Sociálne a politické analýzy 1-2015

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Miroslava Köverová - Margita Mesárošová (eds.)

The publication „Helping professions and self-care from the perspective of psychology and social work“ includes research studies focused on self-care, and the positive and negative effects of helping among specific groups of helping professionals – psychologists and social workers.

A number of Slovak as well as foreign authors contributed to the book of proceedings. The contributions are theoretical studies, research studies and case studies. The theoretical and research studies are focused on important issues of professional helping: self-care, compassion satisfaction, compassion fatigue, burnout, perceived stress, secondary traumatic stress, mindfulness, empathy, job satisfaction and turnover among psychologists and social workers.

Research interest in the phenomena is especially important in the context of the mental health of helping professionals and in reducing the negative consequences of helping. 

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Vladimír Leško - Zlatica Plašienková (eds.)

Philosophical Proceedings Kant in the Contexts of Husserl's and Heidegger's Philosophy is a presentation of the results of the Second International Philosophical Conference, which took place on November 5-7, 2008 at the UPJŠ in Košice.

The conference was prepared by the Department of Philosophy and History of Philosophy, Faculty of Philosophy, UPJŠ in very close cooperation with the Slovak Philosophical Association at the Slovak Academy of Sciences in Bratislava. The structure of the presented proceedings was divided into three basic parts. The first part contains the papers that were presented at the conference and constitute a crucial part of the content of our proceedings. The individual papers are arranged in the order in which they were presented at the conference. The second part of the proceedings contains the speeches from the inauguration ceremony of the award of the honorary title of Doctor honoris causa to Milan Sobotka and Teodor Münz. In the third part, a photo-documentation is published in which the ceremonial academic act of conferring the honorary degree of Doctor honoris causa is captured. Translated with DeepL.com (free version)

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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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Renáta Orosová, Michal Novocký, Beáta Sakalová, Zuzana Vagaská (eds.)

Zborník príspevkov z medzinárodnej vedeckej konferencie, 11. september 2025

Medzinárodná vedecká konferencia je zameraná na problematiku vzdelávania a výchovy v oblasti základného, stredného a vysokého školstva a školských zariadení z pohľadu pedagóga. Zreteľ kladie na perspektívy pedagóga 21. storočia v edukačnej praxi a inovatívne aspekty pregraduálnej prípravy pedagógov. Je určená vedeckým pracovníkom, mladým vysokoškolským učiteľom, doktorandom s cieľom prezentovať učiteľa v súčasnej perspektíve a vyvolať diskusiu k aktuálnym otázkam prezentovaných oblastí výchovy a vzdelávania v kontexte súčasnej situácie v školstve.

Ciele konferencie:

• prezentovať a analyzovať možnosti rozvoja budúcich učiteľov a učiteľov v praxi s ohľadom na zdroje a nástroje podpory ich sebavzdelávania,
• prezentovať a analyzovať možnosti rozvoja budúcich učiteľov a učiteľov v praxi cez kultúru školy reagujúcu na potreby všetkých aktérov vzdelávania,
• prezentovať a analyzovať formovanie digitálnych zručností učiteľov a modifikovania výučby smerom k špecifikám žiakov,
• prezentovať a analyzovať využívanie umelej inteligencie v edukácii z didaktického a etického aspektu,
• prezentovať a analyzovať najnovšie edukačné trendy vo výučbe vychádzajúce z paradigmy didaktického konštruktivizmu,
• prezentovať a analyzovať možnosti aktualizácie profesijných kompetencií učiteľov cez učenie sa skúsenosťou a riešenie komplexných edukačných problémov.

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Ján Šimko - Dušan Šlosár

The monograph is dealing with the issue of homosexuality and homophobia in the context of social work and it is divided into five chapters, which are devoted to individual fields of the tackled issue. The first chapter is describing the phenomenon of homosexuality in the society; the focus is put on human sexuality and sexual orientation. The following chapter is clarifying the formation of homosexual identity in connection to coming out and it describes its frequently utilized models. The third chapter is devoted to the concepts of heteronormativity and heterosexism in the social context.

Furthermore, the chapter is dealing with the formation of attitudes towards this issue from the point of view of religion and masculinity. Another chapter is describing homophobia as the result of heteronormativity, stereotypes and prejudice.

