Competitiveness of the Regions in the Czech Republic from the Perspective of Disaster Risk Financing

Mitigation of the impact of disasters and increasing resilience represent an inseparable part of the competitiveness of regions that cannot be implemented without a necessary resource framework. The paper focuses on the issue of financing individual phases of disaster management at the level of regions in the Czech conditions. The article is based on the assumption that public authorities do not systematically plan funds for dealing with crisis situations in the expenditure part of the budget, thereby not supporting the structural and functional conditions of territorial attractiveness, security and sustainability. The aim of the article is to propose a unique calculation of the minimum fund allocation for individual phases of disaster risk reduction at the regional level. The calculation concept is based on the value of the property owned by the region, the number of crisis situations predicted in the region, the number of crisis situations predicted in the Czech Republic, the administrative territory of the region and the total expenditures of the regional budget. The article presents a specific national approach to the public fund allocation to the individual disaster risk management phases, providing competitive administration and progressive and resilient development of the region. Based on the originally elaborated calculation, a comparative analysis of the expenditure part of 13 regional budgets for the 2013– 2019 period was performed. The premise on the insufficient financing of disaster management was confirmed, although the Crisis Management Act imposes this obligation. The results showed that the most underfunded area was the implementation phase.

Mechanisms for Stabilizing Crisis Situations in Visegrad Europe

In the article, the authors, pointing out the main challenges faced by the Central European countries in the last two years, analyze the measures taken by the governments of the Visegrad countries ‒ individually and jointly ‒ in an effort to overcome the negative consequences of crisis situations and to give a new impetus to the development of societies in social, political and economic spheres. The pandemic of 2020/2021 in a certain sense can be considered as a milestone measuring the effectiveness of political and economic systems established over three decades in these countries. The authors have chosen for this publication only some, but decisive measures, such as internal political stabilization, social, as well as economic devices to help the population in a pandemic. Analyzing the main “alarming points” of Central European countries, the authors come to the conclusion that the democratic parliamentary system established in these countries over the years of reforms, based on a network of non-governmental organizations, plays a significant positive role in overcoming them; the manifestation of independence in taking decisions affecting the interests of the nation despite delays or counter-measures of Brussels; taking into account the peculiarities of national and regional development in other areas.

Education in the Area of Human Protection in Emergency and Crisis Situations in the Context of Health Education in the Czech Republic

The present time brings a number of emergency and crisis situations, including floods, fires or Covid-19, the management of which requires the active involvement of citizens. Lower secondary education in the Czech Republic includes the subject of Health Education, in which this topic is addressed. Education of students in the area of lifestyle and health is included in Health Education and Home Economics, the latter being delivered in Slovenia. In terms of content, both courses are similar and can enrich each other by sharing valuable experience both in teaching students and in preparing future elementary school teachers. The objective of this paper is to present the concept of elementary education in human protection in emergency and crisis situations in the Czech Republic and the related concept of undergraduate teacher training. The research methods used were document review (of curricular documents and study plans) and questionnaire survey. The paper presents the results of an analysis of the curricular document governing elementary education in the Czech Republic (Framework Education Programme for Elementary Education), as well as the results of an analysis of a health education textbook focusing on the area of safety issues. The paper also presents the results of an analysis of the study plans of selected faculties of education in terms of human protection in emergency and crisis situations, as well as the results of a questionnaire survey focusing on the awareness of future teachers in the area of human protection in emergency situations. The results and main findings of the analysis of the curricular document suggest that the topics of the human protection in emergency situations should be strengthened in the context of Health Education (and throughout elementary education). The studies on teachers’ and future teachers’ awareness of human protection in emergency situations (including first aid) point to some shortcomings in undergraduate teacher training (for example, the optional course in first aid and human protection in emergency situations at the Faculty of Education, Masaryk University). Conclusions and recommendations for practice: the current revision of the Framework Education Programme for Elementary Education should allow the strengthening of emergency issues in Health Education. Based on the inquiry, the following is recommended: due attention should be paid to all emergency issues in the course of education; further teacher training in all emergency issues should be promoted; emergency issues in undergraduate teacher training should be integrated in the form of compulsory common base courses.

The Legal Conflictology and Its Development

The article considers legal conflictology as a relatively new scientific direction. The formation and development of legal conflictology in the Russian Federation and the Kyrgyz Republic are studied in the article. It was revealed that despite the extensive development of legal conflictology in the Russian Federation, in the Kyrgyz Republic so far this direction remains unexplored and is just beginning to take shape. The article substantiates the relevance of this direction with objective reasons and establishes the need to apply an interdisciplinary approach in the study of legal conflictology, where the theoretical and legal approach will be combined with sociological, philosophical and even psychological approaches. It is determined that research in the field of legal conflictology will allow to present an applied and theoretical interpretation of a wide range of issues on legal theory, therefore, such research on this topic should belong to one of its main directions. The term or legal category “legal conflict” is a reflection of a wide range of features of the essential process of interaction between the subjects of legal relations in crisis situations for them. The legal category of legal conflicts covers not only the legal conflicts themselves, but also mixed conflicts that begin at the beginning independently and outside of legal norms or relations, but subsequently acquire a legal character.

