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RESEARCH OBJECTIVE: The research investigates how young boys progress in life after the loss of their fathers. It explores the adjustments they make, the coping mechanisms they develop to navigate life, and the male roles they assume in the family. Additionally, it examines how family can aid and support their coping and adjustment process. THE RESEARCH PROBLEM AND METHODS: This study utilises a case study methodology focused on gaining an understanding of the lives of two adolescent boys who experienced the death of their fathers in the early formative years of their lives. THE PROCESS OF ARGUMENTATION: The paper focuses on five themes- family dynamics, life transitions with and without their fathers, post-loss reassignment of family roles, present circumstances, and future goals. RESEARCH RESULTS: A qualitative analysis of the data revealed that participants’ belief systems, family support, and striving toward future goals helped them to be resilient in this event. CONCLUSIONS RECOMMENDATIONS AND APPLICABLE VALUE OF RESEARCH: While most research typically emphasises the negative impacts of death on people, this study demonstrates how individuals’ can be resilient, dependent on both person-related factors and environmental factors. To help adolescents who are grieving become resilient, the paper offers intervention and coping strategies through counselling, the availability of support networks, and combined efforts by the state and educational institutions.

RESEARCH OBJECTIVE: Governments across the world were forced to impose social distancing and lockdown measures to prevent the spread of COVID-19, caused by coronavirus SARS-CoV-2 that emerged in December 2019. Following the declaration of COVID-19 as a pandemic, the disruptions, including restrictive measures such as school closures had severe impacts on the physical, emotional and mental health of all people, especially children with special needs. There was also scant data, particularly in low-to-middle-income countries. Existing literature stems mostly from western countries, thus the need to perform a comprehensive review on this topic. THE RESEARCH PROBLEM AND METHODS: The primary objective of the systematic review is to understand the impact of COVID-19 and restrictive measures such as school closures on the educational outcomes and physical and mental health of school-going children with special needs. THE PROCESS OF ARGUMENTATION: This systematic review used the PRISMA 2020 checklist where four databases and grey literature were searched for full text articles, peer reviewed publications in the English language that were published during January 2019–December 2021. RESEARCH RESULTS: The literature search identified 1294 publications, of which 25 key papers were selected. These studies investigate the impact on children with special needs across the globe, with a majority of papers from Europe. We found that COVID-19 and the digitalization of schooling had severe impacts on the physical and mental health of children with special needs and their parents/caregivers. CONCLUSIONS, RECOMMENDATIONS AND APPLICABLE VALUE OF RESEARCH: These studies highlight the need for an inclusive school environment to ensure that the learning outcomes for children everywhere are achieved. Further, a hybrid model that includes classroom learning with novel inventive methods would be beneficial for children with special needs.

The strategic scientific management of cultural and research institution is put under scrutiny in the paper The strategic management of scientific research [Managementul cercetării științifice] by the author Meda Gâlea. To better improve the strategic scientific management, the author dives into the history of an important Romanian research institute, the Romanian Academy, and into its management style in relation to the research developed. To substantiate the results, and to support the development of the formula that underpins the decision-making process in the management of a scientific institution, the author uses actual scientific literature, corelated with the research carried out among the research and technical staff of the Romanian Academy in Iași. The most important takeaway of this scientific paper is the PRA-nX formula used to facilitate decision making in terms of economic management for better scientific performance.

Up to now, quality of life (QOL) research has been guided by several conceptual frameworks that allow for the generation of rather general approaches to QOL with very fragmented explanatory contributions, while no specific conceptual models can be identified in the literature. This paper, which is based on a critical review of mainstream literature, aims to highlight the main difficulties in building a conceptual model of QOL and to propose a model that can overcome some of the current issues. The difficulties in constructing such a conceptual model stem mainly from the variety of definitions and the range assigned to the concept of QOL, the consequent operationalisation of the concept, the relativity and multidimensionality of the concept and the subsequent problems with unidimensional measures. This paper proposes a conceptual model that adopts an individual perspective on the theoretical construct and introduces several novel ideas for building a comprehensive explanatory framework for QOL. The following developments and improvements are suggested with the purpose of clarifying the intricate field of QOL research and closing in on a conceptual model: honing in on essential dimensions instead of constantly expanding the concept, increasing the effort put into theorising about QOL, adopting a life course perspective, generating longitudinal data and utilising research on agency. There is a high need for the development of a conceptual model of QOL and the concurrent integration of QOL approaches, at least at the European level, as this would contribute to fostering the advancement of the QOL research field and highlighting core European values regarding QOL standards.

RESEARCH OBJECTIVE: The aim of the paper was to discuss a function of passion in professional personal lives of eminent Cracow musicians. THE RESEARCH PROBLEM AND METHODS: The paper raises the problem of the role of passion in the process of shaping musical eminence, answers the question of the scope of experiencing it as well as it manifesting in activities of outstanding individuals. In conducted research and interpretations, the qualitative perspective and biographical method were applied. The leading technique was problem-concentrated qualitative interview, partially structured, carried out with ten eminent instrumentalists. THE PROCESS OF ARGUMENTATION: The theoretical basis for this reading of the experience of educational biographies was provided by the Model of Authentic Vocation of J. Weller and the Dualistic Model of Passion of A. Bonneville-Roussy, G. Lavigne and R. Vallerand. The interpretations of the research material described the topography of experiencing passion. RESEARCH RESULTS: The article describes autonomous passion associated with musical mastery, instrumental motivation to practice, as well as distinguishes important factors that determine the experience of passion, persistence or burnout (tenacity, ambition, community transfer, conflict of motives, work overload), and concretizes the qualities of musical passion of outstanding musicians: professionalization, love of music, integrity, creativity, strength and determination in pursuit of goals, as well as humility in the face of challenges. CONCLUSIONS, INNOVATIONS AND RECOMMENDATIONS: Deciphering the senses and meanings that prominent Cracow musicians attributed to passion suggests that it was autonomous, harmonious and instrumental, motivated by the pursuit of mastery, and that the trajectories of the musicians’ professional biographies were a manifestation of a “professionalization of passion,” which formed the core of their educational experience and constituted and defined their life creed.

