Masaryk University Journals / Časopisy Masarykovy univerzity
Not a member yet
25996 research outputs found
Sort by
Koželuh, O. (2024). A day at kindergarten.
No full textRecenze dítě předškolního věku, mateřská škola, učite
Industrial Management and the Crisis of Managerial Expertise in Economic Transformation: A Case Study of the Czech Footwear Industry
Get PDFThis article examines how Czechoslovak managers coped with the collapse of the centrally planned economy and the rise of capitalism in the late 1980s and early 1990s. The aim of this text is to analyze how the rapid change in political and economic conditions transformed a specific expert culture that was distinctly technocratic in nature. As a case study the article uses the shoe company Svit Gottwaldov (after 1989 Svit Zlín). The objective of this article is to apply the conclusions of previous research on the managerial class and technocracy in late socialism and post-socialism to the analysis of events within a specific industrial sector. The analytical perspective proposed here serves to complement existing knowledge with research on experience grounded in a specific regional and industrial expert milieu. This article shows that the activities of managers in the era of economic transformation, their long-term plans and their momentary decisions were the result of a complex and ambivalent interaction of continuities and discontinuities in managerial practice and thinking
Thank God for the OECD – Modalities of Expertise in Current Education Policy in Slovakia
Get PDFThis study is concerned with identifying specific features of the expertise that forms the basis of the proposed systemic and curricular education reforms in Slovakia. The reforms are set out in Component 7 of Slovakia’s Recovery and Resilience Plan. A bibliographic analysis was performed on the 51 references contained in Component 7 in order to ascertain what type of evidence it is based on. The findings show that much of the evidence is international in character, consisting primarily of data produced and published by the OECD and EU as well as basic quantitative data from large-scale international assessments. These findings contradict those of bibliographic studies on reform expertise in Nordic education, in which the dominant forms were national expertise and expertise based on secondary interpretations of data from international comparisons. Our study shows that the expertise in the reform documents reflects the characteristics of those the expertise is targeted at and the nature of the institutional structures involved in policymaking. These are different in Slovakia, where research and higher education institutes do not form part of an evidence gathering system.  
The Hollowing-out of the Public Sphere or Its Re-spatialisation? A Topological Probe in the Case of Expert Advice to the Education System
Get PDFThis paper focuses on the modern technocratic idea of independent science advising the independent public and consequential criticism of the hollowing-out of the public sphere by expertocracy. Going beyond this misleading diagnosis, I focus on current places where the public sphere is produced using social topology and the notion of a sociotechnical imaginary that is publicly performed. Through an exploratory probe into a current facet of the ambiguous relationship between the public and expertise, I analysed the contexts, paths, and practices of a normative and expert document published annually by a Czech NGO to bring to the fore the difference between expertise as navigation to public debate, expertise as creating one’s own public space, and expertise as a normative performance. All these forms of relationship between expertise and the public, in a way, transgress the modern sociotechnical imaginary of the direct effect of expert knowledge on public issues
Future as a Sociological Problem
No full textPříspěvek nabízí krátkou sondu do sociologických přístupů k pojímání budoucnosti, zejména s důrazem na vznikající pole sociologie budoucnosti. Exkurz vede od typu prací předvídajících budoucnost přes studie různých praktik předvídání až po ty, které berou budoucnost jako sociální fakt, uchopitelný i skrz vysvětlující praktiky v přítomnosti. Můj příspěvek přitom navrhuje několik orientačních bodů pro tento exkurz. Předvídání dělí na předzvěsti a předpovědi podle empirické nebo teoretické zasazenosti praktik. Pro studie praktik nabízí dělení mezi studiem etických a emických předzvěstí nebo předpovědí. A nakonec představuje i sociologii budoucnosti, která se nesnaží ani tak o předvídání, jako spíš o vysvětlení role budoucnosti v sociálním jednání a organizaci. Zkoumá představy, aspirace nebo orientace k možným budoucnostem jako motivy ovlivňující současné společnosti. Pro sociologii budoucnosti představuje budoucnost sociologický problém, zatímco pro předvídající sociologii spíš problém sociální
Blood oxidative stress markers in the 32nd Bulgarian Antarctic expedition participants
Get PDFAntarctic expeditions are associated with significant stress for participants related to long journeys, work in adverse environmental conditions, and social contact changes resulting in oxidative stress (OS) at the molecular level. This study aimed to evaluate the blood serum OS of the participants in the 32nd Bulgarian Antarctic Expedition (2023-2024) and related trace elements iron, copper, zinc, and selenium concentrations, lipid profile, and blood parameters. Blood parameters and trace element concentrations were measured in a clinical laboratory. OS indicators were measured spectrophotometrically using kits. The results showed decreased antioxidant enzyme activities and increased glutathione concentration after the expedition in the blood serum from both females and males. No statistical differences in the values of OS parameters between males and females were observed. However, the mean serum total antioxidant capacity after the expedition in males was two times higher than in females. In males, a statistically significant lower erythrocyte sedimentation rate (p<0.05), ferritin (p<0.001), and zinc (p<0.01) levels, catalase (p<0.001) and superoxide dismutase (p<0.05) activities were observed after the expedition. No correlation between enzyme activities and the studied trace element concentrations was found. In conclusion, it can be assumed that the expeditioners’ OS was higher before the expedition, likely because of psychological and physical stress related to overcoming preparation and logistics problems. After the expedition, OS has subsided. In order to maintain good health and increase physical fitness, it could be recommended that polar expeditioners receive dietary supplements, micronutrients, and vitamins in the setting of rational nutrition, especially before an expedition
Fluctuations of glacier extent in Lake Nam Co and Nyenchen Tanglha Mountains within a decade as detected by machine learning methods of image analysis for monitoring Lhasa terrane, Tibetan Plateau
Get PDFMachine learning (ML) methods of satellite image analysis were applied in this study for geological-environmental analysis of glacier extent in Tibetan Plateau, China. The purpose of this work is to map the changes in glacier extent as a hydrological resource and its effects on land cover types using remote sensing data. A quantitative cartographic method of image analysis has been developed using ML algorithms and GRASS GIS scripts. Fluctuations of glacier extent are a key trigger for landscape dynamics in Tibetan Plateau. However, the links between spatio-temporal changes in snow and glacier, and associated land cover changes remain elusive. Six Landsat 8-9 multispectral satellite images covering Lhasa were evaluated. The images show fluctuation in glacier coverage from 2013 to 2023 with a 2-year gap between the observations, characterized by strong heterogeneities caused by climate changes. Glacier dynamics was evaluated for northern range of Nyenchen Tanglha Mountains and Lhasa Terrane, Tibetan Plateau, China. The results present an exploratory analysis of six images (on 2013, 2015, 2017, 2019, 2021 and 2023) for glaciological modelling using ML