Metanoia v teórii a praxi sociálnej práce

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Blanka Jenčíková - Ulrika Strömplová

Text book Betriebswirtschaft für Übersetzer. Lehr- und Übungsbuch is primarily intended for students of translation and interpreting who speak German at least at level B1 of the European Framework of Reference for Languages. The aim is to convey basic knowledge about business and entrepreneurship, to build a basic terminology database, to consolidate selected grammatical phenomena, and to develop translation procedures and strategies. The thematic areas were selected with regard to common translation and interpretation practice.

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Kristína Bosáková

The textbook for the course of Philosophical Anthropology should help the students of philosophy in major subject as much as of philosophy as minor in combination with other study programs in social sciences and STEM disciplines, to develop their own ideas and opinions about the question of human being in the philosophy. Its aim is to make a short introduction into the field of philosophical anthropology and to educate the students in the most important topics of the discipline.

Every chapter consist of the theoretical part and of the practical analysis of the text, which is followed by three questions at the end of each chapter. Students, who will later become the philosophy teachers, shall learn how to discuss and teach several topics from the philosophical anthropology in their future classes. Therefore, the textbook is suitable as much for the pedagogical as for the non-pedagogical study programs.

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Zuzana Buráková - Petra Filipová

The canon of American literature has undergone constant revision with many authors who were long excluded from wider recognition now being accepted as significant figures. With the emergence of postcolonial and ethnic studies after the 1960s, the diversity of the literary canon has become greater than ever, and we can now see American literature as remarkably distinctive in this respect.

The question of how to define ethnicity and how far an immigrant should go to preserve their ethnic heritage have always been addressed by writers, together with larger issues such as the definition of national identity and national literature, and where we should draw the lines between local and global identities. We understand that a single course in American ethnic literature cannot hope to answer all these complex questions, but we firmly believe that discussing these questions in classes can help us to be more understanding and tolerant of ethnic diversity.

For this reason, the main aim of this textbook is to provide an interdisciplinary introduction to American ethnic literatures with an emphasis on their historical and cultural background, to expand students’ knowledge of American literatures and cultures at the master’s level and familiarize them with specific features of ethnic literatures in the contemporary USA. The textbook contains information on Native American, African American, Asian American, Jewish American, and Hispanic American literature, history and culture.

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Jana Bajusová - Dušan Šlosár

The integration of immigrants into society is currently of interest to many professionals and to the general public. Immigration is a consequence of a variety of factors, mainly due to political, social, economic or security conditions in the countries of origin. Immigration is subsequently linked to the process of integrating immigrants into the host country. The integration of immigrants into society or integration, as this process is called in the monograph, is a complex phenomenon that extends to many spheres of everyday life for the citizens of the receiving country, and at the same time is often difficult for immigrants. Many governmental and non-governmental organizations are involved in the process of social integration of immigrants, who develop different strategies and mechanisms to streamline the outcome of this process.

In relation to immigrants, the Slovak Republic is bound to provide social and legal protection and therefore it is necessary to deal with the issue of social services, which could potentially significantly contribute to their social integration into Slovak society. From the legislative point of view, however, these services are unified and do not take into account the differences of immigrants resulting from their culture, religion, social, ethical or other characteristics. That is why the monograph focuses on social integration of immigrants in Slovakia in the context of provided social services.

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Lívia Barnišinová

The scientific monograph "Spirituality in Slovak Realist and Modernist Literature" reevaluates interpretative approaches to the spiritual dimension in prose texts of Slovak literature from the realist and modernist periods. The author transcends stereotypical views on spirituality, often confined to religious themes, and advocates for an interdisciplinary approach and new methodological approaches in literary-critical research. The monograph focuses on literary characters and their spiritual dimension in connection with other compositional and semantic elements of literary texts. It does not offer a definitive view on the topic but aims to open discussion and highlight the need for a reassessment of the literary canon and the openness of artistic literature to multiple interpretations. The analysis of texts from Slovak realism and literary modernism demonstrated a differentiated spirituality and its artistic portrayal. The phenomenon of spirituality is present in the texts along the axis of explicitness - implicitness - latency and has its specific manifestation in shaping literary characters through psychologization, introspection, and spiritual depth.

