Study:	Civil Law - 9. semester Commercial Law - 9. semester Constitutional-Administrative - 9. semester Criminal Law - 9. semester International Law - 9. semester The European Union Law - 9. semester
Code:	79174
ECTS:	4.0
Course coordinators:	prof. dr. sc. Siniša Zrinščak izv. prof. dr. sc. Dario Čepo izv. prof. dr. sc. Antonija Petričušić
Lecturers:	dr. sc. Mateja Čehulić - Lectures doc. dr. sc. Stjepka Popović - Lectures

Literature:

Borak, M., Munivrana Vajda, M.; The reality behind the Istanbul convention: Shattering conservative delusions; Women's Studies International Forum (2019), str. 74, 77-83 Čepo, D.; Structural weaknesses and the role of the dominant political party: democratic backsliding in Croatia since EU accession; Southeast European and Black Sea Studies, DOI: 10.1080/14683857.2020.1709721 (2020) Doolan, K., Barada, V., Burić, I., Krolo, K., Tonković, Đ.; Student life during the COVID-19 pandemic lockdown: Europe-wide insights; Brussels: European Students' Union (2021) Drinoczi, T., Župan, M., Ercsey, Z., Vinković, M. (eds); Contemporary legal challenges: EU-Hungary-Croatia; Pecs: Faculty of Law, University of Pecs. Osijek: Faculty of Law, J. J. Strossmayer University of Osijek (2012) Gibson, J. L., Caldeira, G.A.; The Legal Cultures of Europe; Law Society Review 30(1) (1996), str. 55-85 Government of the Republic of Croatia; Report of the Republic of Croatia on Implementation of the Council of Europe Convention on Preventing and Combating Violence Against Women and Domestic Violence; Zagreb: Council of Europe (2022) Grdešić, M.; Class Discourse in Croatia: Where Did It Go? Is It Coming Back?; East European Politics and Societies and Cultures, 29(3) (2015), str. 663-671 Gvozdanović, A., Ilišin, V., Adamović, M., Potočnik, D., Baketa, N., Kovačić, M.; Youth Study Croatia 2018./2019.; Berlin: Friderich Ebert Stiftung (2019) Inglehart, R., Baker, W. E.; Modernization, Cultural Change, and the Persistence of Traditional Values; American Sociological Review 65(1) (2000), str. 19-51 Jović, D.; Post-Yugoslav States Thirty Years after 1991: Unfinished Businesses of a Fivefold Transition; Journal of Balkan and Near Eastern Studies, 24(2) (2021), str. 193-222 Kregar, J., Petričušić, A.; Civil Society: An Inevitable Partner in the Development of Local Communities in Young Democracies. In Osmanković et al (eds); Local Economic and Infrastructure Development of SEE (Sarajevo: ANUBiH) (2013), str. 45-57 Philp, M.; Political Corruption, Democratization, and Reform, " in Stephen Kotkin Andreas Sajo (eds); Political Corruption in Transition. Budapest: Central European University Press (2002), str. 57-80 Ritzer, G.; An Introduction to Sociology in the Global Age. In: George Ritzer; Introduction to Sociology. Los Angeles: SAGE (2015), str. 3-33 Ritzer, G.; Researching the Social World. In: George Ritzer; Introduction to Sociology. Los Angeles: SAGE (2015), str. 71-104 Sekulić, D.; The creation and dissolution of the multinational state: the case of Yugoslavia; Nations and Nationalism, 3(2) (1997), str. 165-179 Vučković Juroš, T., Dobrotić, I., Flego, S.; The Rise of the Anti-Gender Movement in Croatia and the 2013 Marriage Referendum; Europe-Asia Studies, 72(9) (2020), str. 1523-1553

Description:

Through analysis of the main sociological aspects of modern Croatian society, the course provides an understanding of its trajectory in its historical perspective, particularly the transition from socialism to capitalism. It also focuses on other major social changes that influence Croatian society's development, such as globalization, Europeanization, climate change, etc., enabling a comparative outlook with other societies. Following main structures and institutions of modern Croatian society are covered in the course: social inequalities, dominant values, family relations, youth, religion, political system, political culture, civil society, and judiciary.

