2008/1

The electronic version of the first number of the sixth edition of the review Czech Society (Naše společnost). Czech Society issues Center for Public Opinion Research, Institute of Sociology of the Academy of Sciences of the Czech Republic.

A little personal recollection of Pavel Machonin.

Profile of scientist Pavel Machonin.

Using the concept of subjective social distance we focus on perceptions of occupational categories. First, the theoretical concept of social distance is introduced as a tool for measuring social stratification. Second, subjective hypothetical interactional distances to 22 occupational stimuli are analyzed with data from the Social Distances 2007 survey. People rate the stimuli hierarchically analogous to occupational prestige and socioeconomic status; however some minor divergence can be detected.

This article uses empirical data to evaluate Czech perceptions of lexical borrowing, based on a nationwide poll conducted in November 2005 by the Public Opinion Research Centre of the Institute of Sociology of the Academy ofSciences of the Czech Republic. The survey combines synchronic and diachronic perspectives, and is the first major studyof its kind since Tejnor, October 1970. It broadly concludes that most Czechs accept functionally necessary loanwords, but feel that their language contains a surfeit of peripheral foreign terms, which are used too frequently and somewhat inappropriately.

The article stands as the third part of a series about the question answering process during standardized surveys and elaborates the judgment making phase. The first part deals with attitude questions. In this regard, relevant theories of the nature of attitude are explained (true attitude model, construal model, the belief-sampling model); context effects that influence decision-making processes in the course of answering are described (i.

Researches of election preferences are probably the most monitored products of agencies for public opinion research. The information, which returns via media back to the public, not only describes social reality, but sometimes also co-creates this reality. Results of the researches as such can affect public attitudes. For this reason, among others, we should understand what information the...