External and internal changes that affect non-governmental organizations and the difficulty to manage such situations are the main themes tackled by the author Lucian Sfetcu in his paper Introduction to the study of organizational change. The author studies, from this perspective, the Catalctica NGO, and proposes a method of analysing organisational changes applied to the NGO work model. The paradigm proposed by Lucian Sfetcu represents a guide for the non-governmental organizations from our country that face strong changes as a result of internal or external forces. The paper is welcome in a field so little studied in our country, specially in the actual political and economic context. In regards to future research directions, like the author of the book has stated, this paper represents only the foundation, comparative studied between NGOs from different fields, and from different regions from our country being necessary.

This paper examines the role of non-profit organizations (NPOs) in supporting welfare benefit claims by Romanian immigrants in vulnerable situations in Berlin. The study utilizes in-depth qualitative interviews with social counsellors, language mediators, and project leads to explore the function of social counselling offices in assisting these individuals. Social counselling is analysed as both an institutionalized policy intervention and a communicative practice focused on problem-solving. The paper highlights the power asymmetry between counsellor and advice-seeker stemming from the counsellor's superior knowledge of the welfare system, and German society. Social counselling acts as a means of support for individuals to navigate complex institutional arrangements and manage risks in modern society. However, the counsellor's authoritative role in shaping communication constitutes another dimension of power asymmetry. Faced with challenges such as complex legal regulations and limited resources, social counsellors emphasize the need for advice-seekers to gradually take responsibility for their own lives and interact with welfare institutions. This encouragement of self-sufficiency (orig. Ger. Selbstständigkeit) aligns with the principles of German workfare policies. Non-cooperation from advice-seekers in the context of social counselling can be therefore seen as a form of resistance against disciplinary power within the welfare state. The paper raises concerns about the long-term effectiveness and impact of social counselling, noting also the potential for burnout among social counsellors.

Tens of thousands of Romanian migrants work in the German construction sector. Their work is often characterized by unpaid wages, long workdays and by the withholding of sick or holiday payments. The risky and exploitative nature of the conditions under which Romanian migrants work on German construction sites is reflected in their negative evaluation of their engagements as “slave labor” by Romanian workers. Starting from such a clearly negative evaluation, the paper asks how Romanian construction workers in Germany classify their work and what role such classifications have within the context of labor exploitation. Based on qualitative interviews with and participant observation among Romanian construction site workers in Germany and in Romania, the article reconstructs four work classifications. Work may be interpreted as the fulfillment of obligations or as necessary for economic revenue; hard work itself can be a symbolic contribution to one’s own sense of identity or it can have the meaning of being part of everyday normalcy. Each of the work classifications offers a different reason to make hard work plausible in the eyes of the workers and employers actively turn such interpretations into a mechanism of vulnerability. Without direct physical coercion, these ideas motivate workers to take on work that they themselves criticize as ‘slave labor.’ The paper concludes by arguing that the recognition of such classifications and their social effects are crucial for an understanding of labor exploitation.

Romania has been, for the past decade, not only the country with the highest in-work poverty among the European member states, but - unlike most European member states - also a country with a steadily growing welfare polarization of the working force. The paper aims to explain why, after more than a decade of fine-tuning of labor market, fiscal and social policies, Romania still finds itself in this situation. Despite constant improvements over the past 12 years in the welfare indicators of the overall employed population, the gap between employees and self-employed widened. The paper documents the increasing differences in exposure to poverty and social exclusion between the two segments of the employed population and points out to the mix of factors responsible for this development. Unlike most of the European countries, where a certain gap between employees and non-employees is the result of the flexibilization of the labour market, thus of the increase in atypical and non-standard employment forms, in Romania this appears to be rather the result of a mix between a unique inherited structure of employment and an inadequate package of social and fiscal measures, which kept and further pushed self-employed into informality. Thus, contrary to other European countries, which face the problem of how to better protect workers in new forms of employment, Romania is still searching for a policy solution that would allow for both the existing self-employed to become ‘visible’ in a formal economy and the diversification of employment forms. Finally, the paper explores the possibilities to reverse the current trend.

How can researchers write about researcher accountability in a less self-indulgent and more honest way? This paper proposes intersectional reflexivity as an approach that supports producing more detailed accounts of researcher accountability. The paper shows researcher-participant exchanges as sites of intersectional struggle where both researchers and participants engage in invocations and impositions of intersectional identities to navigate their positionality during interactions. Most discussions about reflexivity focus on the power of the researcher, underplaying or ignoring the relevance of co-constructed dynamics and power struggles between researchers and participants. The paper proposes a working protocol to support researchers to understand and use intersectionality in their reflexive accounts to interrogate researcher-participant exchanges in a more nuanced way. The paper expands discussions about privilege and disadvantage in researcher-participant exchanges.

Romania experienced a strong demographic decline during the three decades since the Revolution of 1989. However, this decline was not by all means geographically and historically invariable. Our paper focuses on a particular territorial subdivision of the country, namely the county of Sibiu, as a case study of a space that underwent rather a smaller decline and even experienced moments of growth. While we focus on the county scale, we also employ comparisons at other geographical scales. The analysis is developed around three main demographic aspects – total number of inhabitants, migration and indicators of natural growth. Our results display a demographic profile of the county which is strongly contingent across geography and history in all three demographic aspects. The demographic decline in Romania was steady and rather consistent throughout the three decades. Indeed, Sibiu county experienced also a decline during the first two decades, but displayed a pattern of growth during the last decade, mostly explained through the economic aspects, as the county is one of the country's most important growth poles. As showed in the paper, these evolutions were sustained by recent patterns of migration and natural population development in Sibiu that were more advantageous for population growth.

