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This paper discusses a sustained effort to introduce and make richer educational development opportunities for colleagues in Slovakia: a community that has common experiences, needs, expectations, access to opportunity and social interactions that follow mutual interest. In this paper, I reflect on the challenges and lessons learnt over two decades while I worked with teachers, educational developers and students taking a community-based, transformation-oriented, and needs-based approach. Over time, this resulted in expanding the community and offering it a broader range of services. The article concludes with four recommendations for those taking community-based approach, including cultivating trust and nurturing hope within the community. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A correction to a review of the book "Myths and Traditions of Central European University Culture" published in a previous issue is presented.

This paper aims to enhance our knowledge about late-medieval epidemic outbreaks in specific parts of Eastern Central Europe. The first part on modern-day Eastern Germany discusses narrative evidence and its use in the current research on plague history, before bringing in municipal records on testaments and conveyances from Görlitz and Stralsund for the reconstruction of seasonality and mortality rates, as well as funeral inscriptions and pictorial evidence from Erfurt as indirect indicators of plague waves. After a brief discussion of the scarce narrative sources, the second part of the paper concerning Bohemia works with the evidence of the Libri Confirmationum, a source originating from the chancellery of the archbishops of Prague. Every new appointment to a benefice was supposed to be approved by one of the vicars general of the archbishop, and this confirmation usually gives the reason for the vacancy. Expanding on Eduard Maur's research, death statistics and their frequency are analyzed statistically. The paper provides insight into new evidence for the reconstruction of plague waves, mortality rates and seasonality, and thereby highlights the characteristics of the plague in Eastern Central Europe. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper compares within-country programmes of initial vocational education and training (IVET) in Austria, the Czech Republic and Germany and their outcomes. Specifically, it aims to analyse and compare the labour market success of graduates of different tracks at the ISCED 3 level in both early and later stages of their careers. The comparison is based on the analysis of PIAAC 2013 OECD study data. A composite multidimensional indicator was constructed to measure labour market success and subsequently used as a dependent variable in regression models. The results indicate that in the systems with dual IVET at the ISCED 3 level (Germany and Austria), graduates are indeed more successful at the labour market than their counterparts with other ISCED 3 tracks. However, their advantage diminishes in later stages of the career. Additionally, in Austria, the success of dual education young graduates is mediated by individual characteristics. In the system with only school-based IVET (the Czech Republic), this track does not guarantee substantively higher labour market success for young graduates compared to other ISCED 3 tracks and also to those with lower education. Czech apprentices in the later stages of career succeed even less than those with below ISCED 3 education. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Has a post-neoliberal policy regime emerged from the challenges to neoliberalism that have accompanied the rise of nationalism and populism in some Eastern and Central European countries? Why has the political organization of these challenges to neoliberalism endured in some countries but not in others? By drawing on a mix of primary and secondary sources culled from the institutional, political and economic realities of Hungary and Romania, this paper makes two claims. First, the article sugegsts that these transformations have amounted to a distinctive variety of neoliberalism that can be dubbed 'national-neoliberalism.' At its core one finds the slightly modified old goals of neoliberal orthodoxy embedded into a protective cocoon of orthodox and unorthodox economic policy instruments and institutions. The second claim of the paper is that the political organization of the national-neoliberal project was resilient in Hungary but not in Romania. The evidence suggests that this variation owes not only to the fact that the 'national' elements of national-neoliberalism had protections against the bond markets. While this factor was indeed critical, the resilience of Hungarian national-neoliberalism seems to have been made possible by the fact that its proponents could manage a broader social bloc and deploy techno-political capabilities that bolstered their political power relative to that of challengers. In contrast, the challengers to orthodox ("globalist") neoliberalism did not posess these characteristics in Romania. As such, the paper rejects the hypothesis of a nationalist-heterodox successor to neoliberalism and takes a first cut at a theory of policy resilience for national-neoliberalism. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper is an introduction to a collection of nine studies that are intended to fill the gap in the literature associated with landform development and landscape changes related to natural forces and human activities in the Central European Mountains and their close forelands. The papers are grouped into four general categories that describe the influence of climate on glacial landforms and snow avalanches, the evolution of slopes in high mountains, the development of mid-mountain relief, and changes in fluvial systems in mountains and their forelands. This paper summarises the contributions of these studies to this special issue and attempts to outline possible avenues of future research on landforms and landscapes in mountainous areas. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Social exclusion - in sports as well as in all other areas of life - is linked to low socioeconomic status, poverty, unemployment, and low educational attainment. This means that disadvantaged social groups are permanently trapped in a lifestyle lacking physical exercise. In a broader sense, social exclusion from sports activities affects a much wider social spectrum, including groups that suffer disadvantages based on gender, age, place of residence, or disability [Spaaij, R., Farquharson, K., & Marjoribanks, T. (2015). Sport and social inequalities. Sociology Compass, 9(5), 400-411. https://doi.org/10.1111/soc4.12254]. In Southern, Central, and Eastern Europe, a smaller fraction of society has the opportunity to be active regularly, while the majority are left out. Based on Bourdieu's theory on capital and habitus our paper aims to find out what demographic and socialisation factors, as well as how the socio-economic status and the student habitus play roles in student sport activity in five Central and Eastern European countries. Our analysis is based on the database of the questionnaire survey carried out among students in the examined region (PERSIST 2019, N = 2005). Our results show that although students with a higher social status pursue sport more regularly and are more likely to pursue a sport in clubs, gender, habitus, the parental sporting environment, and sporting friends are the main factors that play a positive role in their regular participation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper explores the relevance of the decolonial approach for analyses of postsocialist disablement, taking as its test case the analytical tool of the 'postsocialist disability matrix'. The question we pose is how much decolonial critique can the analyses of postsocialist disablement embrace without becoming reactionary amidst growing illiberalism and social abandonment in Central and Eastern Europe (CEE)? We provide an overview of postsocialist illiberalism, assess critically some central arguments in decolonial disability studies and outline the production of 'southern bodies/minds' as a key feature of social abandonment in CEE. We conclude that decolonising disability in the postsocialist region needs to go beyond the North versus South binary to account for the specific experiences of disabled people inhabiting the 'poor North'. Given these considerations, the double-edged critique implied in the original formulation of the 'postsocialist disability matrix' as scepticism towards both the state and the market could also help embrace the decolonising imperative while remaining sceptical towards both Northern and Southern theory production in disability studies. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper discusses the precariousness of an academic profession in contemporary Slovakia and Poland. Although some of the patterns have been previously studied, this analysis sheds new light on the problems of Polish and Slovak academia as seen by foreigners, who, according to official policy, are expected to contribute to the excellence of Polish academia. In reality, low wages and underfinanced universities often make their work very difficult. The analysis is focused mainly on the issues related to low salaries and ways that allow foreign-born employees to secure extra income necessary to maintain the desired standard of living. Even if, for some interviewees, local salary is sufficient to live in CEE, other academics have higher demands because of their family situation (e.g., "international children"), extra travel expenses for private purposes, or spending on bilingual education in Poland or Slovakia. Foreign-born academics living in Poland and Slovakia compensate for low salaries in three distinct ways discussed in the paper — by taking various academic and non-academic extra jobs, acquiring external funding from their home country's government, or relying on family economic resources. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Copyright of Estudos do Seculo XX is the property of Imprensa da Universidade de Coimbra and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

Building elements, especially partitions, floors and external walls significantly affect indoor acoustic comfort. Their ability to reduce noise transmission from neighbouring rooms or from outdoors depends on the element composition and the building materials used. In Central Europe, the heavyweight masonry or concrete walls and slabs are typical elements both for family and residential buildings. However, increasing popularity of lightweight multi-layered structures is noticeable. This creates new opportunities for the gradual replacement of traditional materials with renewable and recycled ones, both for load-bearing components and for fillings and other layers of building elements. This paper introduces such design changes in relation to acoustics, particularly airborne sound insulation. The greatest attention is paid to the replacement of masonry and mineral wool insulation with timber and wood fibres. The overview is supplemented by examples of low-energy house external wall and timber wall with recycled infill whose sound insulation has been determined by measurements in the acoustic laboratory. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The aim of this article is to assess the policy response deployed by the Visegrad Group countries (Poland, Czechia, Hungary and Slovakia) during the humanitarian crisis of displacement following the beginning of the brutal Russian full-scale invasion of Ukraine, in the light of the theoretical framework of New Immigration Destinations (NID). Such a framework is introduced and assessed as relevant to explain how the scant previous experience of public institutions and the wider society in addressing the needs of forced migrants, and migrants' presence in general, impacts the reception and integration of refugees in the region. The paper explores the relevance of NID in the analysis of the forced migrants' situation in Central Europe. The study is based on qualitative methods, including desk research, expert interviews in four analysed countries, and legislation analysis. The paper argues that in the wake of a humanitarian crisis on an unprecedented scale, the lack of experience, coupled with scarce infrastructure, insufficient legal framework and resourcing, and poor coordination of different stakeholder groups' engagement, impeded and delayed the implementation of the newly-established policy tools, and in some cases led to the lack of an adequate and timely state-coordinated response. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Critiques of Western Orientalism have been well-known since the Saidean perspective, and in-depth analysis of Frontier Orientalism has also gained prevalence and academic recognition. Yet, another tendency, namely, that of exoticizing Persia, has not been given wide-ranging attention. This paper delivers a theoretical and empirical framework describing another variant of Central European Orientalism, which may be remotely reminiscent of alleged colonial thought, yet with regional peculiarities and without any direct exposition of historical-political conflict. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Copyright of Študijné Zvesti AU SAV is the property of Institute of Archaeology SAS and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

Copyright of Študijné Zvesti AU SAV is the property of Institute of Archaeology SAS and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

The paper presents an analysis of the development of the alternative energy market between 2010 and 2022 in seven Central European countries, namely Poland, the Czech Republic, Slovakia, Romania, Lithuania, Hungary, and Bulgaria. Analyzing changes in electricity generation from hydro, solar, wind and bioresources makes it possible to comprehensively assess trends in the development of alternative energy. The countries of Central and Eastern Europe are economically and climatically similar to Ukraine, so studying the development of their renewable energy is of scientific value for the drafting of both Ukrainian and European energy strategies in the context of the transforming global energy system. Additionally, the article discusses the impact of renewable energy development on the labor market, outlining potential challenges and threats to regional labor markets. Research conclusions confirm the practical development and effective implementation of RES in the European energy system, even in countries that do not take the lead in generating energy from renewable sources, i.e., in Central Europe. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The objective of this paper is to analyse the double-layered diversification of the European integration system represented by the countries of Central Europe (CE). Here exemplified by the Visegrad Four (V4) states (Poland, Hungary, Slovakia, and Czechia), the region offers a unique laboratory of European differentiated integration (DI). The V4 positions itself on the outer-core of the European Union hemispheres. At the same time, the bloc itself is internally diversified in various, important aspects of integration (conflicting trajectories with Brussels, monetary integration, energy policy, relations with Russia, etc.). Unpacking this intra-V4 diversity will be accompanied by an exploration of the economic and institutional factors possibly affecting it. The political-economy perspective allows us to capture the determinants intersecting at the crossroads of economic and political dimensions. The authors will explore the selected building blocks of the system of differentiation inside the V4 group. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Death and dying were a ubiquitous reality of the world of medieval society, with lasting effects on the living from all social groups in equal measure. However, for the rulers of the day, the process of dying and the subsequent burial was an important social, political and cultural event. Over time, special funerary ceremonial complexes developed that included a variety of rituals and symbols which indicated the status and importance of the medieval monarchs. This paper compares the funerary rituals and symbols of power on display during the processions of three Central European kings: King Charles I Robert of Hungary (1342) in Visegrád, Buda and Szkésfehérvár, Polish King Casimir III the Great (1370) in Kraków and Bohemian King and Roman Emperor Charles IV (1378) in Prague. Each of these monumental events included a number of common motifs and ritual sequences, though at the same time, local flavour or innovations always came into play. The common denominator of these three ceremonies was that in the spirit of the political theology of the time, all referenced the immortality of the sovereign power and its timeless essence, which sprung from a sacred character sanctioned by God's grace. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

