Kvalita života občanov - výzvy, determinanty a riešenia III.

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Ondrej Mitaľ - Denisa Rovenská - Eliška Župová  a kol.

The textbook follows the publication "Good governance manual for future experts of public institutions". The publication complements the previous university textbook with case studies of the various principles of Good Governance. The case studies thematically copy the chapters of the university textbook and, with their unique, original and each author's own way of processing the case study, enrich the teaching of the study subject focused on the principles of Good Governance.

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Richard Geffert - Denisa Rovenská

Social justice as a key value of social policy is an integral part of the social security system of every democratic and legal state of Western Civilization.The scientific monograph focuses on social justice in the old-age pension system in the Slovak Republic within diapason 2004 - 2022. The attention is dominantly focused on II., the so-calledcapitalization pension pillar.The aims of the scientific monograph correspond to the selected aims formulated as part of the project VEGA 1/0290/20 Social justice and old-age pension savings in the Slovak Republic.The main aim of the monograph is to identify the perception of social justice in the capitalization pillar of old-age pension savings through the value orientations of savers who are deciding to invest in funds II.pillar, as models created by relevant political representations in the Slovak Republic.

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Adriana Jesenková

The textbook Citizenship in the Context of the Ethics of Care seeks to introduce students of the humanities and social sciences to current issues of citizenship from the perspective of a specific moral-philosophical theory—namely, feminist moral philosophy, specifically the feminist ethics of care. Traditionally, the topic of citizenship and its related questions have been perceived and studied primarily as subjects of political thought and political theory.

We predominantly consider citizenship as a political category, which is mainly the domain of political science or, at most, other social science disciplines. However, both the past and the present urge us to reflect on citizenship in connection with humanity and solidarity, and thus from a moral perspective. Understanding citizenship solely as a political category and political institution is insufficient. The conceptual separation of politics from morality and ethics results in difficulties in grasping citizenship as a morally relevant category and as an ethical value. This, in turn, prevents us from critically analyzing the assumptions underlying our understanding of citizenship and, ultimately, from identifying the causes and factors that contribute to the failures of civil society, as well as the shortcomings and deficits in the realization of citizenship as a vision based on freedom, equality, and solidarity.

Thus, the textbook clarifies the values associated with democratic citizenship, while also highlighting the potential of the feminist ethics of care as an analytical, evaluative-critical, and applicative tool for understanding and examining the concept of citizenship and the practice of citizenship as a caring practice, and as the practice of caring for a good life in civil society.

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Milan Douša - Tatiana Gmitrová - Oskar Tóth - Matúš Vyrostko (eds.)

Peer-reviewed proceedings of contributions from the 5th year of the doctoral students' scientific conference, February 6, 2020

The dynamically evolving contemporary society creates expectations and demands among citizens for public administration to be efficient, reliable, open, professional, and fast. New theories of knowledge, in connection with constant changes, must also include practical application and reflection of these characteristics in the public administration system in practice. For this reason, it is important to pay attention to new approaches from both theoretical and practical perspectives to the application of modern public administration in the conditions of the V4 countries.

Given that public administration is an interdisciplinary scientific discipline that utilizes knowledge from a wide range of scientific fields and thus enables a comprehensive approach to solving problems of modern public administration, the peer-reviewed proceedings of contributions from the doctoral students' scientific conference are divided into three sections: socio-economic, political science, and legal. The sections eruditely respond to current public administration problems from both theoretical and practical perspectives.

PhDr. Milan Douša
Chairman of the Organizing Committee

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Michal Jesenko - Rastislav Král (eds.)

Peer-reviewed proceedings of contributions from the 7th year of the international scientific conference for doctoral students, February 11, 2022 The work titled "Theory and Practice of Public Administration. Peer-reviewed proceedings of contributions from the 7th year of the international scientific conference for doctoral students held on February 11, 2022" is a comprehensive output of 29 contributions presented at the international scientific conference, which took place online on February 11, 2022. The conference is a traditional activity that is annually organized by the Faculty of Public Administration, P.J. Šafárik University in Košice. It is primarily intended for doctoral students and young researchers to facilitate open discussion, exchange of views, and mutual confrontation of the results of creative scientific activities.

This includes not only colleagues from Slovakia but also participants from abroad. The peer-reviewed articles provide, on one hand, a multidisciplinary perspective on the theoretical definition of public administration in the context of a functioning legal state. On the other hand, they also highlight practical aspects of public administration in everyday societal life. The contributions analyze the issues from the perspective of legal, economic, sociological, and political sciences.

