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Destination attractiveness influences tourists' destination choices and may be the most important determinant to visit or revisit a destination. This paper points out four approaches to destination attractiveness and deals with the most common one, the perceptive concept. Since perceived destination attractiveness is affected by familiarity with the destination, the paper focuses on the domestic tourism market. Bearing in mind the heterogeneity of domestic visitors, it focuses on young generations presenting a long-term perspective market. The aim of this study is to assess the perceived domestic destination attractiveness among GenY and GenZ and determine if there is a correlation between overall perceived destination attractiveness and the target market based on belonging to a specific generation. Research methods, combining sociological questioning through questionnaires, indicator of destination attractiveness ratio – DAR (originally designed by authors), importance-performance analysis (IPA), and expert panel were used. The results show that Slovakia and Czechia are attractive to young locals. Differences occur when comparing the perception of destination attractiveness by individual generations. The perceived attractiveness cannot, therefore, be examined on the example of heterogeneous visitors, as it has been common in the scientific literature until now; homogeneity of the target market is imperative. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

As donors channel more of their development assistance through private companies, a discussion is growing on what this shift means for international development. This paper focuses on four Central European donors, the Czech Republic, Hungary, Poland and Slovakia, who have recently implemented new incentives to promote the greater engagement of the private sector in their international development programmes. The paper uses new survey data of project managers at organisations implementing aid projects funded by these four donors to explore how private actors differ in their approaches to aid implementation. The analysis reveals that the type of implementing organisation does not affect their focus on internal project goals (budget, schedule, and scope), but project managers at private firms consider long-term impact and economic sustainability of the project less important. These findings support claims that for-profit organisations exercise a short-term approach to satisfy funders, but lack a deeper focus on long-term development. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The purpose of this paper is to identify the factors that influence the sustainability of rural grocery stores and to assess the effects of the ongoing consolidation and spatial concentration in rural grocery stores on the accessibility of rural grocery stores in the Czech Republic. In this paper, we start by presenting the continued decline of retail grocery stores in rural areas of the Czech Republic. The decline is seen to be especially severe in villages with fewer than 1,000 inhabitants. By examining official statistics from the Czech Republic and research papers from selected European countries, we see how the rural retail sector is monitored. We demonstrate the very good accessibility of grocery stores for residents of the entire Czech Republic, including residents of small villages. Differences in the external and internal environment of rural grocery stores were identified. Consequently, we also present the preliminary findings of in-depth interviews with rural grocery storekeepers in Southwestern Bohemia. The article ends with a summary of the current situation in rural retail. In policy terms, the research shows that more work needs to be done to identify, quantify, and then promote the advantages of rural retail. External factors influencing rural retail business are the high level of competition, grant programs for rural grocery stores, the relatively short distances consumers have to travel by car or public transportation to modern retail facilities with a wider assortment, better prices, and more attractive shopping space in modern retail facilities. Internal factors that negatively affect a rural retail business are staff with inadequate qualifications and an approach that is not focused on the consumer and his needs, and opening hours and a product range that does not reflect consumer requirements. The contribution of this paper is focused on the sustainability of entrepreneurialism in rural retail. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article contributes to the debate on domestic politicisation of EU issues by suggesting hitherto overlooked explanation of (non)politicisation. This paper uses Czechia as an intriguing case in which the mainstream explanations of a low level of domestic politicisation of EU issues do not apply. The Czech case illustrates that, first, even in the context of high public Euroscepticism, EU issues do not necessarily become politicised, particularly so when the public does not consider them to be important. Second, high politicisation does not occur when there is a path dependency of a mismatch between positions of political parties and significant parts of their electorates on EU issues. Finally, the rise of catch-all populist parties prevents a high level of politicisation of EU issues. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper builds on an intensive and unique survey of all Czech municipalities (n = 6,258) regarding the geoparticipatory spatial tools used in the decision-making processes of local administrations and the Index of Geoparticipation derived from the dataset. Furthermore, we have collected and analysed data regarding 238 participatory budgeting events in the Czech Republic from the years 2012–2020. This paper is divided into two sections. We investigate the relationships among the municipalities' membership in the Healthy Cities of the Czech Republic network (HCCZ), as well as the municipalities' levels of indebtedness and their performances in the Index of Geoparticipation and their usage of participatory budgeting. Our primary theory states that membership in HCCZ and higher values in the Index of Geoparticipation will support the use of participatory budgeting, while indebtedness will discourage municipalities from implementing participatory budgeting. We deepen the knowledge of participatory budgeting in the Czech Republic, while focusing on the qualitative analysis of projects that have been approved and implemented through the tool of participatory budgeting at the municipal level. Additionally, we examine what type of projects the funds are allocated to and how the characteristics of these projects change over time. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The current pandemic situation has forced organisations to adapt quickly and change processes through digital transformation. Businesses began to interact with consumers online and generally had to adjust existing processes and develop or improve the products and services offered. The agile transformation as part of Industry 4.0 started several years ago and in the current situation can be considered the best starting point for ongoing changes. The agile approach is mostly used in the field of IT, where it has penetrated mainly into software solutions and project management. Later, this concept began to penetrate deeper into several areas of the organisation, today we can talk about the company-wide transformation into an agile platform. While agility was initially perceived as a benefit, especially for software solutions, today it helps in successful business mainly by penetrating the organisational culture in which organisations define the desired values, ideas and procedures of employee behaviour in the organisation and is able to implement agile management principles. In the presented article, we present the results of research focussed on the analysis of the current state of application of agile management methods in companies operating in Slovakia and the Czech Republic. The aim of this paper is to identify the approach to building an agile culture as a basic prerequisite for their effective implementation. The contribution of this article to agile management research is to identify specific aspects of agile culture that support agile management functioning. The size of the examined sample and the comparison of the results between the group of companies in the Slovak Republic and the Czech Republic provide findings with a high degree of reliability. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study focuses on the issues of bioeconomy perception of students at forestry faculties in Slovakia and the Czech Republic. Bioeconomy is seen as a great window of opportunities, hence there is increased demand for bioeconomy education. This paper can help answer this demand and improve the curricula of universities providing bioeconomy-related education. The survey was conducted at the Technical University in Zvolen and the Czech University of Life Sciences Prague among 367 students. The results show that 70% of students have heard about bioeconomy, while this number is significantly higher amongst Slovak students. Considering bioeconomy awareness, we identified significant differences between different study programmes. The main information source about the bioeconomy issues turns out to be university courses followed by news. Czech students turned out to be less satisfied with bioeconomy involvement in curricula, and who also find it necessary to increase bioeconomy focus within their study curriculum. Our results show that targeted communication of bioeconomy is a key factor for general acceptance of bioeconomy and its further development among students and the general public. The results obtained can be used to increase the extent to which bioeconomy is being addressed in study programmes within the analysed universities. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Residents represent one of the main stakeholders in a tourism destination. They have the power to influence the planning and development of tourism destinations in many ways. They can contribute to destination development directly, via local initiatives and communities, or indirectly in local government elections. This paper focuses on the indirect method of influencing tourism development. It deals with the relationship among residents' perception of tourism impact, economic, and socio-demographic profile, and their political preferences in local elections. This paper proposes an integrative model and uses the Generalized Linear Model (GLM) for testing this relationship in Český Krumlov, Czechia. The results confirm the relationships between the perception of tourism benefits and costs and residents' political preferences in local elections. The main factors affecting residents' voting decisions were identified as increasing quality of life, additional tax revenue, rising value of residents' real estate, and overcrowding and disruption of everyday life. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In recent years, Israel Studies have been gaining momentum in Europe, especially in the Central and Eastern parts of the continent. The aim of this paper is to scrutinize the genesis and evolutionary developments of Israel Studies as a separate study field in Poland, the Czech Republic, and Germany. The authors tackle the following aspects: the dominant intellectual traditions, historiographic approaches, and disciplinary frameworks; the teaching and research environment for Israel Studies in each examined country; potential entanglement of the discipline with political ties to the State of Israel and its consequences. The paper employs the qualitative research approach and relies on the case study methodology. However, an essential part of the study utilizes a comparative perspective and offers certain prospects for Israel Studies. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper proposes an innovative approach to modelling trade specialisation of Slovakia and Czechia. These countries have a limited export structure concentrated mainly on machinery and transport equipment that require recent technologies and are subject to continuous automation. We aimed to identify factors that impact Slovakia's and Czechia's performance in the automobile industry on the EU-28 market using the Auto Regressive Distributed Lag Approach. The Vollrath indicator of the revealed competitiveness (Vollrath 1987) demonstrates specialisation, representing a modification of the Balassa index of revealed comparative advantages (Balassa 1965). The paper shows compelling evidence of long-and-short-run asymmetry between trade specialisation and the real effective exchange rate in Slovakia. The results suggest that the Czech competitiveness in the automobile industry does not fall with a higher effective exchange rate. Other factors such as human capital and country size bolster the theoretical assumptions and show the over specialisation of both countries and chances to be less specialised with higher population growth. This paper's findings have a broader context and application for countries focusing primarily on manufacturing road vehicles. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The paper analyses popular geographical imageries of the European migrant crisis. It focuses on visualities that shaped discussions about the event among Czech Facebook users with anti-immigration attitudes. The paper elaborates on the co-production of migrants' visibility and visualities that depict them in certain ways. Visuality influences visibility and shapes what it means for people (who are represented by images) to be visible in certain ways when seen by another people (who observe and consume the images). Here, we analyse how cartographic visualizations and the practice of montage of images produce meanings and affects that make migrants either visible only as abusers of the Czech social welfare system (linking migrants in a racist way to the Roma minority) or visible only as dehumanized raging Muslim invaders that resemble more machine-like beings. These interpretations are explained with references to historical specificities of the Czech context. A user-made, film-like sci-fi video of the crisis is also analysed carefully to demonstrate its imaginary of a collapsing Western Europe, where raging invaders dominate. Presenting migrants' visuality as invaders links these racist and Islamophobic attitudes to migrants' visibility as enemies and targets to be killed, not pitiable human beings to be helped. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper analyzes the potential for natural gas in Austria, the Czech Republic, and Slovakia in order to develop a model that accurately describes the adequacy of transmission capacities in the region up until the year 2035. Two scenarios are created using the model. The first scenario is based on the situation prior to the Russian-Ukrainian conflict, while the second scenario considers the conflict, allowing to observe its impact. In the Original Scenario, gas was an indisputable part of the energy mix, and it was desirable to increase the transmission capacity. In contrast, the Reduction Scenario aims to reduce gas consumption and to diversify the portfolio of suppliers, which makes its role uncertain. Under this scenario the flow distribution significantly changes and neglects the transit role of the selected region. The surprising result was that the flow through Ukraine became the main gas flowing from Russia. Both scenarios also shared a common outcome - the importance of storage capacities. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The terms 'fake news' and 'alternative facts' have lost their shock value in today's public discourse and seem to have become part of our normal political vocabulary. Fake news, mis- and disinformation are not a problem of a particular country but are found in politics around the world. In this paper, I look at how disinformation appears as a problem for democracy. Empirically, this paper explores dominant patterns of argumentation with a focus on the US, Germany and Czechia. I discuss the themes of media literacy, hybrid warfare and the emergence of fringe media. This paper argues that more attention needs to be paid to the affectual dimension of why people share fake news. Even though there is no easy solution for dealing with fake news, a first step is to stop denouncing people for believing in fake news and putting all our hope in media literacy. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Brexit has been a major crisis facing the European integration process. The paper examines how Brexit was framed and exploited by two EU member state governments, Czechia and Hungary. We conceptualize Brexit as a "distant crisis" for these two countries: although it is likely to have significant impacts, these are uncertain and not immediate. Building on the crisis-framing literature, we apply frame analysis to examine governmental rhetoric and find that both governments have instrumentalized Brexit for internal purposes by pragmatically adapting their discursive positions on it to fit their political calculus on both domestic and European issues. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Participation is becoming not only a theoretical framework of EU and UN documents, but also a practical approach that many municipalities explore in order to build resilient, sustainable and smart cities. The paper presents a weighted Index of Geoparticipation for all municipalities in the Czech Republic (n = 6258). The index is an indicator-based value divided into three dimensions (communication, participation, transparency) that helps to evaluate the state of geoparticipation among Czech municipalities. The size of the municipality (measured by population) and the significance of the municipality are both highly related to the values of the Index of Geoparticipation. Regional capitals, major cities, and big towns that are part of the Healthy Cities Network all have higher values for the Index of Geoparticipation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The objective of this paper is to investigate the effect of using the EFQM model in Czech companies on business success. The study is based on primary data collected from top managers of selected 477 Czech private companies which are incorporated and located in the Czech Republic. Primary data were collected by the method of oral questioning. The companies under research were selected with the method of non-probability purposive sampling, or more precisely by assumption and occasional selection. The research was carried out in the Czech Republic between October 2018 and January 2019. The relationships are analyzed using relevant regression techniques. From the results generated by research methodology, the EFQM model has a very important weight and plays a key role in the strategic planning of the company. This fact is confirmed by the high direct effect, as well as by the high indirect effect between both variables. These results indicate that the using of the EFQM model constitutes a key piece in the strategic planning of the company to achieve of business success. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Racism is a major social and cultural problem that has, in various forms, plagued football for a long time. Despite the attempts of official bodies to root it out, racist talk and behaviour are still rife among players as well as in fan communities. The present paper provides a case study of online users' comments on the media coverage of a series of controversial incidents during a recent UEFA Europa League matchinvolving an alleged verbal act of racial abuse between two players. Adopting a discourse analytical perspective, the paper contrasts how the match controversies were reflected in the users' public online discourses in two different cultural communities, namely the UK and the Czech Republic, and identifies some of the similarities and differences between the two. The analysis shows how the users reframe the underlying racist issue, trivialize it through humour and relativize its seriousness. The data indicate that such discourses surrounding football are important for understanding how fans construct various group identities and how specific socio-cultural contexts influence the perception of race-related controversies. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Historical re-enactments have become an increasingly popular topic in academic debate, as some scholars argue that re-enactments allow participants to critically investigate history and its representations. As a pastime dominated by men, most literature on war re-enactment and gender, however, has emphasized the subordinate position of women and the reproduction of conventional gender roles. This paper focuses on two European women re-enactment groups that challenge this understanding: Die Flakhelferinnen in the Wehrmacht of Nazi Germany and the Army Nurse Corps of the United States. Based on a visual ethnography of their Instagram combined with fieldwork in the Czech Republic and Belgium, I analyse the strategies these reenactors use in the remediation of the 'invisible' histories of women in the armed forces during WWII. The analysis demonstrates a complex negotiation between historical notions of 'femininity', contemporary identities, and Instagram's affordances in the remediation of gendered pasts. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