Social media has become a central part of the modern-day broadcasting of women’s sports, and it is argued to be of great importance to the development of women’s sports (Vann, 2014; Thorpe, Toffoletti & Bruce, 2017). However, the relationship between digital and social media and the development of women’s sports is complex (Sherwood, 2020). In this paper, we explore social media narratives in competitive women’s road cycling. Digital and social media are a central communication center in cycling, and self-tracking technologies and associated media are imperative to cyclists’ socializing and cycling practices and identities (Duggan, 2020; Lamont & Ross, 2019). Few studies have focused on social media and its narratives in a competitive road cycling field. The paper considers an autoethnographic account of the first author in the local bike racing scene of Melbourne, Australia. The paper reflects on the role of social media in gaining access to road cycling, bypassing structural and social barriers, and community building in the field of women’s racing.

The territory of Lima, Peru, is the result of thousands of years of history of prehispanic cultures. A strategic management of ecological and social resources disrupted by colonization and modernity. Nowadays, the South American metropolis struggles with inefficient public policy enforcement to manage its territory, and close to 256 archaeological sites (called by the quechua word huacas) are located in peri-urban areas of the valleys, most of them neglected by local governments, lacking a proper assessment of their significance, and characterization of their context. The landscape of the southeastern side of San Juan de Lurigancho is a testimony of the past relationship between the agricultural economy of the lower Rimac Valley; and hunting-gathering activities and ranching in the surrounding mountains of the present peri-urban interface of Lima. Here, the participation of grassroots organizations, in the conservation of ancient monuments and their landscape, has been crucial for over a decade. The objective of this paper is to trace a biography of the landscape in the south east of San Juan de Lurigancho, and to highlight the role of community involvement in its present conservation. The results show the need to include this type of community action into urban planning and to empower grassroots organizations, to bridge the gap between current policy making and its implementation in the conservation of prehispanic landscapes in urban interstices.

The paper investigates the relationship between liminal, interstitial spaces with displacement and makeshift inhabitation from people on the move across the outskirts of Paris’ municipality. By providing the example of the camps settled along the interstices of the Boulevard Phériphérique, we aim to shed light on the paradoxically relational nature of voids and liminalities, testified by the multifaceted urban fragments that they generate, as well as the resistive strategies employed by marginalised populations to navigate the exclusive mechanisms of neoliberal power and negligence. The case of Delphine Seyrig serves to highlight the tensions that emerge from a space in which dynamics of exclusion and inclusion converge, where resistance and vulnerability, “us and them”, coexist, yet are made visibly distant. By framing the interstitial opacity that characterizes both the materiality of liminal lands and the condition of the migrant, we have called them “spaces of holding”, where people on the move’s inhabitation remains a perpetual negotiation of suspended existence. Based on participant observation in Greater Paris between September 2021 and August 2022, we draw on interstices’ ambivalent nature of in-between, no-longer-there-but-not-there-yet empty spaces that allow the ongoing reproducibility of a variety of forms, functions, and identities. Despite taking a distance from considering such spaces as “solutions” or countermeasures of reception, we look at these fragments as topographical constructs for scrutinizing spatial tensions and conceptual proposals and building a renewed politics of visibility in architecture and urban planning.

Macro-paintings have become a popular tool used by various actors to uplift marginalized communities in cities of the global South by transforming their physical environments. These actors operate under the assumption that improving the material conditions of these communities will lead to their overall transformation. As a result, communities serve as a focal point in this process, upon which macro-paintings are intended to have a significant impact. In this brief paper, we aim to illuminate the phenomenon of macro-painting by considering them within and beyond the context of a single community. In doing so, we shift our focus away from the traditional interpretations of paintings and instead emphasize their capacity to redefine socio-material boundaries on various scales within the city. Drawing on interviews with artists and actors from different Latin American countries, we analyze the boundaries across different scales of macro-paintings—individual houses, neighborhoods/districts, and the city. Our argument centers on the idea that macro-paintings create a unique ecology, influencing meanings, material aspects, and lives throughout the entire city. This perspective holds broader significance for urban studies, highlighting that seemingly invisible, ostensibly uniform urban surfaces are not passive but exert wider spatial effects. Consequently, scholars must acknowledge and investigate these outcomes.

RESEARCH OBJECTIVE: The paper is an attempt to articulate the defining features of Ignatian Leadership and to clarify what might distinguish it from other brands of leadership without lapsing into motherhood statements and worn-out clichés. THE RESEARCH PROBLEM AND METHODS: The Ignatian leadership style that is presented is grounded in Ignatian spirituality, which is a source of the Spiritual Exercises of Ignatius Loyola. Hence, the research problem was formulated: how can Ignatian leadership be implemented in everyday practice? The method of critical analysis of sources was applied. THE PROCESS OF ARGUMENTATION: The paper argues that Ignatian Leadership is, in fact, a radical form of servant leadership, since the Ignatian Leader is at the service not only of the Community, but also–and for Ignatius of Loyola, even more fundamentally–of the Mission entrusted to that Community. RESEARCH RESULTS: Concretely, it proposes a conception of Ignatian Leadership as a threeway relationship among the Leader, the Community, and the Mission, in the process, illustrating what magis and cura personalis might mean in one’s exercise of leadership, but also, spelling out, in light of these relationships, the key functions of the Ignatian Leader. CONCLUSIONS, INNOVATIONS AND RECOMMENDATIONS: Ignatian leadership is a form of servant leadership insofar as Ignatian Leaders ought to prioritize serving the Community that they lead over their own interests. However, what distinguishes Ignatian Leadership from servant leadership is its explicit and non-negotiable prioritization of service of the Mission as well.

This paper reflects on the stadium as a symbolic place. The “ethnographic” study of stadiums allows us to understand how these structures reflect the social, economic, and cultural processes of cities and nations. Starting from Andrea Ferreri’s book, the paper analyses the role of stadiums in defining the sense of belonging to a community, through the sports stories that take place there. Sporting legends, therefore, are a decisive part of these processes of narration and self-narration, through which individuals and groups recognise themselves as elements of the same shared destiny. This socialising function of stadiums, linked to the multiplicity of experiences, stories, and legends that they “host”, also concerns the rituality of football. As a kind of “universal secular religion” (Boff, 2014), football can connect a community in the name of a (sporting) faith, which consecrates its temples - the stadiums - according to a codified set of ritual gestures, movements, songs, and choruses.

