Politické systémy štátov BRICS

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Kristína Bosáková

Attempting to confront Gadamer's teachings not only with the giants of Greek philosophy but also with Hegel and Heidegger is no easy task. However, Gadamer's entire historical-philosophical work is most prominently associated with these ancient thinkers and the two geniuses of German philosophical thought. Therefore, there is no avoiding it. Without this confrontation, all my efforts would be, in a certain sense, futile. Whether and how I succeed is another question. Every reader will surely form their own judgment.

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Lukáš Šutor (ed.)

The fifth volume of Doctoral Miscellanea was created as a conference proceedings, returning to the original idea of the entire project: to establish a publication space for contributions from emerging scientists.

The first two issues of Doctoral Miscellanea consisted of outputs from departmental seminars, which involved internal discussions. Compared to direct publication, it proved more beneficial for doctoral students to verify their initial research results in multiple stages and present them in diverse ways (reaching more listeners and readers). The length of the texts in the first two issues was adapted to the duration of the presentations, but this practice was slightly disrupted by the omission of seminars in previous issues. In the current issue, the scope of the studies is somewhat more uniform.

An added value of the fifth volume was the meeting of all contributors at a joint conference, the Autumn School for Doctoral Students of the Faculty of Arts at UPJŠ in Košice, which took place on October 17, 2018, and October 18, 2018, in Danišovce.

We believe that this unique experience—often the first for many—of actively presenting at a scientific event could contribute to a better final version of the submitted contributions. At the same time, it allowed doctoral students to broaden their horizons within the humanities and social sciences, at least within the scope of the currently addressed dissertation research.

Lukáš Šutor

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Ľubov Vladyková

The university textbook presents a panorama of ecological-ethical concepts - ecological ethics, as a possibility of cultural development and indicates the continuing search for relationships with the aim to recognize the importance of ethics and its influence on our understanding and our relationship with the natural world, including scenarios adequately reflecting human-nature interaction in all their complexity.

Special attention is paid to the question of internal evaluation of nature, human and non-human life, both at individual and holistic levels (biocentrism) and the value of physical elements of ecosystems (ecocentrism).

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Ján Kahan - Eva Žiaková

The monograph focuses on the issue of loneliness among substance-addicted people in the context of abstinence prospects and re/lapse prevention. In the monograph these phenomena, several theories were integrated and applied in the context of the ecosystem meta-framework of social work and practical contexts. The ecosystem meta-theory serves as a meta-construct with the ability to encompass the complexity of social phenomena as well as that of human beings within the structure of their living and social environment, formal and informal networks, and close intimate relationships.

In this monograph are presented research sample consisted of 235 respondents – hospitalised addicts undergoing urgent treatment, abstaining A-club members as well as members of psychotherapy and self-help groups. The research showed that abstainers were statistically less lonely than the hospitalised respondents. Quantitative data of research are complemented by qualitative data collected in four case studies; two of them focused on two long-term abstainers from alcohol and drugs, while the other two case studies dealt with two respondents in post-hoc treatment undergoing the resocialization process. The research also showed that respondents who broke abstinence felt lonelier than their successfully abstaining counterparts.

The results were supported also by the fact that a statistically significant inversely proportional relationship was identified between the duration of abstinence and loneliness rate. Gender differences were found between the hospitalised addicts in all loneliness dimensions. Naturally, the combined research was limited in certain aspects, mainly in terms of the size and proportional distribution of the research sample and its subgroups, test battery extent, and general nature of the population studied. Triangulation among quantitative and qualitative with the theoretical starting points confirmed the existence of a relationship among loneliness, addiction, and prospect of abstinence.

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Renáta Orosová (executive editor)

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The scientific-professional journal Edukácia focuses on issues of education and upbringing in primary, secondary, and higher education. It emphasizes the current state and perspectives of educational practice, current aspects of pre-graduate teacher training, social pedagogy, special education, as well as pedagogical and psychological aspects of education in basic educational institutions from the perspective of the broader pedagogical community. It is intended for researchers, young university teachers, doctoral students, as well as 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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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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Magdaléna Halachová - Denisa Rovenská

The monograph theoretically analyzes the virtual environment and its aspects, offers insight into the identity of the child in the virtual environment, the necessity of social support and the diversity of social relationships in the real world and virtual reality.

Furthermore, it contains the fundamental training program designed to minimize the risks of the virtual reality, because adolescents are often exposed to risks uncontrollably. For that reason it focuses on adolescent and empowering optimal self-image, as well as creating and maintaining real social networks.

The set of experiential-educational activities is conceptually divided into two main areas. The first one is content-focused on the adolescent, his/her psychological capability including opinions, attitudes, emotions, competences, and self-reflection.

The second one focuses on interpersonal real and virtual relationships, the recognition of the advantages and disadvantages of internet communication and face-to-face interaction, and last but not least for more optimal use of the Internet and preference for real social interaction.

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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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Martina Hurčalová- Lukáš Jakabovič- Jana Kseňák Gregová (eds.)

Proceedings of the XIIth International Scientific Conference of Students and Young Scientists organized on the 19th of May 2023 at the Department of Political Science, Faculty of Arts, Pavol Jozef Šafárik University in Košice in cooperation with Institute of Political Science and Public Administration, Faculty of Political Science and Journalism, Marie Curie-Sklodowska University in Lublin, Department of Political Science, Faculty of Arts, University of Miskolc, Faculty of Regional Development and International Studies, Mendel University in Brno, Faculty of Political Science and Diplomacy, Vytautas Magnus University in Kaunas and the Res Publica civic association. The aim of the present publication Firewall of Democracy is to highlight the distortions of democracy and its defense mechanisms in the contemporary world, Europe or even Slovakia itself. The collection consists of 13 contributions, mainly in Slovak, but also in English and Czech languages. The authors of the individual contributions dealt with the state of democracy and its problems not only in the domestic but also in the global environment.

