The fact that recent demographic data have been pointing to gradual but consistent dying out of Europe has become the key point of strong philosophical, political and other clashes in the last years. Most discussions focus especially on the issues related to the causes of this situation, thus rather omitting the real consequences on everyday lives of Europeans in the upcoming decades. Namely the economic and sociological impacts. The structure of population change in terms of nationality is the second important process in today’s Europe: The majority population comprising original nationalities on whose basis the state composition of Europe had been formed is gradually losing its dominance. Conversely, immigrants (particularly Muslims) and their children are gaining more and more influence on the structure of society. Various kinds of economic pressure are related to these processes, which in the future will inevitably grow into the shape of events completely changing the society and its economic system. I assume that in order to maintain its economic power, traditional European population will go through a process, during which some usual democratic principles and traditions will be put aside, for example the attitude towards the right to vote will change. That is because despite many complications, traditional European society will behave quite economically by keeping its political power as a guarantee of its economic power, and particularly as a guarantee that the standards of living and thus the possibility of satisfying one’s needs - manifesting itself through life style, among other things - will be preserved., Luboš Smrčka., and Obsahuje seznam literatury
This article presents a critical evaluation of the growing popularity of online social surveys for the exploration of attitudes and behaviours within higher educational institutions. More specifically this article addresses a number of key issues: the construction of representative online samples, and the presentation of the results from an institutional census constructed from an online survey with a low response rate. The improper use of statistical significance tests, and the reporting of systematic errors when quota sampling is employed in surveys is also discussed. This study compares and evaluates four recent academic surveys: (a) the Czech wave of the EUROSTUDENT IV survey fielded by SC&C, (b) A Research Survey on Academic Staff at Czech Colleges and Universities undertaken by SC&C in 2009, (c) surveys of students and (d) employees at Palacky University Olomouc undertaken by the newly established Laboratory of Social Research. This article shows that an improper interpretation of online surveys resulted in a missrepresention of the views of university students and academic staff on the state of Czech higher education and opinions concerning different tertiary education reform measures., Dan Ryšavý., and Obsahuje bibliografii a bibliografické odkazy
Based on data from three group interviews conducted with groups of “workers” and “professionals”, this article focuses on ways that interviews participants choose in their attempts to cope with sociologists’ demands to describe social structure of the contemporary Czech society. The key category adopted from the interviewers’ questions around which the arguments of participants were centered is the category of “success“. The author analyses measures of success mentioned by participants, its presuppositions, who is regarded as successful by them and which criteria of success they adopt. Also analyzed is the self-positioning of the interview participants and the social group they identify with in the notions of social structure presented by them in the course of the interviews., Ivan Vodochodský., and Obsahuje seznam literatury
The aim of this article is to provide an overview of the problems associated with the fielding of questions of a socially sensitive nature typically dealing with crime, health, and sexual activity in nationally representative sample surveys. This article presents an overview of previous research on this topic and associated themes such as the definition of sensitive survey questions, the emergence and impact of social desirability effects and application of the Cognitive Aspects of Survey Methodology (CASM) to mechanisms of question response on sensitive topics. Thereafter, this article maps out specific sources of error that are likely to occur when fielding sensitive survey questions; and highlights methods that may used to minimise measurement error, thereby enhancing data validity. The article concludes with an appraisal of some of the most influential criterion-validity used in this sub-field of survey research., Johana Chylíková., and Obsahuje bibliografii a bibliografické odkazy