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Ivica Hajdučeková - Iveta Bónová

The monograph Maša Haľamová in the triad Dar – červený mak – Smrť tvoju žijem was created as part of the project APVV-19-0244 (Methodological Approaches in Literary Research with an Impact on the Media Environment) in collaboration between Ivica Hajdučeková and Iveta Bónová.

In two parts – Personal History and (Re)interpretation of Maša Haľamová's Poetry, and Phonetic-Rhythmic Embodiment of Maša Haľamová's Poetry – it presents the results of archival research (reconstruction of life events, notes on poetic inspiration, consensus in the opinions of literary critics of the 20th and 21st centuries), (re)interpretations of three poetic collections focusing on the spiritual dimension and the process of spiritualization, and an in-depth analysis of the phonetic-rhythmic qualities of verse structure.

In conclusion, the authors suggest that the Slovak poet Maša Haľamová can be considered a representative of spiritual poetry, which in the Slovak interwar literature follows a specific type of confessional (Protestant) tradition, and at the level of phonetic embodiment, her sound-rhythmic potential acts in the name of subtlety of expression.

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Jozef Bavoľár

Decision-making is an everyday activity for us, whether it involves decisions about routine matters such as what to have for breakfast or more significant choices like selecting a career after finishing school. Due to the far-reaching consequences that a single decision can have on our entire lives, this area has received considerable attention in psychology. After all, the classic goals of psychology—describing, explaining, and predicting human behavior—are essentially attempts to understand decision-making and identify and describe the factors influencing it. Fundamental psychological disciplines such as the psychology of emotions and motivation, cognitive psychology, social psychology, and personality psychology all strive to achieve this understanding.

The presented text primarily adopts a cognitive approach, focusing on the processes of information processing and utilization. Since there are very few events in the future we can be completely certain about, key concepts include terms expressing uncertainty about the future, such as uncertainty, risk, objective probability, and subjective probability.

The central question thus lies in processing information from the environment and utilizing it in the decision-making process.

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Alexander Onufrák, Peter Dubóczi, Lukáš Jakabovič

The submitted publication entitled Voľby 2023/2024: výsledky – hodnotenia – dôsledky reflects a wide range of topics related to the electoral processes that took place in 2023 and 2024 in Slovakia and abroad. The publication deals with both the evaluation of the currently valid electoral legislation, including proposals for its further improvement, and the broader socio-political consequences of the elections in connection with democratization and integration processes. The submitted publication is published as an output of the VEGA project No. 1/0474/24 Audit of Slovak electoral and referendum legislation, the project leader of which is prof. JUDr. Ladislav Orosz, CSc. from the Faculty of Law of the Pavol Jozef Šafárik University in Košice and in which the Department of Political Science of the Faculty of Arts of the Pavol Jozef Šafárik University in Košice also participates. The authors of the individual contributions analyze all types of elections, from municipal and regional, through parliamentary and presidential, to elections to the European Parliament. While some authors focused primarily on the local or regional level, others chose an approach focused on the national or supranational level, and the geographical scope of the cases examined was extremely diverse. 

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Renáta Orosová (executive editor)

The scientific-professional journal Edukácia focuses on issues of education and upbringing in the fields of primary, secondary, and higher education. It emphasizes the current state and perspectives of educational practice, contemporary aspects of pre-service teacher training, social pedagogy, special pedagogy, as well as pedagogical and psychological aspects of upbringing in basic educational institutions from the perspective of the broader educational community.

It is intended for researchers, young university lecturers, doctoral students, and professional and pedagogical staff, with the aim of presenting trends in education and stimulating discussion on current issues in the presented areas of upbringing and education.

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René Šebeňa

The main goal of this textbook is to introduce selected experimental methods that have been developed to study various psychological processes.

