Project
Institute for Sociology
International Projects
REDACT - Researching Europe, Digitalisation and Conspiracy Theories
Digitalizácia a konšpiračné teórie
| Duration: | 1. 11. 2022 - 30. 10. 2025 |
| Program: | ERANET |
| Project leader: | Mgr. Mrva Marianna PhD. |
| Annotation: | Digital communication technologies enable the exchange, adaptation and adoption of conspiracy theories at an unprecedented speed and scale, facilitating the creation of counter-publics connected by a propensity for mis- and disinformation. The REDACT project will analyse how digitalisation shapes the form, content and consequences of conspiracy theories, including online sociality and offline actions and effects. Rather than see digitalisation as a process that has universal outcomes, or conspiracy theories as the same over space and time, REDACT considers online conspiracy theories and counter-publics in different European regions (Western Europe, Central Europe, the Baltics and the Balkans) in order to make robust and nuanced recommendations about conspiracy theories – a particularly durable form of mis- and disinformation – for policy makers, media regulators, fact-checking and extremism-monitoring organisations, as well as the internet companies themselves. |
| Project web page: | https://chanse.org/redact/ |
ENIS - European Network on International Student Mobility: Connecting Research and Practice
Európska sieť o medzinárodnej mobilite študentov: Spájanie výskumu a praxe
| Duration: | 5. 10. 2021 - 4. 10. 2025 |
| Evidence number: | CA20115 |
| Program: | COST |
| Project leader: | Mgr. Ing. Bahna Miloslav PhD. |
CIDAPE - Climate, Inequality, and Democratic Action: The Force of Political Emotions
Klíma, nerovnosť a demokratické jednanie: Význam politických emócií
| Duration: | 1. 1. 2024 - 31. 12. 2027 |
| Evidence number: | 101132327 |
| Program: | Horizont 2020 |
| Project leader: | Mgr. Želinský Dominik PhD. |
| Annotation: | CIDAPE is a groundbreaking project at the forefront of research on the complex interplay between citizen engagement, climate change, and social and economic inequalities. At its core lies the recognition that emotions play a fundamental role in political participation and communication. Understanding and responding to citizens' emotional (re)actions - as set up by CIDAPE's inquiry - are essential to achieving coordinated, democratic action. |
| Project web page: | https://cidape.eu/ |
Conflicts Over Conspiracy Theories (CONSPIRATIONS)
Konflikty kvôli konšpiračným teóriám (CONSPIRATIONS)
| Duration: | 1. 8. 2023 - 31. 7. 2028 |
| Program: | Horizont 2020 |
| Project leader: | Mgr. Ing. Bahna Miloslav PhD. |
| Annotation: | In recent years, conspiracy theories have become an important issue not only to the people who propagate them, but also to those who fear their consequences and design initiatives to push back against the ‘post-truth’ era. Perceived as a major threat to liberal democracies, they are increasingly subjected to state-led interventions. Also many NGOs are now dedicated to preventing and combating conspiracy theories. Clearly, conspiracy theories have become a highly polarizing topic. The objective of CONSPIRATIONS is to analyse this growing tension over conspiracy theories in Europe. The project proposes an innovative approach which moves beyond an exclusive focus on ‘truthers’ to examine the perspective of ‘truth defenders’ as well. This project will analyse conspiracy theory not as a standalone phenomenon, but instead as an outcome of the complicated relationship linking stakeholders who are both separated and connected by the conspiratorial divide. By expanding the scope of study from conspiracy theories to conflicts over conspiracy theories, CONSPIRATIONS will explore the possibility that the worlds of these actors are mutually constitutive. This approach goes beyond the question of who is wrong and what to do about it. Instead, it offers a deeper understanding of the conflicts themselves, which are clearly of urgent importance for contemporary Europe. That understanding in turn will provide better knowledge for tackling the damaging effects of the conspiratorial divide. An important premise of this proposal is that the answer lies not in addressing the content of the conspiracy theories themselves, but rather the kinds of conditions that give rise to them. The secondary goal is to understand how these conflicts are influenced by social contexts, and how they unfold across diverse European settings. The objectives of this project will be achieved through ethnographic case studies in Belgium, Bulgaria, Estonia, Germany, Poland, Sweden, and EU institutions. |
UKR - Social survey of Ukrainian migrants in Slovakia
Spoločenská sonda ukrajinských migrantov a migrantiek na Slovensku
| Duration: | 1. 9. 2023 - 30. 4. 2025 |
| Program: | Bilaterálne - iné |
| Project leader: | Mgr. Ing. Bahna Miloslav PhD. |
SHiFT - Social Sciences and Humanities for Transformation and Climate Resilience, SHiFT
Spoločenské a humanitné vedy pre transformáciu a odolnosť voči zmene klímy, SHiFT
| Duration: | 26. 9. 2022 - 25. 9. 2026 |
| Evidence number: | COST OC-2021-1-25566 |