Cognitive Skills:

Knowledge and understanding

After the successfully completed course students will be able to:

Define: sociological concepts as basic blocks of sociological theories and explanations of social phenomena. The student should be able to define sociological concepts such as traditionalism, modernization, nation, national minorities, values, social change, religion, gender, corruption, political culture, civil society, and social Stratification in Croatia

 

Explain: how the individual and the society are connected and how the society changes, how the society influences individual behaviour and the relationship of free decision-making and social structures in which it takes place. For example, students will understand how legal norms are changing in parallel with certain social changes (e.g. political and economic transition). Finally, they will be able to identify what the causes of social inequality are, or why the frequencies of certain occurrences like divorce or changes in the family structure change.

 

Explain: what is a scientific explanation of social phenomena and how it differs from common sense, value or one based on a tradition.

 

Application

Group and describe: group basic approaches to the analysis of social phenomena and to describe their differences on various examples.

 

Understand: the mechanisms that produce phenomena such as the difference between traditional and modern values and the emergence of the modern Croatian society; historical development of the Croatian society and the different histories of the region comprising the modern Croatia; development of the idea of the Croatian nation and different scopes and contents of the concept of nation; transition from socialism to capitalism (major changes of political and economic institutions); analysis of the main structures and institutions of the modern Croatian society; religion; gender and social transformation; youth and values; transformation of social inequalities; community and local government; and management of ethnic diversity in Croatia. The acquired knowledge should allow students to explain social phenomena that surround them in everyday life.

 

Sketch: the basic contours of explanatory models for explaining different social phenomena.

Analysis

Demonstrate: students will be able to distinguish between the causes of phenomena such as democratic transition; religion; gender and social transformation; youth and values; social inequality, political and legal culture; civil society, community and local government; and management of ethnic diversity in Croatia. In doing so, they will be able to demonstrate the profound societal transformation that occurred as a result of political and economic transition in the course of the last two decades in Croatia.

 

Categorize: types of social phenomena that are relevant for the contemporary Croatian society.

 

Analyze: internal logic of creation and functioning of social institutions in contemporary Croatia.

 

Compare: different theoretical approaches to social phenomena. Compare common sense and scientific explanation, knowledge and belief.

 

Synthesis

 

Construct elementary explanations of social phenomena using and comparing different theoretical approaches. Suggest the best ways to explore a phenomenon.

 

Evaluation

 

Compare: applicability of methods (survey, experiment, observation, content analysis, etc.) to analyze social phenomena in the contemporary Croatian society.

 

Evaluate: advantages and disadvantages of different methods to study certain social phenomena.

 

Assess: the extent to which we are certain methods can provide answers to these questions and the extent to which a particular theoretical framework enabling the elaboration of answers to the questions formulated, or, in other words, to assess the adequacy of the theoretical approaches and methodologies applied to specific phenomenon being examined.

Practical and Generic Skills:

After successful completion of learning the student will acquire basic knowledge of sociological concepts used in the analysis of the modern Croatian society. This general knowledge will be used to develop familiarity with the history, institutions and social structures of the modern Croatian society. The students should, in addition, be able to employ broad sociological theory to provide an original analysis of current circumstances in the Croatian society.

 

By attending the course in sociology student should develop presentation skills and be able to express their own thoughts.

Matching Assessments to Learning Outcomes:

Knowledge is assessed in seminars, through submitted essays, as well as through oral exams.

 

Oral exam is a form of assessing knowledge in which the student must demonstrate that s/he is able to define sociological concepts, reproduce explanation of some basic social processes. Besides, in the course we use lectures and seminars based on the students’ active reading and analysis of the literature. The seminars elaborate the topics covered in the lectures and are based on students’ essays whose drafts are discussed in the seminar. In addition to active participation in the lectures and in the seminars, the student is requested to write an essay that will present a sociological analysis of one of the topics dealt with in the classes.

Consultations schedule:

• prof. dr. sc. Siniša Zrinščak:

  Tuesdays 12 pm

  Location: Trg Republike Hrvatske 3, room 16
• izv. prof. dr. sc. Dario Čepo:

  Tuesday 11 am - 12 pm

  Location: Trg Republike Hrvatske 3, room 25/II.
• izv. prof. dr. sc. Antonija Petričušić:

  Office hours via Google Meet following prior notification of interest by email. 

  Location: Trg Republike Hrvatske 3, room 17