The paper examines the sociocultural transformations of cycling from the late nineteenth century to the 2000s. Retracing some stages of the analysis carried out by historian Stefano Pivato in his volume Storia sociale della bicicletta (2019), this paper aims to show how the analysis of cycling practices allows to monitor, describe and analyze the evolution of the political world, cultural values, social identities, daily practices, and lifestyles. From a symbol of modernization, to an icon of “slow” cultures, in over a century the bicycle constitutes a symbolic object still capable of activating memories and social discourses.

This paper was written on the occasion of 120 years anniversary since Professor Henry H. Stahl’s birthday. A member of the Sociological School in Bucharest (founded by Dimitrie Gusti), H.H. Stahl became the most important and original Romanian sociologist and historian of the last century. Despite this, the author of the paper emphasizes that his life and activity are not sufficiently known. For this reason, the homage of this scientist must be the beginning of new research.

We bottle it, we flush it, we drink it, we defecate in it, we swim in it. We pay to have it delivered and pay to have it taken away. We can’t live without it but can’t abide it when we’ve used it. We demand our potable water to be pathologically pure, yet routinely douse it in chemicals marked as poisons. Our current relationship with water is complex, irrational, historically specific, ideologically shaped; a complex hydro-social configuration that defies logic. As a result, the potable water resources which continue to underpin political economies relationally bind together public and private domains. Water use is personal and political; material, corporeal, cultural, social and spiritual interconnections which shape ourselves as humans and our relations with others and our environments. Understanding how these tropes of hydro-social relationships remake themselves reveals the power dynamics which shape the control of capital. This paper explores one element of this relationship through exploring the monetisation of the concept of waste prevention within current neoliberal practices of water provision. Within the English water sector water efficiency initiatives are heralded as an essential component of demand lead water security. Those water companies within water stressed regions are required to promote water efficiency technologies and practises; including consumer mindfulness of water use. However, water bills are mostly disaggregated from consumption; instead they are predicated on how much the water companies invest and whether this capital is raised through equity or debt over a five year cycle. Water users are therefore asked to prevent water wastage on environmental justice grounds, but with no tangible monetary savings for them and significant investment in infrastructure networks. The water companies benefit by less resource ‘output’ coupled with an enhanced ‘corporate social responsibility’ profile; especially vital as the domestic UK water market opens to competition. This paper explores how the financialisation of the water sector consequentially distorts human-nature relationships even further, with ‘water efficiency’ as a synecdoche for continued profiteering.

This paper examines similarities between attitudes towards European redistribution and attitudes towards national redistribution. It maps out possible reasons for expected similarities between the two spatial levels in the degree redistribution is supported and also the underlying mechanisms that foster support rates. To examine the underlying mechanisms, the paper employs a structural equation modelling approach. Despite vastly different institutional settings, findings indicate that the degree of support for redistribution at the national and at the European level are comparable. And we can also identify a similar structure in mechanisms fostering support rates at the European level compared to the one at the national level. Moreover, the strength of these mechanisms is also comparable at the respective spatial level. The results have important consequences for our understanding of transnational mechanisms. They suggest that social entities transcending national borders possess features comparable to national social entities (i.e., nation states). Overall, this potentially suggests that national conflict lines have the capacity to be carried over into the transnational space (e.g., the European social space).

This article presents a review of the definitions for the concept of disinformation/misinformation which are used in the perspective of digital communication. At a time when words like disinformation, manipulation, propaganda, influence, persuasion, fake news are used more and more often, it is necessary to clarify their conceptual framework. The paper reviews the classic literature on the concept of disinformation/misinformation, but also the definitions that state structures and organizations (such as the European Commission) and social platforms (such as Facebook) give to this concept. It presents the relationships that various theorists identified between disinformation/misinformation, on the one hand, and influence, persuasion, lies, intoxication and manipulation, on the other hand. The paper also reviews the origins of the term and the etymological problems it imposes in languages such as French and Romanian. The article concludes that among researchers in the field of online disinformation there is need for a clear delimitation of the concept of disinformation (intentionally made) from the concept of misinformation (unintentionally made) in order to have an appropriate conceptual framework of phenomena that occur especially in the digital media and online social networks. This imperative lies more in the languages that do not use different terms to define the two concepts. Therefore, the use of traditional concepts should be carefully considered in reference with the digital media.

RESEARCH OBJECTIVE: The predominant goal of this article is to put emphasis on issues only children face in the modern world. The theoretical scope of the paper incorporates the specificity of the only child phenomenon, the familial situation of only children, as well as the possibility of maintaining social contacts and developing in the current pandemic-driven situation. THE RESEARCH PROBLEM AND METHODS: Research problems have the form of the following questions: What is the familial situation of children not having any siblings? How does the pandemic affect the upbringing of only children? What conditions for development and opportunities for establishing social contacts does the age of pandemic create for only children? The analytical and synthetic method of the literature approach to the subject has been applied. THE PROCESS OF ARGUMENTATION: Basing on scientific studies, the specificity of the only child phenomenon has been identified, most important features of the family-oriented educational environment have been distinguished, as well as the nature of functioning of a family having a single child only has been elaborated on. RESEARCH RESULTS: Consideration on the issues raised within the scope of this paper has indicated that the only child’s interactions with adults should have an appropriate form and nature. It is necessary to keep a healthy balance between the world of children and the world of adults. CONCLUSIONS, INNOVATIONS, AND RECOMMENDATIONS: It has been noticed that the modern perception of only children is changing, which is the result of expanding interpersonal relations and the development of technology. Contemporary only children do not remain in absolute isolation from the environment.

