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Immigration became an especially thorny and publicly discussed issue with the so-called Refugee Crisis beginning in 2015. The stance of the Czech and Polish governments was dominated by strong anti-Muslim and anti-immigration rhetoric. Still, both countries have witnessed a steady increase in mainly short-term immigration from various Asian countries such as Bangladesh or Pakistan ever since. This paper analyses Czech and Polish migration policies against the backdrop of a historically constructed notion of anti-illegal immigration policy, and category of temporary migration, coupled with the problematic nature of debt-financed migration in Asia. Drawing on ethnographic fieldwork in Czechia and Poland (2018-2021), in-depth and semi-structured interviews with migration experts, academic and grey literature, official documents, and the method of Accidental ethnography, this paper argues that silencing of actual labor immigration in political communication while employing anti-migration rhetoric represents a discursive gap typical for liberal democracies. It further concludes that rendering migrant labor as a temporary commodity and turning a blind eye on recruitment of international migrants represents a continuity practice of migrant labor subordination within the nation-state, originating during colonialism and the advent of capitalism in the nineteenth century. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Academics usually look for constitutional conventions in Westminster-style democracies, such as the United Kingdom, Canada, or Australia. Nevertheless, growing evidence from practice shows that constitutional conventions are similarly essential attributes of even substantially different political regimes. This article is the first paper to systematically deal with constitutional conventions in the Czech Republic. To be more specific, I identify eight existing constitutional conventions there: (1) respect for the parliamentary majority, (2) institution of a formateur, (3) simultaneous existence of two prime ministers, (4) new cabinet's statement of policy, (5) delegation of negotiation and ratification of international treaties, (6) appointment of a (vice-)governor of the Czech National Bank without a countersignature, (7) missing signature of the president under laws, and (8) single vice-chairperson of the Supreme Court. On one hand, the scrutiny shows that constitutional conventions play an already established and important role even in a Central European democracy. On the other hand, the lack of political respect for unwritten rules and the relative immaturity of Czech democracy confirm that constitutional conventions are as fragile (or as strong) as political actors allow. Thanks to these facts, the study of constitutional conventions in the post-communist country is a precious laboratory with universal findings even for long-existing democracies. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

There is some indication that discrimination as well as low levels of life satisfaction render young people at risk of cyberhate victimization. Adopting a socio-ecological perspective, this paper examines whether supportive family, peer and school environments may buffer against the effects of perceived discrimination and low life satisfaction on cyberhate victimization. Data from four countries (N = 3396) of the EU Kids Online IV survey on children aged 11–17 (51% girls) revealed a positive association between perceived discrimination and cyberhate victimization, but this impact was moderated by supportive family and peer environments. A negative association between life satisfaction and cyberhate victimization was mitigated by peer support. However, no associations with the school context were found. The current study provides new insights on how social support on different levels of the social environment may buffer against potential risk factors for cyberhate victimization and can inform decision-makers towards intervention and prevention strategies. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this day and age, it is increasingly important to ask how the cultural industries adapt to the evolution of communication technology. Recent technological changes influencing our understanding of media communication processes are discussed in various fields, with western traditions often predominating. However, the particular impact on industry dynamics is hardly universal. Specifically, the way such changes influence the dynamics of small, distinct peripheral markets remains largely underexamined. To this end, this manuscript focuses on such questions as they relate to the specificities of Central and Eastern Europe and the Czech Republic, a particularly small industry with distinct cultural proclivities. In ascertaining how media representatives/workers comprehend and engage their audiences, this paper presents a fuller understanding of the microsocial processes by which Czech media audiences are framed and conceptualized within Czech media industries and offers insights into the rationales directing the Czech media industry itself, particularly in relation to mediating the dialectic of local dynamics, international competition, and the evolution of digitalization. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper brings together two streams of literature which rarely enter into conversation: diverse economies scholarship and critical readings of postsocialism. Mobilising the cases of food self-provisioning (FSP) in Czechia and agricultural cooperatives in Kyrgyzstan as an empirical basis for our reflections, we pursue a two-fold aim. Firstly, we call for attention to the postsocialist East as fertile ground for the study of diverse economies. Secondly, we offer a postcapitalist reading of postsocialism as embedded and emancipated theorising, arguing that diverse economies thinking can support novel representations of this geopolitical area and open space to appreciate economic diversity on the ground. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The main objective of this paper is to analyse where women run for and win seats in local councils of Czech towns between 1998 and 2018. Our results are to some extent contradictory to those from Western Europe. More importantly, this study demonstrates that strategic context impacts on women's emergence and success in local elections in a different way. First, we do not confirm that larger towns are more promising for women's representation. While more fragmented party systems in larger cities contribute to making women's candidacy more common, a large pool of female candidates does not result in their higher presence in local councils. Second, we identify openness of local environment to women, in terms of women's previous representation, as a strong determinant of female representation in Czech towns, both in terms of candidacy and success. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article deals with the membership of the most important Czech political party, ANO (meaning "yes" in Czech), led by Andrej Babiš, in the Alliance of Liberals and Democrats for Europe (ALDE). Our goals are to reconstruct how Babiš's party joined ALDE and to discuss the ideological differences between ANO and ALDE. The paper shows that ALDE's offer of membership in 2014 was motivated by a pragmatic need to bolster its own position in the European Parliament; ANO, meanwhile, needed to anchor itself in European politics. Andrej Babiš's technocratic and illiberal view was not apparent at the beginning, but more importantly, this did not matter to ALDE. ALDE's Czech "point of contact," ANO's foreign policy expert and the leader of its party group in the European Parliament, Pavel Telička, made ANO's membership credible. However, as a Euro-optimist, Telička was not compatible with ANO's flexible ideological character in the long term and the party group split up. A comparison of the parties' European Parliament election manifestos and positions on crucial controversial European issues clearly reveals a deep division between ALDE and ANO—and their fundamentally opposed ideological positions. We describe the findings as a new hyper-pragmatic trend in the creation of Europarties, which weakens their ideological cohesion. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article belongs to the special cluster, "Think Tanks in Central and Eastern Europe", guest-edited by Katarzyna Jezierska and Serena Giusti. What is the role of think tanks in Europeanization of national public spheres? To address this question, our paper explores the performance of think tanks in the immigration debate in the Czech Republic. Employing political claims analysis (PCA) and treating think tanks as boundary organizations active in multiple fields, we compare the levels of Europeanization of political claims made by think tanks with other actors. Our data set includes 2,374 political claims made on broadcast public TV in the period from April 2015 to March 2016. According to our quantitative data, Czech think tanks chose the discursive strategy of Europeanization more often than any other actor represented. Thus, think tanks have the potential to support Europeanization of national public spheres. However, their representation in media coverage is relatively low. Our results also demonstrate that think tanks should be treated as sui generis organizations since their strategy in the public sphere deviates from that of other civil society organizations. Think tanks Europeanized their claims-making, but others largely stayed on the national level while discussing the refugee crisis. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: Palliative care is insufficiently integrated in the continuum of care for older people. It is unclear to what extent healthcare policy for older people includes elements of palliative care and thus supports its integration. Aim: (1) To develop a reference framework for identifying palliative care contents in policy documents; (2) to determine inclusion of palliative care in public policy documents on healthcare for older people in 13 rapidly ageing countries. Design: Directed documentary analysis of public policy documents (legislation, policies/strategies, guidelines, white papers) on healthcare for older people. Using existing literature, we developed a reference framework and data extraction form assessing 10 criteria of palliative care inclusion. Country experts identified documents and extracted data. Setting: Austria, Belgium, Canada, Czech Republic, England, Japan, Mexico, Netherlands, New Zealand, Singapore, Slovenia, South Korea, Spain. Results: Of 139 identified documents, 50 met inclusion criteria. The most frequently addressed palliative care elements were coordination and continuity of care (12 countries), communication and care planning, care for family, and ethical and legal aspects (11 countries). Documents in 10 countries explicitly mentioned palliative care, nine addressed symptom management, eight mentioned end-of-life care, and five referred to existing palliative care strategies (out of nine that had them). Conclusions: Health care policies for older people need revising to include reference to end-of-life care and dying and ensure linkage to existing national or regional palliative care strategies. The strong policy focus on care coordination and continuity in policies for older people is an opportunity window for palliative care advocacy. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The rise of 'information disorder' that undermines Western political principles has become one of the key political concerns in today's Europe and United States and led to searching for new solutions to the problemof how to fight the spread ofmis- and dis-information. The challenges of information disorder, however, are increasingly perceived as a part of the information war - which involves the intentional Russian propaganda using new media. Yet who gets to help our societies build resilience against the information war? This research looks at how this novel problematization of security affects the politics of security expertise. Or, who gains power in this 'battle for truth'? Building on sociological approaches in security studies, this paper focuses on the Czech Republic as a country that has become very active in the fight against disinformation and analyses the network of actors recognized as providing security expertise on information warfare. Based on social network analysis, the research maps the structure of social relations among actors recognized as experts and points out the empowerment of think tanks and journalists, who are able to build social capital, mobilize their knowledge of Russian politics and the new media environment, and design new practices to make the society resilient towards information warfare. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The paper addresses the issue of the constraint function and its use in methods of regional taxonomy and assessment of regional systems. It proposes an alternative definition for the constraint function for rule-based methods of functional regionalisation, such as the delineation of local labour-market areas, including alternative conceptions of the self-containment of the regions, and the trade-off between size and self-containment. An alternative constraint function has been applied in the territory of the Czech Republic as shown in the paper's illustrative example of its use from the original CURDS algorithm. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The paper deals with the European dimension of the competition and contention between Czech political parties and argues that domestic party interests undermine the formal oversight of EU politics by the Czech national parliament. Within the current institutional arrangements, national political parties assume stances - which are expressed through voting - towards the European Union (and European integration as such) as they act in the arena of national parliaments that are supposed to make the EU more accountable in its activities. Based on an analysis of roll-calls, the paper focuses on the ways the political parties assume their stances towards the EU and how the parties check this act by voting on EU affairs. The paper examines factors that should shape parties' behaviour (programmes, positions in the party system, and public importance of EU/European integration issues). It also focuses on party expertise in EU/European issues and asserts that EU/European integration issues are of greater importance in extra-parliamentary party competition than inside the parliament, suggesting a democratic disconnect between voters and parliamentary behaviour. The study's empirical analysis of the voting behaviour of Czech MPs also shows that the parliamentary scrutiny introduced by the Lisbon Treaty is undermined by party interests within the system. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The aim of this study is to empirically analyse the relationship of collective identity frames to the mobilisation strategies of the Czech Romani and pro-Romani activists over the past two decades. After all, most existing analyses merely implicitly assume that this relationship exists, and explain the relationship as the result of a given political opportunity structure, but they do not examine these frames more closely. Using frame and claim-making analysis, the text traces the diachronic and synchronic development of self-naming frames and the collective action repertoire in five-year intervals (1992, 1997, 2002, 2007, and 2012). It shows that, whereas self-naming significantly changes, the activists’ action repertoire does not. Thus, the frequently postulated relationship between self-naming, strategies and activists’ priorities is not confirmed. However, the analysis does reveal that certain claims and frames are connected with certain strategies and repertoire patterns. The paper concludes with a discussion of reasons for this diversification of activist framings, which may be the result of efforts to focus on different target audiences within the multiplicity of opportunity structures and a response to the (new) availability of external sources of funding in Central and Eastern Europe countries. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The paper introduces a set of four studies focused on adolescents in the Czech Republic. In the first part, authors reflect on the cultural background, the political, social, and psychological factors that have had influence on several generations of adolescents in the period of the communist totalitarian regime. They also describe the social changes brought by the democratization of Czech society since the early 1990s. Second part of the paper reviews the life and changes in the behavior of Czech adolescents over the past 20 years. Based the findings of three studies representing three cohorts of adolescents (1992, 2001, 2010), it is argued that current Czech adolescents are becoming more like their Western peers. Compared with the 1990s adolescents, the current cohort is more realistic in their expectations, oriented more on achievement, social pleasure, and material values. Their relationship to formal authorities is weaker; especially, the relationships with parents and teachers are more liberal. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

