The effects of social movements’ cooperation with governmental and non-governmental organizations: a cross-country comparative perspective

One of the characteristics of the latest wave of progressive social movements that have emerged globally – from anti-austerity and Occupy movements to movements protesting violence against women, to struggles for environmental justice, etc. – is the heightened mistrust: in the system of representative democracy, in political parties, but also other formal and established social actors, like unions and non-governmental organizations. Cooperation with governmental and non-governmental organizations (GOs and NGOs) or refusal to cooperate with them has become an issue of heated debate within many progressive social movements today. In this paper we will approach the subject through the findings obtained from three countries with different political cultures and social and political trust levels: Denmark, Poland and Serbia. The sample consists of six social movements: one environmental movement from each country, the refugee solidarity movement from Denmark, All-Polish Women Strike from Poland, and an anti-eviction movement from Serbia. We will analyse the social movements’ attitudes toward, and the perceived effects of their cooperation with GOs and NGOs, particularly concerning trust relations within the movements and beyond. In the analysis we will focus on the role of two factors: social movements’ concrete short and long-term goals and the role of political, social, and cultural contexts

Citizenship as Lived Experience:Belonging and Documentality after the Breakup of Yugoslavia

Citizenship is usually thought of in terms of legal and political parameters setting the conditions for individuals’ statuses and rights, and so has been the case in its application to the post-Yugoslav context. With the primary interest in the “top-down” perspective, citizenship has been described as a tool with which new states regulated their respective citizenship bodies. But, equally, by granting us documents (passports, birth and marriage certificates, IDs, etc.) which connect us to a wider community, and by employing an array of ethnic, cultural and state symbols, citizenship instills us with a sense of belonging, membership and identity. Furthermore, through our enacting of rights and duties of citizenship, it becomes an inextricable element of our everyday experience. It is especially when questioned and contested that citizenship plays a significant role in how we perceive ourselves, how we appear to others and how intergroup relations are mediated. This paper focuses on personal narratives that reveal lived experiences of the triangular relationship between citizenship, identity and (national) belonging in the post-Yugoslav space. Its aim is to shed some light on a less examined perspective of citizenship transformations, and to complement the currently existing literature on citizenship regimes in the post-Yugoslav states with a bottom-up approach that treats citizenship in its identity-forming and recognition-bearing social role

The Discourse of Anti-Instrumentalism: Exploring a Conceptual Model Through the Case Study of the We Won't Let Belgrade D(r)own Initiative

The main focus of our paper is on a specific form of democratic discourse, used in different types of social engagement actions (petitions, speeches, intellectual engagement, ad hoc citizens' protests, social movements etc.), that attempts to politicize a certain issue by challenging the neoliberal principle of instrumentalism which argues that democratic procedures can legitimately be abandoned in the name of the greater efficiency of socio-economic development. Therefore, we start from identifying the discourse of "neoliberal instrumentalism" and its relative success in delegitimizing the welfare state and mechanisms of democratic decision making and we formulate a conceptual model of a democratic counter-narrative named "anti-instrumentalist discourse". Through empirical analyses of discourse used by We Won't Let Belgrade D(r)own initiative, that mobilized against the Serbian government's urban project Belgrade Wa-terfront we try to illustrate the applicability and the heuristic value of the proposed model. The data for the analyses were collected through 1) desk analysis of available secondary data on the Belgrade Waterfront project, 2) official statements and proclamations of the We Won't Let Belgrade D(r)own initiative, 3) semi-structured interviews with four core members of the initiative

Collaborative Data Transmission in Wireless Sensor Networks

grant TR32043 grant III44003 grant III43002Collaborative beamforming (CBF) is a promising technique aimed at improving energy efficiency of communication in wireless sensor networks (WSNs) which has attracted considerable attention in the research community recently. It is based on a fact that beampattern with stable mainlobe can be formed, if multiple sensors synchronize their oscillators and jointly transmit a common message signal. In this paper, we consider application of CBF with one bit of feedback in different communication scenarios and analyze the impact of constraints imposed by simple sensor node hardware, on the resulting signal strength. First, we present a CBF scheme capable of reducing interference levels in the nearby WSN clusters by employing joint feedback from multiple base stations that surround the WSN of interest. Then, we present a collaborative power allocation and sensor selection algorithm, capable of achieving beamforming gains with transmitters that are not able to adjust their oscillators' signal phase. The performance of the algorithms is assessed by means of achieved beamforming gain which is given as a function of algorithm iterations. The presented results, which are based on numerical simulations and mathematical analysis, are compared with the ideal case without constraints and with negligible noise at the Base Station (BS).publishersversionpublishe