| Program: | COST |
| Project leader: | Mgr. Strapcová Katarína PhD. |
| Annotation: | The COST Action: Social Sciences and Humanities for Transformation and Climate Resilience (SHiFT) project is designed to take advantage of networking and collaboration opportunities between partner institutions. It is an ideal avenue to strengthen existing SSH expertise and transdisciplinary experience of stakeholders and to actively create new and innovative alliances and research pathways in the short and long term. This trajectory is closely aligned with COST's mission and policy of 'bridging the gap', which remains an obstacle to knowledge integration between science, policy-making and society. The project aims to create a transdisciplinary hub to address existing challenges in supporting early societal transformation in the context of climate change. The SHiFT HUB - Centre will consist of a group of transdisciplinary SSH researchers and practitioners and their other networks of social contacts, with a focus on developing shared benefits for transformation across different social, political, economic, environmental and technological contexts. The SHiFT project aims to address the challenge of creating innovative and feasible pathways through engaging with the transformative dimension of 'critical practice'. The 'critical practice' approach explores transformative processes in practice across a range of dimensions that include research, policy, business, community and individual practice. |
| Project web page: | https://shift-cost.eu/ |
National Projects
GEOPREF - GEOPREF: New measurements and methods for the study of individual geopolitical preferences in Central and Eastern Europe.
GEOPREF: Nové merania a metódy pre štúdium individuálnych geopolitických preferencií v strednej a východnej Európe.
| Duration: | 1. 1. 2024 - 31. 12. 2026 |
| Evidence number: | 2/0053/24 |
| Program: | VEGA |
| Project leader: | Mgr. Torres-Adán Ángel PhD. |
| Annotation: | GEOPREF aims to further the current knowledge on individual geopolitical preferences by using Slovakia as a case study. Individual geopolitical preferences are a branch of foreign policy preferences that focuses on individual positions regarding which geopolitical bloc (the EU, NATO, Russia, China, etc.) their country should be closer to. In a context in which the war in Ukraine has made geopolitics more relevant in the social and political lives of European countries, this project has two main goals. First, we aim to uncover how different measurements of geopolitical preferences could potentially affect our understanding of the public’s perceptions of EU and Russia as partners. Second, we will continue working on the identification of potential factors that influence geopolitical preferences in the CEE context. We also expect to rely on the scarcely used (in this field) survey-experiment methodology to identify causality paths between variables such as party cues and geopolitical preferences. |
HOVPAPS - Patterns and drivers of work orientations and work experiences in comparative perspective
Hodnotové orientácie vo vzťahu k práci a pracovné skúsenosti v komparatívnej perspektíve
| Duration: | 1. 7. 2024 - 30. 6. 2027 |
| Evidence number: | 23-0492 |
| Program: | APVV |
| Project leader: | Ing. Mezihorák Petr PhD. |
| Annotation: | The project aims at improving understanding of contemporary world of work by studying work values, attitudes and reflections of working experiences, based on new comparative data. Meanings of work, work centrality, preferred work characteristics and attitudes toward work, which represent one of key cultural foundations of the labour markets, can help in understanding of the ways people relate to work, how they cope with work and how they choose strategies in the world of work. This kind of knowledge becomes increasingly significant as societies face accelerated processes of technological changes. The project aims at examining work orientations and work experiences in a comparative perspective, based on the implementation of the International Social Survey Programme’s module “Work Orientations”. The project focuses not only on cross-country comparison, but also on a “historical” one. In Slovakia, the ISSP thematic module “Work Orientations” was carried out in 2015. Comparison of 2015 and 2025 data allows to study a sociologically interesting period, during which our society has faced several challenges, including the recovery from the 2008-2011 financial and economic crisis, the Covid-19 crisis, inflation and energy crisis and related increase in inequality and poverty. Further, the project goes beyond the implementation of the ISSP module “Work Orientations”, which takes the same form in all participating countries. It extends its scope by adding country-specific questions. Development of these questions will represent a specific stage in the project, based on theoretical and empirical conceptualization of the current challenges in the world of work in Slovakia. Last but not least, quantitative measurement of work orientations will be supplemented by series of focus groups, with the aim to obtain a deeper understanding of selected survey findings, based on the identification of underlying arguments of the public. |