For the majority of his long career, Leonard Cohen may have been somewhat underappreciated in the United States of America, but he has achieved considerable renown and commercial success in other parts of the world, for instance in his native Canada and in many European countries. The present paper endeavours to establish the extent to which the latter is also true for Cohen’s status in Slovenia – a small country in Central Europe, which until 1991 formed part of socialist Yugoslavia. After an overview of the artist’s reception in North America and Europe, which provides a frame of reference, the perception of Cohen among Slovenians is comprehensively addressed by means of analysing more than one thousand articles in serial publications and online media about him in Slovenia over half a century, i.e. from 1970 to 2020. Cohen’s reputation as a man of letters is discussed first, followed by an analysis of the reception of his work as a recording artist as well as the responses to his live performances – especially to the two concerts he gave in Slovenia towards the end of his life. Lastly, some of the more notable reactions to Cohen’s death in Slovenian media are discussed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The sizeable theoretical and empirical literature on corporate social responsibility (CSR) and business ethics in Western, developed economies indicates that the topic has attracted significant interest from academics and practitioners. There is, however, less evidence of the practice of CSR and business ethics in non-Western, transition economies, as insufficient attention is paid to the contextual specifications and underlying processes that may lead to different versions of CSR. Therefore, this paper examines the practice and sense-making of CSR and business ethics from the perspective of the fertile and under researched post-communist context of Central and Eastern Europe (CEE), to join the growing academic debate about the impact of cultural and historical traditions on the practice and sense-making of CSR and business ethics in non-Western contexts. The study adopts a particular focus on the post-communist and under researched context of Bulgaria where CSR is still a relatively new phenomenon. By following an exploratory research design and by collecting qualitative data from 34 executives employed by public and private sector organisations in Bulgaria, the study finds that the local business environment is composed of a complex mix of various institutionalised pressures and challenges that predispose organisations to adopt a particular approach to CSR, ethical misconduct and CSR-washing. Apart from the significant contributions related to the practice, understanding and contextualisation of CSR in non-Western countries, the study also identifies challenges of business ethics in transition economies and adds depth to the emerging literature on CSR-washing by proposing a model for neo-communist CSR-washing. The study also offers contributions for practitioners and policy-makers. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The paper presents the first record of Lithurgus cornutus (Fabricius, 1787) in Poland. Until recently, bees of the genus Lithurgus have not been recorded in Poland. Five females and one male of L. cornutus were caught in Lublin Region, SE Poland. The localities are beyond the range of this species, being the northernmost known records from Central Europe. The following information is provided: short diagnosis, ecology, distribution, recent records and threat status of L. cornutus in Central Europe. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Parents who experience poverty and who want to provide their children with an escape route can be expected to encourage and support their progeny's education. The evidence that Roma parents behave differently is unsettling. In this paper we test empirically an explanation for that behavior. The explanation is based on a theory (Stark et al. 2018) that can be "borrowed" to rationalize the enforcement of norms of little formal education in underprivileged communities. An analysis of survey data collected in Roma communities in four Central and Eastern European countries lends support to the explanation. The analysis reveals a strong negative correlation between the influence of the Roma community on an individual member's life and the importance accorded by the individual to formal schooling for children. The correlation is robust to controlling for standard determinants of attitudes towards schooling, such as poverty, unemployment, labor market discrimination, and parents' educational attainment. The analysis suggests that policy interventions aiming to increase the formal education of Roma children need to reckon with the influence of Roma community norms on individual choices. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Copyright of Acta Universitatis Lodziensis: Folia Archaeologica is the property of Wydawnictwo Uniwersytetu Lodzkiego and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