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Vladimír Leško - Zlatica Plašienková (eds.)

In 2007, the philosophical world commemorated an extraordinary anniversary - two hundred years since the first publication of Georg Wilhelm Friedrich Hegel's brilliant work The Phenomenology of Spirit (1807). Of course, we can have different value scales of the most important philosophical works written in the history of philosophy, but the above-mentioned work of Hegel should certainly not be absent from the top places in them. Hegel's Phenomenology of Spirit decisively changed the philosophical discourse of the 19th century and greatly influenced philosophy in the 20th century. Few of the great philosophers after Hegel could afford to pass over the philosophical work of the 1807 supreme representative of German classical philosophy and not draw, either positively or critically, on his philosophical legacy.

The philosophical conference entitled Hegel's "Phenomenology of Spirit" and the Present, dedicated to Hegel's work Phenomenology of Spirit, was prepared by the Department of Philosophy and History of Philosophy of the Faculty of Arts of the Pavol Jozef Šafárik University in Košice in cooperation with the Slovak Philosophical Association at the Slovak Academy of Sciences in Bratislava on October 4, 2007 and was organized by the Slovak Philosophical Association in Košice.

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Juraj Schenk et al.

The scientific journal Sociálne a politické analýzy (Social and Political Analyses) serves as an interactive electronic platform for communication and the presentation (publication) of experts and their work in the fields of basic and applied research and analyses within sociological, psychological, political, and methodological contexts. It is a medium focused on intensively supporting research activities and analyses within an interdisciplinary framework, facilitating the exchange of experiences, fostering collaboration, and revitalizing the production of scientific work in this area.

The publication section of the journal offers space for works such as:

- Original sociological, psychological, and political studies and analyses in any areas of social life

- Methodological studies

- Research reports

- Studies from qualification theses Research and analysis projects

- Reviews

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Vladimír Leško - Milovan Ješič - Pavol Tholt

The philosophical work of the most significant Czech philosopher of the 20th century, Jan Patočka (1907–1977), stands out for its unique intellectual originality.

Even at the time of its creation, it significantly transcended the narrow boundaries of the contemporary Czechoslovak spiritual space and uniquely connected our country with the most advanced philosophical teachings of Western thought, in which Husserl's phenomenology and Heidegger's fundamental ontology played a dominant role. Certainly, it would be a great mistake to reduce the decisive position of Patočka's philosophical work merely to the reception and critical-creative elaboration of Husserl's and Heidegger's philosophy.

In this context, we cannot overlook the decisive contribution of Eugen Fink, who introduced Patočka to the intricacies of Husserl's and Heidegger's philosophy. Both thinkers then continued in a lifelong creative philosophical dialogue. However, it is also necessary to mention Patočka's intense interest in the works of Scheler, Ingarden, Landgrebe, as well as Sartre and others.

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Mikuláš Jančura - Alžbeta Śnieżko   

In connection with the 30th anniversary of the Velvet Revolution, which was commemorated in the Czech Republic and Slovakia in 2019, an interactive exhibition titled "First Touch of Freedom" was organized under the auspices of Košice Self-Governing Region in collaboration with Ján Bocatius Public Library in Košice, Pavol Jozef Šafárik University in Košice, Nation's Memory Institute, and Slovak Radio and Television. The exhibition took place at Ján Bocatius Public Library and aimed to recall November's events from 1989 while emphasizing its cultural-social dimension and impact.

Conceptually, it focused on developing five dimensions of historical consciousness—a concept mainly developed in contemporary subject-specific didactics for history—namely identity, historicity, memory, spatial awareness, and temporal awareness.

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Adriana Saboviková

The monograph deals with the post-millennial media discourse in the UK and aims to popularize the currently used methodological framework in the form of a case study.

The theoretical basis is provided by the introductory chapters, which deal with the topic of migration and newspaper discourse in the UK. The methodological framework represents an increasingly popular combination of corpus linguistics and critical discourse analysis, which is introduced not only theoretically but also practically used in the presented case study. The case study compares the language used in the British newspapers before and after the lifting of labor market restrictions in the UK for Bulgarians and Romanians, specifically in 2013 and 2014.

The research is based on the identification of special language patterns used in the compiled corpus to characterize Bulgarians and Romanians, specifically paying attention to nouns, verbs and numerals. By doing such research, scholars can identify the role of media discourse in depicting social reality.

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Magdaléna Hovanová (ed.)

The collection of works originated from the event of the eighteenth annual nationwide Student Scientific and Professional Activity (ŠVOČ) in the field of social work, which took place on May 12, 2022. It was organizationally overseen by the Department of Social Work of the Faculty of Arts at Pavol Jozef Šafárik University in Košice.

Every year, this event provides an opportunity for selected top students—future professionals in social work—to meet, as well as a chance to present the level of their knowledge and their ability to apply theoretical insights and acquired skills to future social work practice.

The contributions in this collection address topics such as the risks of modern technologies in the context of social work, social support and risk factors within families in the context of adolescent radicalization processes, the issue of cyberbullying in elementary schools, Ukrainian student migration in Slovakia, factors influencing job satisfaction among social workers, and the social support of families as clients of social work during the current pandemic situation.

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