Differences in the Association between Physical Activity and People’s Resilience and Emotions during Two Consecutive Covid-19 Lockdowns in Israel

Governments worldwide have imposed harsh restrictions for decreasing the Covid-19 pandemic and maintaining public health. Yet such limitations have impacted people’s physical activity. This study examined relationships between changes in physical activity and resilience, emotions, and depression during two lockdowns in Israel. An online survey was completed twice by 135 participants during two consecutive lockdowns. The results indicate that resilience and positive emotions were higher, and negative emotions and depression were lower during the second lockdown compared to the first one—even though people spent less time performing physical activity in the later lockdown. Moreover, negative emotions significantly decreased among people who reported increased physical activity during the second lockdown [M = 2.2 (SD = 0.9) compared to M = 1.9 (SD = 0.8) on a scale of 1–5] and increased among those who reported a reduction in activity [M = 1.8 (SD = 0.7) compared to M = 2.2 (SD = 0.7)]. It could therefore be concluded that while the Israeli population’s resilience is higher compared to other populations (who do not regularly deal with crisis situations), their increased physical activity was associated with better resilience and emotions and lower depression scores. Since lockdowns are an extreme yet often repeated phenomenon, it is important to understand the psychological implications of engaging in physical activity.

Intercultural Philosophy: A Polylogue of Traditions

This article provides an overview of the Seventh International Readings on the History of Russian Philosophy, entitled “Intercultural Philosophy: A Polylogue of Traditions”, which were held at the Sociological Institute of the Russian Academy of Sciences – a branch of the Federal Research Sociological Center of the Russian Academy of Sciences. The path of the intercultural philosophy began around the 1980ies and 1990ies in Germany and Austria as a criticism of Western-centrism in philosophy and as an ideological alternative to the Western style of thinking. In this conference, an attempt was made to transfer the principles and methods of intercultural philosophy (philosophy of polylogue) to the history of Russian philosophy. This article also offers a summary of the structure of the conference, the content of its plenary lectures as well as the reports on the intercultural subjects and polylogue methodology, including their applied aspects. The main parts of the plenary sessions, roundtables and seminars that were held within the conference are also analyzed. It is pointed out that the process of formation of intercultural philosophy has not been completed yet; its terminology has not been established; and, eventually, the methods and results have not received wide recognition. However, the period of declarations and of manifestos is coming to an end. The conference contributed to the popularization of intercultural philosophy and the philosophy of polylogue in Russia. Relying on the experience and traditions of non-Western thinking, it offers a solution to the problems facing modern humanity, it indicates a number of possible ways to overcome the crisis situations in culture and society, and it also provides some answers to the “eternal” philosophical questions.

Moroccan Social Media Platforms and COVID-19 Misinformation

COVID-19 pandemic has been accompanied by a massive ‘infodemic’ and an over-abundance of disinformation that makes it hard for people to find trustworthy sources and reliable guidance when they need it. Young Moroccan internet users resort to social media for their news, and easily fall prey to the misinformation and fake news they encounter online. When it concerns public health, disinformation can turn into a lethal weapon. This is further exacerbated at the time of COVID-19 pandemic. To tackle this, the present research paper answers the research questions using a qualitative method, particularly semi-structured interviews preferable in exploratory research where the purpose is to gain an understanding of spreading online misinformation in the age of COVID-19. Semi-structured Interviews are conducted via “Google Meet” and “Zoom” using video-conferencing among 12 young Moroccan social media activists and professionals. The main research findings have shown that young Moroccan social media users have been consuming fake news about the Coronavirus, which has been especially prevalent on the most popular platforms, Facebook, Whats App and YouTube. Other results have shown that the mainstream media failed to debunk misinformation by subjecting them to rigorous fact checking experiments, lack of Media Information Literacy research in the form of crisis audits and crisis planning, Moroccan social media are ill prepared for crisis manual and conducting crisis training. These ensure that media regulators are not better equipped to handle any misinformation in health crisis situations. Therefore, media literacy is not only about how to use the computer and do an internet search, it also involves helping young Moroccan people to deal with disinformation in crisis situations, and realize that anyone anywhere can put up a very official-looking websites. These websites masquerade as high-credibility sources that have been spreading misinformation about COVID-19. Therefore, the government needs.

The author's program "Natural Science Museum in the Life of a Modern School" as a way of realizing the culture-creating and pedagogical potential of natural science museums

This article deals with the implementation by teachers of secondary schools of the culture-creating and pedagogical potential of natural science museums with the help of the author's program. At the moment, there is a situation where society needs a holistic and informative potential of the museum. Modern education in the educational process is increasingly based on a number of museum disciplines. The museum, being a socio-cultural institution, directly influences the solution of crisis situations of civilization in the XXI century. It should be noted that the pedagogical position put forward by the authors on the potential of natural science museums, reflected in this article, is relevant not only for our country, but also for the whole world affected by globalization. The authors of the article, based on the findings of the study, compiled an author's program for teachers of secondary schools, in which they tried to reveal the main points on the implementation of the culture-creating and pedagogical potential of natural science museums.