RESEARCH OBJECTIVE: The purpose of this article is to show, based on UNICEF and UNHCR documents, the problems of migrant children that hinder/impede their inclusion in the education of the host community and to identify ways to deal with these problems. THE RESEARCH PROBLEM AND METHODS: Using document analysis, I will answer the following questions: What threats are children on the move exposed to? What are the priority areas for action? How can they be protected and integrated into the new education system? THE PROCESS OF ARGUMENTATION: The paper presents the causes and risks associated with migration for children, important concepts for educational practice, recommendations and proposed solutions RESEARCH RESULTS: The documents show the risks faced by children on the move. Such children are often marginalized and stigmatized in host communities. Ensuring their well-being (meeting their psychological needs and respecting their rights) is a priority and a necessary condition for them to be able to start education. The discussion shows the importance of education in dealing with difficult conditions or in counteracting negative phenomena (discrimination, xenophobia). Education is treated as capital that is supposed to give these children a chance for a better future. CONCLUSIONS, RECOMMENDATIONS AND APPLICABLE VALUE OF RESEARCH: The following conclusions can be drawn for practice from UNICEF and UNHCR documents: children on the move should have the same rights and opportunities for education as their peers in host com- munities; they need friendly and safe places to live, play and learn; children have resources and experiences that should be considered when organizing educational environments.

Latvia is an ex-Soviet country with Latvian and ethnically Russian population and a history of uneasy relationship with Russia, including the love and hate relationship with Russian sports. Many athletes and trainers working in Latvia have competed and were trained in Russia, using Russian facilities, or, for the older generation, the Soviet Union. However, Russia and Russian-speaking Latvian residents, including the citizens of Latvia, have been long viewed with suspicion and have been the subject of discrimination at times of crisis. This paper examines the representation of the war in Ukraine in the sporting media of Latvia from February to early October 2022. The material is sourced from the main news portal of Latvia, Delfi, which has a Latvian-language and a Russian-language versions. It is found that the two versions have significant differences in the way they refer to the war in sport-related news items.

Surfers Paradise presents the findings of an anthropological inquiry into surfing culture. Through participant observation and interviews, Dario Nardini focuses on the collective fascination with surfing in the Australian Gold Coast, dissecting its historical, relational, symbolic, institutional, and sensorial dimensions, as well as its influence on national identity. This paper discusses Nardini’s ethnography as a brilliant “phenomenology of a passion” example. Integrating consolidated debates in social sciences, such as embodiment, the sociology of consumption, the anthropological study of people’s heritage, the anthropology of leisure and games, and the lifestyle studies, the book outlines the complex meaning of surfing in Australia. Above everything, the ethnographic approach provides a powerful lens to investigate sports and physical cultural practices, by examining the body-environment-society interconnections.

In 2018, a referendum to revise the Constitution took place in Romania. Just one article was in contention for revision. The goal was to make gay marriage unconstitutional. In the end, the referendum failed due to a low turnout of just 21.1%, below the 30% threshold required for validation. This paper looks into the causes of the low turnout. First, there is an overview of knowns and unknowns, such as lack of exit poll data and issues with the voting population numbers. The bulk of the paper deals with two overlapping narratives about the causes of low turnout - first, a boycott campaign and second, a combination of factors, especially low mobilisation. Using precinct level results, supplemented by pre and post referendum polling data, an examination of evidence for both narratives is put forward. The results provide a case for failure of mobilisation by main political parties and religious organisations, especially the Orthodox Church, despite public statements of support for a “Yes” vote in the referendum. In turn, this was based on a buck-passing strategy by political parties and religious organisations.

This paper is aimed to investigate the gender gap in sport as a main topic in sport studies, and doing it through different dimensions. Taking as a starting point the principle of equality as fundamental for access to sports, the paper tries to put out the main dimensions of gender inequality in sport, both as regards the level of access to sport as a right of widespread citizenship and about high competition sport. Gender gap in sport is analyzed through 4 dimensions: a dimension of access for doing active sport (gender play gap), a dimension of formal role attribution as professionals in sport (gender professional gap), a dimension of mediatization aimed to evaluate how differences are in presence and/or representation through media for female sport (gender media gap), and finally a dimension of economic gratification for sport performance (gender pay gap). This four-dimension implemented gap set up a situation to be named as “complex inequality”, a multi-level gap that is still producing a largely unfair situation in social and economic for female sport.

RESEARCH OBJECTIVE: The aim of this paper is to evaluate usefulness of distance learning courses as a form of learning from participants’ perspective. THE RESEARCH PROBLEM AND METHODS: To achieve the purpose, two research methods have been employed: literature review, including rules and regulations concerning distance learning courses, and analysis of the results of a survey conducted among students participating in distance learning course as well as own observations and experiences. THE PROCESS OF ARGUMENTATION: In the paper it is analysed, how students perceive elearning courses comparing to traditional ones. First, selected Polish Minister of Higher Education and the Senate of Cracow University of Economics (CUE) regulations under which CUE teachers may conduct distance learning courses are presented. Second, the procedure for the preparation of elearning courses at CUE is described. The roles played by individual actors during the preparation of the course are discussed. Next, selected results of the survey conducted among course participants are presented. Finally, conclusions and observations are discussed. Results of the survey confirm that e-learning is a promising type of teaching supporting traditional lessons. RESEARCH RESULTS: Aconsiderable number of participants found this kind of didactic proces useful and attractive. However, an unexpectedly large number stated that they expected more traditional lessons. CONCLUSIONS, INNOVATIONS, AND RECOMMENDATIONS: The analysis allows to draw interesting conclusions concerning the necessity of selection of participants, problem of systematic work, methods of evaluation, personal contact with a teacher, preparation of teaching materials. All of them will be taken under consideration to improve the course for future participants.

The 7th CIRIEC International Research Conference on Social Economy called “Social and Solidarity Economy: Moving Towards a New Economic System” was organized in Bucharest, Romania, on June 6-9, 2019. The conference gathered more than 140 paper’s presentations about social and solidarity economy in 35 parallel sessions. The paper aims to present the structure of the conference, the main topics of the parallel and of the plenary sessions.