In the last chapter, the authors are introducing selected social work theories dealing with the homosexual minority, the approaches to LGBT+ community and suggestions towards elimination of homophobia within the social work environment.

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Soňa Šnircová

This textbook has been designed as supporting material for the postgraduate course on modern trends in European literature. It focuses on the presentation of five modern literary modes of writing: the realistic mode which was brought to its prominence by the nineteenth-century Realist movement; the stream-of-consciousness and ‘absurdist’ modes which were developed in the context of modernism; and the magical realist and metafictional modes which are associated mainly with postmodernist literary trends. Each mode is represented by a well-known text which demonstrates the formal aspects of each mode and deals with the thematic concerns typical of the literary movement that influenced its production.

The textbook adopts an interdisciplinary approach, placing the chosen literary texts into the historical, philosophical and cultural contexts that shaped their characters, and thereby providing the background knowledge necessary for a deeper understanding of their formal and thematic aspects.

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Mikuláš Jančura

The presented annotated source edition represents the first systematic attempt to process selected documents related to the history of personal automobilism in Slovakia during the interwar period. It addresses a notable research and publication gap in Slovak historiography, where the topic of automobilism has long remained marginal. Although research in this field has progressed over the last two decades, Slovak scholarship still lags behind Czech historiography. The main ambition of the edition is to present a broad selection of sources to highlight key thematic lines in the development of personal automobilism. The sources are divided into two main thematic groups: economic-legislative issues and cultural-social dimensions. Special attention is given to car accessibility, infrastructure, legal frameworks, visual advertising, and the activities of motoring associations. The typologically diverse corpus includes archival records, printed materials, visual sources, and photographs. The edition builds on a 2017 authorial monograph, expanding it with new insights and sources. It draws from collections housed in the National Archives in Prague, the Slovak National Archive, and various regional archives. The work also benefits from the application of modern methodological approaches, such as Business History and cultural history. The project was carried out under the scientific grant VVGS-2022-2431 at the Faculty of Arts, Pavol Jozef Šafárik University in Košice. Its results are closely linked to the teaching activities of the research team. The edition is the result of several stages – from heuristics, selection, and processing to peer review and publication. The publication contributes to a vivid understanding of the historical aspects of automobilism and expands knowledge of modernization processes in Slovakia. It also offers potential for use in educational practice and further academic research.

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Róbert Stojka

The aim of the presented monograph is primarily to introduce Patočka's concept of the philosophy of history as comprehensively as possible, although I am aware that this is by no means an easy task. This difficulty arises not only because, as already mentioned, there is currently no extensive and exhaustive work on this topic.

While there is a relatively large number of studies devoted to Patočka's concept of the philosophy of history, none of them, however, examine this concept from a comprehensive perspective as a unified whole – most focus on specific partial issues (and there are many) stemming from this concept. This fact, incidentally, serves as clear evidence to me that this is undoubtedly a highly demanding topic.

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Ivica Hajdučeková

The collection of studies included in the monographic publication Spirituality in the (Re)interpretation of Works of Slovak Literature was created and matured gradually, over the course of more than ten years (2003–2015).

Some of the studies were part of the defended dissertation Compositional and Semantic Specifics of Slovak Interwar Prose (Prešov 2005), others originated within scientific research (grant) projects, but all were refined against the background of specifying selected methodological approaches. The studies were gradually published in academic journals and scientific anthologies both in Slovakia and abroad (precise details are provided in the footnotes as well as in the editorial note).

In the monograph, they are arranged according to the period of their creation, not publication, in order to preserve the genesis of the author’s scientific research profile. Their arrangement also secondarily respects the analytical-interpretative intersections into the poetics of specific texts. This is why the works on Slovak interwar literature are presented first, followed by those focused on the works of Slovak realists.

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Renáta Orosová - Michal Novocký - Katarína Petríková

An integral part of the process of becoming a teacher is the mentoring of student teachers by mentor teachers, serving as guidance and support for future teachers. Developing mentoring skills and fostering reflective mentoring practices are means of enhancing the practical training of student teachers, their professional development, and improving the quality of their future educational practice.