The countries of NATO's eastern flank representing the so-called Bucharest Nine include Poland, Romania, Bulgaria, Estonia, Lithuania, Latvia, Slovakia, the Czech Republic, and Hungary. Over recent decades, NATO has adapted to new challenges and threats to the security environment. This article attempts to examine the ongoing armed conflict between Russia and Ukraine from the perspective of NATO's eastern flank countries as well as to answer the following research questions: are NATO member states adequately responding to the threats arising from the armed conflict between Russia and Ukraine, and will NATO be revitalised as a result of Russia's revisionist policy? [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Museums are complex architectural works with many distinctive elements. One of the most significant museum features are routes or paths on which visitors circulate museums and perceive exhibitions. Children and people with special needs often have specific demands on physical accessibility of the surrounding environment, chronological arrangement of spaces and amount of information presented at a time. The arrangement of functional units in museum layouts affects wayfinding in space, understanding of the exhibition, as well as visitor guidance. The order in which people visit particular segments in a museum can also be described as one of the most important architectural and operational characteristics of this type of cultural buildings and areas. The article examines ways of arranging spaces in a museum building and the suitability of their application. These forms are evaluated based on various aspects; some of the created effects are studied, e.g. creation of a desired atmosphere. Existing concepts are compared and supplemented with other theoretical knowledge. The article aims to present variant suitable ways of composing routes that would meet the needs of different people, and bring them a quality leisure and educational experience from a museum tour. Various types of museum layout organisation and arrangement of exhibition spaces are illustrated with abstract schemes, as well as with specific case studies of five selected museums. The selection consists of architecturally exceptional and high-quality museums in Central Europe, which are able to attract a whole range of various groups of people including a younger audience. They are examples of both modern museums in this area and route planning options. The case studies highlight interesting local ideas, space concepts, routing methods, and also solutions for increasing inclusion of all visitors and children in particular. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

As the literature on small state foreign policy predicts that smaller states of the international community attempt to enlarge their influence by seeking a constructive status or proving their adherence to positive norms, the cases in which small states use a negative image to better their international position are almost completely neglected. The article aims to assess how the status of Visegrád countries in interstate society changed since their accession to the European Union in light of the generally negative perception of their governments' ideological background connected to different kinds of populism and nationalism. Using the GDELT Database, the number of government-level interactions initiated towards the Czech Republic, Hungary, Poland, and Slovakia was analysed in a European context between 2004 and 2020. The results of the inquiry showed a drastic decrease in the interactions initiated towards the four countries between 2004 and the mid-2010s with a slightly higher ratio of confrontative interactions than in the case of other small and middle-sized states. Data show that Hungary, governed by populist parties since 2010, witnessed the smallest drop in attention in the last decade. These results defy the expectations of the small state literature and suggest a more complicated relationship between international status and the image of small states. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

During the last decade, democratic backsliding (DB) has become a worrying phenomenon worldwide. This article addresses this topic by focusing on Central and Eastern Europe (CEE). An overview of the literature on DB in this region has identified a relevant lacuna: the lack of attention to the role political support indicators (democratic satisfaction, government trust) may play in DB processes. Testing several hypotheses through different random regression models applied to CEE countries for the period 2005–2021, an unexpected puzzle emerges: contrary to the expectations, we find that a greater government trust contributes to DB. Building on several consolidated findings of the system support theory and the classic democratisation literature, we address this puzzle, identifying temporal phases, mechanisms and causal relations and stressing the relevance of interaction processes among a complex set of causal factors to explain DB processes in CEE. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Copyright of Rozwój Regionalny & Polityka Regionalna is the property of Uniwersytetu im. Adama Mickiewicza (IH UAM) and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

The article focuses on the uncertainties of transitional periods, particularly in East Central Europe between 1918 and 1923, highlighting the intertwined processes of democratization and nationalism. It explores how the end of World War I led to a significant political and social upheaval, resulting in the emergence of new states and democratic forms of governance alongside challenges and conflicts at regional and local levels.