The aim of this paper is to present an Institutional overview of the Romanian communal village form of property known as Obste and of the difference between “the old” and “the new” Obște. The Obste is the entity which manages the commons held by the villagers in a communal form of property. Usually, the commons managed by the Obste consist of forests, pastures and common infrastructure (markets, schools, ballrooms or even the public lighting system in some cases). The type of commons over which the Obste has a major impact is the forest, because the incentives to exploit it in order to increase the total revenue are much more pressing. The analysis will be based on the institutional analysis and development framework. The analysis will be cross-temporal in the sense that all the communal villages will be analyzed over three time periods: the old Obste (the period until 1948) –, the communist period (1948-1989, when all the communal properties were transferred to state’s property) and the new Obste (1990 – present; a significant moment in this third period was the enforcement of a new law in 2000, which opened the opportunity to re-establish the communal village’s Obste). The focus of the paper will be on the effects of the monitoring and sanctioning instruments in the three periods mentioned above and on how their changes affected the CPRs institutions' robustness levels.

This paper presents an analysis of the characteristics of public policies for dependent elderly people in Germany, Austria, Italy, Hungary and Portugal. The countries were selected taking into account the expertise in this field and the specifics of the socio-cultural context, so as to highlight the different solutions applied in those countries to solve certain problems related to the care of the elderly. The analysis of policies for dependents takes into account, for each country, the following: coordination of social and long-term care services; the beneficiaries and the minimum level of dependency for which it is granted, the procedure and criteria for assessing the dependency; the benefits provided (in kind and in cash); types of long-term care services providers. The analysis of this paper is based on information available in the database of the European Union - Mutual Information System on Social Protection which contains detailed and updated data on social protection systems in European countries, supplemented with information from studies, research reports conducted in within some projects financed within the Framework Program 7 of the European Commission, such as ANCIEN, MOPACT, but also public data available on the websites of the public ministries responsible with the provision of social services, as well of long-term care services for the elderly. The paper is structered as follows: the first part presents the characteristics of the policies for dependent elderly people from the selected countries, followed in the second part by a comparative analysis of the main aspects identified.

We open this paper by reviewing the care paradigm in urban action and the centrality of the concept of interdependence to this work. We then move on to consider our approach to mapping caring— with practices in urban community-led initiatives. The work presented comes from a British Academy supported project, Caring—With Cities: Enacting more care-full urban approaches with community- led developments and policy-makers.1 We use caring—with, rather than —about or —for, to move beyond understandings of care as a provision from institutions to individuals, or from individual to individual, which positions the cared-for as passive recipients. Here, we illustrate how case studies on urban practices can unravel interdependencies of care by attending to long-term engagements, taking place across sites and scales – rather than being viewed as ‘bounded’ examples. We close with a set of thoughts on our mapping protocol in practice and speculate on future directions that re-situate critical urban action within wider relationalities and power dynamics.

RESEARCH OBJECTIVE: The purpose of the presented paper, which has empirical nature, is to obtain data on how the rights of refugees are perceived today. THE RESEARCH PROBLEM AND METHODS: The research problem of the paper is: How do youth in Germany and Poland evaluate refugee rights and what factors influence their attitude towards refugee rights? The survey method was used in the research. The data collection took place 2013/2014. In Germany, the survey included a total of 2157 students, in Poland 1211 respondents. THE PROCESS OF ARGUMENTATION: The study was based on the assumption that attitudes towards refugee rights are predicted by such factors as: human dignity, empathy, religious beliefs, and socio-political perceptions and convictions. Based on these determinants, a conceptual model was created and used in the research. RESEARCH RESULTS: The findings show that respondents differ regarding refugee rights. German youth show some support for refugee rights and Polish youth are ambivalent. The strongest predictor for support of refugee rights for both groups is the concept of multiculturalism. The capacity for empathy and an advocacy of a politically active Christianity are important predictors, but only for the German sample. CONCLUSIONS, INNOVATIONS, AND RECOMMENDATIONS: The fact that religious beliefs have hardly positive impact on the support of refugee rights is a desideratum for religious education.

This paper presents a development overview of prevention strategies in a federalist context. It builds on the results of the study on the backgrounds of jihadist radicali-sation and the prevention strategies adopted in Switzerland (Eser Davolio and Re-ther 2019) as well as the measures outlined in the Swiss National Action Plan to Prevent and Counter Radicalisation. The methodological approach comprises de-scriptive quantitative data analyses of the different backgrounds of radicalisation and qualitative analyses of the prevention agencies and their strategies. This paper examines three such prevention and intervention agencies: counselling services, which have been set up in various cities and cantons for the universal and selective prevention of extremism in general and jihadist radicalisation in particular; com-munity policing by the cantonal and municipal police; and, on the level of preven-tion, the Swiss penal system facing radicalised persons in legal procedures and in prison. The prevention and intervention measures implemented by these agencies will be analysed, assessing whether they are adequate in view of the findings on the backgrounds of radicalisation. Focussing on jihadist radicalisation in Switzerland – a problem area with relatively limited evidence but at the same time of national se-curity relevance – we have to consider the federalist context with its own challenges and aspects of interferences.

This paper discusses current challenges of the welfare regime in Romania, from the standpoint of postmodern cultural changes that started to affect society. Acording to the main argument, Romania is intertwined with other societies that have already underwent through fundamental changes due to increasing postmodern cultural orientation. Such process comes together with a need for individualization of intervention, due to individualization of needs. Delocalization and denormalization overlap individualization, in a world dominated by mobilities. The paper delves with the basic characteristics of these changes and shows how they already affect or may affect Romania in the near future, in specific domains such as family, education, or housing. International migration is in particular addressed, since Romania is experiencing a large and long-lasting out-migration flow. Changes in technologies are used as material basis for future changes, while cultural preferences and their changes are the red line for all subchapters.

