Electronic Library of Scientific Literature
Electronic Library of Scientific Literature
Volume 30, 1998, No. 4, p. 345-408
Ján Buček
Katedra humánnej geografie a demogeografie PF UK, Bratislava
Decentralisation in the Slovak Big Cities’ Self-Government After 1990. Sub-local decentralisation is one of the latest main institutional changes in big cities' self-government. General trends and opportunities, experiences, are mentioned in the first part of the paper. Managerial and political forms of decentralisation are defined as key issues of interest. I discuss the functioning of decentralised units within the local self-government system, particularly their organisational position, functions, borders, size, financing etc. Many Slovak big cities experienced disadvantages of centralised self-government structures. Problems with proportionate representation of localities, sensitive responding their problems, conflicts over placing the urban facilities (e.g. waste disposal), have engendered attempts to improve the organisation of an urban self-government. Cities started more extensively to use the legal possibility of forming “Councils in City Quarters” for promoting local self-government flexibility and democratisation. Evaluation of this development is the main issue of the paper. The outline of main features of sub-local decentralisation in Slovak big cities, is based on the research done in the nine Slovak cities (with the size from 30.000 to 90.000 inhabitants). The research findings suggest positive outcomes of this development: improvement of local democracy and effectiveness of management. Although the situation varies among the cities and even among the city quarters, the running decentralisation process apparently facilitates better functioning of self-government Councils in the big cities of Slovakia.
Sociológia 1998, Vol 30 (No. 4: 345-362)
Adresa: RNDr. Ján Buček, CSc., Katedra humánnej geografie a demogeografie, Prírodovedecká fakulta Univerzity Komenského, 842 15 Bratislava. Tel.: +421-7-60296 310, fax: +421-7-65429 064, e-mail: bucek@nic.fns.uniba.sk
Anton Michálek
Geografický ústav SAV, Bratislava
Urban Crime in the Reflections of Sociology and Geography (The Level of Criminality in the towns of Slovak Republic). The paper presents the overview of sociological theories on etiology of crime and the ecological and geographical analysis of criminality. Its aim is to contribute to more systematic knowledge about basic aspects of urban crime. The paper elucidates the contemporary research in several scientific disciplines that focuses on identification of the risk localities and their criminal potential, links, and dependence of crime on the socio-economic and socio-demographic phenomena and agents. The need of interdisciplinary research of crime is enormous in Slovakia and the idea becomes widely accepted that interdisciplinary criminality studies can contribute to the improvement of the safety of the Slovak towns characterised by unfavourable trends in crime. The author believes that his survey on sociological and geographical studies of urban crime and the analysis and classification of criminality in the selected Slovak towns presented in the second part of the paper, can serve as an incentive and point of departure and impulse for next sociological research on urban crime.
Sociológia 1998 Vol. 30 (No. 4: 363-376)
Adresa: RNDr. Anton Michálek, CSc., Geografický ústav SAV, Štefánikova 49, 814 73 Bratislava, Slovenská republika. Tel.: +421-7-392 751 kl - 210.
Eva Naništová
Katedra psychológie FF UK, Bratislava
The Dimensions of the Attachment to Birthplace and their Verification
after the 40 Years Following the Forced Relocation. The paper starts
with the discussion of various definitions of the attachment to place concept.
On general level, attachment to place is defined as a complex phenomenon
comprising different components of emotional and cognitive experience or
symbolic relations of people to concrete places. Basic dimensions of the
attachment to place concept are analysed and the main emphasis is given
to the dimensions of dependence on place and identification with place.
The aim of the survey, the findings of which are discussed in the second
part of the paper, was to work out and validate the original technique
of measuring the attachment to place of birth and to uncover its dimensions.
The surveyed population were the emigrants from the region of Orava dam
interviewed forty years after the forced departure from the region. By
using the factor analysis the items of measuring scales were reduced into
five factors (Rootedness, Dependence upon place, Traditionalism, Nostalgia
for place (homesickness) and Loss of place). Theoretically defined dimensions
and the dimensions uncovered by factor analysis show significant similarity.
The correlation in factorial structure of indicators and interrelated partial
sub-scales suggest the possibilities of the next theoretical analysis of
the designed operational dimensions and their relations.
The results raise the question of theoretical relation between the dimension
of identification with place and the dimension of dependence on place.
The author argues that both the dimensions are sub-components of attachment
to place. They are hierarchically structured and may be classified by their
relation to motivating and affective parts of identity.
Sociológia 1998 Vol. 30 (No. 4: 377-394)
Adresa: PhDr. Eva Naništová, CSc., Katedra psychológie FF UK, Mickiewiczova 4, 811 07 Bratislava, Slovenská republika. Tel.: +421/7/361 601, E-mail: eva.nanistova@fphil.uniba.sk
Petra Štauderová
Academia Istropolitana NOVA (AINova), Svätý Jur
Nationalism - Its Origins and Main Stages of Development in Europe. The aim of this paper is to characterise the most important stages of European nationalism and historical “breakpoints” in character and political goals of nationalism. The study starts with the analysis of the period of the Enlightenment and the French revolution, in which nationalism facilitated the integration of different social groups by the ideas of national unity and social and political liberation. The political claims that all nations should be governed by themselves, contributed to a large extent to the constitution of the feeling of fellowship among inhabitants of Western Europe who have related their identity with the national state. The nature of nationalism as a political ideology has been quite ambiguous since the doctrine rises and becomes a part of various political ideologies and nationalism itself, often integrated different thoughts and faiths. The character of nationalism is closely connected with the particular historical context of its origins and its goals. Nationalistic ideas that led to the creation of the national states in Italy (1870) and Germany (1871) can be classified as the nationalism of Risorgimento. Its core was the national principle and the liberal values, justifying the freedom both of individuals and of whole national units. The experiences of the implementation of the Risorgimento nationalism stress the need of distinguishing and separate study of cultural, economic and political nationalism. In the beginning of the 20th Century European nationalism declined from the liberal tradition. Chauvinism became its significant feature and ideological basis of imperialistic policies. In the new states, constituted after the WWI as national states despite their multi nationality, we may distinguish secessional and unifying nationalism. Successor states of Austria-Hungarian Empire are examples of the former type while the unification processes of Italy and Germany in the nineteenth century provide examples of the latter type of nationalism. The German “integral“ nationalism of postwar period can be considered the opposite to the nationalism of Risorgimento. Its core belief in the supremacy of one’s own nation became the basis of the Nazi doctrine. After the WWII, the ideas of integral nationalism were denounced, but nationalism persists. In its most moderate form, it manifests itself inside the state in efforts of national unity fortification and is designated as a conservative one. However, the question of nationalism is still current and the present period is sometimes called a renaissance of nationalism.
Sociológia 1998 Vol. 30 (No. 4: 395-408)
Adresa: Mgr. Petra Štauderová, Academia Istropolitana NOVA (AINova), Prostredná ulica, 900 21 Svätý Jur, Slovenská republika. Tel.: +421-7-597 04 52-53, fax.: +421-7-597 04 55, e-mail: eurost@ainova.sk