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Research on sexual harassment and gender-based violence in academia shows that these issues are widespread and complex and that victims face significant barriers, often resulting in under-reporting and cases remaining unresolved. In Slovenia, these issues have received less attention compared to other forms of gender-based violence, resulting in a lack of research, public debate and systematic regulation. A research project funded by the Ministry of Education and the Slovenian Research Agency aimed to investigate how Slovenian academic institutions deal with sexual violence and harassment. The project found a general lack of comprehensive policies and highlighted the need for more proactive measures to effectively address these issues. The results of the project, which are presented in this article, provide insights into the prevalence, regulation and institutional responses to sexual violence and harassment in Slovenian higher education. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Sexual harassment and other forms of sexual violence are widespread social phenomena, and thus also present in academic field. To examine how the gender regimes of Slovenian academic institutions are reflected in their internal regulations regarding sexual harassment and other forms of sexual violence, we analyse them in this paper. We find that public higher education institutions, notably the University of Ljubljana and its Faculty of Arts, regulate this area more comprehensively than private higher education institutions and public research institutes. In general, our analysis reveals that while some Slovenian academic institutions maintain a male-dominated gender regime, others actively work to deconstruct it. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper seeks to underscore the significance of Grlica as a pivotal journal for youth music in Slovenia from 1953 to 1988. It explores how Grlica played a crucial role in conveying the ideological and socio-political aspects of the socialist system prevalent during that period. Applying historical-developmental and historical-comparative methods, the paper presents three key findings. Firstly, Grlica was primarily a professional journal, with little to no ideological components. Secondly, the ones we do find were predominantly present in the initial period of Grlica's publication, i.e., until 1965, becoming increasingly rare as time wore on. Thirdly, composers who published their works in Grlica held diverse ideological and musical orientations, indicating that Grlica was not only a professional journal but also characterised by broad-minded and open perspectives. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article follows chronologically the changes in the public perception of Laibach in Slovenia, Yugoslavia and the post-Yugoslav countries, Laibach's relation to the Slovenian state, and the group's status of informal (and occasionally formal) cultural ambassadors of Slovenia in the post-Yugoslav context. Because the state (in abstract terms) and Slovenian cultural identity play such an important role in Laibach's artistic output, their formal and informal representation of the Slovenian state and national identity are often misperceived by the media and cultural commentators. The aim of this article is to establish on which occasions and in which contexts Laibach have actually and formally represented Slovenia at international events. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study examines conspiratorial beliefs associated with the coronavirus pandemic in the United States, the European Union, and Slovenia. Drawing on a case-based approach, this research seeks to understand the underlying factors that have led to the emergence of conspiratorial beliefs regarding the coronavirus and the COVID-19 disease. We analysed surveys from the US and the EU to investigate the support of the general population towards the selected statements and beliefs closely connected to prevailing conspiracy theories. We seek the answer to the question of which demographic and societal factors contribute the most towards people's beliefs about the origins of coronavirus. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article presents the establishment of the first Maribor higher schools, with special emphasis on what happened before and during the establishment of the Pedagogical Academy in Maribor. The paper is written based on pre-existing scientific literature, jubilee collections that were published on occasions of important anniversaries of the foundation, archival material kept by the Provincial Archives of Maribor and the Archives of the Republic of Slovenia, as well as reports from the newspapers of the time. The reform of higher education in Slovenia, which took place between 1953 and 1963, paved the way for the establishment of several higher schools in Maribor, where the demands and needs for the establishment of higher education had been evident for a long time. In the article, the authors partly focus on the enactment of laws pertaining to the establishment of Maribor higher education institutions by the authorities of the Slovenian republic, and thus also outline their views of the topic at the time. They interweave this with the efforts of the Maribor District People's Committee and some individuals. The establishment of the Pedagogical academy in Maribor was necessary due to the new principles regulating the education of the teaching staff, because at that time in Maribor there was merely a school for teachers that offered adequate education only for teaching staff of lower grades of primary schools. The Maribor District People's Committee even predicted it would be established as the first higher school, but due to various factors, it was actually founded as the last during the first wave of the establishment of higher schools in Maribor, in 1961. The important role that Maribor played in the establishment of the Pedagogical Academy is also indicated by the fact that the Maribor District People's Committee covered the costs of establishment and co-financing of regular activities (thirty percent). The city, which longed for the establishment of this higher education institution, thus took on a considerable financial burden. With the law establishing the Pedagogical Academy in Maribor, the city got its first college. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The governments of the newly formed and expanded states of Habsburg Central Europe began remaking society in formerly imperial spaces following Austria-Hungary's defeat in 1918. Austria-Hungary's demise as a geopolitical unit did not mean the disappearance of its administrative and juridical apparatus, some of which functioned well into the interwar era. Because bureaucratic transition did not necessarily parallel political transition, there was often no immediate, dramatic change in the regulation of prostitution--or the treatment of prostitutes and women assumed to be prostitutes--in these states. Some officials/police maintained that prostitution was a "necessary evil," and sought its continued regulation, while others sought its abolition. This article analyzes continuity and change in the treatment of prostitutes in prewar/wartime Cisleithanian Austria and postwar Venezia Giulia and Slovenia. Neighboring provinces under the Habsburg Monarchy, Italy occupied the former in late 1918, while the latter became part of Yugoslavia. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Fairy tales are fascinating fantasies, but they also gave people a better understanding of serious issues such as illness, injury, and even death. The results of the analysis of a large corpus of a total of 1512 published fairy tales, legends, and other documentary prose about Pohorje, most of which date back to the 19th and the first half of 20th centuries, and whose origins were in a time when diseases were ubiquitous and poorly understood, show that the theme of health and disease rarely appear in these sources, however, when they do mention it, they refer specifically to the living conditions of people in the Pohorje Mountains, epidemics, social diseases, mental illnesses, congenital deformities, and ideas about the relationship between disease, the human body, and supernatural forces. One of the reasons for such explanations is the widespread absence of doctors in this hilly area. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article analyses Slovenian–German relations, with a particular focus on the period between December 1990 and June 1991. The author takes a look at the positions that the Federal Republic of Germany assumed with regard to the plebiscite in Slovenia and recognition of Slovenian independence, as well as the circumstances (national and international) that led Germany to these positions. The article finds that as late as the spring of 1991 the official German policy was preserving the integrity of Yugoslavia, while it was already aware this might be an unrealistic wish. This is why it foresaw Slovenian and Croatian independence as one of the possibilities. When war in Slovenia broke out, Germany saw that Yugoslavia was gone, so it took a completely different stance than only weeks before. This was also reflected in its active engagement for swift international recognition of Slovenia and Croatia. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article analyses local practices of memory activism among Slovenes in the first decade after the Second World War. While in recent years Much of the scholarly work and popular production focuses on the officially sanctioned memory landscape taking for granted that monuments are installed by the Yugoslav government in a unilateral top-down direction, a more in-depth research shows how vernacular memory cultures produced several examples of bottom-up memory signs. Thus, Slovenia had in 1961 the highest number of partisan memorials in Yugoslavia: 4035. However, it would be misleading to think that this memory activism developed without disagreements. Even if, since 1948, when it was founded the Federation of Associations of Combatants, this umbrella organization was in charge for the control and the coordination of the construction of monuments to the fallen, local committees continued to have a primary role. The construction of memorials involved the cooperation of many individuals (architects, engineers, as well as intellectuals who wrote tombstone inscriptions) and companies (particularly construction companies) in an intermingling of private initiatives and public support, memory activism and socialist narratives, official remembrance and private mourning. Often local committees however, in contrast with the veteran’s association and State institutions, imposed their view on the form and the content of the memorial site. These tensions invert the perspective of a civil society as a passive subject of decision making, dependent on and subjugated to the socialist regime and shows that local communities seek to define themselves and their memory in ways that might be at variance with desires of central offices. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article examines the role of Soviet prisoners of war and Russian émigrés that fought in Slovenia during World War II. The largest group consisted of Red Army soldiers who switched allegiances after being captured and agreed to fight for the Third Reich. They were joined by White émigrés who remained hostile to communism. But some émigrés and Soviets joined Slovenian partisans in the struggle against the occupiers, with most of them previously serving in Germanled formations. Based on archival documents and published sources, the author provides an overview of such units and studies their impact. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article compares the position of nobility in Slovenia, Croatia and Slavonia before and after the Great War. The focus is on the transition to the Yugoslav state. The new regime treated the nobility as adversaries in political, social and national respect; noble titles were abolished and landed estates diminished by the land reform. Even though it cherished personal and family ties, the aforementioned nobility did not organise itself in associations, like their counterparts in Austria. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Over the past years, increasing number of scholars has been addressing questions of religious polarization in Europe and the US. The findings show that religious polarization tends to be more present in countries with Catholic majority and in more secularised countries. The present study considers trends of structural and ideological dimensions of religious polarization among young people in Slovenia. In terms of methodology, it is based on secondary analysis of data from national youth surveys Youth 2000, Youth 2010 and Youth 2020. On this basis, longitudinal analyses of three indicators of religiosity and five indicators of general values and attitudes was conducted. The results point to a substantial increase in ideological dimension of religious polarisation over the period between 2000 and 2020. This trend was accompanied also by a marked structural polarization in the period between 2010 and 2020. This structural polarization is a direct consequence of a strong increase in shares of very religious youth, both in terms of attendance at religious rituals and in terms of the self-reported importance of God in person's everyday life, which happened simultaneously with the more general trend of secularization. The study also found, somewhat surprisingly, that the differences between the religious and the nonreligious youth in ascribing value to family life had been decreasing over the observed period. This leads to the conclusion that the value of family life has been growing increasingly more independent from religiosity over the first two decades of the 21st century. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The unprecedented strike of the COVID-19 pandemic and the resulting aftermath pose profound challenges for local governments, from managing responses, to an unknown crisis, to ensuring the safety of citizens in the midst of extreme uncertainty. The paper discusses the management of the COVID-19 crisis, focusing on the cooperation between Slovenian municipalities and the established civil protection system. Civil protection and emergency preparedness to cope with natural, technological and other disasters is a key component of any local community. The authors examine the normative framework of the civil protection system in the Republic of Slovenia and offer insights into the results of the first empirical study to evaluate civil protection regulations, emergency response, and operations at the municipal le vel during the r esponse to the COVID-19 crisis. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The purpose of this article is to identify cultural tourism as one of the best practices that can help in the implementation of the Strategy for Sustainable Growth of Slovenian Tourism (2017 - 2021) and to examine the role of cultural events as tools for the development of sustainable tourism. The latter is one of the main trends in the tourism sector, at least in the European context and also in Slovenia as a member country of the European Union. The challenge of developing sustainable tourism destinations is considerable in rural areas, where local communities must be closely observed and by all means included in the decision-making process on future tourism development. This is of the utmost importance as tourism is much more than an economic activity. Therefore, key decision-makers need to be aware that tourism activities affect all local people and many areas of their life and that the role of tourism in rural areas is to improve the quality of life of the local population. Since at least some form of culture can be found in every village, small (rural) tourist destinations often find important opportunities for sustainable tourism development in organizing cultural events, which lead to greater community visibility, cultural branding of the destination, which is significant and also several business opportunities. On the case of Sevnica, this article aims to demonstrate that there is great potential for further development of cultural tourism and its subtypes in Slovenia by further developing cultural tourism and various tourism products based on rich cultural heritage. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper analyzes the role of Mladina – a Slovenian weekly that entered the collective memory of the nation as an important actor in the processes of democratization and achieving independence – in terms of its contribution to the rearticulation of the Slovenian integrative discourse in the interregnum of the 1980s. By employing the theory of the cultural memory (Aleida Assmann, Todor Kuljić) the author analyzes all editions of Mladina published in the 1980s to examine the role of Mladina in the processes of democratizing interpretations of the Yugoslavian (recent) history, but also taking into account – in relation to Slovenian ‘sites of memory’ (Philippe Nora) – Mladina’s reflections of the possibilities and pitfalls of the unification of Sloveneness on essentialist foundations. The paper is based on the thesis that Mladina in the 1980s had indeed taken maverick role in the processes of democratization of Slovene society, but it entered the collective memory also due to establishing itself as an open forum in which the Slovenian ‘sites of memory’ were being reflected and transformed. Therefore, the author first analyzes the various approaches with which Mladina’s writers acquainted their readers with inconvenient, even silenced topics from Yugoslavian recent history, then focuses on the process of transforming the identification points of Sloveneness, as reflected in Mladina’s articles, which is further elaborated by an analysis of the discourses of unity and disunity within then Slovenian and Yugoslavian political and publish sphere. Since the situation in the 1980s also required from a liberal weekly such as Mladina to reflect upon the contents of integrative discourse, the author spirally connects his findings with the theses of those social theorists, who claim that nowadays problems with ‘self-image’ and collective memory in most of the Eastern European and Western Balkans countries – often taking forms of unresolved trauma – stem from the antagonistic as well as insufficiently reflected understanding of the relationship between democracy and identities in the societies of the 1980s. On this basis, in the conclusion the author addresses the theoretically challenging and topical question of the ability and disability of liberalism as a political philosophy in the reflection of those aspects of community discourse that are grounded in pre- or post-Enlightenment doctrines. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

his article sheds light on the academic side of dr. Jože Pučnik. While his civic, dissident and political activities in Slovenia have been well known, his academic work and the political philosophy he developed have been largely neglected. This is unfortunate, as already a cursory insight in Pučnik’s monography on Culture, Society and Technology, such as provided in this article, reveals the richness of his political thought. Pučnik as an intellectual, as a political thinker was not only aware of the main currents of western political philosophy after the WWII, but was also entirely on par with then political and legal thinkers. He had integrated their work into his own political philosophy, which he subsequently applied to the case study of Slovenia, a country that he felt most deeply about. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article addresses the issue of memory and oblivion in socialist Yugoslavia after the Second World War, with a special focus on the case study of the Borovnica camp in Slovenia. The prisoners in the camp were arrested during the liberation of Trieste and the Julian March (they were the so-called deportees from the Julian March). After the camp was shut down it was gradually destroyed and a settlement was built on its foundations. Local people who lived in the immediate vicinity have memories of this time, but have never spoken publicly about what happened there. This paper analyses the memory and oblivion of the Borovnica camp over a long period of time, from the end of the war to the present day. The memory of the camp is placed into the broader, Yugoslav and European context of the culture of remembering and the “amnesia of national experiences”, as defined by Tony Judt. During our research, we found that already during the camp’s operation, a regime of fear was established over the locals, through which the guards tried to prevent any assistance to the prisoners, while at the same time silencing rumours. This fear persisted even after, since in the years and decades that followed, the camp and what took place there were not, or only rarely, spoken about. The silence was partly due to the general desire that prevailed throughout Europe to forget what had happened, but mainly due to political pressures and fear of the regime, as well as the fear of disrupting relations within the local community. As a result, despite the change of socio-political circumstances after 1991 that favoured narratives that contradicted the previous official narrative of pure partisan struggle, the camp remained largely unspoken about even then. The article thus shows that breaking collective amnesia is not a unilateral process. In addition to the favourable socio-political circumstances, the desire and need to break the silence must also arise within the community that has had oblivion imposed upon it. In 2021, the remaining foundations of one of the barracks were cleared and they are now evidence of a camp that now has a story and a history. Although some people are still reluctant to talk about this time, it can be said that the memory of the Borovnica camp has become an integral part of the local collective memory. The question remains how many similar situations and cases of post-war amnesia still exist in Slovenia and elsewhere in Europe. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

For well over a century now, the enigmatic kosezi (in Slovene), or Edlinge (in German), continue to excite the imagination and create agitation in Slovene and Austrian national histories and cultural memories. While Austrian historiography largely advocates for a Germanic origin of this free medieval social stratum, in the Slovene they are established as an integral part of Carantanian society, said to have persevered until the sixteenth and, to a degree, even the nineteenth century. Hence, in the Slovene national imagination, the kosezi provide an important continuity with the ‘first Slovene state’, as Carantania is erroneously regarded in the cultural memory. This paper focuses on the (re)construction and reception of the word kosez (singular) and the social stratum it allegedly designated in Slovene science and cultural memory, while also surveying Austrian interpretations. The analysis shows that the kosezi entered the Slovene national imagination especially due to their key role in the enthronement of the dukes of Carinthia. The role of free Slovene peasants in the medieval enthronement ritual was discovered only two decades before the (re)construction of the word kosez in 1912/13 from fifteenth- and early sixteenth-century toponyms and surnames, as the supposed old Slovene or Carantanian original for the German word Edlinger (singular), attested in earlier sources. The word kosez was unknown in folk memory and its (re)construction was too late to be included in nineteenth-century nation-building, which was the most prolific time for the construction of national myths. Thus, it was only in the interwar period that Slovene historiography and philology made the kosezi, through their role in the enthronement ritual supposedly originating in Carantania, an integral part of one of the key elements of Slovene nation and state-building. After World War Two, the kosezi were further established in Slovene cultural memory, particularly through the reception of popular-scientific works and school textbooks, predicated mainly on the interpretations of the leading post-war Slovene medievalist Bogo Grafenauer. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article deals with the physical appearance, meaning and function of open public space (OPS) in the context of services of general interest (SGI) and its impact on the quality of life of inhabitants of small towns in Slovenia. Special emphasis is placed on the working hypothesis that, the OPS in interaction with SGI provide a higher quality of living while simultaneously helping to shape and promote the urban development of small towns. In the study, the cartographic method and the questionnaire were used, and the synthesis of both parts of the study was used, which additionally confirmed the working hypothesis. The results showed that cities are equipped with OPS in very different ways; they also differ in the physical appearance and function of the OPS, which impacts the satisfaction of living in the city. The frequency of their use is influenced by the design of the city centre, the arrangement of OPS and the provision of SGIs. The method of OPS research in interaction with SGI is suitable for further study of cities also from the point of view of urban governance and the urban economy, which will contribute to the decision-making on the OPS regulation to improve the attractiveness of the city centre and increase the supply and modernise SGI. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Based on the conceptual images of the "vanishing mediator" (F. Jameson and E. Balibar) and proceeding from the definition of its passive and active principles, the paper examines the previous, current, and potential roles of Slovenia in Euro-Atlantic integrations. Developing these starting points, the author first analyses the specifics of Slovenian adoption/adaptation of the European integration discourse prior to Slovenia's accession to the European Union, analysing in a second step the imbalances in development in post-crisis Europe, both with the purpose of comparatively determining Slovenia's position and potential as a "small state" at regional, European, and international levels. In this, the author focuses mainly on the issue of the "normative power" of Slovenia in the international arena, exploring, however, the foreign policy potential of the state through the perspective of the formation of identity and discourse patterns of Slovenianhood. The premise is that with Slovenia's accession to the European Union (and NATO) the "original" Slovenian idea of multinational integration - presented in this paper largely through an analysis of treatises about the advantages and disadvantages of the memberships, published in the years preceding the accession - was "passivized"; however, unlike the eastern and central European countries, which underwent a shock therapy during the period of transition, Slovenia preserved its own view of the objectives and goals of European integration. In the context of the development of European integration discourse, presenting the experience of eastern European countries with European integration, and the relations in post-crisis Europe, the paper thus analyses what marks the "distinctiveness" of the Slovenian experience, comparatively. The latter is defined based on socio-constructivist theories, theories of ethno-nationalism, and political science studies of small states. Relying on these findings, the paper substantiates the specific identity and discursive patterns of Slovenianhood and explores the possibilities of their "translation" into a foreign policy strategy - emphasising, nevertheless, that the success of foreign policies based on the "normative power" of small states depends on the understanding that these basically address a socio-developmental issue and not only a foreign policy issue. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Based upon the qualitative research among members of the Slovenian educational community, the article discusses the child-centred approach in relation to the education of migrant children in Slovenia with the aim to explore to what extent child-centred perspectives are included in Slovenian educational spheres. The framework for the analysis is Starkey's (2017) three-dimensional understanding of child-centred education that differentiates between agentic, humanist and cognitive dimension. The results show a significant gap between the education policy documents in the field of integration of migrant children and everyday practices in Slovenian schools in r elation to child-centr ed education. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article sheds light on religious transformations in the Slovenian territory in the first and the second Yugoslavia by placing emphasis on religious conversion and atheization as a form of deconversion. The historical analysis of the interwar period reveals the first beginnings of religious diversification, with special emphasis being placed on religious conversions. More profound changes in the religious field were provoked by the new political regime, which concomitantly promoted the spread of atheism and religion as a private matter, thus stripping the Catholic Church of its dominant role in society. Gradually, the Yugoslav state authorities developed a more liberal attitude towards religion, which resulted in the dialogue not only between Christians and Marxists but also between different religious communities. It was only the disintegration of Yugoslavia, which led to the democratization of state and social structures and to the inflow of migrants to Slovenia, that enabled the development of religiously pluralistic society in Slovenia. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The contribution presents the Slovenian-Croatian border changes near Gradin or in what were then the municipalities of Gradin, Pregara, and Črnica. Towards the end of the war, the majority of the local population opted for annexation to Slovenia. However, in 1947, when this territory went to Yugoslavia in accordance with the peace treaty with Italy, these towns were annexed to the Buzet district or to the People's Republic of Croatia. The Slovenian population engaged in passive resistance and kept refusing the authority of the Croatian side for a long time. Despite the initial promises that Slovenian police officers and teachers would remain in this area, the former were swiftly replaced, while Slovenian language disappeared from schools after a few years. In June 1955, the majority of the population expressed a wish to be included in the People's Republic of Slovenia, and therefore the Slovenian government proposed to the government of Croatia that the border be changed. The republican governments reached an agreement, which was then implemented in accordance with the constitutional principles, set out in the Yugoslav Constitution. The agreement was first confirmed by the Assemblies of both republics, Croatia and Slovenia, while in March 1956, the ordinance on the alteration of the borders between the republics was also confirmed by the Federal People's Assembly. This was the only example of an alteration of the Slovenian-Croatian border that was confirmed in the manner as prescribed by the Yugoslav Constitution, while the questions involving the other disputed border sections remained unsolved until the independence of both st ates. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

