Displaying items by tag: social sciences

It has been almost two years since the Russian attack on Ukraine began at dawn on 24 February 2022. Ahead of the sombre anniversary, Forum reports on the work of Ukrainian scientists and scholars at Charles University.

“Any country should be able to draw upon its assets. Since we do not have mineral deposits, we must focus on education,” says top Czech economist Jan Švejnar, based at Columbia University in New York and at the CERGE-EI Economic Institute in Prague.

PCs were almost impossible to get in 1980s Czechoslovakia but microcomputers proved a different matter. As so-called micros were slowly smuggled into the country and hobby programming quickly caught on, enthusiasts soon coded all manner of computer games. Under the radar of the authorities, some subtly - and others rather daringly – mocked the socialist regime.

This year will be the 15th that the head of the Department of Sociology at Charles University Jiří Vinopal has headed a famous survey mapping changes in Czech pubs and pub life. Learn how the Czech pub itself was reinvented, what it meant for classic lowly establishments known colloquially as “čtyřky” (No. 4s), and how the social aspect of pub life changed.

Disinformation online by malicious actors by now will surprise few people – but the big question is how best to tackle the problem. Increasingly, some are saying more damage than good is committed when the issue is framed only in alarmist terms and described solely as conflict or war – shutting down critical thinking.