'Homeless' people are usually considered as citizens without property. The absence of ownership, especially in terms of housing, co-creates the very idea of homelessness in current societies. Despite this fact, 'homeless' citizens negotiate and experience their property, things, or the shelter in which they dwell. This paper sheds light on how this property is negotiated and experienced and how it influences home-making. It does so by drawing on long-term ethnographic research in the city of Pilsen, a second-order city in Czechia. Based on the intra-urban comparison of informal dwelling in two abandoned buildings – a former railway station tower and an allotment cottage – the paper conceptualize the unspotted home and argues that it arises from the assemblage of socio-materiality, meanings, and various dimensions of politics, where the politics of home-ownership has an important position. While informal ownership here is related to power asymmetry within home-making, paradoxically, it also brings about more complex informal citizenship and the potential for political action. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

There has been active debate in recent years whether media literacy education can or even should nurture civic participation. Despite a growing number of theoretical and empirical studies, the question remains unanswered. This paper contributes to the debate with participatory action research conducted with vocational school students in the Czech Republic. Seventeen students aged 17–19 took part in the study over the course of three months. They received weekly interventions applying the citizenship model of media literacy and focusing on 'create', 'reflect', and 'act' competences. The research and educational intervention turned out to be a positive learning experience for students, which exceeded the originally expected outcome. The project found that the students' immediate media literacy in these competences improved. However, the enhancement of their long-term civic participation remained questionable. This study argues for a student-centered, school-routines-breaking, and hands-on approach to media literacy education supporting civic participation of disadvantaged youth. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Research shows that the concept of academic futility is promising for studying the mechanisms that cause differences in educational outcomes in general and vocational programmes. The aim of this paper is to test the hypothesis that in the Czech Republic, a country with one the largest VET sectors in Europe, the worse achievement of students in vocational programmes can also be explained by academic futility, and to explore the relationship between futility and the track attended. The conceptualisation of academic futility returns to the three-dimensional concept proposed by Brookover and Schneider in 1975. The analysis was carried out on a sample of 4871 upper secondary students. Confirmatory factor analysis showed a good fit of the model for a two-level (student and class) concept of academic futility. Two-level structural equation modelling showed a negative relationship between futility and achievement and a lower culture of futility in classes with higher socio-economic status. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Higher education transformation in the Czech Republic has been aimed at increasing the competitiveness of Czech higher education institutions within the European context, as well as strengthening their role as the main sources of innovation for sustainable development in its economic and social dimensions. This transformation has undergone a turbulent development in last years. The paper elucidates some recent legislative amendments and aims of the Ministry of Education's development plans. We also clarify some research steps that have been undertaken to shed light on the next steps in the transformation. The problem with the reform process is that many systemic undertakings come under pressure from changes in policy cycles, governmental priorities, budgeting, and socio-demographic conditions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper estimates the poverty level in Spain and the Czech Republic during 2013–2016 and analyzes the reason why poverty in Spain is higher. The contribution of this paper lies in decomposing horizontal poverty disparities between countries with similar development level. We find that in Spain inequality is higher, and the poor (especially the ultrapoor) are poorer than those in the Czech Republic, which offsets the poverty reduction effect of Spain's higher mean income and renders its poverty level higher. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The Czech Republic is one of the several countries in the world and the only unitary democratic state allowing regions to initiate legislation without limits. Despite this, a study of Czech regional initiatives has yet to be written. Therefore, this paper delivers a comprehensive analysis of the phenomenon. The results show that the activity and success rates of the regions differ substantially. The probability of a regional proposal is positively affected by the region’s legislative strength in the Chamber of Deputies and the opposition status of the region’s governor. In contrast, it is negatively affected by the distance from Prague. The chances of adopting the regional initiative substantially decrease if a proposal suggests a shared rule instrument compared to self-rule ones. Overall, the article argues that while regional legislative activity in (con)federal states is affected mainly by regionalist strategic politics, the process in the unitary state is more result-oriented. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper aims to make a conceptual and empirical contribution to our understanding of the effects of extra-regional assets and knowledge inflow, through mergers and acquisitions (M&A), in different types of regions. We revealed that the M&A market is not geographically homogeneous, and regions differ in all aspects of the M&A market: relative position, local density and foreign attractiveness, the same as in the M&A intensity. This heterogeneity is not random but follows a spatial pattern and differences in economic fundamentals of regions, but at the same time, there is no linear relationship between economic performance and M&A performance. The regional M&A market characteristics can explain differences in the impacts of M&A transactions on the economy, especially in the exit rate of companies after acquisition and in the change of employment. The impacts of M&A on the regional economy generally do not differ by sector of the acquired company. However, some patterns show that the negative effects are more present after acquisitions of firms in tradeable sectors in the less developed regions, whereas in the stronger regions, the most vulnerable sectors belong to the part of the economy which offers mundane, but occasionally purchased (and thus substitutable) goods. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Suburbanization and suburban sprawl are natural processes in a certain period of development of the city and its hinterland. According to studies devoted to suburban sprawl, this sprawl has many negative impacts on the environment. But if suburban sprawl creates compact and mutually separated suburban settlements based on the original villages, suburban localities with a high population density and suburban localities on poor land, then these impacts are relatively small, acceptable in the period of suburbanization development. This paper focuses on (1) the acceptability of the location of suburban localities in terms of the required compactness of suburban settlements, (2) the acceptability of population density in suburban localities in relation to the population density in city neighbourhoods with detached single-family houses and (3) the acceptability of agricultural land occupations for suburban localities in terms of the lowest land quality in these occupations. The analyzes were carried out in suburban settlements around Prague and the regional city of České Budějovice. Acceptable locations of suburban localities prevail there, but population densities are usually lower in suburban localities than in mentioned city neighbourhoods. Unfortunately, the most valuable agricultural land is located in the immediate vicinity of settlements, where suburban localities are developing. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Although old industrial regions (OIRs) face many development obstacles and suffer from a rather negative image, there are many examples of human agency contributing to the transformation of these regions and the creation of a new development path. When implementing change agency, individuals and groups use various resources, such as money, knowledge and social networks. However, the motives initiating these changes are diverse. This paper seeks to identify the motivations that lead agents of change to initiate transformative activities in OIRs. After conducting 49 semi-structured interviews in four case study towns in the Ústí nad Labem Region (Czechia), we found that change agency is derived from a combination of social and local embeddedness, knowledge of local characteristics and extra-regional inspiration. On the basis of these findings, the specific characteristics and shortcomings of OIR can be understood as problems that must be solved or as regionally specific opportunities that can be used in the favour of agents and regions. When enacting change agency, individuals frequently draw on their past life experiences, which makes transformative agency at least partially path dependent. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Informed by existing gaps in the research of elder abuse and neglect (EAN) outcomes and very limited knowledge from Central-European cultural contexts, this paper analyzes the link between domestic-based EAN and three measures of well-being, namely subjective loneliness, sense of control over one's life, and a broader outlook on life. To do this, we used recently (2022) collected EAN survey fielded among home-dwelling residents of the Czech Republic aged 65 +. The results show that there is a clear relationship between EAN and these selected outcomes. Controlling for several sets of potential modifying or confounding factors further indicates that this relationship is substantial and direct, rather than weak and indirect. Among controls, only variables related to disadvantage (health, income, dependency, history of abuse) partly account for the link between EAN and its outcomes due to their relation to both heightened risk of EAN and lower well-being. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The paper presents new approaches to the visualisation of origin–destination flows, in which all three basic parameters of flows between pairs of geographic objects are cartographically expressed simply and clearly: the length of flows, their intensity, and the proportional distribution of both directions between pairs of objects (polarisation of flows). The data on population movements based on mobile phone location are used as the input information, which were collected from the whole territory of the Czech Republic. Apart from the visualisation of origin–destination flows, the paper addresses the issue of the transformation of these data through the application of two different interaction measures. The transformed flows are also cartographically visualised and the functional regions based on the respective interaction measures are used as base maps. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The existence of a gender pay gap is well known. This paper focuses on the issue of the pay gap in managerial positions. It aims to examine the development of the gender pay gap in managerial positions in the Czech Republic and to identify the unexplained part of the gender pay gap, which could be an indication of gender pay discrimination. To estimate the unexplained part of the gender pay gap data from the European Union Statistics on Income and Living Conditions (EU-SILC) was used and the Oaxaca-Blinder decomposition was applied. The results show that in the period 2005-2019, the average raw gender pay gap in management was 0.22 and the unexplained part was 0.13, using the Neumark's variant of the decomposition. Differences in women's and men's personal and firm characteristics could explain about one-third of the pay gap. The results also suggest that the situation has not changed much over the period considered and that the unexplained part of the gender pay gap has decreased only slightly between 2005 and 2019. Thus, reducing the gender pay gap remains a major challenge for both economic policy makers and companies in promoting corporate social responsibility policies. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper aims to provide a comprehensive narrative of the current status of Chinese language teaching at upper secondary schools in the Czech Republic. Processes involved in developing the Chinese language curriculum in upper secondary schools were mapped through a qualitative survey. Representatives of 20 schools were interviewed to identify factors associated with the successful implementation of Chinese language courses. The research focuses on answering two questions: (1) What factors determine the success or failure of a Chinese language programme at a secondary school? (2) What systemic support can be provided to facilitate Chinese teaching at upper secondary schools? In answer to the first question, factors such as the mindset of stakeholders, curricular classification, employment, and partnerships are discussed. As for systemic support, fostering a realistic attitude, institutional support and cooperative partnerships are suggested. These findings may serve as a source of inspiration for countries where the Chinese language in secondary education is still in the process of development, as is the case in the Czech Republic. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The paper presents possibilities of comprehensive use of support tools for pupils at risk of school failure in the Czech primary schools practice in order to support the implementation of inclusive education. The research data obtained during the project implemented in the Pilsen region in period of 2016–2019 brought the results of assessment of new support tools that are not yet systemically introduced in the Czech educational system and commonly available for all schools, although these instruments seem to be very effective or even necessary for quality inclusive education. The most important new tools include the position of inclusion coordinator in schools, strengthening the counselling services available directly in schools, as well as new strategies for promotion of cooperation between the schools, families, and social services – including some specific techniques, such as parenting workshops on child support in education, case conferences with child's participation or seminars for parents and teachers on collaboration with social services. However, the exploitation of the results of this research and assessment will depend largely on political decisions at both local and governmental levels. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The paper aims to describe the specific context of the homeless children's living environment and to show the consequences that this context has on the sibling relationships of homeless children in Czechia. The text is based on a psychosocial perspective. The context of the space, where homeless children live strongly affects their socialisation. Sibling relationships, which are transformed in such an environment, become increasingly important. Using a qualitative research strategy, we carried out 30 sets of interviews with homeless parents and children (a total of 60 interviews). We found that the environment of homelessness alters sibling roles in the family, reinforces sibling closeness as a compensation for material deprivation, makes it more difficult for children to detach, escalates sibling conflicts, and generally reinforces a certain exclusivity in relationship. The results show that social work and other helping professions should focus on supporting sibling relationships in the homelessness environment. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper presents a comparison of time delays in the awarding of public sector contracts in the Czech Republic and the United Kingdom. The problem of these time delays has not been adequately addressed in the academic literature. The authors analysed the factors impacting on time delays in each country. A significant portion of GDP, in all countries, is allocated via public procurement. This paper compares the length of procurement procedures in the Czech Republic and the UK and the reasons for delays. The authors highlight the absence of public policies on procurement in the Czech Republic. A basic prerequisite for improving the results of public procurement is for all actors in the process to be involved and committed: officials and politicians and the public. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper examines the micro-determinants of unemployment durations and exits in Czechia, Poland and Austria. Our hazard estimates utilize EU-SILC data and identify national specificities in which individual, household and regional characteristics affect labor market outcomes. This concerns particularly the effects of education on job-finding probability, which are nearly absent in Poland, as opposed to Austria and, even more so, Czechia. However, the key results are common across countries: Unemployed women are less employable than unemployed men, even after controlling for explanatory covariates and the disproportionally high female selection to inactivity. The analogous findings apply to the elderly and those in poor health. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper focuses on the omnipresent yet analytically almost invisible role of memory and bodily experiences in childhood vaccination. Previous scholarship on the sociocultural aspects of vaccination has primarily focused on the individual and sociodemographic factors underpinning vaccine hesitancy, the role of healthcare professionals and the politicisation or mediatisation of vaccination. Social practices considering vaccination were primarily explored as a matter of the present. Only little consideration was given to the past, individual biographies and sociohistorical temporalities. To complement this body of work, we focus on cognitively-based, embodied and emotionally-experienced memory related to vaccination. Based on a qualitative study of childhood vaccination conducted in Czechia between 2017 and 2019 consisting of ethnographic observations, in-depth interviews and a document review, we identified three interconnected forms of vaccination memory: bio-immune, social-collective and lived experience. Bio-immune memory refers to the body's physical memory, gained to protect itself from diseases. Social-collective memory focuses on socially shared narratives about diseases and vaccination in the past. The memory of lived experience refers to feelings, embodied knowledge and pain. Our findings may inspire further analysis of childhood vaccination in other geographical contexts and amidst the reconfiguration of attitudes and newly established memories following the COVID-19 pandemic. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The aim of this paper is to decide whether or not term premiums appear and thus are predictable in Central European countries in the data sample of forward rate agreement interest rates and corresponding spot interest rates. Term premiums theoretically are explained thanks to the applications of the efficient market hypothesis theory, the expectations theory, and the liquidity preferences theory. Empirically, we used cointegration techniques for nonstationary time series, mainly using the cointegration method (simple and even for panel data) and the vector error correction model. We used data samples of Central European countries (the Czech Republic, Hungary, Poland) and also of the United Kingdom. We found that the best future estimate of term premiums is its current value. It does not refer in the same way to the market efficiency hypothesis (EMH) or theexpectations hypothesis (EH). [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper examines the impact of two government measures in the Czech Republic and the Slovak Republic: the number of passengers transported by rail and the kilometers traveled. Eurostat data were used to develop an autoregressive integrated moving average (ARIMA) statistical model for capturing the time-series trend. The results confirm statistically significant differences in the Slovak Republic after introducing fare-free public transport (FFPT). Passenger-transport volumes increased by 449,000 quarterly; passenger-kilometer volumes increased by 23.2 million. A similar government intervention – in the Czech Republic – was statistically insignificant. Passenger-transport volumes increased by 1.17 million and passenger-kilometers increased by 42.9 million quarterly; but compensation to railway operators increased by 763%. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Philosophy may be accused of being an exclusive theoretical enterprise. Although it is concerned with the important issues of life it may appear to be a purely academic matter pursued by few educated scholars and therefore somehow detached from everyday way of being of people uneducated in philosophy. In the field of the philosophy of sport, the essential ambition is to provide relevant insights into a vast area of sport that will promote our philosophical understanding and knowledge of the relevant topics. This paper offers another perspective on the role of philosophy in sport. I argue that philosophy is not just about reflecting from an academic distance, but the process of philosophizing could be situated within the sporting practices. This type of relationship between philosophy and sport is already apparent in ancient Greece where philosophers (such as Pythagoras or Socrates) liked to be engaged in physical exercises and to combine them with philosophical discussions with athletes. The article explores a practical role of philosophy in sport, namely the process of philosophical thinking and dialogue with athletes and their coaches. It offers insights into methodology, goals, benefits, and limits of using philosophy in practice. I reflect on my personal experience of being a mental coach and philosophical consultant in sport in the Czech Republic. The aim of this article is to demonstrate the relevance of using philosophy (philosophical practice) in the sporting environment. In doing so, I reflect on the nature and purpose of philosophical thinking and its possible relation to sport psychology and mental coaching. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The impact of the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic on suicidal thoughts and behavior has been widely hypothesized but remains largely unexplored at the population-level. We aimed to assess changes in suicide risk (SR) in people with and without mental disorders, before and during the COVID-19 pandemic in Czechia. We analyzed data from three nationwide cross-sectional surveys of Czech adults (November 2017, May and November 2020). For the 2017 data collection, we employed paper and pencil interviewing, while for the two 2020 data collections, we used a mixed computer-assisted web interviewing and computer-assisted telephone interviewing approach. All samples were representative in terms of age, gender, education, and area of residence for the Czech adult population (18+). We used the Mini International Neuropsychiatric Interview to screen for mental disorders and SR. We calculated weighted prevalence rates with 95% confidence intervals (95% CI). When compared to baseline, we found a 4% and 6% increase in SR in individuals without mental disorders in pandemic surveys (1.95% (1.45%; 2.44%) vs. 6.29% (5.28%; 7.30%) and 8.42% (7.19%; 9.65%)). Relative to baseline, SR in people with major depressive episode or anxiety disorders was elevated in May and November 2020 (22.35% (17.64%; 27.06%) vs. 36.68% (32.45%; 40.91%) and 38.88% (34.51%; 43.25%)). We found substantially increased SR in both people with and without mental disorders, however, these changes could be partially related to differing data collection methods used in the baseline and subsequent surveys. Ongoing prevention, monitoring and evaluation of nationwide suicidality is warranted. We found that suicide risk substantially increased during the pandemic Suicide risk was elevated in both individuals with and without mental disorders Our findings support increased suicide monitoring and prevention [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper explores protest mobilizations related to the 2015 migrant crisis in the post-communist Czech Republic and Slovakia. Despite dominating anti-refugee sentiments and similar historical and political background in the two countries, the mobilization patterns were fairly different in both scale and organization of migration-related mobilizations. To systematically explore and account for these variances, we investigate the short-term political conditions, focusing on 1) key features of the national political environment – discursive opportunities and political space, and 2) movement/countermovement dynamics. We build on the original protest event data during the most intense protests over migration in 2015. We show how a different political space and a different extent of openness of discursive opportunities in the Czech Republic and Slovakia and interactions between the anti-refugee movement and the solidarity countermovement played an important role in the timing and scale of protests and their organizers. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Numerous authors have dealt with the definition of practice wisdom and its components. However, little is known about its formation. The submitted paper thus aims at analyzing and describing the dynamics of practice wisdom formation in social workers working with vulnerable children and their families in Czechia. The data originated within a thematic narrative analysis of repeated in-depth interviews with six participants, who were perceived by the expert environment as workers with practice wisdom. We created four constructs of practice wisdom: acquired knowledge as a prerequisite of the creation of practice wisdom in social work, practice wisdom as an implementation of external imperatives, practice wisdom practice as a process of continuous knowledge production, and transformation through the reflection of direct experience from the practice. The paper contains implications for education in social work. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The “Freud in Příbor” publication represents the unique record of all the papers presented at the historical symposium “Psychological Birth and Infant Development,” held on August 4–5 2013 in Freud's birthplace, the town of Příbor, Czech Republic. The papers are preceded by a word from the symposium chair, an address by the President of the IPA, and an interview with Stefano Bolognini. These “Introductory remarks by the issue editors: A story of beginnings and continuities” provide the historical-cultural and dynamic context for all the ensuing chapters. This paper reviews the objectives of the symposium, the core ideas of the individual contributions in relation to the unique beginnings of Sigmund Freud in Příbor, and the unique history of psychoanalysis in the Czech Republic. The backdrop of the multidirectional complexity of development, events, and the memory of the back and forth “après-coup”deferred action reverberates throughout. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The process of postsecularisation is present not only in Western Europe but also in post-communist countries. This paper focuses on the way young adults who do not have personal experiences with communist anti-religious ideology create their own religion in postsecular society and re-imagine (post)secular spaces through personal belief. The primary assumption is that young adults, living in the specific environment of the postsecular society of Czechia, have a unique relationship with religion and spirituality. For this research, we conducted focus groups with young adults in three religiously different Czech regions. The results point to a subjective turn within the perception of religion and spirituality, connected with the separation of subjective belief from institutionalized religion and the formation of a personal 'religious hodgepodge'. All these attitudes are reflected in the formation of postsecular spaces in Czechia. The spaces of subjective belief were more diverse and creative in their imagination. We sum up that a subjective belief is formed by the space where people dwell, by their mobility, attempts at authenticity, relationship with other people, and self-reflection. The young adults in Czechia re-imagine the traditional sacred places through their own understanding of religion and spirituality within postsecular characteristics. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Museums constantly face challenges from the ever-changing political, economic, technological, and social environment. One such challenge is to thrive despite the difficult economic climate and decreased public funding. This difficulty pressures museums to develop stronger engagement with the corporate sector. Consequently, such tendencies have sparked discussion as to the ethics of the corporations' involvement and with whom museums should cooperate. Ethics has become a focal point of museum funding. This paper investigates, based on the data from questionnaires and interviews with museum professionals, this emerging topic and explores the role of ethics among museums using the Czech museum sector sample. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper discusses the significance and potential consequences of illiberal politics for the Visegrád Group's (Czechia, Hungary, Poland, and Slovakia) role as a regional integration platform. Moreover, links between Europeanization and V4 geopolitical identity will be explored as part of investigating discursive framings of Central Europe's "illiberalism." I suggest that illiberal regionalism is a useful concept in that it problematizes political and popular narrations of East-West difference as competing projects of Europeanization. I will also argue that instead of a fundamental regional illiberalism what we find is an unstable, temporally limited and contingent constellation of political and social agendas. Illiberal regionalism can thus be read as strategic, aguably opportunistic, contestations of EU policies that reflect economic, political, and social uncertainties. Tensions involved in this regionalist shift are exemplified by "revolutionary" Hungarian and Polish national conservative agendas and their interaction with the more measured pragmatism of the Czech Republic and Slovakia. It is also clear that illiberal regionalism reflects the reciprocal and interdependent nature of the V4's political relations within the EU. Benefits of EU membership, such as leveraging and enhancing national status, continue to act as powerful counter-currents to more radical projects that would, for example, contest Euro-Atlantic alignments. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Graffiti is an important theme for our understanding of subcultural urban space and the 'shadows' of the city. This paper examines their spatial concentration in Holešovice district of the Czech capital Prague. Four theories have been used to explain the spatiality of graffiti: territorial markers, broken window, spot theory, and political symbolic space. While the first three theories all explain the spatial distribution of graffiti, they are each limited when applied to political graffiti. Conversely, the theory of political symbolic space, based on David Harvey's relative space and Henri Lefebvre's representational space, helps explain the concentration of political graffiti. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The evaluation of the level of spatial uncertainty builds theoretically on fuzzy set theory and the premise that the affinity of a basic spatial unit may assume values along a continuum between zero and full affinity. The paper briefly presents the motivation for the evaluation of fuzziness in functional regions based on daily travel-to-work flows. It discusses the existing measures of affinity and proposes a new approach to evaluate the fuzzy nature of functional regions. The proposed methodological innovations are tested using the example of the two-tier hierarchical system of functional regions in the Czech Republic. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The paper presents a view of the crowdfunding phenomenon in the Czech Republic and Slovakia, identifying factors that determine the success of non-profits on crowdfunding platforms operating in two (post-) Communist CEE countries in terms of the two-sided market theory. The main finding is that the status of a project creator does not significantly affect the probability of project overfunding, which implies that the projects created by non-profits do not have a higher likelihood of being overfunded, though this may differ between the studied countries. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The paper contributes to the research on social enterprises. Based on historical institutionalism, we map the evolution of social enterprises in the Czech Republic and Slovakia after the collapse of communist rule. The findings indicate that the historical-evolutionary trajectories differ, despite their common path during the totalitarian regime. There is some convergence based on significant political changes that resulted mostly in the need to create integrated legislation and to reflect the common European policy; the divergent trends occur after exogenous economic shocks, the effects of which might result from the differing initial macroeconomic situations in both countries. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]