Sociologický časopis / Czech Sociological Review - Online first
Changing Participation in Adult Education and Training in the Czech Republic: Who Participates and Who Is Likely to Participate in AET?
Jan Kalenda, Ilona Kočvarová, Jitka Vaculíková, Tomáš Karger
Sociologický časopis / Czech Sociological Review | DOI: 10.13060/csr.2024.039 
Participation in adult education and training (AET) is one of the primary strategies of the European Commission for developing human capital and retaining a competitive labour force. AET is also regarded as a means to tackle educational inequality as it can provide a second chance at gaining qualifications or job-related skills. This study uses data from three rounds of the Adult Education Survey (AES) involving a total of 25,405 respondents to investigate empirically the changes in the participation of adults (ages 25 to 64) in AET in the Czech Republic (CZE). Building on the study by Simonová and Hamplová (2016), this article aims to show how participation...
What Do They Really Want? Limitations of Research Investigating Parents’ Demands for Quality Compulsory Education
Radka Smith Slámová, Jana Straková
Sociologický časopis / Czech Sociological Review | DOI: 10.13060/csr.2025.001
The study analyses the challenges in identifying parents’ preferences regarding quality compulsory education for their children. The first part presents findings from two quantitative surveys conducted on representative samples (N = 961, 1,739) of parents of preschool and school-aged children. Based on an analysis of data obtained from 26 in-depth interviews with middle-class parents, the study then illustrates four key factors that need to be considered when determining parents’ educational preferences and formulating systemic measures. The results show that: (1) Parents interpret broadly defined criteria in different ways; (2) Parents’...
Parents under Pressure? Involvement in Childcare and the Perception of Time Pressure among Czech Mothers and Fathers
Jana Klímová Chaloupková
Sociologický časopis / Czech Sociological Review | DOI: 10.13060/csr.2025.008
This study examines the link between involvement in childcare and perceived time pressures among parents with at least one child up to 12 years of age in the Czech Republic. Using data from the Czech Household Panel Survey (2015), this study combines multiple indicators of subjective time pressure with time-use diary data on time spent on different types of childcare activities. Multilevel mixed-effect logistic regression models reveal the gendered link between childcare participation and the perception of time stress and time deficits in terms of family time, personal time and sleep. Long working hours contribute to time stress and a lack of personal...
Exploring the Effects of the Covid-19 Pandemic on Risk Perception and Care Dynamics Among Staff in Residential Homes for Older Adults
Jaroslava Hasmanová Marhánková, Martina Jandová
Sociologický časopis / Czech Sociological Review | DOI: 10.13060/csr.2025.015
This study aims to expand the understanding of the impact of the Covid-19 pandemic and associated measures on the functioning of long-term care facilities for older adults and the employees working in these institutions. The paper presents the findings of a case study conducted at a residential home for older adults in the Czech Republic, where 10 employees holding various positions were interviewed between March and June 2022. In relation to the specific context of the institution, we were also interested in the impact of the Covid-19 pandemic on the organisation of care, perceptions of how ‘good’ care should be delivered, and the construction...
A Sociology of Slow Academia
Filip Vostal
Sociologický časopis / Czech Sociological Review | DOI: 10.13060/csr.2025.016
The notion of slow academia has been in vogue for some time now. This article maps recent literature vis-à-vis the acceleration of academic life and academic slowdown, offering five points problematising slow discourse within academia without denouncing it altogether, and makes some conceptual clarifications. It then offers an alternative concept—responsively stagnant academia—drawing on an account by Stevienna de Saille et al. (2020) of responsible stagnation contrasted with slow academia. This article concludes with the provocative question: How come multi-millionaire businesses often originate in academic corridors whilst progressive...
Who Pays, Rules: An Ethnographic Analysis of the Development Labor Market in Lebanon
Layla Bartheldi
Sociologický časopis / Czech Sociological Review | DOI: 10.13060/csr.2025.017
Critical postdevelopment literature has long been describing the development sector as inefficient, primarily criticising its inability to achieve its own long-term goals, such as ending global poverty and reducing inequalities. Ethnographic research on contemporary development practices provides a nuanced understanding of inefficiency by revealing unintended consequences that extend beyond official project documentation. As well as assessing inefficiency, this research highlights how the development sector inadvertently fosters a stable labour market for middle-class professionals. Members of this socioeconomic group most often hold positions as project...
