Discussing identity in the age of globalization requires departure from conventional analyses in this area. Such a distancing involves several constituents implying both novel methodological and sociologically substantive approaches. While the first methodological alternation refers to the urgency of applying an innovative sociological paradigm to adequately understand the added and changed complexity of identity, the other, substantive notion implies a recognition of multiple social factors, which frame and determine, respectively, the contemporary phenomenon of identity. Conceptually, this contribution attempts, in part, to relate to the assumptions of relevant theorists in the study on the theories of nationalism, in particular of Umut Őzkirimli.
COBISS.SI-ID: 49846370
Article is dealing with evaluation of key concepts and contexts that have led and formed the European integration and European union since their beginnings to the present day. Conceptions of European integration have changed in time and space, we were witnessing a unique social experiment, providing peace, stability, development and cooperation for decades, but has let to a series of antagonisms and critical discussions of future development of the Union and the continent. Analysis is focused on different theories and contributions of Europeanization, prospects of transnational citizenship, multiculturalism and of the emergence of European public, it is focused on democratic deficit and legitimacy of Europe, on proposed models of future development especially in the light of current crisis and outside influences to European integration, among them the most obvious globalization and its derivates.
COBISS.SI-ID: 51109474
This article looks at the American TV series Ally McBeal and the meaning of the lead character for young college audiences in post-socialist Slovenia. Critical examinations of the series have pointed to the problematic construction of the character’s gender identity based on the notion of liberated femininity. This notion has been seen as especially problematic with reference to feminist politics. When discussing the character and its social portrait with sociology undergraduate students in Slovenia, however, the series’ construction of the post-feminist character attracts a different set of meanings. Rather than engaging in the debate with western feminism, the analysis suggests, Ally’s popularity in Slovenia may be understood from the way in which the character and the series allow local audiences, and women’s audiences in particular, to come to terms with their own social biographies in the period of transition.
COBISS.SI-ID: 50663010
Cosmopolitan theory deals with theoretical development guidelines and inserts them into a broader trans-historical framework for cosmopolitan thought. In doing so it provides critical background to deal with contemporary social phenomena of political, emotional and symbolic organization of collective life that exceeds the simplified thesis of "the end of history" and the exceptionality of situation of postmodern spirit. It also puts into question all those theoretical models that set collective and community relations into a radically discontinuous discourse of the so called deterritorialization, liminality, fluidity of contemporary modernity. Such epochal forecasts are far away from everyday life and of remote living reality that is being actualized exactly in territoriality and cultural anchoring of membership and belonging.
COBISS.SI-ID: 264507392
The text brings into focus contemporary research on equal opportunities, the entrance and activities of men and women in politics, as well as structural, system and other obstacles they face on their way to decision-making institutions. Primarily, it provides an overview of the most important, widely successful or most referenced international research in the field, together with an overview of research undertaken in Slovenia. In particular, the text addresses the research problem of how the private sphere influences public or political activity. As women are traditionally considered as being more connected to and interested in the private sphere, the text mostly deals with the problem of the obstacles women face when entering politics. Because this kind of research is missing in Slovenia, the authors (before becoming involved in studying this problem in Slovenia) examined similar research in the United States of America. On this basis and with a consideration of certain specificities of Slovenian territory, they frame methodological reflections regarding their own research project that is presented at the end of the text.
COBISS.SI-ID: 426751