V prispevku so obravnavane poglavitne spremembe v rekonceptualizacijah javnega mnenja skozi tri temeljna zgodovinska obdobja in v njih prevladujoče paradigme: (1) zgodnje obdobje javnega mnenja kot ...normativne utopije, ki so jo kmalu začele razjedati ekonomske spremembe, ki so spremenile družbeno vlogo tiska, in empirične sociološke analize »latentnih« (dis)funkcij javnega mnenja; (2) obdobje empirične substitucije javnega mnenja z mnenjskimi poizvedbami, oprtimi na kvantitativne metode sistematičnega zbiranja in statistične analize podatkov ter »teorijo prima facie« permanentnega referenduma, ki jo je postavil Gallup; (3) obdobje velikega podatkovja, v katerem sistematično »merjenje mnenj« z zbiranjem podatkov v obliki odgovorov na vprašanja vse bolj nadomešča permanentno avtomatizirano ugotavljanje in napovedovanje mnenjskih in vedenjskih vzorcev posameznikov iz (meta) podatkov, ki jih pretežno nevede generirajo in puščajo v socialnih omrežjih, in v katerem ideje zgodnje normativne kritike družbeno nadzorovalne disfunkcije javnega mnenja aktualizira kritična analiza korporativnih praks panoptičnega podatkovnega nadzorovanja (»dataveillance«). Ključno vprašanje pri tem je, ali pojmi javnost, javno mnenje in javna sfera v dobi »upodatkovljenja javnega mnenja« še (lahko) ohranjajo zgodovinsko kritično družbeno ost.
This volume investigates the public opinion of the EU in the context of the present economic crisis and other significant challenges currently faced by the Union, the latest being the refugee crisis. ...Scholarly knowledge in the field of EU attitudes in general and Euroscepticism in particular is thoroughly documented here, and is followed by an analysis of public perceptions of the EU's crisis management capabilities, proving that the EU's legitimacy and effectiveness are currently being challenged to the highest degree. The research-based contribution of this book is two-fold, focusing on EU attitudes at a macro-level on one hand, and the opinions of Romanian experts on the other. It provides insights into attitudes towards the EU in Central and Eastern Europe, a region which is still somewhat underexplored by social sciences scholars, and in Romania in particular. On a larger scale, significant differences between clusters of states are identified, suggesting that not even increasing Euroscepticism manages to create a common frame of reference for all Europeans regarding EU-related issues. In terms of Romanian expert opinion, the book provides evidence for a gradual evolution from highly symbolic and sometimes even triumphalist representations of the EU towards mildly critical positions, based on instrumental perceptions. Such changes mark a new stage of Europeanization, in which the EU's presence has become ordinary. For the Eastern European elite, increased familiarity with the EU accommodates demitization and criticism without denouncing European integration as a doomed project.
Trends in subjective health assesment between 1981 and 2011 as an indicator of persistent social inequalities Background: Historically speaking, public health systems were established to guarantee ...every citizen equal access to health care and to separate the issue of an individual's health from issues of material welbeing. Using social science methodology, the study set out to explore how successful the welfare system in Slovenia was in achieving this goal during the last three decades, i.e. to what extent social inequalities in Slovenia are being reproduced as health inequalities. Methods: The study is based on six waves of Slovenian Public Opinion surveys carried out between 1981 and 2011 on representative samples of the adult Slovenian population. The main dependent variable is the respondent's self-assessed health and the main independent variable is his or her socio-economic status. The relationship between them was examined using Chi-square tests and regression analysis. Results: The thirty year trend shows persisting inequalities in health as throughout the entire period, self-assessed health is significantly lower at the bottom of the educational and income scale. The largest differences between social strata are observed in the 30 to 60 age group when labour market pressures are most pronounced. Conclusions: The results indicate that inequalities in health are almost impossible to eliminate as long as their deeper causes lie in social inequality. An additional factor that decreases self-assessed health in Slovenia compared to Western Europe is the low level of trust in people and social institutions, which is the likely reason why the relatively favourable statistical picture of social inequalities is not translated into an equally favourable picture of subjective health. PUBLICATION ABSTRACT
Copublished with the Vidal Sassoon International Center for the Study of Antisemitism, this study asks if the European Union (EU) has the capacity or the will to counter antisemitism. The desire to ...counter antisemitism was a significant impetus toward the formation of the EU in the twentieth century and now prejudice against Jews threatens to subvert that goal in the twenty-first.The European Union, Antisemitism, and the Politics of Denialoffers an overview of the circumstances that obliged European political institutions to take action against antisemitism and considers the effectiveness of these interventions by considering two seemingly dissimilar EU states, Austria and Sweden.
This examination of the European Union's strategy for countering antisemitism discloses escalating prejudice within the EU in the aftermath of 9/11. R. Amy Elman contends that Europe's political actors have responded to the challenge and provocation of antisemitism with only sporadic rhetoric and inconsistent commitment; this halfhearted strategy for countering anti-Semitism exacerbates skepticism toward EU institutions and their commitment to equality and justice. This exposition of the insipid character of the EU's response simultaneously suggests alternatives that might mitigate the subtle and potentially devastating creep of antisemitism in Europe.
The author offers a new approach insofar as scholarly considerations of the EU's attempts to combat racism rarely focus on antisemitism, while scholarship on antisemitism rarely considers the political context of the European Union.
Analize morfološkega stanja vodotokov v Mestni občini Ljubljana in raziskovalne naloge o ljubljanski hidrografski mreži opozarjajo na slabo stanje ohranjenosti morfologije vodotokov v tem območju. ...Razvoj novega mestnega plana, usmeritev in predlogov za obnovo mesta je zato priložnost tudi za sugestije rehabilitacijskih ukrepov v ljubljanski hidrografski mreži. Ne nazadnje moramo za dobro morfološko stanje vodotokov poskrbeti tudi zaradi zahtev lani sprejete evropske okvirne vodne smernice (Aneks 5), ki v določenem obdobju v vsaki izmed držav podpisnic predvideva tak status površinskih voda vodotokov.