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EUROPE:
The Challenge for the Social Sciences
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L'ubomír Falt'an The last decade of this century has been marked by massive societal and political changes, particularly in Europe. The socio-political system, which had been influencing the nature of relations for decades (not only in old continent, but all around the world), has crashed. For some post-communist countries, the downfall of former socialist block has meant rather fast step to the transition path toward the plural democracy, for others the process of socio-political change has been more complicated. However, those socio-political changes in these countries have common denominator - they are accompanied with difficult changes in economical system causing global effects that transgress boundaries of the countries in question. This fact serves as one of the reasons why already in early nineties, under UNESCO auspices, social scientists focused their attention to these starting processes. They expressed it at the First Social Sciences European Conference with subtitle Europe in Transition. A Challenge for the Social Sciences, which took place in 1991 in Spanish town Santander. Development in the years afterwards confirmed that it was the European continent that should become the scene of social processes of high importance. Transition to other socio-political and socio-economical system has raised a lot of unexpected problems concerning existence of multinational states of pre-transitional kind, which as it seems are still latently present. In many cases, the break-up of such states has led to short- or long-term local armed conflicts through local wars. Nationalism revival that is often linked to isolationistic tendencies has took not only tragic form of armed conflicts or wars, but also more subtle forms, which are warning equally in transitional countries as well as in those "more stable, with well established democratic system". They show themselves in ethnical, religious, or cultural intolerance to "others", which slides easily and abruptly to various forms of extremism. Social situation of transforming societies is notably complicated also by their uneasy economical situation, by high degree of unemployment, by increasing social differentiation as well as by poverty manifestations that even strengthen feeling of uncertainty of whole social groups. Accompaniment of aforementioned socio-political and economical "turbulencies" in Middle-East and East Europe as well as in some Asian regions, is increased migration intensity throughout Europe. Aforementioned, to certain extend unexpected, problem accumulation in the European area, is, at the same time, related to integration efforts in the frame of EU. The steps leading to some transforming countries integration into this alignment with the aim of helping to solve the problem of political, economical, social as well as ecological stability at the continent more effectively, evoke, on the other hand, apprehension of new "line of demarcation for undetermined time period". This is - even presented in very simplified way - background or social and spatial context which brought together social scientists from 29 countries to capital of Slovakia - Bratislava. The Second Social Sciences European Conference took place there, from 13th to 18th June, again under the UNESCO auspices - its Division for Social Sciences Research and Policy and in co-operation with Slovak Commission for UNESCO and Institute of Sociology - Slovak Academy of Sciences. The conference got the subtitle: Europe: Expectations and Reality. The Challenge for the Social Sciences. Europe, and its middle-east part in particular, already came through its first experiences of whole complexity of unfolding transition processes. The conference can, therefore, reflect experiences gained in practice that comes about with this process. Even it was impossible to encompass all the processes and problems that European continent - its states or societies - is coming through, the conference covered - with varied levels of generalisation - a lot of those problems and processes, that in the long run can influence future direction of development in this area. Two basic optics were incorporated in the conference subtitle:
