Social policy: all publications

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KONOPÁSEK, Z. (2011): Je prý třeba změnit ten postoj a ptát se... [The attitude has to be changed and questions asked, he says]. Zdenek Konopasek's blog, February 26, 2011. Available at http://zdenek.konopasek.net/index.php?m=151&i=1871&b=151

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KONOPÁSEK, Z. (1998): Estetika sociálního státu: O krizi reprezentace (nejen) v sociálním zabezpečení [The welfare state aesthetics: On the crisis of representation (not only) in social security]. Praha: G plus G. 341 p.

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The book challenges the usual views of the welfare state which seek to explain its current difficulties in terms of economics, politics or ethics. Instead, it prefers the perspective which I call "welfare state aesthetics". By this term I mean a study of welfare institutions as a kinds of texts representing social phenomena that are to be coped with. These texts should be studied relatively independently of their authors' convictions or wishes as well as of social scientists' objective knowledge of the phenomena. The title term "aesthetics" indicates that it is presumed that realism of these institutional texts is based on artful illusion-making and on processes of translation from one text to another rather than on the mimetic mirroring of "real life". In the book, I use such a perspective for an analysis of social security benefit schemes. Benefit formula are seen and analyzed as texts that representing, in some way, the reality of "income insufficiency". It is argued that in the postmodern era, the universalism of these texts increasingly undermines their realism and vice versa. The tension between universalism and realism is at the core of what I mean by the term crisis of representation in social security. The representation crisis, of course, affects a wide range of social texts ranging from biographical constructions of identity to scientific constructions of truth. Thus, some aspects of the welfare state crisis may be understood against precisely this wider context.

KONOPÁSEK, Z. (1996): Rodinná politika (Slovníkové heslo) [Family policy (Dictionary entry]. In: Velký sociologický slovník [Big sociological dictionary]. Praha: Karolinum

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KONOPÁSEK, Z. (1995): Bezva finta, která by se nemusela vyplatit [A "good trick" that might not pay well]. Lidové noviny, April 5, 1995, 8 (81/VIII)

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KONOPÁSEK, Z. (1995): Zaměstnavatelé a zaměstnanci na poli sociální práce [Employers and employees in social work]. A background study for the project on minimum standards in social work employment policy. Praha (PHARE, GTAF II/WP2/4A)

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KONOPÁSEK, Z. (1995): Dvě adresy a tři pilíře sociálního zabezpečení [Two targets and three pillars of social security]. In: P. Mareš, ed.: O chudobě v české a slovenské společnosti [On poverty in the Czech and Slovak societies]. Brno: Masarykova univerzita. Pp. 27-38

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KONOPÁSEK, Z. (1994): Welfare mix on the way to welfare universalism: Socialist and non-socialist institutional regimes. In: O. Czúcz, ed.: Social protection for countries in transition from planned to market economy. Szeged: JATE Press. Pp. 151-167

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KONOPÁSEK, Z. (1994): Chudoba, transformace a sociologické výzvy: Poznámky k textu Iva Možného [Poverty, transformation and challenges for sociology: Some notes on the text by Ivo Možný]. S-Obzor, 3 (3): 32-46

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Reply to: MOŽNÝ, I. (1994) : Institucionalizace chudoby v čechách: výzva sociální transformaci [Institutionalization of powerty in the Czech republic: A challenge for social transformation]. S-Obzor, 3 (3): 22-31

KONOPÁSEK, Z. (1993): Dětství jako sociální jev (Zpráva ze služební cesty I.) [Childhood as a social phenomenon (A travel report I.)]. S-Obzor, 2 (2): 58-62

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KONOPÁSEK, Z. (1993): Sociální zabezpečení (Zpráva ze služební cesty II.) [On social security (A travel report II.)]. S-Obzor, 2 (2): 63-69

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