| Special issue SOCIOLÓGIA-Slovak Sociological review No3,2004 www.sociologia.sav.sk or www.elis.sk Editor in Chief : prof. Ladislav Machacek (ladislav.machacek@savba.sk). The articles in this special issue are written by psychologists, sociologist and political scientists participating in the European Commission funded project "Orientations of Young Men and Women to Citizenship and European Identity", http://www.sociology.ed.ac.uk/youth. This project is ongoing and these articles report first findings. Data gathered during this project capture the views of young adults in the Czech and Slovak Republics on the eve of joining the European Union. It enables comparison of their views with the concerns of their peers in other member states. The project was designed
to explore the views and experiences of young men and women, aged 18-24,
in ten sites, five pairs of localities, across Europe. The sites were
chosen because of their location in paired regions or nations with histories
of interconnection and tension whose legacy may produce different orientations
to Europe. These are the city of Vienna in contrast to towns in the
Bregenz district in the region of Vorarlberg in Austria; the town of
Chemnitz in former East Germany, in contrast to the town of Bielefeld
in former West Germany; the city of Madrid in contrast to Bilbao in
the Basque Country in Spain; the city of Manchester in England in contrast
to the city of Edinburgh in Scotland, in the UK; and the city of Prague
in the Czech Republic in contrast to the city of Bratislava in the Slovak
Republic. Their linked histories have left contrasting contexts in terms
of socio-economic environments and arguably also in approaches to engagement
with Europe and the European Union. In four cases, the pairs of localities
are situated in two autonomous parts of the same nation state, but nevertheless
have somewhat different economic circumstances, different local nationalisms,
and, it is widely argued, different patterns of engagement with other
parts of Europe. Prague and Bratislava were once also cities within
a single nation state. Since their separation, Slovakia has had poorer
economic fortunes and arguably Slovakians have been more likely to look
eagerly towards the European Union, with more fervent hopes that their
new membership will improve their new state’s economic and social
standing. |