- Focusing on particular problems that comes together with transformation process, as well as on social consequences of such problems, was another dimension of the conference. This optic involved four dominant themes: Social consequences of ecological problems - Besides a general problems or philosophy of relations between society and natural environment in the context of sustainable development strategies, the particular examples of involvement of social sciences research potential in identifying and solving those problems were analysed. Social problems of changing Europe - The attention was focused on some general problems of social transformation evaluation and management, including the risks involved in this process. On the other hand, social problems emerging due to population ageing or typical problems of post-communist countries, such as accommodation or changes in family life were presented. Democratic Europe - majority of social scientists are, in current phase of transformation, still attracted mostly by problems related to forms of democracy in its various aspects and relations to differentiated social reality in European area. Reflection of problems concerning ethno-nationalism, multi-lingualism, multi-culturalism, and problems of political culture were presented in particular papers. Authors of those papers consider also possible trends of future development and possible risks for democracy development in Europe in general, as well as in its particular countries. At the same time the role of social sciences in research of aforementioned problems is considered here. The role of Europe in a global society - More attention should be paid in future to this problem, above all, with respect to the changes toward the political and economical integration of Europe. What is the role of European traditions, confrontation with other European cultures (e.g. Muslim culture), how the relation between globalization and struggle for sustainable development is shaped, how the World perceives the Europe? These are, among others, the questions, to which the contributions, in this section, try to find the answer. Conclusions and recommendations - have become a part of the present publication as they resulted and were accepted at the conference concluding discussion. They state certain general principles (summarised by Bulgarian participant N. Genov), which should be respected by social scientific research, as well as those decisive bodies that are competent to influence direction of such a research. Bratislava, June 1999
ContentsIntroductionL'ubomír Falt'an United Nations Educational Scientific and Cultural
Organization
Transformation and Social Sciences Social Transformation, Development, and European
Social Sciences
Post-Communist Transformation and the Development
of Social Sciences - the Czech Case
Principales orientations pour les sciences
sociales
Greater Commitment to Social Sciences
Social Sciences and the Challenge of Transition
in Slovakia
Voyeur oder Mitgestalter? Die Sozialwissenschaften
Ostmitteleuropas in der Systemtransformation
The Objectives of the Social Theory in a Changing
Europe
Two Paradigms of Analysis of the Transformations
in East-Central Europe
The Role of the Most Programme for European
Social Science
The Social Impact of Ecological Problems The General Social-environmental Framework at
the Beginning of a Sustainable Development Strategy
Understanding the Interactions Nature/Society
for Land Use
The Relation of Students to the Environment
- a Sociological Investigation
The Application of Indicators of Sustainability
in Regional Development in Slovakia
People - Environment Relations as a Research
Topic in Social Sciences in Slovakia
The Social Problems of Changing Europe Elderly People in an Ageing Europe
Assessment and Management of Transformation Risks in a Changing Europe
Research for the Management of Social Transformation
A Discussion of the Housing Problem in Slovakia
A Crisis or a Transition of Family Behaviour in Slovakia
Democratic Europe Co-operative Ways into Future: Local Agenda 21, a Joint Vision Development Process
The Impact of Outside Actors and Constituency Fear on Ethnic Party Demands
Systems in Transition: From Past Experience to Future Challenges
Ethno nationalism and Problems of Nation-Building
in Transitional Societies: the Case Kazakstan
Democratic Governance in Multilingual Societies:
A Research Topic in the Most Programme
Reshaped Regional Multiculturalism in the Post-Communist
Europe
New State and Society in Confrontation with
the New Reality
Contradictory Trends in the Development of Democratic
Culture
Democratic Processes within Plurilingual Europe
Europe's Role in a Global Society Will There be a Europe in a Global Society
Globalization in Europe - The Concept of Progress,
Nature and Sustainable Development
The Japanese Images of Foreign Countries
Moslem World Europe
Russia Before 2000: Looking Back and Looking
Ahead
European Democracy and Integration Reconciled
CONCLUSIONS AND RECOMMENDATIONS of the Second European Social Science conference
The Second European Social Science Conference, organized under the auspices
of UNESCO, brought together representatives of UNESCO national commissions,
members of social science organizations, of international organizations
and individuals from 31 European countries. The Conference aimed at promoting
transnational, transdisciplinary and practically relevant social science.
It continued and accentuated efforts already made in this direction by
the First European Conference held in Santander, Spain, in 1991.
