The economic crisis is bringing uncertainty, change, worries and distress into the everyday lives of people, which has an effect on the level and form of social capital. The literature offers two opposing arguments regarding the impact of shocks and material uncertainty on social capital. The first one emphasises the instrumental nature of interpersonal relations and claims that the increased need for mutual help and support that arises during crisis periods strengthens social networks. In contrast, the second argument brings forward the problem of a social networks overload, which threatens to break them up during crises. More importantly, interpersonal dependence can lead to the closing off of social responsibility and solidarity into narrow family networks, thus reducing social capital among social groups and in society in general. In this paper, we empirically confront these two arguments in the context of the economic crisis of 2008 in Slovenia. We compare the characteristics of social networks and interpersonal trust before the crisis with those measured several years after it began.
COBISS.SI-ID: 33074013
The article discusses the social sources of collective identification. The main goal is to assess the relevance of three different sociological theories of collective identification, namely the theory of collectively possessed knowledge (Shils, 1991), the theory of nested identities (Calhoun, 1994) and the theory of ultimate community (Deutsch, 1966), for understanding the contemporary processes of European identity formation. In accordance with different theoretical frameworks, the empirical analysis of sources of European identification include the variables of social capital as measures of social integration, institutional trust and mobilisation through political networks, and cognitive competence. The results of the study confirm the importance of social networks for the strength of collective identification, and the role of political mobilisation through political parties, movements and discussion networks for selective identification with either immediate or distant collectivities. Cognitive competence theory does not seem to play a role in explaining the variations in the strength of European identification.
COBISS.SI-ID: 32801117
The article addresses some issues related to the definition and analysis of scientific collaboration. Starting with a general presentation of studies on Slovenian co-authorship networks of researchers in four different disciplines, the article seeks to ascertain if there are any differences between disciplines that are more committed to the "Mode 1" production of knowledge and disciplines more committed to the "Mode 2" production of knowledge. The research is based on a bibliometric analysis of co-authorship networks, a quantitative web survey among scientists and qualitative interviews among a small group of leading representatives of the scientific community and R&D policy institutions in Slovenia.
COBISS.SI-ID: 32989021
The article reviews the development of managemnt education in our region.