This article analyzes essential contradictions in the phenomenon of trust and the dilemmas this creates for empirical research on health and the health care system. Namely, trust comes into being only when rational and institutional mainstays of certainty are lacking, and though we may think that we are measuring trust, in fact we are measuring (un)certainty and (mis)trust at the same time. Analysis of data from the Slovenian public opinion surveys shows a high degree of uncertainty in the area of health care, and a large difference between trust in an individual physician and trust in the health service - trust in the health service is, in comparison to trust in an individual physician, relatively low. Due to these uncertainties and elusive links between trust and uncertainty, authors conclude that trust in individual physician can actually conceal a lack of confidence in the system.
F.02 Acquisition of new scientific knowledge
COBISS.SI-ID: 30995549Background: This paper discusses depressive symptoms among men and women in Slovenia and their relationship to various socioeconomic factors, and education in particular. Methods: The analysis is based on the European Social Survey Round 3 (ESS-3) from 2006, for the Slovene population (n = 1,282). Depressive symptoms, as a dependent variable, are measured using an 8-item version of the Centre for Epidemiological Studies - Depression (CES-D 8) scale. Independent variables included in the research model are: gender, age, education, income, marital and employment status and the presence of a child under the age of 12 in the household. Using mean comparisons of depression symptoms and regression analyses, the paper presents gender differences in depression levels and factors that influence it. Results: Education contributes to lower depression levels in both genders; however, its influence is substantially higher among women. Depression symptoms are closely related to education. Lower educated women show a significantly higher score in depression symptoms than lower educated men. However, higher educated women show better mental health than higher educated men. Different sociodemographic factors influence the levels of depression symptoms differently between genders. The impact of housework as an employment status thus significantly influences higher levels of depression only among men. Similar indications for age, widowhood and the absence of partnership. In contrast, the influence of work disability on depression is only significant for women. Conclusion: The influence of socioeconomic and cultural factors on depression symptoms is greater for women than men.
F.02 Acquisition of new scientific knowledge
COBISS.SI-ID: 30995037This monograph is a deep analysis of a complex socially and politically contextualized concept of discourse, understood as a theoretical framework as well as a methodological tool to study the discursive construction of national collective identifications. The theoretical part derives from Laclau’s discourse theory. The author uses his theory as her epistemological position from which she interprets other theories of discourse. The monograph is an important contribution to the scientific and the social dimension. The monograph has a significant applicative and empirical value as it initiates the field of researching discourse in society. It also shades light on how public discourses in Slovenia recreates inequality amongst different social groups.
F.29 Contribution to the development of national cultural identity
COBISS.SI-ID: 249062400Scientific monograph was edited as an issue in the serial of books on teaching gender in different scientific disciplines that were published by University of Utrecht and Stockholm University. It consists of 8 chapters that are focusing on the issue of the importance of gender in social work and how to integrate it in social work as a scientific discipline, than how to use visual sources in teaching gender and emphases the importance of the critical theory. The book is a result of cooperation in Socrates programme Athena3, coordinated by teh Utrecht University, Netherlands. Programme is a network of the EU Universities that developed women’s or gender studies. Vesna Leskošek was the coordinator of the working group Gender, Feminism and the History of social work, having membership from the 11 EU countries.
C.01 Editorial board of a foreign/international collection of papers/book
COBISS.SI-ID: 3169637We analyse changes and transformations of the relationship between youth and society in the recent two decades in Slovenia. Our thesis is that the position of youth has changed from being a symbolic representative of a societal change in times of socialism to a marginal generational group. The autonomy of young people has been considerably reduced after the process of narrowing of the welfare state has transferred majority of costs for social reproduction of youth from the state back to the family. Without economic or political representatives, young people have only few rights, privileges.
F.02 Acquisition of new scientific knowledge
COBISS.SI-ID: 29532765