The participants in the Conference,
· inspired by the principles of UNESCO for freedom of research and communication, · led by the vision about an European continent free of mistrust and hostilities, of excessive inequalities and injustice, · aware of the challenges to social sciences posed by the current processes of globalization, regionalization and national transformations, · convinced in the enormous capacities of social sciences to enlighten public mind and to influence decision-making at major social institutions, · also convinced that the funding for international, transdisciplinary and future oriented social science research must be significantly increased, Changes in the Thematic Orientation of Social Science Research It becomes more and more obvious that the destiny of human kind in general and of the European continent is powerfully shaped by global trends. Deepening environmental imbalances, growing inequalities between regions, nations and groups, increasing incapacity of governments to cope with national problems, looming educational and cultural disparities are of increasing concern to the social sciences. That is why · special attention in social scientific research should be paid to global trends and to their regional and local implications.In the beginning of the nineties the belief was widespread that fast and easy solutions to major social problems might be found and successfully applied. The recent sobering experience of economic instabilities, ethnic and religious clashes and military operations leads to a different assessment of expected developments on the European continent. The research on poverty and unemployment, on the changing role of the state, problems of democracy, innovations in mass media, in religious orientations and issues of multiculturalism and social ecology can tangibly contribute to the assessment and management of risks in the current social transformations. That is why · the topics of social, ethnic and cultural integration and exclusion, social cooperation and conflict should be paid well-balanced attention in social scientific theorizing, research and teaching.The transformations in Europe, especially in Central and Eastern Europe, underline the need of comprehensive theoretical models of social development. There can be substantial tensions and time lags between transformations of economy, politics and culture. The needs of diagnostic and prognostic work in social sciences require that sectoral developments should be analyzed in the context of a holistic approach to societal development. It should be applied to regions as Central and Eastern Europe or the Mediterranean as well. The guiding normative principles of this approach should be
The organizational changes in social sciences are especially intensive in the eastern part of the continent. In Central and Eastern Europe, a proliferation of independent research units (associations, institutes, centres, groups, clubs) is taking place. Most of them focus their activities on applied research. The new research units are open to thematic, organizational and methodological innovations but most of them are too much market oriented. The quality of their research has been questioned on many occasions. The crucial organizational problem in this context concerns the fast retreat of the state from organizational obligations to science. We recommend that
At present, all over Europe social sciences have difficult times in raising the necessary financial support at national level. However, the financial difficulties of the national scientific communities vary substantially. Social sciences in Central and Eastern Europe are most affected by the cuts of budgets for research. This is understandable with a view to the serious economic problems of most countries in the region. The participants in the Conference would like to underline the point that social sciences are a valuable national resource. Given the difficult funding situation, it would be advisable · to look for new ways of funding of social sciences by national science foundations, UNESCO, ILO, UNDP, the European Union, as well as from the private sector.
Social sciences are playing an increasingly important role in the preparation, implementation, monitoring and evaluation of policies intended to handle major social problems, such as unemployment, impoverishment, drug abuse, crime and other phenomena. We urge decision-makers and the public at large
Over the last 50 years UNESCO has played a valuable role in developing research and teaching in social sciences. The Organization has also fostered the application of the social sciences to major fields of activity such as education, environment, development, poverty, peace, democratization and human rights, multiculturalism and urban issues. The Second European Social Science Conference notes with satisfaction that UNESCO is attaching a central importance and gives visibility to its social science programme. The Conference requires
Asadov Adil Iskender Oglu
Bodnárová Bernardína
Celebi Nilgun
Caplovic Dušan, Zajac Štefan
Falt'an L'ubomír
Fournier Francine
Gašparíková Jana
Genov Nikolai
Tel.: +359-2-9806132; Fax: +359-2-803791; e-mail: nbgen.most.risk@datacom.bg Grabher Andrea, Narodoslawsky Michael and Retzl Helmut
Hamm Bernd
Illner Michal
Jenne Erin Kristin
Kadyrzhamov Rustem
Kawasaki Yoshimoto
Kleininger Thomas and Crowther Warren
Koenig Matthias
Kopcanová Dagmar, Scharwiess Susan
Kukoc Mislav
Kurczewska Joanna
Kusá Zuzana,
Kusý Ivan
Laullan Anne Marie
Laurenço Nelson
Matei Liviu
Mayor Federico
Moyzeová Milena, Izakovi_ová Zita
Piscová Magdalena
Rosová Viera
Rukavishnikov Vladimir
Rynda Ivan
Stefanovic Jelica
Šarmír Eduard
Tamás Pal
Vasile Mihai D.
Wright Sue
Zakhariewa Mariana
Ziólkowski Marek
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