Social capital across Europe - findings, trends and methodological shortcomings of cross-national surveys

Two sets of issues are elaborated and reflected on. The first one concerns the distribution of stocks of social capital across European (EU) nations. Using the conventional proxies like trust and associational involvement on the basis of data of cross-national surveys (EVS/WVS and ESS) the main tentative trends and patterns are outlined. The second issue refers to the quality of data. Are the findings and indicators reliable and credible? Are the EVS and other available European surveys a methodologically correct and sufficient source of empirical evidence? Concerning the first issue, it is possible to speak of four groups with regard to the distribution of social capital at the European level. In contrast to authors who argue that there are no large differences in mean scores across the national patterns, this analysis arrives at more differentiated conclusions. Between the first and fourth group a very clear borderline can be drawn while differences between the second and third groups are not so pronounced. In the context of the thematising and critical reflection of the validity and comparability of the empirical evidence some errors and inconsistencies were found. It seems that they appeared partly due to the inappropriate technical design of cross-national surveys and also because of the semantic-cultural as well as institutional factors which have not been paid much attention, partly in the stage of preparing and conducting the survey as well as in the phase of interpreting and generalizing of the data. --

Between Politization of Science and Scientification of Politics. The Role of Sociology in Desing and the Evaluation of Political and Institutional Reforms

U prvom dijelu autor izlaže osnovne informacije o evaluacijskom istraživanju kao o posebnom obliku aplikativne sociologije koji se bavi nacrtom i ocjenjivanjem političkih i institucionalnih promjena i reformi. U drugom dijelu analizira se odnos između politike i znanosti (aplikativne sociologije odnosno društvenih znanosti). Autor zaključuje da je sociologija na putu da postane znanost koja se više ne bavi samo fundamentalnim, već i aplikativnim i razvojnim istraživanjima. Da ne bi dolazilo do zloupotrebe i negativne politizacije, sociolozi kao znanstvena grupa moraju sistematski proučavati način proizvodnje, širenja i upotrebe sociološkog znanja.In the first part of the article the author gives basic information about evaluation research as a specific form of applicative sociology dealing with design and the evaluation of political and institutional reforms. In the second part the relation between politics and science (applicative sociology and social sciences) is analysed. The author concludes that sociology !is becoming a science dealing with applicative and developmental research and not only with fundamental research. Because of the possibility of misuse and the negative politization of science, sociologists as a scientific community have to systematically study the mode of production, dissemination and the use of sociological knowledge

Social capital across Europe - findings, trends and methodological shortcomings of cross-national surveys

"Two sets of issues are elaborated and reflected on. The first one concerns the distribution of stocks of social capital across European (EU) nations. Using the conventional proxies like trust and associational involvement on the basis of data of cross-national surveys (EVS/WVS and ESS) the main tentative trends and patterns are outlined. The second issue refers to the quality of data. Are the findings and indicators reliable and credible? Are the EVS and other available European surveys a methodologically correct and sufficient source of empirical evidence? Concerning the first issue, it is possible to speak of four groups with regard to the distribution of social capital at the European level. In contrast to authors who argue that there are no large differences in mean scores across the national patterns, this analysis arrives at more differentiated conclusions. Between the first and fourth group a very clear borderline can be drawn while differences between the second and third groups are not so pronounced. In the context of the thematising and critical reflection of the validity and comparability of the empirical evidence some errors and inconsistencies were found. It seems that they appeared partly due to the inappropriate technical design of cross-national surveys and also because of the semantic-cultural as well as institutional factors which have not been paid much attention, partly in the stage of preparing and conducting the survey as well as in the phase of interpreting and generalizing of the data." (author's abstract

The dynamics of elites and the type of capitalism: Slovenian exceptionalism?

"The configuration of elites, i.e. relationships between different factions of the political elite or between the political elite and other elites, along with the elite's prevailing cultural patterns, exert a strong impact on the course of societal development. Therefore, in order to understand the transitional process in Slovenia, it is necessary to analyze the character of political elites its evolution and dynamics in terms of reproduction/ circulation. The thesis is that the elite configuration and cultural profile decisively determined the selection of the particular model of socio-economic regulation and, consequently, the type of capitalism that was formed to replace the previous system. However, the changes and events connected with financial crisis and economic crisis after 2008 may indicate that entire architecture of Slovenian social corporatism in the framework of state (national) type of capitalism generated a sort of immobilismo and inability to execute the necessary reforms." (author's abstract

