management of protected areas, it is important to understand their perception of the protected area and the factors ...influencing that perception. This study identifies the factors and their impact on locals' perceptions of the Kamniško-Savinjske Alps Regional Park in designation, Slovenia. The results of discriminant analysis show that the local population that supports the park has significantly different views of its potential from the population that opposes it. In addition, the local population that supports the park was personally notified by the founders about the plans, while the opposing population was not. Therefore, the former is more trustful of the founders' procedures and there is more cooperation with all interest groups than with the opposing population. Contrary to our expectations, higher education, place of residence, and gender do not affect the population's support for the park. These results confirm that a consideration of the factors that affect the local population's perception of the protected area contributes to more effective involvement of stakeholders in the process of park creation, which is important for the successful management of protected areas.
Based on a study of gender equality issues in a research organisation in an Eastern European post-socialist country, the paper argues that the increasing precariousness of academic employment and ...project-based work lead to workplace dynamics that must be considered in a specific setting. The results of a survey of employees at ZRC SAZU show how one‘s position within the academic hierarchy and structure, as well as the nature of the work regime, shape employees‘ opinions. The largest differences in opinion exist between junior female researchers and senior male ones, but there are also relevant differences in the views of women working as research and as administrative staff. The results indicate that an analysis that takes into account the forces of the neoliberal academic market has the potential to illuminate regimes of inequality that are gendered through the relationship between work and social reproduction rather than through identity categories as such.
PDF