South Africa has a tense relationship with migrants. It is attractive because of its status as an African financial powerhouse and the ‘Rainbow Nation’ image it has projected to the world. It is the land of opportunity where extensive constitutional protections are believed to be able to provide tangible forms of safety. Yet, migrants are regularly accused of a variety of social ills and in recent years have been on the receiving end of several mass scale xenophobic attacks. South Africa is also unique on the African continent in relation to refugee regimes in that it is the only country that recognises and constitutionally protects transgender refugees/asylum seekers. In light of this in recent years it has seen a marked rise in the emergence of transgender migrants within the country. The refugee system though is plagued with issues of corruption and many migrants choose rather to exist in a zone of illegality, outside the system. Drawing on research carried out in Johannesburg, South Africa, in 2014 this paper focuses on two such cases that of Trisha and Musa - undocumented transgender migrant sex workers. Being undocumented and practicing a trade that is illegal in South Africa - sex work - leaves Trisha and Musa particularly vulnerable to arrest and deportation. Yet, Trisha and Musa are among several transgender migrants that have been arrested and sent to South Africa’s lone deportation facility - Lindela - only to be released. This paper considers what citizenship, rights and the socio-spatial borders of belonging might mean when transgender migrants come to understand themselves as immune to deportation.

This article delves into the nuances of resistance among Nigerian migrants in Austria, situated within the larger framework of European migration. Against the backdrop of the stringent migration regulations implemented in Austria during the 2015 long summer of migration and amplified during the COVID-19 pandemic, this study aims to provide a deeper exploration of the political sociology of return. Drawing on semi-structured interviews conducted with 18 Nigerian migrants, I examine the perspectives of migrants and their interpretations of voluntary and forced return policies and implementation, shedding light on their motivations, strategies, and decision-making processes. Additionally, the paper incorporates 15 interviews with government officials, non-governmental organisations, and activists to explore the implementation of return policy. Using the framework of everyday resistance by Johansson and Vinthagen (2019), this study uncovers the nuanced ways in which Nigerian migrants in Austria navigate the pressures of returning to their home countries. This analysis is especially significant because of Nigeria’s prominence as a major origin country for migrants in Europe. It provides valuable insights into the broader European migration context and contributes to a better understanding of resistance within return migration processes. These acts manifest in various forms in everyday life, challenging the execution of asylum and return policies in specific physical locations, such as workplaces, cities, and streets, highlighting the complex subtleties of resistance in the context of return migration management.

This article focuses on the governance of reintegration in Kosovo, where return and reintegration has been an issue since 1999. Drawing on qualitative empirical and desk research, we argue that Kosovo's reintegration governance landscape is a site of experimentation and extraction in relation to the policy objectives of destination countries prioritizing returns. Extraction occurs as the management of returnee reintegration becomes an opportunity for revenue generation for multiple state and non-state as well as transnational and local actors. Experimentation concerns innovations and testing mainly initiated by donors and international actors, then appropriated by local partners. The paper contributes to the understanding of specific mechanisms of reintegration governance, modes of practice and power relations between multiple actors operating at different scales.

Return migration and reintegration have become the latest points of discussion in the global migration studies literature. These discussions often focus on state level decision making and policy formulation without extended engagement with migrants themselves or paying attention to the everyday individual decisions made by “would-be” returnees. In this paper, we engage the notion of return migration in the African context, arguing that the return of migrants to their countries of origin is often indexed against a successful migration journey or a failed one. Such understanding takes account of structural factors outside the control of the individual migrant such as the material conditions in the origin and host countries as well as the expectations of their families and communities. We use data from a life history account of a male Zimbabwean gardener who typifies the material and cognitive struggles of migration and return. We pay attention to his lived experiences as he struggles to navigate expectations, joblessness, exploitation, and precarious work. We also discuss his resilience and determination to meet his migration goals as he meticulously plans his return to Zimbabwe where he intends to start a farming project. Through studying the experiences of this Zimbabwean migrant, we explore the agency with which he manages to circumvent structural constraints and diaspora entrapment which has been the case for many Zimbabweans in South Africa. While existing evidence indicates that skilled migrants are more prone to fall into the ‘diaspora trap’, this study gives insight into the experiences of unskilled migrants and the tools at their disposal to escape the ‘diaspora trap

Although the existence of internal ethnic diversity within Deaf communities is recognized by several authors, there has been less analysis of the impact of the ethnicity of marriage partners on the development and transmission of identity within Deaf families. This paper addresses language use and crossgenerational identity transmission in ethnic minority or ethnically mixed families set up by Deaf spouses living in Oradea (Romania). The research conducted in the Deaf community of Oradea is based on a survey of ethnic Hungarian Deaf community members (including ethnic Romanian spouses), lifepath interviews with selected Deaf individuals, and family case studies. The research results denote that in the case of Deaf people living in ethnically homogenous marriages who have graduated from a special school in Hungarian language, the transmission of Hungarian identity, knowledge of Hungarian sign language/oral language tends to be a natural, undisturbed process. However, if one of the spouses is of Romanian ethnicity, the language of communication within the family will probably be Romanian sign language/oral language. On the other hand, in families where both minority and majority ethnic family members, Deaf and hearing, are present, complex, multifaceted patterns of linguistic communication may operate, favoring specific multicultural ways of developing and transmitting identity.

This paper explores the distributional consequences of technological change on midskilled routine workers in Switzerland in three steps: (1) The first part studies aggregate trends in the labor market and confirms the pattern of an eroding middle: The disadvantages of technological progress are concentrated on routine workers whose share in the labor force has drastically declined over time. (2) In order to better understand the economic conditions associated with this overall pattern, the second part draws on individual-level panel data to study actual employment transitions. The analysis shows that transitions are less frequent than the aggregate pattern might suggest: Only a minority of routine workers actually switches to other jobs while the largest chunk of the decline is explained by ‘natural transitions’ into retirement. (3) The last part of the paper builds on original survey data to examine routine workers’ subjective assessment of their chances in a changing world of work and demonstrates a surprisingly high degree of consciousness about susceptibility to automation. To conclude, I discuss some societal implications of the ‘hollowing of the middle’.