Elites, democracy and development in post-socialist transition

'Auf der Grundlage umfangreicher empirischer Daten aus Forschungen über die Elitenbildungsprozesse in den post-sozialistischen Ländern und mit Hilfe anderer Indikatoren der politisch-ökonomischen Entwicklung untersuchen die Autoren, wie sich Muster der Elitenreproduktion bzw. -zirkulation auf Prozesse der Demokratisierung und der sozioökonomischen Entwicklung auswirken. Sie behandeln dabei ein bisher eher vernachlässigtes Thema: die Frage, wie sich zwischen den beiden Segmenten der politischen Elite, die Pareto als die regierende und die nicht-regierende Elite bezeichnet hat, ein Gleichgewicht herstellen lässt.' (Autorenreferat)'Proceeding from comprehensive empirical data stemming from elite-formation research in post-socialist countries as well as from other indicators of politico-economic development, the authors try to ascertain how patterns of reproduction/circulation of elites influence processes of democratisation and socio-economic modernisation. Above all, they focus on an issue which has been rather neglected till now: the question of establishing a balance between two segments of the political elite, which Pareto termed the governing and non-governing elite.' (author's abstract

Sociology - Slovenia

Analysis of the pre-1989 situation; Redefinition of the discipline since 1990; Core theoretical and methodological orientations; Quantitative and qualitative methods; Thematic orientation and funding; Public space and academic debates; Views on further development

The elite character, development and type of capitalism: Slovenia and Estonia in a comparative perspective

"Slowenien und Estland als zwei kleine Staaten und soziale Systeme haben einige gemeinsame Charakteristika. Sie unterscheiden sich doch in vielerlei Hinsicht. Beide sind wirtschaftlich erfolgreich, Slowenien ist zwar nach den meisten Indikatoren wohlhabender, aber Estland ist dynamischer und wächst schneller. Während die slowenische Elite ihre wirtschaftliche Entwicklung und politische Stabilität auf Prinzipien (und der Ideologie) des so genannten Gradualismus aufgebaut hat (das gilt vor allem für den linksliberalen Block, der aber 12 Jahre an der Macht war - von 1992 bis 2004), hat dagegen Estland einen anderen Weg gewählt, die einheimische Elite entschloss sich für eine radikale (neo)liberale Wende und Deregulierung - Strategie mit allen (un)erwünschten sozialen Konsequenzen. Beide Entscheidungen sind teilweise historisch bedingt ('path dependency') teilweise aber auch Ausdruck der Eliten-Konfiguration, deren Interessenlage und der ideologischen Vorstellungen über künftige sozialwirtschaftliche Ordnung (oder Typ des Kapitalismus)." (Autorenreferat

Gesellschaftliche Wandel und Transition im Licht der Gesellschaftswissenschaften: Das Beispiel Slowenien

Autori se bave pitanjem kako su se društvene znanosti, tj. sociologija, politologija i ekonomija u Sloveniji u devedesetim godinama XX. stoljeća svojim istraživačkim radom odazivale na izazove povezane s uspostavljanjem predstavnič ke demokracije, tržišne ekonomije i vlastite državnosti. Otkrivaju vrlo temeljitu pokrivenost nekih istraživačkih područ ja i istodobno skromniji istraživački odziv na neke druge relevantne dvojbe i izazove (npr. stratifikaciju, strukture političkih stranaka, sudstvo itd.). Otvorenost ka međunarodnom istraživanju je prilično velika, iako bi morala, s obzirom na malobrojnost slovenskoga društva i njegova znanstvenog zajedništva, biti još veća.The authors deal with the issue, how social sciences, i.e. sociology, political science and economics, reflected in their research the challenges in Slovenia of the 1990s, related to the establishment of representative democracy, market economy and statehood. They note a very high level of research interest and substantial results in some areas, while some other relevant topics (e.g. stratification, the structures of political parties, judiciary, etc.) are quite modest. There is a high level of openness to the international research community, though it should be even greater, especially due to the small size of the Slovene society and its scientific community.Die Verfasser beschäftigen sich in ihrer Arbeit mit der Frage, inwiefern die Gesellschaftswissenschaften, d.h. inwiefern die Forschungstätigkeit im Bereich von Soziologie, Politologie und Ökonomie in den 90er Jahren des 20. Jahrhunderts in Slowenien den Herausforderungen, die mit der Einführung von Repräsentativdemokratie, Marktwirtschaft und Eigenstaatlichkeit einhergingen, gerecht werden konnte. Es erweist sich, dass bestimmte Forschungsgebiete sehr gründlich abgedeckt waren; wiederum andere relevante Fragen (z.B. Stratifizierung, Struktur politischer Parteien, Gerichtsbarkeit) stießen bei den Wissenschaftlern auf ein geringes Interesse. In Slowenien ist eine recht große Offenheit für die internationale Forschung zu beobachten, doch müsste dieses Interesse noch größer sein, da die slowenische Gesellschaft und ihre wissenschaftliche Gemeinde nicht sehr umfangreich sind

CITIZEN SCIENCE PILOT EXPERIMENT IN HIGH SCHOOLS

The paper contains three parts. The first part presents the theoretical backgrounds of the relationship between science and civil society, and the concept as well as as concrete examples of the Citizen Science. The second part reports the results of a pilot study of young students from five (Slovenian) High Schools. In the third part, so-called group-feedback analysis with the participation of students is considered, regarded as a contribution to the concept of the Citizen Science Experiment