Mental Health and the Level of Traumatization of the Prison Population
Tereza Dleštíková, Jiří Mertl
Sociologický časopis / Czech Sociological Review | DOI: 10.13060/csr.2025.021
The study aims to explore the level of traumatisation within the Czech prison population and to contribute to a better understanding of this issue in the Czech context. To achieve this, we employed a quantitative research approach and distributed an internationally standardised questionnaire focused on adverse childhood experiences (ACE) in 12 Czech prisons in collaboration with expert prison staff. The collected data were analysed using descriptive statistics and cross-tabulations, wherein two key variables were considered: gender and assignment to a specialised or regular prison unit. This pioneering study in the Czech Republic reveals findings that...
Denial and Neutralization of Gender-Based Violence in Higher Education
Laco Toušek, Alice Tyrychtrová
Sociologický časopis / Czech Sociological Review | DOI: 10.13060/csr.2025.027
The aim of the study is to interpret, through an analysis of critical cases, the ways in which public higher education institutions in the Czech Republic are failing to address gender-based violence at a time when they have implemented policies and measures intended to do the opposite. The findings are based on qualitative interviews with institutional actors concerned with the issue and with students with experience of gender-based violence by male academics. First, institutional failure is manifested as the anachronistic denial of the prevalence of gender-based violence and refusal to accept institutional responsibility. The policies implemented...
Public Green Spaces in Prague Housing Estates: Users’ Views in Comparison to Inner City Data
Zdeněk Uherek, Jan Těšitel, Veronika Beranská, Jaroslav Macháček
Sociologický časopis / Czech Sociological Review | DOI: 10.13060/csr.2025.029
This article examines public green spaces in housing estates in Central Europe, using Prague as an example. The research leverages a dataset derived from a survey conducted among residents of housing estates in Prague that were built between the 1960s and the 1980s and compares the survey results with data collected in the inner city. This article asks how people who live in Prague conceptualise public space and questions whether they consider public green spaces in housing estates to be public spaces. Based on field data, it interprets how residents of Prague use such spaces, what limitations and shortcomings they see in them, what changes they would...
‘Big Politics Are Made Here!’: An Intersectional Analysis of Municipal Politics in a Village
Kristýna Hájková
Sociologický časopis / Czech Sociological Review | DOI: 10.13060/csr.2025.030
This article deals with the inequalities that can accompany participation in municipal politics. It is based on qualitative ethnographic research that took place in a Slovak village with a population of both Roma and non-Roma, and the analysis primarily focuses on the position of Roma and non-Roma women in municipal politics. The positions of participants and groups in municipal politics are viewed using an intersectional approach that focuses mainly on the analysis of power inequalities. In intersectional theory, the social identity of individuals is conceptualised as multidimensional and therefore multiple factors need to be included in the analysis...
An Analysis of the Factors Influencing the Transition to Economic Inactivity among the Population Aged 50–65 Using Data from the Labour Force Survey
Jiří Vyhlídal
Sociologický časopis / Czech Sociological Review | DOI: 10.13060/csr.2025.031
The study focuses on the impacts of population ageing on the labour market in the Czech Republic, particularly the transition of older employees into economic inactivity. With declining fertility rates, the absolute number of individuals of working age (15–65 years) decreased over the period, even as the retirement age rose. This trend has created labour market shortages and threatens the sustainability of pension systems. Within the total working-age population, the proportion of individuals aged 50–65 remained stable at 30.7%. The primary objective of the study is to analyse the factors influencing older employees’ decisions to...
After Tito – Also Tito: The Use of Tito and Communist-Era Heritage in Post-Yugoslav Montenegrin Politics
Petar Šturanović, Boris Vukićević
Sociologický časopis / Czech Sociological Review | DOI: 10.13060/csr.2025.032
The Democratic Party of Socialists, Montenegro’s ruling party between 1991 and 2020, celebrated communist and Titoist heritage. Through an analysis of the Montenegrin political scene, the government’s actions, and comparative experiences, this paper sheds light on a phenomenon specific to Montenegro among post-communist countries, namely glorification of the communist era and its leaders, including the erection of monuments, the naming of streets, and other commemorative practices. The paper argues that various factors, such as nostalgia for a bygone era, perpetuation of a personality cult, validation of the party’s own communist...
