The chapter offers an analysis of the impact of EU and international norms on LGBT rights in Slovenia and present the history of same-sex union proposals, examining primarily the role of EU and of the Catholic Church in the political debate around it. The authors argue that domestic political dynamics have caused delays in and resistances to the adoption of marriage equality legislation. The research reveals the ambivalence and discontent on both ends of the political spectrum. The liberal center-left declared their support for the idea of equal treatment, but continuously postponed acting on their commitment. In contrast, the conservatives used the discourse of tolerance and adopted a very limited legislation.
COBISS.SI-ID: 61489762
The European Union's (EU) Structured Dialogue, a consultation process between young people and policy-makers on the EU's youth policies, has achieved remarkable popularisation and is perceived as a valuable mechanism in finding remedies for the risks facing young people across the EU. Applying the Foucauldian analytics of government approach, this article critically analyses the formation and features of the Structured Dialogue and its practical implementation during the final phase of the third work cycle under the Greek Presidency of the EU (January 2014 to June 2014). It shows that the proliferation of dialogue is a practical feature of government at the EU level undertaken by a multiplicity of stakeholders. In this constellation, risks associated with youth are mobilised as representational notions that render reality in such a form to make it amenable to specific types of operations and interventions. The Structured Dialogue works as a practical form of governing reconstituting power relations so that government is reaffirmed as a valid and legitimate process through which actors collectively search for the best possible outcome and in the interest of all, while youth are pursued and encouraged to make them active citizens capable, as both individuals and communities, of managing their own risk.
COBISS.SI-ID: 34343773
This monograph addresses the problem of the impact of EU conditionality on democratization and transformation of post-socialist countries in Western Balkans. EU conditionality is part of a larger story of association process and Europeanization, which we have to study in conjunction with the post-socialist transition and its characteristics in the region. Research method is based on an interdisciplinary approach of political sociology that researches topics, which are traditionally located in the sphere of political science, from a sociological point of view. Transition in the Western Balkans was seriously hampered by the ethnic violence and the rise of illiberal democracies in the 90s. One of the EU conditions was also cooperation with ICTY and here the collided with national identities that have been formed through the past ethnic conflicts. The case study of the impact of EU conditionality on the Croatian political elite and their cooperation with the Hague Tribunal by the method of critical discourse analysis shows that national identity is an important variable, which in certain circumstances affects the effectiveness of EU conditionality and, consequently, the transformative power of the European Union on the candidate countries.
COBISS.SI-ID: 287829504
In this article, over a time dimension of two decades we will examine how judgements on gender equality in opinion polls are "translated" into gender relations in politics. For this purpose, we extracted some (for the subject of our research) accountable questions and analysed the respondents' changing preferences in a time perspective. We found that during the 1990s, when we had an extremely low share of women in politics, the proportion of those that gender equality assessed very positively was greatly reduced, and that at the same time the proportion of those indifferent to these values (among men and among women) increased. Men were simultaneously perceived as better political leaders. The share of the latter judgements in the next period declined steadily and by 2011 had almost halved, which may indicate positive developments also in this respect and foretell a possible shift towards the loosening of male domination in politics.
COBISS.SI-ID: 616191
The article presents Buddhist mindfulness as a method for conflict transformation. On the basis of the concept of paticca-samupp, da (dependent origination) and anatta (nonself) the article (de)constructs the phases of identity formation. In Buddhist understanding, conflict is the result of defensiveness and misconceptions, and thus it is central to understand the mechanism by which the idea of ˝I˝ or ˝self˝ is established. The purpose of mindfulness is (among other things) to achieve a radical change in perception, which leads to ˝de-automatization˝ of mental mechanisms and suspends the identification with sensory and mental experiences that an individual calls a separate ˝I˝. Since the Buddhist approach to conflict is based on a theory of cognition, this article emphasizes the individual effort needed for conflict transformation. Only later could or should this knowledge be applicable to a wider social environment, taking into account the diversity of socio-cultural conditions.
COBISS.SI-ID: 61642594