By analysing various archival material, the article discusses parenthood education in Slovenia from the end of World War II to the mid-1950s. It was mostly intended for women - as preparation for motherhood - and was part of the socialist concept of mother and child healthcare. In the post-war times with a high infant mortality rate, this healthcare concept focused greatly on prevention. Consequently, the health education of women took place at different medical and educational institutions; organisations also contributed significantly, especially the Slovenian Red Cross and the Women's Antifascist Front of Slovenia. Women were prepared for motherhood through various lectures, seminars and courses organised by healthcare and educational professionals. The most prominent courses were those held by the Red Cross for young rural women. The media also provided guidance - mostly in books, daily newspapers and magazines. A smaller proportion of these efforts also focused on sex education. As in the case of the inclusion of men in parenthood education and the regulation of childbirth, sex education likewise became important at the end of the period in question, when the conditions became favourable for a radical change in ho w sexuality was viewed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The author presents and analyses the yet unpublished written correspondence between Jože Pučnik and Ljubo Sirc. It was discovered in 2014 and kept by the Dr. Jože Pučnik Institute archive in Ljubljana. Pučnik and Sirc were two of the most well-known post-war dissidents of the communist regime in Slovenia. Following the Second World War, during the assumption of power by the totalitarian regime, Sirc became a victim of the Nagode show trial. Pučnik's story unfolded with a ten-year delay. Their fates were bound in many ways: both were freethinkers, critical of the existing conditions created by the communist authorities, both resisted and both were ready to engage in overcoming the remnants of the totalitarian regime in the late 1980s and early1990s. The study is focused on their correspondence from the mid-1980s onwards. The study, which is based on the private correspondence of both key figures of that period, reveals their interpretations of time and space, particularly their understanding of the way of functioning of the totalitarian regime and possibilities of a democratic transition. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article investigates the main features of commercial diplomacy of the Socialist Federal Republic of Yugoslavia (SFRY) and its (dis)continuation in Slovenia and Montenegro. The analysis is conducted by way of critical analysis of primary and secondary sources. What is more, we control individual discrepancies or inconsistencies and complete information by way of semi-structured in-depth interviews. Article's key finding is that there had been a sort of commercial diplomacy formed in SFRY - particularly after 1974 -, aimed at pursuing economic and political goals. Following SFRY's dissolution, the countries concerned did not form their commercial diplomacies based on this past experience. They instead established their commercial diplomacies from the start, which has represented additional setback in formation and functioning of Slovenia's and Montenegro's commercial diplomacies and that has had a negative impact on their effectiveness and focus on the user. All of the above confirms the "loss of historical memory" pattern in state successors to the SFRY, signifying that their governments typically operate ab ovo (i. e. as if there was nothing before them). The latter has a negative impact on long-term development of these states and their policies. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Based on the analyzed cases in the research sample the author demonstrates that intimate partner homicides of women in Slovenia are distinctly gendered criminal offences and that Slovenia does not differ significantly in this respect from other countries. In Slovenia as well as in the majority of other countries almost half of homicides of women are committed by a former or current spouse or intimate partner. The analysis also shows that the basis of these acts are strong traditional or patriarchal attitudes of perpetrators on partner relationships and gender roles and especially male feelings of the ownership of their female partners. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article examines the adaptability of Slovenian and Czech political parties to the global economic and financial crisis that hit Europe in 2008. Following many political scientists, we expected parties to adapt to the public’s preferences and to address, directly or indirectly, the issue of the growing scope of precarious work in their election programmes. The analysis revealed that parties barely followed the public’s preferences, opting not to directly respond to the challenge. However, it is obvious that the parties made considerable adaptations in response to challenges from the international environment because virtually all of their election programmes mentioned the issue of the labour market’s flexibility. As expected, in this regard, it is possible to detect the importance of party ideology since liberal and conservative parties as a rule saw a bigger need to introduce flexibility to the labour market to a greater extent. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Along with the growth of creative economies, one can observe the phenomenon of increasing precarious work, which follows young individuals engaged in creative activities. The working process of creative individuals is very flexible in terms of schedules, place of work, and payment. As such, they often do not belong to the traditional (i.e., economically and socially stable) employment setup, which was usually organized around huge firms or institutions in the public sector. Instead, they tend to self-employ and quickly move from project to project, assignment to assignment, and job to job. Although some have described this as a type of desirable ever-changing lifestyle, such a work profile could be also described as precarious self-employment: a condition of existence without predictability or security, affecting material and/or psychological welfare. On the one hand, their work offers freedom, independence, and creative space, but it also has possible side effects manifested in a decrease in social security and an increase in stress due to work overload. Based on employment and wage statistics, this article analyzes fluctuations and changes in the social status of specific groups of creative workers in Slovenia and South Korea. It is assumed that intense employment restructuring points to the growing global trend of precarious working relations in the creative sector. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

When someone visits a region, their first impression of it is based on the image presented by the clothing worn by representatives of the region‘s tourist industry. Clothing expressing the local identity is a form of visual communication: it is made up of symbolic elements that build up the visitor‘s appreciation of the region‘s unique identity and shows the extent to which the people of the region are bound up with their local culture. Research into clothing practices in the tourism industry in Slovenia has shown a very low level of awareness of the importance of the image presented by clothing. Local tourism representatives usually wear their own clothes in their day-to-day work, or wear T-shirts with prints and logos for special events. Clothing related to the region is perceived as being merely an interpretation of historical clothing or costuming based on the various types of „national costumes“, and representatives do not involve themselves in designing modern tourism-related items of clothing. To give a real-life example of the modern design of tourism-related clothing. taking into account heritage, the article analyzes a case study about designing tourism-related clothing for people from Bohinj. The analysis showed that the only way to find suitable solutions for designing clothing expressing local identity which is recognized by visitors and locals alike is by taking a professional analytical approach. Creating a clothing image of a region relies on choosing a story which acts as a basis for designing a sign or symbol that locals and visitors identify with the region. This sign or symbol is then used as a motif which is depicted on the clothing, and applied in the image created by the clothing, visually evoking the baseline story. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The author attempts to answer the question to what extent the activities of the Slovenians in neighboring countries and Slovenian emigrants contributed to their new home countries recognitions of the independence. On the basis of original archival sources, newspaper articles and available literature it was confi rmed that the international community at the crossroads of the 1990s, did not favor the emergence of new nation-states. The Slovenians living outside the Republic of Slovenia were at that time practically the only ones on which the Slovenians from Slovenia in those crucial moments could rely. As a result, Slovenian politicians then asked the representatives of the Slovenian minorities and Slovenian emigrants for the support and co-operation in all important steps. These were the key moments in their efforts to infl uence the policy in the new home countries to recognize the independence of Slovenia. Members of indigenous Slovenian minorities in neighboring countries and Slovenian immigrants of all generations then showed a lot of interest in Slovenia and a high degree of unity in seeking the recognition of Slovenian independence by their new homelands. Although the international recognition of Slovenia was primary not the result of their pressure on the governments of the countries of their settlement, it is necessary to recognize the achievements of these communities that affected the policies of their countries towards Slovenia. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article delves into the process of setting up an independent diplomatic apparatus of the Republic of Slovenia. It aims to shed light on the role of Slovenian paradiplomats (particularly business representatives) in the country's independence process, as well as highlight the importance of diplomats who worked in the Yugoslav service and helped lay the foundations for the diplomacy of independent Slovenia. The article brings three fi ndings. First, business representations abroad played an extremely important role in the outset of forming Slovenia's diplomacy. Second, Slovenians in the federal foreign ministry provided great support by working hard to provide Slovenia with as much information as possible for shaping its position in the independence process and the mustering of international support for recognition. Third, the beginning of independent Slovenia's diplomacy required much enthusiasm and diplomatic innovation, which faded into history when they were limited by the framework of the entire system, once the diplomatic apparatus was formed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Eighties in Slovenia and Yugoslavia) were marked by a deep economic crisis and a crisis of Yugoslav selfmanagement socialism. Slovenian cultural opposition was establishing connections with CEE dissidents through the notion of Central Europe (M. Kundera, E. Busek, E. Brix). The process of the detachment of Yugoslavism from Slovenianism in the 80's was in close relation to the new sensibility for the Habsburg legacy. The structural nostalgia (H. Grandits) for the lost world of Central Europe before communism was not a political program, but an ideological link to the west. "Mitteleuropa" was seen as a part of the west, as emphasised by Kundera himself, pushed to the east by the misfortune of Yalta division of Europe. The feel for Central Europe was somewhat contradictory: a lot of effort was invested to present Slovenia as a special case (as almost west). On the other hand, accepting the perception of Central Europe under Soviet communism framed Yugoslavia in the same category as the Warsaw Pact countries. Dissidents gladly accepted the dichotomy Central Europe -The Balkans, but it remains unclear whether Central Europe had just represented "anti-Yugoslavia" or had it still been in accordance with the Slovenian version of Yugoslavism. Interestingly, the leftist, non-nationalist intellectual critics of the regime were also searching for a "true" self-management by discovering of the dissident East. The revolt of the Solidarity movement in Poland 1980-81 was interpreted as a grass-root "fi ght for workers self-management" and opposition to Stalinism. The main purpose of the paper is to present complexity and ambivalence of the self-positioning of Slovenian intellectuals in the 1980s. Some of the most renowned intellectuals, who were problematizing Slovenian symbol geography in 1980s, became by the end of the decade increasingly associated with the milieu of diplomacy and foreign policy. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article deals with the secret relations between Yugoslavia and Israel, which in the 1980s fell prevalently under the domain of the Slovene State Security Services and which subsequently, during the period of the disintegration of Yugoslavia, evolved into a collaboration between Slovenia and Israel. The fi rst secret contacts were established as early as during the formation of the Jewish state in Palestine and did not lapse even when Yugoslavia severed its diplomatic relations with Israel after the Six-Day War in 1967. In the 1980s, the secret relations were centred on economic and intelligence cooperation, while serving sporadically as a secret channel for political contacts as well. The study relies mostly on previously un-researched archival documents of the State Security Services of Slovenia, which allowed us to investigate the secret contacts in terms of contents as well as methods and tactics of intelligence service operation. The material consulted has also proven to be a surprisingly rich source of information about the history of the Middle-East crisis. The secret Yugoslav-Israeli contacts are analysed within the context of Yugoslavia's foreign policy as well as with regard to the positions of its diplomatic services towards Israel and the Middle-East crisis. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The paper introduces the concept of using artificial landscapes to develop new design principles for sustainable solutions in rural environments in Europe. The introduction defines artificial landscapes in general and gives insight into the potential for permanent transformation of these landscapes. The thesis is that an integral approach that reconciles the existing landscape with the settlement offers a new quality to spatial development. This thesis is explored by comparing two extreme artificial landscapes as case studies: the Dutch polder landscape, reclaimed from the seabed of the North Sea, and the abandoned part of the terraced landscape of the settlement Kojsko in Slovenia's Gorica Hills. The conclusion of this experimental approach is that the potential of an artificial landscape is a key element for the design of more sustainable and self-sufficient solutions, especially in rural areas, which seek a strongly formed identity in a permanent transformation process. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article presents the diversity of Slovenian terraced landscapes which is illustrated mainly at the level of Slovenian landscape types, focusing on a comparison of terraced landscapes in selected pilot settlements. In addition to basic GIS analyses based on LIDAR data, the diversity of metric parameters of characteristic terraced areas are also presented, highlighting the dimensions and configuration of terraces, their platforms and slopes, as well as their current land use. Attention is also drawn to the most recent processes transforming characteristic terraced landscapes. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