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Martin Vernarský, Viktória Adamov Kráľová, Rastislav Král

This collection of papers from a scientific conference brings together different perspectives on issues related to the use of alternative dispute resolution methods in public administration. The dominant thematic focus of the contributions was to examine the potential of alternative dispute resolution methods in protecting the public interest on the one hand, and the subjective rights of natural persons and legal entities in the exercise of public administration on the other. The collection provides a space for researchers working on this topic to present the results of their research to date and compare them with the reality of administrative dispute resolution. The combination of a theoretical approach with practical experience significantly contributes to the improvement of the scientific work of the project researchers, while also enriching practitioners with the diversity and innovativeness of theoretical perspectives on their established practice.

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Anna Čepelová

The non-conference collection of scientific papers "Quality of life of citizens - challenges, determinants and solutions II." presents the current state and possible trends in improving the quality of life of citizens in the post-covid period.

The authors of the papers processed a whole range of information that focuses on the use of smart technologies in the conditions of contemporary society. The published outputs are thematically focused on the following areas: determinants affecting the quality of life of citizens, legislative changes as a solution tool impacts of the pandemic on quality of life, quality of life of citizens and social exclusion, smart technologies as a tool influencing the quality of separate waste collection, use of smart technologies in healthcare provision, use of artificial intelligence in social life.

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Milan Douša (ed.)

This peer-reviewed non-conference proceedings volume was prepared as part of the research project VVGS-2024-3421 “Modernisation and Rationalisation of Local Government through AI” and is thematically linked to the Slovak Week of Science and Technology focused on living with artificial intelligence. The volume includes 17 scholarly contributions primarily addressing the application of artificial intelligence in public administration, innovations in governance methods, and modern approaches to public sector management. The authors explore the use of AI in administrative digitalisation, decision-support systems, sectoral public policies, and the enhancement of local government efficiency.

Special attention is paid to legal, social, and ethical aspects of AI implementation, as well as its impact on public trust in institutions. The publication creates an interdisciplinary platform for knowledge exchange between academia and professional practice. It reflects current trends in the digital transformation of the public sector and highlights key challenges related to the systematic integration of AI into state and local administration processes. The main objective of the proceedings is to contribute to expert discourse on the future of public administration in Slovakia and to support the development of practical recommendations for its modernisation.

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Darina Koreňová

This university textbook is primarily intended for students of the Faculty of Public Administration of the Pavel Jozef Šafárik University in Košice. It can also be a relevant source of information for students of other faculties or departments with a focus on public administration, public finance, and public sector economics.The textbook can be not only a teaching material for higher education, but also as a useful tool for the professional public. Employees of state administration and local self-government, non-profit and private sector entities can use the knowledge from it in everyday practice.

The textbook is divided into seven chapters. The aim of the textbook is to clarify in a comprehensible way basic concepts such as fiscal federalism, fiscal decentralization, local government budget, its revenues, and expenditures.The textbook explains to the reader the financing of important areas of the economy, such as education, health, and transport.

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Eliška Župová

The scientific monograph examines the issue of competencies among mayors in municipalities of the Slovak Republic. At its core is interpersonal (social) competence, characterized by a set of competencies (interpersonal skills and abilities) formed by comfort in social (interpersonal) situations that mayors encounter daily in performing their duties.

Social (interpersonal) competence is an essential skill for any manager. A mayor should also act as a manager, operating within a social environment, where the level of mastering interpersonal competencies predicts successful behavior in interpersonal situations. Through their actions in these situations, they influence the internal environment of the municipality, including municipal office employees, members of the municipal council, local residents, and external environments—such as collaborations with other municipalities, higher territorial units, contractual agreements with private organizations, or representatives of the third sector.

The central focus of the scientific monograph is the exploration of interpersonal competencies. A pivotal research question addressed was: What is the level of mastery of interpersonal competencies among mayors in municipalities of the Slovak Republic?

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Eliška Župová et al.

Research into justice in public administration organizations has not yet been conducted in Slovakia, not even in the scope of respondents addressed. Therefore, we consider the project cross-sectional, current, and beneficial for deeper exploration of this area.

The project is designed as interdisciplinary, combining insights from legal perspectives in defining justice from labor law aspects, psychological and ethical evaluations of fairness levels, and knowledge from public administration management fields.