Traditional textbooks on cognitive psychology usually offer a comprehensive system of theoretical knowledge and descriptions of experiments. However, we believe that for a deeper understanding, students need to have their own experience.

This textbook provides instructions on how to demonstrate, visually verify, and thereby better understand selected theories and phenomena through practical exercises. Such direct experience can help in the realization of their own projects.

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Jaroslav Marcin - Viktória Marcinová a kol.

This little book started out in a way that probably many other scholarly publications do: When the five of us met as doctoral students and instructors in the Department of British and American Studies, we soon realized that our research overlapped on a number of points. Most prominent among those was our interest in political or politicallymotivated discourse and the study of myths and manipulation that it employed. 

In the end, we decided to pool the results of our research together in order to create a more complex picture, providing a variety of perspectives and voices. In our endeavor, we were greatly aided by the financial support we received from a grant offered by the Šafárik University. The outcome of these efforts is the five chapters of this brief, but hopefully informative and insightful monograph.

In Chapter 1, Viktória Marcinová deals with the impact of totalitarian ideology on the translation of so-called “capitalist” drama during the first stage of normalization in Slovakia (1948-1968). In Chapter 2, the focus shifts to political discourse and manipulation in a democracy, as Jaroslav Marcin takes a closer look at the wartime rhetoric of American presidents. USA remains the focus also in Chapter 3, but this time the question, addressed by Martina Martausová, will be one of the myth of the American Dream and its presentation in post-9/11 United States. A similar idea, though in a different geographical-cultural context, is dealt with in Chapter 4, where Božena Velebná identifies myths of Scottish identity as portrayed in historic films. Finally, in Chapter 5, Eduard Soták will take a look at the role of the mass media within the topic of politically-motivated discourse and spread of political ideology.

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Mária Mičaninová

Scholars whose works constitute medieval philosophy were active as theologians, jurists, physicians, and sometimes even poets. Among them, there is hardly anyone who could be described exclusively as a philosopher.

For theologians and (religious) jurists, the primary source of their philosophical reflection was the Bible or the Qur’an. The second source was the philosophical heritage of the preceding antiquity, in which the figure of Aristotle and his commentators dominated. The Peripatetic legacy was complemented by followers of Plato in the long line of so-called Neoplatonic philosophy (e.g., Plotinus, Iamblichus, and Proclus), which in its beginnings developed within the environment of Hellenistic schools.

It is therefore not surprising that the main philosophical problem for medieval scholars was the relationship between theology and philosophy, or faith and reason, and, consequently, the relationship between theology and metaphysics. In the context of Christian thought, this was already discussed in the 2nd century, when some Church Fathers questioned the value of secular learning for those to whom the truth had been revealed by God.

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Martina Hurčalová - Sergej Sinicyn - Maroš Čupka (eds.)

Proceedings from the 13th International Scientific Conference of Students and Young Researchers, organized on May 16, 2024, by the Department of Political Science of the Faculty of Arts at Pavol Jozef Šafárik University in Košice, the Institute of Political Science and Public Administration of the Faculty of Political Science and Journalism at Maria Curie-Skłodowska University in Lublin, the Department of Political Science of the Faculty of Arts at the University of Miskolc, the Institute of Social Studies of the Faculty of Regional Development and International Studies at Mendel University in Brno, the Faculty of Political Science and Diplomacy at Vytautas Magnus University in Kaunas, and the civic association Respublica.

The aim of the translated publication NEW EUROPE: Back to the Future is to reflect on the challenges in the fields of international security, the fight against climate change, and environmental protection, and to highlight selected global phenomena.

The proceedings consist of 12 contributions in Slovak, English, and Czech. The authors primarily addressed selected current issues from the international environment in the context of deteriorating international relations and global security.

The topics of the contributions mainly include questions of international security (for example, in Germany or Hungary), environmental issues and the fight against the climate crisis. Furthermore, the proceedings include topics such as the European Parliament elections, selected narratives related to the war in Ukraine, migration to Europe and its security aspects, self-reflection of the European political system, and public space and public discourse. The proceedings also include a part of an upcoming utopian novel.