GPREFCZSK - Individual geopolitical preferences: measurements, predictors, and consequences in the Czech Republic and Slovakia
Individuálne geopolitické preferencie: merania, prediktory a dôsledky v Českej republike a na Slovensku
| Duration: | 1. 9. 2024 - 31. 8. 2026 |
| Program: | Plán obnovy EÚ |
| Project leader: | Mgr. Torres-Adán Ángel PhD. |
| Annotation: | The GPREFCZSK project is envisioned as a tool to expand the current knowledge on individual geopolitical preferences in Central and Eastern Europe and beyond. The project will have a clear multidisciplinary and international character and focus on several gaps identified in the literature that studies individual geopolitical preferences. These gaps have to do with (1) measurements of individual geopolitical preferences, (2) predictors and consequences of individual geopolitical preferences, and (3) trying to identify causality paths between individual geopolitical preferences and some of their predictors using survey experiments. GPREFCZSK will rely on survey data and survey experiments, and follow a quantitative approach, to try to answer its research questions. |
Innovation, disruption, prophecy: Charismatic authority in contemporary capitalism
Inovácia, disrupcia, proroctvo: Charizmatická autorita v súčasnom kapitalizme
| Duration: | 1. 1. 2023 - 31. 12. 2025 |
| Program: | VEGA |
| Project leader: | Mgr. Želinský Dominik PhD. |
Institutional conditions for the performance of work and institutional work
Inštitucionálne podmienky pre výkon práce a inštitucionálna práca
| Duration: | 1. 1. 2024 - 31. 12. 2027 |
| Evidence number: | 2/0088/24 |
| Program: | VEGA |
| Project leader: | Ing. Mezihorák Petr PhD. |
| Annotation: | The subject of the project is the relationship between the conditions for the performance of work and the relevant institutional frameworks that shape, enable, but also regulate and constrain that work. The perspective of institutional work allows us to grasp the ongoing interactive processes between the stabilising, structuring and regulating functions of institutions on the one hand, and the mechanisms for achieving gradual institutional change on the other. The complexity of the relationship between stability and dynamics will be highlighted by the choice of empirical cases that are at different stages of their (re)institutionalization. Through institutional work and other concepts of institutional and organisational theory, the project aims to analyse such actions of individual and collective actors that either have the ambition or in their consequences contribute to the creation, maintenance or disruption of those institutions that constitute the conditions of work performances in the analysed areas. |
Power, control and vulnerability in intimate relationships - digital technologies and care
Moc, kontrola a zraniteľnosť v intímnych vzťahoch – digitálne technológie a starostlivosť
| Duration: | 1. 1. 2023 - 31. 12. 2025 |
| Evidence number: | VEGA 2/0063/23 |
| Program: | VEGA |
| Project leader: | Mgr. Sekeráková Búriková Zuzana PhD. |
| Annotation: | The key objective of this project is to study the dynamics of the relationship between power / control / vulnerability and care via research on the use of digital technologies within the field of intimate partner relationships. The theoretical background draws on the feminist ethics of care, digital anthropology, and science and technology studies.The project is exploratory in nature and combines quantitative and qualitative research methods: omnibus survey, focus groups with experts in the field of IT and practitioners (e.g. helping professions), along with in-depth interviews with people living in intimate relationships. We will examine practices, as well as their interpretations focusing on when - in which relationships and situations - digital technologies are interpreted as manifestations of care and tools of protection, and when they are interpreted as interfering with the autonomy of the individual, or tools of control and manifestations of violence. |
MIGWORKCEE - Recruitment, context of reception, and integration of third country nationals in Central and Eastern Europe: The case of Filipino migrant workers in Czech Republic and Slovakia
Nábor, kontext prijímania a integrácia štátnych príslušníkov tretích krajín v strednej a východnej Európe: Prípad filipínskych migrujúcich pracovníkov v Českej republike a na Slovensku
| Duration: | 1. 9. 2024 - 31. 8. 2026 |
| Evidence number: | 09103-03-V04-00752 |
| Program: | Plán obnovy EÚ |
| Project leader: | Cases Rizza Kaye PhD. |