The inspiration for selecting this topic stems from its academic relevance, confirmed by both domestic and international studies, as well as its public relevance, where laypeople most intensely perceive justice/injustice in relation to remuneration and appropriate labor-law conditions – exemplified by teachers’ strikes (2003, 2006, 2016), nurses’ strikes (2003, 2006, 2012, 2016), ŽSR employees’ strikes (2003), and doctors’ strikes (2011).

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Iveta Jeleňová - Gabriela Kravčáková (eds.)

Proceedings of the International Scientific Conference, October 16, 2014, Košice

In mid-October 2014, the second annual conference "Human Capital and Society" was held, organized by the Department of Social Studies of the Faculty of Public Administration at P. J. Šafárik University in Košice, in collaboration with another department of the faculty, the Department of Economics and Management of Public Administration. Today, you have before you the proceedings encompassing contributions presented by participants of this conference. In preparing it, the editors had to deal with the diversity of the participants' profiles, which was reflected in the authors' approaches to the issues they addressed, and subsequently had the contributions reviewed by experts from various fields. The individual contributions address traditional topics, as well as newer and emerging themes, reflecting current problems and questions related to human capital, organizational behavior, and primarily, public administration.

At the conference, researchers specializing in management, psychology, political science, social work, sociology, anthropology, linguistics, as well as individuals who do not belong to just one scientific discipline, came together. It was interesting to see how people from different disciplines view the same phenomenon. The conference demonstrated that an interdisciplinary approach can highlight the shortcomings in identifying and understanding problems from the perspective of just one discipline.

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Denisa Rovenská - Eliška Župová (eds.)

Proceedings of the Scientific Conference Held on November 14, 2019

The presented publication contains contributions oriented towards the environment of public administration organizations, which were presented by the authors in the form of lectures. The contributions focused on the issue of bureaucratic rules applied in various organizational and political processes and on the issue of knowledge organization from different perspectives. The information discussed during the scientific conference contributed to emphasizing the need to address this issue primarily from an interdisciplinary framework. It is precisely the integration of diverse knowledge and experiences from many scientific disciplines that ensures the comprehensiveness of understanding the researched topic in both its breadth and depth.

We would like to express sincere gratitude to the entire scientific committee and all reviewers for their time and willingness to participate in the creation and improvement of this publication.

We are honored to offer readers a collection whose content is interesting and informationally rich, and we also hope that it will inspire further research and create an environment for future stimulating discussions.

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Michal Jesenko, Martina Kantorová, Jana Volochová, Ivana Lehotay Pandová

The peer-reviewed proceedings present a selection of papers from the 10th International Scientific Doctoral Conference, which took place on 13 February 2025 online via the MS Teams platform. The contributions address diverse and current issues that public administration faces today. The authors analyze the functioning of public administration in the environment of the Slovak Republic while also offering comparisons with the experiences of other European Union member states. The texts capture the topic from several perspectives-legal, social, political science, and economic.

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Michal Jesenko - Jana Volochová - Martina Kantorová - Miroslav Fečko

Collection of contributions from 8th annual conference of the international doctoral conference "Theory and Practice of Public Administration", which took place on February 17, 2023 online through Microsoft Teams under the auspices of the Faculty of Public Administration of the Pavol Jozef Šafárik University in Košice.

The conference was attended by 32 doctoral students from the Slovak Republic, Ukraine, and African countries. The conference allowed the participants to present the results of their scientific research activities in the field of public administration. The conference participants were divided into 4 sections according to the topic of their contribution. In the political science section, the participants presented contributions thematically focused, for example, on the solution of green issues in the Slovak Republic or the influence of the political culture of the inhabitants of the Slovak-Ukrainian border on local and regional political processes.

The social section provided a space for presenting contributions and discussing, for example, the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on marginalized groups in the Slovak Republic. In the economic section, participants presented contributions from, for example, the field of waste management or the impact of employing foreigners on the economy of the Slovak Republic. The legal sections dealt with, for example, the topic of current changes in public procurement, the activities of VÚC councils or the protection of personal data of minors in the online space.

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Magdaléna Hovanová - Dušan Šlosár

The monograph deals with the issue of social protection of the family, where the basis is a view of the family as a natural part of human and social life. The starting point is provided by the institutes that create and structure it, influence its value orientation, the development of social relations within the family, but also relations to the social environment.

In broader contexts, the monographic treatment of social protection provides the results of transdisciplinary knowledge. It deals with the work of helping professionals with functional and non-functional families and families with special needs. It offers problem solving through tailored methods, techniques, procedures and measures used by various helping professions in the field of social protection and social guardianship.

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