RESEARCH OBJECTIVE: The goal of the paper is to present the possibilities of using crowdfunding in entrepreneurship education in higher education institutions and investigating the impact of this activity on the development or strengthening of entrepreneurial traits and attitudes of students. THE RESEARCH PROBLEM AND METHODS: The research problem concerns the use of crowdfunding in entrepreneurship education. The method applied to solve the research problem was a diagnostic survey. Questionnaires were completed by 314 full-time students and 34 academic teachers. THE PROCESS OF ARGUMENTATION: The process of reasoning starts with the presentation of the research method. Next, methods of the entrepreneurship education are described. Afterwards, research results are presented. The paper ends with conclusions and recommendations. RESEARCH RESULTS: In the opinion of students and academic teachers developing a crowdfunding projects by students, with the special emphasis on the action plan, might be an important didactic method in entrepreneurial education. It also has significant impact on the development or strengthening students’ ability to take advantage of opportunities. CONCLUSIONS, INNOVATIONS, RECOMMENDATIONS: The conclusions allow for verifying the thesis that crowdfunding might be used in an effective entrepreneurship education in higher education institutions. It is recommended to consider its inclusion in a wide range of methods used in entrepreneurship education.

RESEARCH OBJECTIVE: The objective of the current paper is to verify in what way university students who declare high individual level of entrepreneurial intensity differ from those who are characterized by its intensity level. THE RESEARCH PROBLEM AND METHODS: A statistical analysis of obtained survey results was conducted. The group of research participants included 413 business students. Following statistical methods were used to analyze the data: internal reliability test, chi-square test of independence, independent samples t-test. THE PROCESS OF ARGUMENTATION: The line of reasoning presented in the current paper starts with the analysis of entrepreneurial intensity which, when measured on an individual level, is distinctive to people who declare a strong commitment to following an entrepreneurial career. Later the theoretical background including individual characteristics and cognitions that can potentially be prevalent among entrepreneurs is presented. RESEARCH RESULTS: It was found that groups of students who display high and low levels of entrepreneurial intensity differ significantly. These differences pertain to individual characteristics (i.e. gender), the perception of business success indicators and the perception of entrepreneurs’ environment favorability. CONCLUSIONS, INNOVATIONS, AND RECOMMENDATIONS: Obtained results allow to formulate conclusions about ways in which the development of entrepreneurial attitudes can be facilitated. Several recommendations are proposed for educators and policy makers including adopting a more fine-grained approach to supporting the emergence of entrepreneurial culture in Poland.

The paper analyses the educational policies in Romania for the period 1948-1989. The purpose is to examine the main features that defined the educational system during the communist period, thus providing the background for a better understanding of the strengths and the weaknesses of education during these years. The paper consists of five distinct sections: (i) legislative reforms; (ii) human, material and financial resources; (iii) access and participation; (iv) educational environment; (v) voice of the pupils and students. Whenever data is available, the paper uses a comparative perspective with other communist countries (Bulgaria, Czech Republic, Hungary and Poland), particularly regarding the access to and participation in education. Several achievements in the field of education are present in communist Romania: (i) the positive evolution of participation in education, particularly regarding elementary education; (ii) the campaign to eradicate illiteracy was successful, at least in terms of numbers; (iii) vocational education displayed spectacular increases in the communist period; (iv) the number of students enrolled in higher education increased significantly; (v) expansion of support forms to broaden participation, especially in the higher education system. Nevertheless, there are also a series of negative aspects, such as access and participation of particular groups to education – children with disabilities, children from placement centres, pupils, and students of “unhealthy social origin”. A selection of oral history fragments completes the picture about the educational environment.

E-governance is essential for migrants to ease access to various administrative services in their home and destination countries. The COVID-19 pandemic revealed novel facets of inequality in the accessibility of these facilities, the lack of personnel during lockdowns being not the only impediment for foreigners. This paper aims to research the unequal access of the Romanian diaspora in Germany to digital solutions provided by authorities and the unprecedented circumstances that occurred during the medical emergency. The data analysis revealed how people built their e-governance networks on social media groups, providing alternative solutions to their issues and needs. Diaspora's relationships with governmental bodies are often priorly mediated via online communication in diasporic groups, where people ask for advice or present their approaches. Data collection has been done mainly on Facebook groups of Romanian migrants in Germany between 2020 and 2022. Methodologically wise, this research used digital field research to understand how people interact in these groups and what consequences could arise from their digital behaviour.

For decades, migrant workers with temporary and service contract work in the German meat industry have rarely been recruited by trade unions. The Arbeitsschutzkontrollgesetz (“Occupational Safety and Health Inspection Act”) law implemented in 2021 aimed to grant equal employment conditions to the majority of the workers in slaughterhouses, creating new avenues for trade unions to gain more members and organize industry-level negotiations for better wages and a collective agreement. This article explores the lessons we can draw from the series of strikes that accompanied the negotiations. By relying primarily on participant observation in the meat industry strikes and employing an actor-centred perspective on industrial relations, the paper reveals the role of shop-floor organic intellectuals in mobilizing and demobilizing workers. The analysis of the strikes shows that organic intellectuals can be instrumental in articulating the resistance of subaltern groups, but they can also be co-opted by dominant groups to manufacture consent.

In the last decades, and especially since 2010, the intersectionality paradigm is being increasingly used as theoretical framework for examining and explaining social inequalities in various areas – both with qualitative and quantitative methods. So far, there is no standard for applying intersectionality in quantitative social research. Therefore, this paper aims to present how intersectionality can be applied in quantitative research and to elaborate on and evaluate several methodological approaches in this regard. More precisely, we describe the tenets of three different quantitative approaches: multivariate linear models, conventional multilevel analysis, and multilevel analysis of individual heterogeneity and discriminatory accuracy (MIAHDA). We compare the three approaches and outline their methodological benefits and limitations.