Jan Kaňák, Michal Opatrný, Věra Suchomelová, Karel Šimr, Jan Váně

Spirituality in social work is a topic that tends to be seen as unique to social work in the US. In fact, however, the debate has been going on for many years even in the distinctly secular settings of Europe or Australia. Its starting point is the assumption that everyone has a spirituality and that it is the source of their ideas of right and wrong, their values and motivations. In this sense, spirituality is equally important for social work in religious and secular social contexts because it is a factor that influences the life situation of the client. In the Czech environment, partial publications on this topic have been published since 2008 at the latest, but a deeper research probe has been lacking. In this book, a team of experts from the University of South Bohemia in České Budějovice, the University of West Bohemia in Pilsen and Charles University in Prague presents the results of their in-depth research on the spirituality of Czech seniors, which was supported by a grant from the Czech National Agency for Applied Research (TAČR). The research sought to better understand how contemporary seniors understand and experience their old age and their spirituality, and how they understand and experience the relationship between old age and spirituality. This aim has produced some rather unexpected results, which are detailed in the book and which have further research potential as well as practical benefits for the practice of social work in services for the elderly. The book is aimed at social workers, activation workers, social service managers and clergy who work with social services.

Year of publication: 2023
Publisher: Centrum pro studium demokracie a kultury, Brno
ISBN: 978-80-7325-575-6

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Jan Váně, Lukáš Dirga

The presented publication deals with the topic of religion behind the bars of prison facilities, and is based on the collaboration of a number of authors with different professional backgrounds, and combines two major topics from the social sciences, religion, and prison. The book Religion behind bars: permanent and transient offers a total of seven chapters, in which the topic of religious and spiritual care provided during imprisonment is discussed from a historical, legal, criminological, ethnological, political, and even sociological perspective. The goal is to offer readers a description of the forms that the relationship between religion and prison can take (not only) in the Czech context.

Year of publication: 2023
Publisher: Brno: Lukáš a syn
ISBN: 978-80-7364-156-6

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Gabriela Fatková, Lenka Benediktová, Jan Baťko a Marie  Fritzová

The monograph summarizes knowledge about distance education and e-learning at 2 Czech universities before and during the COVID 19 pandemic. The research was based on desk research, questionnaire surveys, focus groups and in-depth interviews with different groups of respondents (teachers, students, supervisors of the teaching process, experts for distance education). The results became the basis for the creation of a practical toolbox for teachers using distance education in the humanities.

Year of publication: 2023
Publisher: University of West Bohemia in Pilsen
ISBN: 978-80-261-1171-9

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Veronika Sobotková a Jan Pěchota

The book attempts to descibe the events known as „Arab Spring“ and and the decade of subsequent transformative development together with analysis of causes and impact. This volume (part I.) explores the situation in Tunisia, Libya, and Morocco.

Year of publication: 2023
Publisher: University of West Bohemia in Pilsen
ISBN: 9978-80-261-1182-5

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Petr Kučera

The present monograph examines the phenomena of strangers and others as a key issue in comparative thinking about literature and art, which seeks to overcome static and schematicity in the approach to works of art created in different national cultures. The starting point is the concept of literary and artistic communication as a non-linear and non-causal dialogical process, whose relationship to social communication is largely ambivalent: on the one hand it is part of it, on the other it represents a certain alternative to established display and expression mechanisms.

Year of publication: 2023
Publisher: Plzeň
Vydavatel: University of West Bohemia in Pilsen
ISBN: 978-80-261-0787-3

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Petr Lozoviuk, Kirill Shevchenko

Chapters from the history of Russian-Czech cultural relations: events – personalities – ideas

This monograph examines the origin, development, and various aspects of Russian-Czech cultural relations, which reached their peak in the 19th and early 20th centuries, within a broad historical, social, and cultural context. Special attention is paid to the most important and resonant events in the histories of both Russia and the Czech Republic that influenced the development of existing relations, as well as to specific public, cultural and religious figures who made a significant contribution to the development of Russian-Czech relations.

Year of publication: 2023
Publisher: Kolorgrad Minsk, Belarus
ISBN: 978-985-8965-98-3

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