This paper begins with a brief overview of the status of Czech services for alcohol and drug users as they existed before 1990 (during the communist era). Particular attention is directed to the prominent figure of Jaroslav Skála and the treatment and training systems he pioneered. The second section of the paper concentrates on how the system of services evolved during the 1990s, after the fall of communism, and identifies the main factors affecting this development (the ongoing reform of health care, formation of the nongovernmental nonprofit sector, emergence of a national drug policy, and the reform of social services). The paper also describes characteristics of the current system of services for legal and illegal drug users. Included here are descriptions of the types of care available (low threshold services, ambulatory and hospital care, therapeutic communities, aftercare, and substitution programs), and an overview of their utilization. Specific features and weak points in the present system are addressed in broad terms. Financing and costs are addressed, with particular attention being paid to public grants at governmental, regional, and municipal levels. The paper also pays attention to the infrastructure of the system of services (coordination, training and education, quality assurance, etc.) as well as to research needs, training and quality assurance, and the effectiveness and efficiency of services based on sound financing, in order to promote innovative programs of care and to adjust existing services to the actual needs of the target population. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article proposes a classification of interest promotion methods used by small EU member states which draws on lobbying literature in order for us to better understand how small states pursue their preferences in Council negotiations. It explores a single case study of the Czech Republic’s efforts to influence the 2012 revision of the European Union’s Generalised System of Preferences scheme through the lenses of this classification. The empirical part of the paper is based on original research interviews with European and Czech stakeholders who participated in the studied negotiations. While the dossier was considered important, the Czech Republic failed to employ more elaborate methods of interest promotion and thus came away with a sub-optimal outcome. Rather than explaining this by pointing to a lack of socialization of Czech representatives (and thus a lack of effective competence), this deficiency can be better explained by the low salience of the general policy area for the Czech Republic, which prevented the country from developing a favourable position from which to react promptly to the related developments and deploy the lobbying tools at its disposal. The article suggests that the lobbyist-like character of a small member state’s performance in the Council may have wider consequences for the flexibility of the country’s EU policy and the ability of its governments to pursue specific European policies. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The main goal of this paper is to analyze the spatial behavior of unauthorized migrants in their attempts to irregularly cross the Czech state's 'green' border (including walking trails) into Austria and Germany, between 2005 and 2007. It demonstrates the importance of select demographic and human characteristics of the migrants, as well as the physical features of the environment, in their crossing. Our main premise concerning the importance of smuggling and the more sophisticated means and strategies employed among migrants using smugglers' services (vis-à-vis those without smugglers) was confirmed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper examines gender aspects of tactics of the alter-globalization movement. Focusing mainly on two transnational collective actions in Prague in 2000 and in Genoa in 2001, the research draws on participant observation, interviews with activists and analysis of the movement's alternative media. The feminist activism within the movement, the gendered tactics and their representation in the alternative media are analysed using the concept of diffusion. Although feminists are involved in the protests, and local Czech feminist activism was incited by the international mobilizations in Prague in 2000, they are often marginalized because of the emphasis on masculine confrontational and violent tactics used in demonstrations. The movement's alternative media further reproduce gender stereotypes. The visual representations of the tactics are traditionally gendered -- women are depicted as fairies, men as fighters; this is because the movement does not want to appear weak and feminine, and seeks to be effective. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article is based on a case study of a long-term public controversy over the construction of a highway bypass (around Plzeň, Czech Republic). Two principal variants of the bypass were proposed. One of them began gradually to appear preferable, increasingly attractive for experts, but remaining only on paper. In the meantime, however, the other variant became more realistic, pushed through mainly by local politicians and actually constructed. This article shows how purification of science from politics (and vice versa) played a key role in the development and ending of the case. Initial expertization of the case switched to its sharp politicization, when people got frustrated from protraction and indecisive evidence of accumulated expertise. This turned to be fatal for those who consistently staked everything on "pure facts." This article concludes by outlining some general consequences of such a development for both democratic decision making and the political relevance of expertise. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The Czech Republic has a relatively long tradition in the addictive and problem use of methamphetamine, which is called "pervitin" locally. This paper attempts to provide as complex a picture of this phenomenon as possible by analyzing what is known about the Czech methamphetamine situation through scientific monitoring and research. It begins with a brief historical overview and then utilizes five key indicators (surveys, treatment demand, problem drug use estimates, blood borne diseases, and mortality) and some of the core indicators (namely, drug related crime, price and purity data, and estimates of market value) of drug epidemiology that were developed by the European Monitoring Centre for Drugs and Drug Addiction (EMCDDA). By summarizing and carefully interpreting this data, the specifics of the Czech pervitin scene are described and future research directions are identified. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper describes regional differences in the extent of drug use within the Czech Republic, especially in regard to wider demographic, socioeconomic, and institutional contexts. It documents the relationship that exists between the presence of environmental risk factors and the extent of related risk behaviors (e.g., criminal behavior or problematic use of psychotropic substances). Available sociodemographic and economic indicators collected from 14 regions were assessed in light of the data on the extent of criminality, distribution and funding of services for drug users, and the extent of drug use. Further on, correlation, factor and cluster analyses were made to closely observe the relationship of individual indicators and to assess the similarities within the regions. The analysis reveals that within the Czech Republic (its geographic size is similar to that of the state of South Carolina), substantial differences exist in terms of risk behaviors and drug use. The analysis illustrates that regions exhibiting the highest number of environmental risk factors also experience higher levels of personal risk taking. That is, both high drug use prevalence and negative indicators of drug use consequences are concentrated in regions experiencing extensive social problems. These findings can facilitate better targeting of the scarce resources that are designated every year for drug policy by directing them in the future to the neediest locales experiencing most severe drug-related problems. Existing regional differences should also be considered when formulating and implementing health, social, and drug policies at the national and regional levels. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The rapid dissemination of drug use among adolescents in the Czech Republic and other Central and Eastern European countries during the 1990s had a significant impact on health care and social services for this population group. This paper describes the current situation related to drug use among adolescents in the Czech Republic and in other European countries and discusses several attitudinal and behavioral correlates of drug use among young people. The results presented here have been extracted from a database of the European School Survey on Alcohol and Other Drugs (ESPAD) from 1995, 1999, and 2003. At the time of data collection, the average age of respondents in the sample was 15.4 years. Marijuana was the most common illicit substance used by European adolescents. The results also showed a marked increase in the number of adolescents who use substances repeatedly between 1995 and 2003. A marked increase in the popularity of ecstasy occurred in the same period. Between 1999 and 2003, the use of opiates and amphetamines in the Czech Republic decreased slightly. Attitudinal variables indicate that Czech adolescents tend to be more tolerant towards selected forms of drug using behavior than are their peers in Europe. The policy by which society tries to confront drug related health and social issues includes an expansion of the network of specialized facilities for treatment and resocialization and long-term programs in the field of prevention. In the future, the significance of programs that focus on early detection and intervention will increase. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

An interior thermal insulation system based on hydrophilic mineral wool is presented in this paper. Basic thermal and hygric parameters of the applied materials are given. The design and development of the thermal insulation system including its verification in semiscale experiments are described. Finally, an example of the application of the designed system in the reconstruction of a historical building in Prague is shown, and the results of in situ experiments are presented. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Introduction to the selection of the papers presented at a two-day workshop “The End of the Story?” Problems and Perspectives of East European Literary Studies,” held at Princeton University on 8–9 February 2013. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]