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Dušan Šlosár

The monograph "Risk as a Social Category in Adolescence" by Dušan Šlosár was created as part of the VEGA project No. 1-0285/18, which focuses on risky behavior among adolescents as clients of social work due to their loneliness. The monograph explores the issue of risk in a theoretical context and integrates risk as a component of social relationships, contacts, and information exchange. From this theoretical foundation, it defines risk within helping professions. Assessing the level of risk is left to leading managers; however, it currently affects those helping professionals who work with specific client groups, and thus their involvement in assessing the level of risk cannot be overlooked.

The monograph pays special attention to risky behavior among adolescents and discusses the most serious forms of such behavior, ranging from suicidality to crime, substance abuse (both material and non-material), and issues related to sexuality. The conclusion of the monograph consists of three empirical studies that address the topic of risky behavior among adolescents.

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Tatiana Žiaková - Dušan Šlosár

The last decade marks not only the average life expectancy increase in healthy population, but also life expectancy increase in group of people with intellectual disorders/disabilities. Due to their diagnosis that defines and classifies them into specific categories, people with intellectual disability are finding themselves in a constant confrontation with obstacles negatively affecting the saturation of their existential needs. It creates mostly educational, social, cultural, psycho-social and economical disadvantage in the context of their lives. Consequently, their active potential is weakened, making it unable for them to influence public affairs in society from a position of an adult or elderly citizen. Building up on this condition, the focus of this monograph is on understanding and explanation of prevailing concept of social inclusion and related concepts of social exclusion. These concepts influence the way we tend to define and think about the character of society, as such.

Simultaneously, we are examining that the quality of coexistence between dominant population and people with intellectual disabilities is dependent on the development of attitudes and opinions of major population towards this specific minority. These attitudes reflect the extent of social tolerance and at the same time serve as a quantification of moral values and equity in the society, whether it concerns any type of small everyday help or professional and institutionalised long-term support.

This monograph focuses on presenting professional care for people with mental disability in form of social services as a dominant type of support in our local environment. We show that the quality of social services inevitably depends on degree of professional competences social workers possess. The significance of professional competences social workers are capable of using is reflected in the degree of the competence and adequacy of their performance. The primary aim, in relation to which professional competences should be accustomed, is to enhance meaningfulness and dignity in life of mentally disabled receivers of the social services.

Competences of social workers are a dynamic phenomenon that modifies along the development of society and also with the frequently altering needs of people with intellectual disability as receivers of the social service. For this reason we designed the presented research to reflect our goal to reappraise the scope of professional competences and define the required professional functions of social workers working with people with intellectual disability.

This monograph is dedicated not only to professionals working with this group of people but also aims at answering basic questions to practical issues that families with a intellectualy disabled member are coming into contact with.

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Mária Mičaninová - Ivica Hajdučeková (eds.)

In the framework of the project VEGA of the Ministry of Education, Science, Research and Sport of the Slovak Republic 1/0330/12 The Function of Metaphor in the Philosophy of Shlomo ben Yehuda ibn Gabirol and Shihab al-Din Yahya al-Suhrawardi, project leader Assoc. Prof. Mária Mičaninová, CSc., under the patronage of the rector of Pavol Jozef Šafárik University in Košice, The Slovak Republic, Prof. MUDr. Ladislav Mirossay, DrSc., and of The Department of Philosophy and History of Philosophy of the Faculty of Arts of the same University, took place on 4th – 5th October 2013 an International conference on The Function of Metaphor in Medieval Neoplatonism. Two days´conference was opened by Dean of the Faculty of Arts of P. J. Šafárik University, Prof. PhDr. Ján Gbúr, CSc.,in the presence of Prof. PhDr. Vladimír Leško, CSc., Head of The Department of Philosophy and History of Philosophy, and of foreign guests and students of the University.

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