| Annotation: | The research is a two-year project that aims to understand the processes, infrastructures, and networks involved in the recruitment and integration of Filipino migrant workers (as a case of third country nationals) in Czech Republic and Slovakia. The project is divided into two phases: (1) examining migration management and governance from the sending and receiving countries’ perspectives in order to have a more nuanced understanding of economic migration policies and corresponding practices from recruitment to integration, and (2) exploring the experiences of both migrants and various actors connected to them in the places of origin and destination, which would allow us not only to assess migration outcomes at the individual level (e.g., migrants’ feelings of belongingness and integration) but provide feedback to, hopefully, improve macro-level infrastructures and processes (e.g., creating more effective programs for migrant integration based on the actual needs of migrant). Data collection and fieldwork will be conducted in both the sending country (Philippines) and the destination countries (Czech Republic and Slovakia). Apart from interviewing migrants in Czech Republic and Slovakia, a broad set of key informants (such as representatives and officers of embassies and relevant ministries, possibly recruitment agencies and employers, and officials of the newly established Department of Migrant Workers in Manila) will be also interviewed to share their experiences and insights concerning this particular migration stream. |
NAPONET - Nationalism, populism and social networks in a comparative perspective
Nacionalizmus, populizmus a sociálne siete v komparatívnej perspektíve
| Duration: | 1. 7. 2023 - 30. 6. 2026 |
| Evidence number: | APVV-22-0242 |
| Program: | APVV |
| Project leader: | Mgr. Ing. Bahna Miloslav PhD. |
| Annotation: | The project will provide new insights into the links between the three phenomena under study – nationalism, populism in politics and the use of social networks in political and civic participation. The analysis of these three related themes will take place both in a local Slovak and a comparative context. The comparative context of the project will be provided by data collection within the framework of two international comparative research programs – the International Social Survey Programme (ISSP) and the Comparative Study of Electoral Systems (CSES) – in which the members of the research team have been active for a long time. The implementation of the modules ISSP 2023 National Identity and Citizenship, ISSP 2024 Digital Societies and module 6 of the CSES research series will allow both to analyze the phenomena studied in the framework of the submitted project and to ensure the presence of Slovakia in the analyses of foreign authors dedicated to these topics working with the ISSP and CSES datasets. The project will empirically analyze the relationship between nationalism and populism, the nature of which is disputed in the literature. Populist attitudes and the determinants of demand for populist parties and politicians will also be analyzed. The aim will also be to understand the relationship between the use of social networks and indicators of civic engagement. The project will also look at the relationships between digital civic participation, societal polarization and the erosion of social and institutional trust in political institutions. The datasets generated during the project will be made freely available both through the Slovak Archive of Social Data (SASD) and as part of ISSP and CSES integrated datasets in the GESIS archive. |
| Project web page: | https://sociologia.sav.sk/vyskumne_projekty.php?id=3305 |
Climate Concerns, Environmental Protection, Green Consumption: Environmental Topics and Public Opinion in Slovakia
Obavy o klímu, ochrana životného prostredia, zelená spotreba: environmentálne témy a verejná mienka na Slovensku
| Duration: | 1. 1. 2023 - 31. 12. 2025 |
| Evidence number: | 2/0111/23 |
| Program: | VEGA |
| Project leader: | Mgr. Strapcová Katarína PhD. |
| Annotation: | Concerns about the negative effects of climate change are also increasing among the people of Slovakia, while the consequences are increasingly perceived as direct and tangible (health, property). We know from the available data that the vast majority of Slovakia's population considers climate change to be a very serious problem. The risks accompanying technological progress, which Ulrich Beck described as the "back staircase of industrial society and the" black passenger of consumption ", have become a daily reality today, with a significant impact on the wider social, economic and political context. Today sociologists are able to describe relatively accurately how environmental risks are produced by new types of social conflicts, new value dilemmas and new types of social inequalities. One of the main goals of the project is to examine in more detail how the public reacts to the new environmental dilemmas and how deep the concerns of the population in Slovakia are about the ongoing climate change, through the amount of available international comparative data. |
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Pandemické pravdy: Porovnávacia štúdia konfliktov o konšpiračných teóriách v krajinách Vyšehradskej štvorky
| Duration: | 1. 7. 2022 - 30. 6. 2026 |
| Evidence number: | APVV-21-0394 |
| Program: | APVV |
| Project leader: | Mgr. Želinský Dominik PhD. |
Forms and mechanisms of differentiation and reconfiguration of public and political life. Collective actions and political attitudes.