Central European mountains are important diversity centers of the genus Hieracium. Here, we provide an account of the genus in supramontane to subalpine zones of summit parts of Mt. Králický Sněžník, based on a detailed field inventory in 2021 and 2022. Ten species were recorded (H. chrysostyloides, H. moravicum, H. nigritum, H. nivimontis, H. obscuratum, H. schustleri, H. stygium, H. uechtritzianum, H. murorum, H. lachenalii), of which two (H. moravicum a H. obscuratum) were found here for the first time. New data about their ecology and habitat requirements are given and causes of their threat are discussed. The study also contains a summary of historical data relating to the locality. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Copyright of Acta Musei Silesiae, Scientiae Naturales is the property of Sciendo and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

The coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic has once again brought borders to the center of attention, as journalists, authorities, and scholars have grappled with the pandemic. The coronavirus outbreak, which began in late 2019 and early 2020 has caused tremendous personal, economic, and social upheaval. As many states decided to pursue the national interests and to close their borders to prevent the spread of the virus, this decision had major consequences for residents in border regions, for whom border crossing is an everyday practice. The article aims at exploring the discourse on the rebordering experience as constructed by local authorities and residents of two twin towns, one on the Polish-Czech (Cieszyn-Český Těšín) and one on the Polish-German (Słubice-Frankfurt/Oder) border. By applying a Discursive Historical Approach, we identified four main discursive strands which deployed diverse imaginaries. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article aims to show that extraordinary taxes, introduced after WWI, performed better in Central and Eastern European (CEE) countries than in Western countries, even though they were originally a Western idea. The research reveals that these taxes generated some revenue, but their main function was to show that governments were trying to tackle the unfairness that had resulted from years of running a war economy. It is doubtful that these taxes are useful components of fiscal systems, as they are something of a paradox. They create more injustice (Adam Smith's principles of taxation were partially broken when these taxes were applied), although they should theoretically reduce the inequalities caused by war. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Historical changes in land use and development over the last century were analysed to identify the main causes and directions of changes in depression wetland ecosystems in the Włoszczowa Basin, an area of 1600 km2 in southern Poland. The analysis of Military Cartographic Institute maps and orthophotomaps, as well as field surveys, made it possible to determine the scale of degradation of 247 treeless depression wetlands. It was shown that the nature and extent of transformation of individual wetlands varied depending on the type of wetland and the method of land use in adjacent areas. However, the main anthropogenic factor affecting these changes was land drainage, of which the greatest intensity in Central Europe was pursued during the socialist rule between 1945 and 1989. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

During the inter-war period (1918-1939) football in Central Europe developed highly successfully, second only to Great Britain – and it was in Central Europe that the international club competition the Mitropa Cup was established. This became the forerunner of later tournaments played under the auspices of UEFA. The rapid development of football also brought with it negative phenomena associated with football matches, mainly the problem of hooliganism. The consolidation of football through the Mitropa Cup has contributed to the spread of the hooligan phenomenon in the region and gave it additional boost. Central European stadiums became social outlets wherein it was possible express local and national sentiments, resentments, prejudices, and stereotypes. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Taking the case of the interwar Yugoslav Sokol (Sokol Kraljevine Jugoslavije), this article examines the complex relationship between the discourses of organic nationhood and political socialization in what was the largest voluntary association in the country. While Sokol typically projected a vision of itself as an apolitical entity--as it claimed to represent the organic national body--this article will explore the dynamics, as well as contradictions, between such discourses and the socio-political reality they aimed to describe and eventually alter in their pursuit of improving the 'national body.' In conversation with scholarship on the conceptual history of modern East Central European nationalisms, including the social history of ideas and movements and political socialization more specifically, this article provides insight into the contextual, conceptual history of nationhood by focusing on selected thinkers engaged in Sokol, against the backdrop of particular mass practices and modes of political socialization in the organization. The tension between the involvement of the masses in the allegedly apolitical formations and the reality of subjecting them to political socialization en masse provides the central axis around which the argument is organized. The article concludes that their concept of nationhood was intimately intertwined with that of democracy and simultaneously posited against (party) politics and statism. Moreover, it demonstrates that Sokol was rooted in notions of civilizational hierarchies and directly linked to producing modern political subjects for the new Yugoslav state by means of the gymnastic and educational practices they promoted and conducted. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This review article looks at Attila Àgh's Awaking Europe in the triple global crisis, published in 2021. Àgh cites the triple crisis facing Europe - the socioeconomic crisis, the climate crisis and the Covid-19 crisis - to which Christophe Solioz adds a fourth: the security crisis with reference to the war in Ukraine. These add up, in sum, to a systemic crisis which Solioz argues points to an impending Age of Transition affecting not just south-eastern Europe, whose countries are particularly vulnerable, but leading to the establishment of a new world order in which Europe will need to reconceptualise itself. In the background of current events, Àgh sees Europe as 'awaking', and thus beginning to rise to the challenges; Solioz is a little less optimistic as a result of the processes of fragmentation that have affected the EU in the last fifteen years, while the autocracies in the region present their own challenges. It also remains true that actual action is awaited. Nevertheless, he is clear that, as Europe's centre of gravity shifts to the east, largely as a result of the geopolitical impact of the invasion of Ukraine, it matters that it listens to a clear voice from the region. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article presents the origins, development and perspectives of history of education in Central and Eastern Europe. Both the issues and the region are very broad, as they concern many countries with quite large cultural and identity differences, but also with a relative geopolitical similarity. This similarity has created and continues to create similar conditions for researching activities in and teaching of the history of education. Moreover, after 1990, the opening up and development of the history of education in the international space can be observed in the region. To explore the presented issues, three countries in this region of Europe are presented as individual case studies: Poland, Hungary and the Czech Republic. A stroll down the path of the history of education in the countries indicated allows for a close and in-depth look at the genesis, development and perspective of the history of education. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Dominated by the 'weak postsocialist civil society' thesis, Central and Eastern Europe has generally been uninspiring for social movement scholars. In recent years, a growing body of scholarship has challenged this pessimistic notion, highlighting the emergence of grassroots activism. What remains under-researched, however, is the process of political subjectification of society's apolitical segments through contentious practices. Informed by pragmatic sociology, this article explores three case studies – of student, civic and environmental movements, respectively – that demonstrate how citizens constituted themselves as collective political subjects by performatively enacting their citizenship through resistance in post-democratic Montenegro (2010–2015). Through analysis of news media sources and interviews with activists, this article postulates three trajectories of political subjectification – political becoming, political bonding and political embodying – by which citizens (re)gain their civic autonomy, allowing them to challenge dominant power relations and to attain political legitimacy to think, speak and act as relevant political actors on the public stage. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Three decades since the collapse of communism in Central and Eastern Europe, the ideal of liberal democracy is under considerable strain. Recent developments in the region show that democratic institutions do not only evolve and consolidate, but they can also decay. The article intends to provide a comprehensive theoretical account to shed light on the ongoing multifaceted and multi-layered processes of change in the region. Drawing on the literature on the role of ideas and on the body of research explaining ongoing transformations in Central and Eastern Europe, it conceptualises the normative core of anti-liberal ideas. It shows that this core is embedded in a set of narratives pitted against liberal democracy, which take the form of causal stories, put forward values and solutions, being ultimately used to legitimise institutional change in politics (i.e. agency and the social power structures) policies (i.e. how economic nationalism alters the neoliberal model) and the polity (i.e. the rules of the political game). This conceptual map, which is derived inductively from the literature, is meant to guide future empirical studies and theory building exercises seeking to understand institutional change in the region and beyond. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: Ongoing climate change is anticipated to increase the frequency and intensity of drought events, thereby affecting forest recovery dynamics and elevating tree mortality. The drought of 2018, with its exceptional intensity and duration, had a significant adverse impact on tree species throughout Central Europe. However, our understanding of the resistance to and recovery of young trees from drought stress remains limited. Here, we examined the recovery patterns of native deciduous tree sapling species following the 2018 drought, and explored the impact of soil depth, understory vegetation, and litter cover on this recovery. Methods: A total of 1,149 saplings of seven deciduous tree species were monitored in the understory of old-growth forests in Northern Bavaria, Central Germany. The vitality of the saplings was recorded from 2018 to 2021 on 170 plots. Results: Fagus sylvatica was the most drought-resistant species, followed by Betula pendula, Acer pseudoplatanus, Quercus spp., Corylus avellana, Carpinus betulus, and Sorbus aucuparia. Although the drought conditions persisted one year later, all species recovered significantly from the 2018 drought, albeit with a slight decrease in vitality by 2021. In 2018, the drought exhibited a more pronounced adverse effect on saplings in deciduous forests compared to mixed and coniferous forests. Conversely, sapling recovery in coniferous and mixed forests exceeded that observed in deciduous forests in 2019. The pivotal factors influencing sapling resilience to drought were forest types, soil depth, and understory vegetation, whereas litter and forest canopy cover had a negative impact. Conclusion: Long-term responses of tree species to drought can be best discerned through continuous health monitoring. These findings demonstrate the natural regeneration potential of deciduous species in the context of climate change. Selective tree species planting, soil management practices, and promoting understory diversity should be considered when implementing adaptive management strategies to enhance forest resilience to drought events. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