The foundation of the mentoring relationship between the mentor teacher as a mentor and the student teacher as a mentee is not to evaluate the student, but to analyse their learning and teaching and contemplate ways to enhance these processes. The university textbook represents a creative textual tool focused on innovations in strategies for supporting the development of mentoring abilities in mentors and mentees during professional practical training. This university textbook, intended for student teachers in the role of mentees and mentor teachers in the role of mentors, systematizes the theoretical foundations of mentoring, provides guidance and directives for mentoring in professional practical training. Furthermore, it offers the university teacher, in the role of supervising the student's teaching practice, an overview of techniques and methods pertaining to the mentoring relationship between mentor and mentee. It is applicable as a university textbook for student teachers, students pursuing supplementary pedagogical studies or advanced studies, as well as for mentor teachers in primary and secondary schools, and university educators involved in professional practical training.

Its English version provides opportunities for utilization during study stays of student teachers abroad and for foreign students in Slovakia.

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Jozef Bavoľár - Ladislav Lovaš - Simona Ďurbisová

The process of achieving goals is one that has traditionally received significant attention in psychology. This attention is not only directed by researchers focused on motivation, with which the process of achieving goals is classically associated, but also from a wide range of other areas (e.g., emotions, personality). One aspect of goal-directed behavior that has received minimal, if not virtually no, attention is decision-making.

It is surprising to realize that various aspects of decision-making are present throughout the entire process of achieving goals - from evaluating different aspects of multiple alternative goals, through selecting among them, deciding on resource allocation (effort, time, finances, relationships...), continuously monitoring progress, to evaluating the outcome and its impact on future goal-directed behavior.

Even more surprising is that decision-making is directly addressed by one of the dominant theories explaining goal-directed behavior - the theory of mental action phases (mindset theory of action phases; Gollwitzer 1999, 2012). This theory distinguishes the pre-decisional and post-decisional phases as the first two phases of this behavior, separated precisely by the decision about which goal to pursue.

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Tomáš Dvorský - Lucia Laczkó - Katarína Lörincová (eds.)

The collection of articles from the VIII. International Scientific Conference for Students and Young Scientists, organized by the Department of Political Science of the Faculty of Arts of the Pavol Jozef Šafárik University in Košice, in cooperation with the Res Publica Civic Association the Faculty of Social Sciences of the University of Saints Cyril and Methodius in Trnava, held on 16 May 2019 in Košice.

The aim of this publication, entitled Slovakia-Europe-World, is to point out a complex of diverse topics that are actual in the world, in Europe and in the Slovak republic.

The publication consists of 15 articles, which are primarily written in Slovak. The individual contributions deal with selected topics and aspects of national and foreign policy.

The topics of the articles are human rights, freedom of expression, the rise of religiously motivated nationalism, the issue of unemployment, parliamentary elections and election research. The publication also contains contributions focused on topics in the field of environmental policy, cultural policy or migration policy.

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Renáta Orosová (výkonný redaktor)

Vedecko-odborný časopis Edukácia je zameraný na problematiku vzdelávania a výchovy v oblasti základného, stredného a vysokého školstva. Zreteľ kladie na súčasný stav a perspektívy edukačnej praxe, aktuálne aspekty pregraduálnej prípravy učiteľov, sociálnej pedagogiky, špeciálnej pedagogiky, ako aj pedagogické a psychologické aspekty výchovy v základných výchovných inštitúciách z pohľadu širokej pedagogickej verejnosti. Je určený vedeckým pracovníkom, mladým vysokoškolským učiteľom, doktorandom, ako aj odborným a pedagogickým pracovníkom, s cieľom prezentovať trendy v edukácii a vyvolať diskusiu k aktuálnym otázkam prezentovaných oblastí výchovy a vzdelávania.

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Magdaléna Hovanová - Dušan Šlosár

The monograph addresses the issues surrounding functional families, dysfunctional families, and those affected by crises. It analyzes various determinants that lead to family dysfunction and identifies factors contributing to family crises and the destabilization of family relationships. Special attention is given to working with dysfunctional families, particularly through family rehabilitation, methods, forms, and procedures employed mainly by helping professionals.

Additionally, the monograph explores contemporary forms of couple cohabitation and the factors that have caused changes in this area. Families are examined from the perspective of helping professions, including psychology, sociology, adult education, health care, law, and economics. These various perspectives create a comprehensive view of the examined issues and establish a multidisciplinary space for addressing problems within the family system. A functional family is seen as the foundation of society; therefore, society must create tools to assist families that are unable to resolve issues affecting their functionality.

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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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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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