Podoby a mechanizmy diferenciácie a rekonfigurácie verejného a politického života. Kolektívne akcie a politické postoje.
| Duration: | 1. 1. 2023 - 31. 12. 2026 |
| Evidence number: | 2/0068/23 |
| Program: | VEGA |
| Project leader: | doc., Mgr. Tížik Miroslav PhD. |
| Annotation: | Political activities are limited by the existing disputes and they also play their part in specific historical developments. Over about the past hundred years, Slovakia has undergone a few radical political changes. These have been associated with medium-term periods, when one generation could experience life in two or more types of political regimes and constellations. During each generation, new forms of political and public life were created. This has led to significant changes in self-definition not only in politics but also in other spheres of public life, including culture and science. Ideologies provide a strong impetus for fundamental transformation for they reframe the evaluation of the past and the definition of others, creating new fields of collective imagination. The project aims to perform a series of analyses of political, public and academic discourse to see how the power and ideological influences of the time pan out to create a morally defined self-image and the image of others. |
REPRO-150 - Reproductions of Religious and Worldviews Structures in Slovakia. A Hundred and Fifty Years of Change
Reprodukcie náboženských a svetonázorových štruktúr na Slovensku. Stopäťdesiat rokov zmien.
| Duration: | 1. 7. 2023 - 30. 6. 2027 |
| Evidence number: | APVV-22-0063 |
| Program: | APVV |
| Project leader: | doc., Mgr. Tížik Miroslav PhD. |
| Annotation: | In 2021, the 15th census of the population in Slovakia took place. Twelve of them have indicators of religion and worldview. This time series enables a unique way of analysing changes in the worldview profiles of society at the level of municipalities, regions, or specific religious groups. After 1989 a gradual pluralisation of the worldview structure began. However, only since 2011 has the proportion of those who claim to belong to small religious groups and those with no religious affiliation been growing significantly. The not-yet-detailed results of the 2021 census already point to some forms of change in all worldview groups. Setting the latest census results in a 150-year-long chain of censuses also raises the question of what factors, and in what form, influence the ability of some worldview structures to reproduce and grow, while others stagnate or gradually disappear. By describing the basic trends in the development of worldview structures from 1869 to the present and combining further quantitative and qualitative analyses, the project aims to explain the underlying factors that have influenced the reproduction of different worldview structures. Setting the analysis in the context of current international research on the reproduction of worldview systems will help not to neglect the influence of basic civilizational trends on these processes in Slovakia. The achievement of three partial objectives will lead to the fulfilment of this goal: 1. To analyse the historical dynamics of change in the structure of the Slovak population in terms of worldview. 2. To critically assess the methodological risks of measurement and to indicate the possible effects of measurement on specific results. 3. To show the possibilities of reproduction of different confessional and worldview structures in the crucial periods of modern history - at the time of signitificant modernization of Slovakia (1948-1989) and in the following period of building a pluralistic and market system. |
Social Morale and Value Dilemmas in Political Discourse
Spoločenská morálka a hodnotové dilemy v politickom diskurze
| Duration: | 1. 1. 2023 - 31. 12. 2025 |
| Evidence number: | 2/0110/23 |
| Program: | VEGA |
| Project leader: | PhDr. Kusá Zuzana CSc. |
| Annotation: | The project complements the research of value orientations and moral ideas carried out in Slovakia by examining the "discursive existence" of values and morals in relation to governance. The aim is to reduce the cognitive and methodological debt in this area and contribute to the clarification of value disputes and dilemmas marking political discourse and Slovak society. Within this project we will (a) deal more systematically with sociological perspectives on relationship of moral reasoning and construction of moral community and on value legitimization in political discourse; (b) examine, through case studies, how politicians in their argumentation connect social problems with the level of social morale and how they use values to legitimize decisions that lead to restrictions on rights and freedoms or variants of a possible future; c) prepare a book on critical discourse analysis that will be demonstrated on the examples from the case studies to suggest CDA as important tool of sociological research. |