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Are political parties in young democracies responsive to the policy preferences of the public? Compared to extensive scholarship on party responsiveness in established democracies, research on party responsiveness in young democracies is limited. We argue that weaker programmatic party–voter linkages in post-communist democracies create incentives for parties to respond to their supporters rather than the more general electorate. Such responsiveness occurs in two ways. First, parties follow shifts in the mean position of their supporters. Second, drawing on the research on party–voter congruence, we argue that parties adjust their policy positions to eliminate previous incongruence between themselves and their supporters. Analyses based on a comprehensive dataset that uses expert surveys, parties' manifestoes and election surveys to measure parties' positions, and several cross-national and national surveys to measure voters' preferences provide strong support for this argument. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Countless scholars have explored the emergence, stability and transformation of interest intermediation structures in western democracies and beyond [Jahn, "Changing of the Guard"; Schmitter, "Corporatism is Dead!"; Siaroff, "Corporatism in 24 Industrial Democracies".]. In this article we take a new avenue by exploring the "micro-level" impact of (quasi-)representation monopolies and high or low access on organized interests, namely at the level of groups themselves. Looking at Central and Eastern European organizations, we assess how the inclusion within or exclusion from frequent interactions with the state impacts the internal development of organized interests? Do excluded groups seek to professionalize their operations to increase their chances of eventually accessing policy-makers? Do they expand ties with other groups to increase their joint political clout? Or do they flee the national political arena and focus more on regional- or European-level activities? Based on a survey of Central and Eastern European organized interests, the analysis reveals that political inclusion indeed strongly enhances organizational development and intergroup cooperation. Yet, we also show that even occasional political participation boosts the lobbying capacities of organizations, in particular younger, mainly civic organizations. Altogether, the data shed positive light on the responsiveness of interest organizations operating in a region previously often overlooked in interest group research. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The Roma are Europe's largest minority group and face extensive discrimination across the continent. Drawing on a survey of Roma and non-Roma households in twelve Central and Eastern European countries, we analyze the extent to which legal cynicism, as a cognitive frame, is connected to the avoidance of helpful social institutions. We thus expand existing research on legal cynicism to focus on individuals' contacts with potentially helpful institutions that can buffer inequality. We conclude that the interplay of legal cynicism and system avoidance, which have provided deep insights into the reproduction of structural disadvantage in American cities, also provide us with international insights into the causes of inequality and minority disadvantage across hundreds of towns in Central and Eastern Europe. In this way, legal cynicism and system avoidance work to reproduce durable inequality. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article critically examines the prevalent nationalist interpretation of historical images featuring textiles from rural regions. In an effort to disentangle the threads of folk costumes, it proposes a conscious unlearning of the way we read images of rural material culture from the late 19th century. This period has entered historiography as a period of intensifying national movements and political use of rural culture, in particular in Central and Eastern Europe. So-called folk costumes have been viewed as a symbolic representation of the nation, whereas their broader social and economic role in the history of industrial society has been overshadowed. By bringing together the production, collection, and exhibition of rural material culture, this article reveals processes in industrial society that shaped the modern history of folk costumes. It draws on late-19th-century source material stemming from a network centered in Prague that promoted textiles from rural Bohemia, Moravia, Hungary, and Galicia as ethno-commodities. Textiles were integrated into women's industrial education and presented at events promoting national economy and the latest technological innovations. Thus, this article contributes to nationalism studies by discussing capitalism and industrialism and seeks to further scrutinize the history of nationalism in Central and Eastern Europe. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Immigration has historically been of low salience in Central and Eastern Europe. Yet, the region has consistently higher levels of ethnocentrism than the rest of Europe. Scholars argue that the East's limited politicization of immigration is due to its status as a region of emigration and the presence of ethnic minority 'others'. I argue that this is changing. The politicization of the European refugee crisis by domestic elites has begun to refocus the sociocultural dimension on the immigration issue. Using structural equation models, I compare European Values Study data from 2008 and 2017 across 10 East European EU member states. I find evidence that traditionalist attitudes are more strongly related to anti‐immigration attitudes since the crisis, particularly for those who are interested in politics. Further, immigration attitudes are polarizing across the GAL‐TAN dimension and by education. Hence, immigration is bolstering a pre‐existing, socially structured divide around both nationalist and traditionalist values. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]