The assessment of health-related quality of life in relation to the body mass index value in the urban population of Belgrade

<p>Abstract</p> <p>Background</p> <p>The association between excess body weight, impairment of health and different co-morbidities is well recognized; however, little is known on how excess body weight may affect the quality of life in the general population. Our study investigates the relationship between perceived health-related quality of life (HRQL) and body mass index (BMI) in the urban population of Belgrade.</p> <p>Methods</p> <p>The research was conducted during 2005 on a sample of 5,000 subjects, with a response of 63.38%. The study sample was randomly selected and included men and women over 18 years of age, who resided at the same address over a period of 10 years. Data were collected by means of a questionnaire and nutritional status was categorized using the WHO classification. HRQL was measured using the SF-36 generic score. Logistic regression analysis was used to compare HRQL between subjects with normal weight and those with different BMI values; we monitored subject characteristics and potential co-morbidity.</p> <p>Results</p> <p>The prevalence of overweight males and females was 46.6% and 22.1%, respectively. The prevalence of obesity was 7.5% in males and 8.5% in females.</p> <p>All aspects of health, except mental, were impaired in males who were obese. The physical and mental wellbeing of overweight males was not significantly affected; all score values were similar to those in subjects with normal weight.</p> <p>By contrast, obese and overweight females had lower HRQL in all aspects of physical functioning, as well as in vitality, social functioning and role-emotional.</p> <p>Conclusion</p> <p>The results of our study show that, in the urban population of Belgrade, increased BMI has a much greater impact on physical rather than on mental health, irrespective of subject gender; the effects were particularly pronounced in obese individuals.</p

Unleashing the Potential for Change through Social Movements and Civic Initiatives

The past decade in the Western Balkans has seen a proliferation of civic initiatives and protest. They have focused on a variety of issues, ranging from the destruction of urban space, environmental destruction, to corruption scandals, and even unresolved murders. Whereas their success has varied, they showed that many citizens in the region are deeply dissatisfied with the lack of accountability of the ruling regimes, and ready to actively engage in their societies. Local civic initiatives and new forms of civic engagement prove to be worthy of further attention for exploring democratization potentials in the region. With their focus on tangible and concrete issues affecting that are affecting the daily lives of citizens, they have a high mobilization potential and ability to cut across ethnic divides and enhance citizens’ sense of agency. Even with limited impact achieved or fast dissipation, they nevertheless create a new momentum in the public discourse and collective memory, from which the new opportunity structures emerge for future possible changes

Endometrial polyps in infertility patients: The first study of their clinical characteristics

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Sex and age differences and outcomes in acute coronary syndromes

Background: There is conflicting information about sex differences in presentation, treatment, and outcome after acute coronary syndromes (ACS) in the era of reperfusion therapy and percutaneous coronary intervention. The aim of this study was to examine presentation, acute therapy, and outcomes of men and women with ACS with special emphasis on their relationship with younger age ( lt = 65 years). Methods: From January 2010 to June 2015, we enrolled 5140 patients from 3 primary PCI capable hospitals. Patients were registered according to the International Survey of Acute Coronary Syndrome in Transitional Countries (ISACS-TC) registry protocol (ClinicalTrials.gov: NCT01218776). The primary outcome was the incidence of in-hospital mortality. Results: The study population was constituted by 2876 patients younger than 65 years and 2294 patients older. Women were older than men in both the young (56.2 +/- 6.6 vs. 54.1 +/- 7.4) and old (74.9 +/- 6.4 vs. 73.6 +/- 6.0) age groups. There were 3421 (66.2%) patients with ST elevation ACS (STE-ACS) and 1719 (33.8%) patients without ST elevation ACS (NSTE-ACS). In STE-ACS, the percentage of patients who failed to receive reperfusion was higher in women than in men either in the young (21.7% vs. 15.8%) than in the elderly (35.2% vs. 29.6%). There was a significant higher mortality in women in the younger age group (age-adjusted OR 1.52, 95% CI: 1.01-2.29), but there was no sex difference in the older group (age-adjusted OR 1.10, 95% CI: 0.87-1.41). Significantly sex differences in mortality were not seen in NSTE-ACS patients. Conclusions: In-hospital mortality from ACS is not different between older men and women. A higher short-term mortality can be seen only in women with STEMI and age of 65 or less