The Transnationalization of the Vojvodina Slovak Community: Political Framework and Everyday Practices of Interactions
Transnacionalizácia vojvodinskej slovenskej komunity: politický rámec a každodenné praktiky interakcií
| Duration: | 0. 0. 0000 - 31. 12. 2028 |
| Evidence number: | VEGA 2/0130/25 |
| Program: | VEGA |
| Project leader: | doc., Mgr. Tížik Miroslav PhD. |
| Annotation: | The project focuses on the Vojvodina Slovak community’s transformation from a predominantly territorial to a transnational one. Co-ethnic migrations of members of the community after 1990 took place in several waves. The community is scattered: some have remained in Serbia, some have been temporarily resident or permanently settled in Slovakia. An intensive flow has emerged of people, information, and various types of material objects between community members living in Slovakia, Serbia or other countries as well. This multifaceted phenomenon we explore in a multidisciplinary way, analyzing it in the historical context of individual waves of migration, as well as the political and institutional structures that make the process of transnationalization possible and within which it takes place, as well as transnational identifications, relationships, and practices present among community members. The country of their origin (Serbia) and the receiving country (Slovakia) represent one research field. |
| Project web page: | http://www.upv.sav.sk/transnacionalizacia-vojvodinskej-slovenskej-komunity-politicky-ramec-a-kazdodenne-praktiky-interakcii/ |
Elections to the bodies of communal self-government in Slovakia
Voľby do orgánov samosprávy obcí na Slovensku
| Duration: | 1. 1. 2023 - 31. 12. 2025 |
| Evidence number: | 2/0115/23 |
| Program: | VEGA |
| Project leader: | Mgr. Zagrapan Jozef PhD. |
| Annotation: | Elections are one of the most important features of democratic regimes and one of the key sources of legitimacy for governing officials. While the results and characteristics of parliamentary elections, along with the electoral system, parties, and candidates involved in the competition at the country level are well-studied, our knowledge about the local electoral arena in Slovakia is surprisingly limited, mainly when it comes to elections of members of bodies of communal self-government. The goal of this project is to fill in this significant gap in the research on municipal elections in Slovakia. Firstly, our aim is to manually collect unique complete data about candidates and electoral results, which are otherwise unavailable and not published by any of the central bodies. Secondly, based on these data we will draw conclusions about competition in elections, electoral turnout, candidates and other characteristics of the electoral system that is not widely used in the world. |
SEPO - The development of sexual populism in Hungary in the context of the refugee crisis (SEPO)
Vývoj sexuálneho populizmu v Maďarsku
| Duration: | 1. 9. 2024 - 31. 8. 2026 |
| Evidence number: | 09103-03-V04-00738 |
| Program: | Plán obnovy EÚ |
| Project leader: | Andits Petra PhD. |
| Annotation: | SEPO is a systematic project that merges the fields of sexual nationalism, populism, and Islamophobia. Research on sexual nationalism produced significant works on homonationalism and femonationalism during the last decade, however, the link to populism remained under-explored. In this project, I examine the ways in which gender-and-sexual normativities are incorporated into politics within the populistic narrative. I specifically look at right-wing populism and choose Hungary as my case study, due to its leading populist tendencies in the Euro-Atlantic world. In order to clarify the boundaries of the project, I trace the development of sexual populism in Hungary in the context of the refugee crisis starting in 2015. The choice of this context is significant: Normative discourses about sexual behavior have been subject to intensified debate since the start of the refugee influx in 2015. Research shows that anti-immigrant voices in several places are adapting sexual and gender equality discourses for use against the (Muslim) refugees, making these prominent parts of the anti-immigrant narrative. In this way, sexual nationalism is transnational in scope. Here I aim to understand how these transnational processes are adapted and transformed in specific and unique ways to the Hungarian populistic narrative. Through this lens, I try to create theoretical frameworks that are non-totalizing or universalist. The project combines ethnographic fieldwork with nethnography that is user-created content on social media, more precisely Facebook. |
Projects total: 22