LIDAR data offer an unprecedented accurate new interpretation tool for detecting terraced landscapes. The boundaries of terraced areas in Slovenia cannot be clearly defined without the help of a field survey even when the configuration of the terrain makes surveys difficult. The segmentation of point cloud data into various classes of foliage, ground, buildings, and so on makes previously hidden earthwork structures (including abandoned terraces) instantly recognizable. The conceptual shift is that the LIDAR slope analysis layer is more revealing and instructive for discovering terraces areas than orthophoto images ever were. Although LIDAR data are a new tool in the search for terraced areas, orthophotos remain important but are nevertheless only a contextual aid. A quantitative comparison between the old and new methods shows no difference in three pilot areas, shows only a minor difference in two cases, and reveals major differences in three pilot areas. The quantitative differences in some of the pilot areas are compelling. However, the most significant feature of the new method is its reliability for detecting the exact boundaries of terraced areas. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Research, academic studies, civil initiatives, important recognitions, and various documents about terraced landscapes have intensified in recent decades. This is proof that awareness about terraced landscapes is growing at the global, European, and national levels. Research, academic studies, and civil initiatives have taken place in Slovenia as well. This study determines how many municipalities in Slovenia contain terraced landscapes, and it reviews documents at the national level (laws and strategies) and local level (spatial documents) to determine whether and how they refer to terraced landscapes. Surprisingly, global and international trends and Slovenian research on terraced landscapes have not affected national and local documents with regard to themes specifically addressing terraced landscapes. Because Slovenian terraced landscapes have too many important values to remain ignored, we propose a procedure enabling institutions at the national and local levels to acknowledge their existence. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The aim of this paper is to present the demographic and the historical consequences of the World War II in Slovenia and specifically in the Slovenian Litoral. These consequences are indicated as well by the gender structure of the human losses, since around 90 % of all human losses are being male, and by the age structure as well, since of more than 97,700 human losses in Slovenia - representing a loss of the population in the amount of 6.5 % - the percentage of people younger than 25, is amounting to well over a third of all fatalities. This research has also shown a different dimension, since it has pointed out the WW II historical specifics of the Slovenian Litoral in comparison to the Central Slovenia. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The present paper traces the recent history of four Serbian Orthodox settlements in the Slovene region of Bela Krajina close to the border with Croatia. It includes an outline of how notables, journalists, politicians and ethnographers throughout the 20th century up to the end of Yugoslavia and beyond characterized the local population; thereby it concentrates on the influence of diff erent forms of collective identity (Serb, Croat, Slovene, Yugoslav) on the inhabitants of the four villages. Consequently and due their peripheral location on the Slovene-Croat linguistic and national divide the local population had to deal with diff erent off ers and imputations. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article deals with collected life stories of the second generation of migrants or, rather, migrants and their descendants. In the first part I present selected anthropological theories on the metaphors of mixing cultures, particularly hybridization and the notion of bricolage. In the second part I present segments of the life stories of migrants and their interpretation of culture through the metaphors of mixing cultures; in this part the analysis is based on the formalist model of ethnicity. The purpose of this paper is to present a reconsideration of metaphors that illustrate mixing of cultures through the analysis of in-depth interviews conducted in the framework of the BRIDGE project. Primary focus is on the parts of the narratives that provide insight into the interpretation of cultural and ethnic differences, in connection with the management of different cultural repertoires. I point in particular to the representations that are created and used within the cultural repertoire of the interviewees, which are shared within various groups and used for their cultural and ethnic self-identifications or self-ascriptions. The article shows how individuals either defy the methodological nationalism and isomorphism of culture and limited national territory within some contexts or remain caught in them within others. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The paper deals with migratory processes from the area of the former Yugoslavian republics towards Slovenia, focusing primarily on women migratory population. By combining theoretical knowledge with empirical fi ndings the article tries to shed light on the poorly researched immigration processes in Slovenia, despite the fact that immigration rate has exceeded emigration rate already since the 1960s. Its main perspective proceeds from personal narrations which transgress the usual monochromic conclusions and expose the need to study women's migration in a contextualized perspective. The main methodology used rely on the oral history method of collecting life stories; a free, conversational method of gathering information about migratory experiences, which also reveals new perspectives, new research questions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The traditional view of higher education inherently assumes that students will become critical and deliberative citizens, capable of understanding and participating in society. There is an abundance of normative considerations regarding the role of higher education in democracy and in the creation of good citizens; however, empirical scrutiny of the curriculums for citizenship education in higher education is sporadic and limited. This article attempts to fi ll this gap by analysing higher education curriculums in terms of content, focusing on formal, rather than non-formal or informal, curriculums. Although this approach omits certain affective-behavioural and cognitive dimensions that are at least equally important as the formal curriculum, it does reveal (a) the scope and (b) the depths of citizenship content in the higher education curriculum. By applying the framework developed by the International Association for the Evaluation of Educational Achievement for the analysis of citizenship education, we analysed the entire set of undergraduate study programmes of the University of Ljubljana (Bologna fi rst cycle). The analysis of 140 selected study programmes reveals (a) that disciplinarity is a strong predictor for the extent of coverage of citizenship content and (b) that the covered content is imbalanced in favour of civic society and systems, demonstrating a disregard for civic principles, civic participation and civic identities. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The study explores the decision-making rationale of news websites' moderators who keep hate speech at the gates by reviewing and selecting users' comments for publication under news items. By using document analysis, newsroom observations and interviews, the study indicates a combination of traditional and network gatekeeping at three leading Slovenian news websites. The adopted minimal measures for regulating hate speech at 24ur.com, Siol.net and Rtvslo.si and their various gatekeeping mechanisms call for reconsideration of some central issues in contemporary social communication: the gatekeeping model and technological innovation as well as multivalent roles of news media in public life. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Existing studies on the digital divide agree that age is one of the key factors regarding the divide, but they neglect an in-depth analysis of the attitudes of the old people towards the internet and the situations in which they live. This article tries to fill this research gap. We carried out a quantitative analysis of a representative sample of the old Slovenian population of ages between 65 and 85 years on internet use, and 33 in-depth interviews with the old people in Primorska on internet use and their attitudes towards it. The results of the survey analysis show that 33.2% of old people in Slovenia use the internet. Among these users are more men than women, and they tend to be better educated and wealthier than non-users. Internet use also differs by region - it is used least in Pomurje and most in central Slovenia. The key reasons for not using the internet are lack of money and knowledge. The analysis of in-depth interviews revealed a more complex picture of internet use. According to use and attitudes towards the internet, we classified the interviewees into internet critics, neutrals, and followers. The internet critics comprise two types. The largest group of critics does not use the internet because of lack of money, poor social support and negative attitudes towards it. Those interviewees believe that the internet encourages and allows an invasion of privacy. Another group of relatively well-networked, wealthier and socially active old interviewees who are able to afford access to the internet, but deliberately do not use it because they believe that digital communication threatens the quality of interpersonal communication. The neutrals, those who do not use the internet or use it very rarely, expressed neither positive nor negative attitudes towards the internet. The results show that they would use the internet if they had individual access and learnt how to use it. A special group comprises those who do not use the internet because of a disease or a disability. They want to use it because they wish to "live a life" which they consider themselves now deprived of. The internet followers regularly use the internet and have a positive, though not naive, view; they point out many problems involved in using the internet. The study also show that greater social engagement is not correlated with greater internet use, rather with attitudes towards the internet. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this paper we aimed to analyse the ways in which everyday context and family climate determine the complex structure of youth computer cultures, particularly the patterns that young people use in relation to computer activities and their place within the youth life. A representative quantitative survey among Slovenian youngsters aged 15-24, still living with their parents and going to school, revealed three different types of youth computer culture: The strongest factor predicting the passive, TV-like entertainment computer culture is the outgoing and entertaining free time pattern; the active and informative computer use is the most strongly positively predicted by the culturally engaged free-time pattern; the interactive and socially oriented computer culture is predicted only by the outgoing and entertaining free time pattern. The analysis also showed that the quality of the relationship between parents and children as perceived by the youngsters has no effect on youth computer culture within our sample. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

After the collapse of the non-democratic regime in the early 1990s, public opinion surveys became important factor in the process of democratic decision-making. Authors are analysing the results of public opinion surveys, which bring together data on the attitude of the general public towards democracy, (dis)satisfaction with the political situation and (dis)satisfaction with most important political institutions; special emphasis is given to the general public's (dis)trust toward the judiciary. Based on the data obtained authors allocate Slovenia's position compared to other established European democracies as well as post-communist countries from Central and Eastern Europe (CEE) on the scale of the relationship of the dimensions of societal trust in political power. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Especially in the last three decades we are witnessing a massive development of those reproductive technologies which have separated human reproduction from the sexual act. Such technologies have significantly altered »traditional « understandings of family relations, kinship ties, parenthood and medical treatment procedures. First, we study the creation of the concept of the national population in Europe at the beginning of 19th century. In relation to this topic, the increasing importance of scientific disciplines which are supposedly »properly equipped« to study the movement and health of national populations is emphasised. We point to the main theoretical frameworks for studying such new reproductive technologies developed in the social sciences and humanities. The focus is especially on the contributions of feminist theory and gender studies. Following this, we analyse the talk of the mass media about in vitro and artificial insemination using the example of the printed press media. Writing about this topic is linked to the socio-political context that determined also the content of press reports. The material analysis has demonstrated that experts from medicine are most often represented in media reports about in vitro and artificial insemination. Exceptions in this regard are the events before the referendum about the Infertility treatment and procedures of biomedically-assisted procreation act, when a greater variety of experts talking about this subject could be observed in the press media reports. It was also found that talk about in vitro and artificial insemination is addressed more to women than men, as women are viewed as primarily responsible for human reproduction. The results have also shown that in the talk about the social acceptability and entitlement to procedures of in vitro and artificial insemination, ideas about the appropriate composition of the national population and ideologies about »in/appropriate« parents and family relations, determined by gender, marital status and/or sexual orientation of the individual can be observed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper addresses the adverse reproductive outcomes of rural women who gave birth in the period from 50th to 60th 20 Century, when family planning with abortion has not yet been enacted and contraception is not yet widespread and accessible. To conclude, rural women have had limited opportunities to make their own decisions about their reproductive strategy. Reproductive strategies was limited to the results of biomedical science in conjunction with the national social, legal, medical and religious institutions, moral norms of different social communities, ethnic's minorities, that harms reproductive and mental health of women. I explained the research findings in the context of time, society and space, depending on the broader social and cultural systems and their power. It has been shown that women, when exercising their basic reproductive rights, among them professionally performed abortion, they encounter obstacles. In this struggle they are trying to achieve new reproductive rights, and overcome obstacles posed by the established strong policy institutions: religious, medical and government. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]