Heritage Protection Versus Individual Interests in a Post-Socialist Country: the Case of Mšeno, Czech Republic

Large-scale investment is routinely believed to be the main danger to urban heritage. The measures designed to sustain heritage thus traditionally focus on steering investment into respectful ways of real-estate development. The majority of Czech built heritage is, however, located in towns and villages that rather face economic decline. Losses of objects of heritage in such places are often due to lack of maintenance. The case study of this article discusses the issues of heritage protection and restoration of the Enlisted town zone of Mšeno, where affordability and communication of values are the key issues in heritage protection

The imaginary of commodified education: open days at Slovenian grammar schools,

Abstract The purpose of this paper is to discuss the open day at grammar schools in Slovenia (a post-socialist country

Social work education in the post-socialist and post-modern era: the case of Ukraine

During the last decade there have been significant changes in social work observed in many post-socialist and post-Soviet countries (Ukraine, Russia, Lithuania, Georgia etc.). The aim of this chapter is to introduce the international social work community to the context of social work developments in transition countries. The specific focus will be on Ukraine as a post-socialist country where social work as a professional project as well as social work education have been established quite recently. Specific consideration is given to the existing post-socialist society’s body of social work knowledge as the key feature of the social work professional project (Weiss-Gal & Welbourne 2008) and social work education. The interplay between political context, public values, social work teacher professionalism and professional practice development is considered

Culture-led regeneration as a vital instrument for preserving the cultural heritage of historical parks in Poland

Historical parks and palace and park complexes deserve special protection for their potential and as the embodiment of national heritage. Most of them are impressive estates that bear witness to their times and reflect the dreams and aspirations of their owners. However, because of the entangled history of post-socialist countries including Poland much of the cultural heritage they represent has been irreversibly destroyed. The aim of the study was to assess the concept of culture-led regeneration as applied to palace and park complexes situated in rural areas at risk of marginalisation in a post-socialist country, Poland, using the case of Kujawsko-Pomorskie Voivodeship. Its findings show that culture-led regeneration is a valuable instrument for protecting historical palace and park estates, which saves the areas from further devastation and boosts local development

Filmmakers to Themselves? Czech Documentary Cinema After 2000

The development of Czech post-socialist documentary cinema was significantly influenced by the process of privatization of Short Film (the former resource base for documentary filmmaking). In the early 1990s, the documentary, as a rather unprofitable area of filmmaking, was not a priority for the rapidly developing field of domestic production. As such, documentary was fully dependent on collaboration with the television industry. This study, however, focuses mainly on the period after the year 2000, and analyses its main trends. Special attention is paid to the establishment of new institutions to support the development and production of film, as well as new marketing and exhibition platforms. Documentary filmmaking in a small post-socialist country is here treated as being embedded in and influenced by a web of inter-relations between filmmakers, Czech Television, the Institute of Documentary Cinema and the Jihlava International Documentary Film Festival.

Transformative potential of participatory planning in a post-socialist context of Serbia

This article considers a decade of practice and research in the field of participatory planning in the context of a post-socialist country, Serbia. The main aim is to assess the transformative potential of participation within the following domains: 1) formation of relationships, 2) recognition of issues and priorities, 3) perception of values and results of planning process, and 4) possibility for institutionalization of participatory practice in a post-socialist country planning context. The presented work examines urban development practices in 45 Serbian cities through the lenses of 95 professional planners that were interviewed over the course of 13 years. What is common to all of the examined cases is that participatory planning processes were realized through the support of international programs that operated in the field of territorial governance in Serbia from 2007 to 2020. Findings indicate that the acceptance of new concepts and policies in the local path-contingent practice requires pragmatic attitude of planning professionals, small steps and liberty to experiment, but also a possibility to discuss new discourses and understand their results. In the theoretical frame, this article contributes to the critical analysis of pragmatism and the flow of transnational policy discourse

The influence of transport offer on passenger traffic in the railway transport system in a post-socialist country: case study of Poland

The study examines factors influencing the number of rail passengers in Poland. The subjects of observation were 62 cities with poviat rights. The main factors influencing demand are the number of connections and the speed of trains. Therefore, we developed an original indicator – weighted number of connections, which takes into account the number of rail connections and the speed of trains. The article can be divided into two main parts: an assessment of the diversification of transport offer and transport demand in spatial terms, and an evaluation of the relationship between the variables. Poland has a large spatial diversity in terms of public rail transport offer and passenger traffic. There are three levels of city hierarchy according to the passenger number indicator: [1] Warsaw, [2] the largest agglomerations [3] other regional cities. Transport offer was found to have a statistically significant impact on transport demand.The study examines factors influencing the number of rail passengersin Poland. The subjects of observation were 62 cities with poviat rights. The mainfactors influencing demand are the number of connections and the speed of trains.Therefore, we developed an original indicator – weighted number of connections,which takes into account the number of rail connections and the speed of trains.The article can be divided into two main parts: an assessment of the diversificationof transport offer and transport demand in spatial terms, and an evaluation ofthe relationship between the variables. Poland has a large spatial diversity interms of public rail transport offer and passenger traffic. There are three levels ofcity hierarchy according to the passenger number indicator: [1] Warsaw, [2] thelargest agglomerations [3] other regional cities. Transport offer was found to havea statistically significant impact on transport demand

Contexts of enterprise policy-making: an institutional perspective

This paper advances our understanding of policy formulation, exploring how the particular institutional dynamics between the transnational and national levels of enterprise policy-making affect policy choices made by governments and consequently their outcomes. The paper argues that policy development occurs within a framework of dominating assumptions on enterprise, influential academic/policy communities and lesson-drawing from other countries’ experiences, which have led to a privileging of the transnational when making policy choices. Empirically, the paper draws on a post-socialist country case – Albania, and uses interviews with policy actors and documentary data from national governments and international organisations. The paper explores the dynamics involved, and the actors that shape, policy formulation and makes two contributions to the literature. First, it provides a conceptual framework on how to analyse policy formulation, extending recent work on the link between policy formulation and the intended outcomes of policies. Second, it offers a more nuanced conceptualisation of enterprise policy formulation, arguing that policy formulation reflects the changing configurations of ideas, policy tools and resources, and actors involved in the process

The Influence of Socialist Socialization on Attitudes toward Income Inequality

Despite convergence processes between Western and post-socialist societies in the past three decades, there are still considerable cross-country differences in individuals’ attitudes toward income inequality. To explain these differences, studies have primarily focused on the role of macro level differences and have only theoretically acknowledged how the role of diverging socialization experiences could also be responsible. To date, little is known about the importance of socialization for attitudes toward income inequality. This article assesses whether the differences between Western and post-socialist countries are influenced by socialization effects. Applying an adapted age-period-cohort analysis on the dataset of the International Social Survey Program’s (ISSP) “Social Inequality” module in survey years 1992, 1999, and 2009, the paper shows that socialization has a substantial effect on attitudes and a socialist socialization clearly differentiates individuals from post-socialist countries from Westerners. Results underline that experiences gained in formative years are crucial for attitudes. A further finding is that both perception and preferences toward income inequality are influenced by socialization