Development and Validation of the Ultra-Short Version of the Identity Style Inventory (US-ISI-5) Among Czech Adolescents
Radka Hanzlová, Markéta Spitzerová
Sociologický časopis / Czech Sociological Review | DOI: 10.13060/csr.2025.033
Adolescence and the transition to adulthood represent critical periods for identity formation, with a coherent and stable sense of identity being a key component of psychosocial development and functioning in different social roles throughout one’s life. In their decision-making processes, individuals mainly employ three socio-cognitive strategies – informational, normative, and diffuse/avoidant – each of which can be measured by the Identity Style Inventory (ISI). However, the traditional version of this scale is too long and not particularly suitable for online surveys. This research note aims to develop and validate an ultra-short...
Who Is the Most Progressive Force in Society? Discussions about Workers and Intellectuals in Czech Sociology in the 1960s in the Context of the Development of Soviet Marxism-Leninism
Stanislav Holubec
Sociologický časopis / Czech Sociological Review | DOI: 10.13060/csr.2026.005
The classic Marxist writers considered the industrial working class to be the decisive social force in the revolution and the building of communism, but they also emphasised the important role of experts and assumed that the two groups would merge in the future. The Bolsheviks took a dualistic view of the intelligentsia – they distrusted them, but at the same time recognised the need for this group (technical intelligentsia). Post-Stalinist ideology is characterised by a departure from Stalin’s preference for the technical intelligentsia and the cult of the elites, and the establishment of a symbolic balance between the intelligentsia and...
Interactions between Interest Groups and Political Parties in the Czech Republic and Slovakia – Three Decades after the Velvet Divorce
Szczepan Czarnecki
Sociologický časopis / Czech Sociological Review
Interactions between political parties and interest groups represent a crucial mechanism through which organised interests gain access to the policymaking process and parties maintain connections with societal actors. Despite a growing body of research on interest representation in Central and Eastern Europe, systematic comparative analyses of party–interest group relations in the region remain relatively limited. Czechia and Slovakia offer a valuable comparative context. Although both countries emerged from similar post-socialist political foundations, they since pursued divergent paths in democratic consolidation, party competition, state–society...
Food Provision as a Practice of Individualised Care: A Discourse Analysis of Care in Nursing Homes and Memory Care Units
Martina Němcová, Marcela Petrová Kafková
Sociologický časopis / Czech Sociological Review | DOI: 10.13060/csr.2026.007
This article examines how the broader societal discourse of individualisation permeates the field of care for older adults through the example of food provision in nursing homes and memory care units. Drawing on a critical discursive analysis of interviews with care staff, the study identifies key discourses that shape how individualisation is articulated and enacted within institutional settings. The analysis highlights how economic, organisational, and institutional factors, as well as the roles attributed to clients and their families, contribute to specific constructions of individualised food provision. The article explores how the rhetoric of...
Volatile Boundaries: The Decline of Anti-Polish Migrant Moral Panic in Post-Brexit Britain
Rafał Smoczyński, Ian Fitzgerald
Sociologický časopis / Czech Sociological Review | DOI: 10.13060/csr.2026.008
This paper examines the waning of the anti-Polish migrant moral panic in Britain after the Brexit referendum, focusing on how a prolonged episode of moral panic lost its public intensity and legitimacy. Drawing on qualitative interviews with Polish migrants conducted in northern England and complemented by a contextual analysis of mainstream media coverage, this study traces changes in the affective framing through which Polish migrants had previously been constructed as social threats to the employment security of the indigenous population. While the panic endured for an unusually long period, its decline cannot be straightforwardly attributed to...
Cross-Sectoral Care: Developing a New Framework for Understanding Fragmentation in Social and Health Services
Michaela Veselá Hiekischová
Sociologický časopis / Czech Sociological Review | DOI: 10.13060/csr.2026.009
The fragmentation of social and health care is frequently mentioned in scholarly literature as a key obstacle to the integration, quality, and accessibility of care. However, there has yet to be a systematic and comprehensive conceptualisation of this phenomenon. The term ‘fragmentation’ is often used implicitly, without a deeper analysis of the systemic structures and cultural barriers that sustain the fragmentation of care. This article addresses this knowledge gap and proposes a conceptualisation of the fragmentation of social and health care as a multidimensional and multilevel phenomenon. Based on a scoping review of international...