Building Social Capability for Economic Catch-up: The Experience and Prospects of the Post-socialist Countries

The post-socialist countries are, by the standards of the EU, poor countries. The major developmental task facing these countries is, therefore, that of catching up with their more prosperous neighbours. The scope for catch-up is defined in terms of the levels of social capability exhibited by these societies and their capacity to establish technological congruence with the leading firms from the advanced industrial economies. S&T systems in the broadest sense are shown to be key factors in relation to both social capability and technological congruence. Detailed analysis of the transition countries indicates that the catch-up process is hampered across the board by specific gaps in social capability and elements of technological incongruence. These can in turn be traced to specific structural trends, in particular in relation to foreign investment, and to specific weaknesses of institutional development, cutting across the public/private dividing line, notably in relation to R&D systems and banking systems. Consideration of all these factors suggests that there can be no assumption that the transition countries will automatically catch up with western Europe, and that some disfavoured transition countries may, indeed, continue to fall behind.     

Modeling mortality at old age with time-varying parameters

Several models of old age mortality with time-varying parameters are expressed in a single formula. In these models, the existence of an age threshold above which mortality increases over time and below which mortality decreases over time is problematic. The conditions of appearance of this threshold are expressed and shown on logistic and exponential models with empirical data. The conditions of appearance of the threshold reflect actual situations in developed countries. Richards’ curve avoids the appearance of the threshold with empirical data.     

Two-dimensional Kolmogorov-type goodness-of-fit tests based on characterisations and their asymptotic efficiencies

In this paper, new two-dimensional goodness-of-fit tests are proposed. They are of supremum type and are based on two different types of characterisations. The first type are those that involve functional equations that the distribution function satisfies, while the second type uses independence of some statistics. The asymptotics of the statistics is studied and Bahadur efficiencies of the tests against some close alternatives are calculated. In the process, a theorem on large deviations of Kolmogorov-type statistics has been extended to the multidimensional case.     

The Ethical Challenge for Sociology in the Face of Global Modernity: toward Solidarity-Oriented and Ethically Contextualized Practice

Sociology is facing difficult times: fragmentation within and between regional, national and international academic communities remains high while global interdependence and instability increase generating societal threats of unprecedented scale (progressing inequality, migration, ecological, political and economic crises). Ethical issues are very important for comprehending both: processes within sociology and transformations in the world around. Thus, we postulate the global ethical challenge for sociology, which requires: first, formulating the ethical stance of a sociologist towards the objects of disciplinary inquiry and the potentially involved social groups and, second, elaborating research tools adequate for studying the ethical dimension of the complex social reality. We demonstrate that dominating discourses in the current professional communities are largely inadequate and cannot effectively address this challenge. Drawing on Pitirim Sorokin’s theoretical heritage, as well as on John Meyer and Volker Schmidt ideas, we propose an alternative project of global sociology, emphasizing, first, solidarity-oriented and ethically contextualized sociological communication with various extra-academic audiences; and, second, sociologists’ ethical competence in exploring various localities and dimensions of global modernity with its progressively intersecting different (and sometimes contrasting) ethical systems.     

The internalising and externalising problems of adolescents in Croatia: Socio‐demographic and family victimisation factors

This study assessed Croatian adolescents' problems in relation to socio‐demographic characteristics and experienced family violence in early and late adolescence. A national representative sample of 1,780 Croatian students (45.3% males) in two age groups representing early (M = 13.20; SD = 0.42) and late adolescence (M = 18.14; SD = 0.38) participated. The questionnaire included the Youth Self‐Report, modified version of ISPCAN Child Abuse Screening Tool – Children's Version, and socio‐demographic data. Results show that internalising problems were more present in female adolescents, in adolescents who perceived family financial hardship and in those whose biological parents did not live together. More externalising problems were reported in late adolescence by students who were living in large cities and whose families had either low, or above‐average, financial status. Adolescents who have experienced family violence were at higher risk of developing internalising and/or externalising problems.     

Why Did the Communists Win or Lose? A Comparative Analysis of the Revolutionary Civil Wars in Russia,Finland, Spain,and China

According to classic interpretations of the communist revolutions, political mobilization of peasantry was critical for the success of the revolutionary forces. This article, which reexamines the experience of civil wars in Russia, Finland, Spain, and China, argues that peasants’ contribution to the revolutions in Russia and later in China became possible under two historical conditions: breakdown of state authorities during the mass mobilization wars and existence of an unresolved agrarian problem in the countryside. Neither of these conditions alone, as the experience of other countries has shown, was sufficient for a success of the revolutionaries. The Spanish civil war of 1936–1939, for instance, was not preceded by a major international war. Because institutions of the traditional social order had not been undermined by war, Franco was able to defeat the Popular Front government, despite the peasants’ support of the revolution. In the Finnish civil war of 1918, which broke out in the wake of World War I and the Russian Revolution, state institutions did not collapse completely and the peasantry was divided in their responses to the revolution; the rural smallholders, for example, aligned with the Mannerheim's White army, not with the urban revolutionaries.     

Realizations of the game domination number

Domination game is a game on a finite graph which includes two players. First player, Dominator, tries to dominate a graph in as few moves as possible; meanwhile the second player, Staller, tries to hold him back and delay the end of the game as long as she can. In each move at least one additional vertex has to be dominated. The number of all moves in the game in which Dominator makes the first move and both players play optimally is called the game domination number and is denoted by \(\gamma _g\) . The total number of moves in a Staller-start game is denoted by \(\gamma _g^{\prime }\) . It is known that \(|\gamma _g(G)-\gamma _g^{\prime }(G)|\le 1\) for any graph \(G\) . Graph \(G\) realizes a pair \((k,l)\) if \(\gamma _g(G)=k\) and \(\gamma _g^{\prime }(G)=l\) . It is shown that pairs \((2k,2k-1)\) for all \(k\ge 2\) can be realized by a family of 2-connected graphs. We also present 2-connected classes which realize pairs \((k,k)\) and \((k,k+1)\) . Exact game domination number for combs and 1-connected realization of the pair \((2k+1,2k)\) are also given.     

Unrecognised Cosmopolitans: Mobility and Openness Among Globally Engaged Family Farmers

In contemporary cosmopolitanism research, cities are iconic places where cosmopolitan exchanges and actors find their ‘natural’ milieu. Farmers not only are remarkably absent from this literature but have been depicted as operating with a highly localist and agrarian world view and being strongly connected to the land and the farm through history, biography and family tradition. In this paper, we present findings from a three-year study of entrepreneurial family farmers who are globally engaged and undertake extensive mobility as part of their farm business practices. The paper shows how they readily display some of the key hallmarks of contemporary cosmopolitanism: they are highly mobile and frequently engage in the routineness of international travel; they understand the strategic significance of cultural sensitivities and competencies; and they gain pleasure from engaging with difference. Yet, we suggest that these expressions of cosmopolitanism are also contradictory and, at times, may be understood as either ‘instrumental’, ‘banal’ or ‘engaged’. The paper illustrates how ordinary and everyday cosmopolitan repertoires and sentiments can arise outside the usual settings and among actors not readily acknowledged in the cosmopolitanism literature.