Projects

OP JAK Excelent Research in SHUV: Ageing of the population and related challenges for health and social systems (AGEING-CZ)

• Principal Investigator: dr. Jakub Hlávka (ECON MUNI)
• Principal Co-investigator in FBE MENDELU: doc. PhDr. Martina Rašticová, Ph.D.
• Project duration: 01/2025-12/2028
• Funder: MŠMT ČR
• More info here

Abstract

An ageing population creates economic, fiscal and social risks. An older population will demand more health and social services. The provision of these services will then tie up labour market capacity and impose additional economic and staffing burdens on public systems, as well as on the sandwich generation of younger people. Finding effective solutions to the problems associated with an ageing population will be key to maintaining economic competitiveness and social harmony in society.

OP JAK Excelent Research in SHUV: Doing it all on our own: the opportunities and risks of the individualisation of society (PRINS)

• Principal Investigator: doc. Anna Ševčíková (FSS MUNI)
• Principal Co-investigator in FBE MENDELU: Mgr. Martin Lakomý, Ph.D.
• Project duration: 05/2025-12/2028
• Funder: MŠMT ČR
• Project number: CZ.02.01.01/00/23_025/0008743
• More info here

Abstract

The PRINS project explores how individualisation is changing Czech society. With an emphasis on an interdisciplinary approach, it brings together disciplines such as psychology, sociology and computer science to better understand the impact of individualisation on family relationships, mental health, social cohesion and research methodology. The results of the project aim to address current challenges such as the polarisation of society, the digitisation of mental health care and modern qualitative data collection.The project brings together leading Czech scientists from five major institutions: Masaryk University, Charles University, Academy of Sciences of the Czech Republic, Brno University of Technology and Mendel University. Thanks to the close cooperation of internationally renowned experts, the project brings new knowledge and tools for use in policy and practice.

COST Action CA21107: Work Inequalities in Later Life Redefined by Digitalization (DIGI-net)

• Chair and Principal Investigatorr: doc. PhDr. Martina Rašticová, Ph.D., PEF MENDELU
• Principal Co-investigator: Universities and research teams from 39 countries
• Project duration: 11/2022 – 10/2026
• Funder: European Cooperation in Science and Technology (COST) – EU-funded
• https://www.cost.eu/actions/CA21107/

Abstract

Digitalisation provides both opportunities and challenges as work could become more efficient, healthy and creative, but also more insecure, stressful, and difficult. Simultaneously, European labour markets experience a ‘demographic revolution’ since the share of 50+ workers (born in 1972 or earlier) is larger than ever. Additionally, this 50+ cohort will retire later than previous cohorts because of increasing pension ages in many countries according to OECD data. There is still academic debate on whether digitalisation primarily hurts or helps the position of older workers. This uncertainty makes it vital to understand the interplay between ageing and digitalisation. This Action refers to five central areas in which contemporary understanding of this interplay is more or less non-existent.

GA ČR Standard GA23-07983S: Corporate social behavior and responses to CSR policies, institutions, and economic distress

• Principal Investigator: doc. Ing. Svatopluk Kapounek, Ph.D. 
• Team members from the Research Insitute Smart Society: Ing. Renata Kučerová, Ph.D., doc. Ing. Helena Chládková, Ph.D.
• Project duration: 01/2023-12/2025

Project Objectives

The main objective of this project is to identify responses of corporate social behavior to public CSR policies, institutional environment, and firm-specific attention to CSR before, during, and after global economic recessions.

Abstract

The project investigates the impact of public CSR policies on corporate social behavior enhanced by the presence of democratic institutions and social trust. Moreover, we critically assess CSR performances to avoid contradictions between declared values and actual behavior. We explore firm-specific factors which motivate firms to declare CSR activities without complying with CSR norms. We put special emphasis on firm employment policy during global economic recessions and brand activism. 

GA ČR Standard GA23-05096S: Geographies of Crip Temporalities: Time in Everydayness of People with Disabilities 

• Principal Investigator: RNDr. Robert Osman, Ph.D., Masaryk University
• Principal Co-investigator in FBE MENDELU: Mgr. Hana Porkertová, Ph.D. 
• Project duration: 01/2023-12/2025

Project Objectives

The project has three objectives: (i) to understand the ways in which the chrononormativity of Czech society and disabilities intersect (ii) to express crip temporalities as affirmative and subversive; (iii) and to develop disability geography in the context of the Czech Republic.

Abstract

The project studies the relationship between disability and time. It reacts to the fact that geography has viewed disability chiefly through disabling spaces while disabling times have been neglected. The project focuses on how time and disability intersect in everyday situations. It asks how people with disability encounter normative conceptions of time and what alternative temporalities they create. The analysis uses the perspective of ‘crip temporalities’ and the critical concept of ‘chrononormativity’, which show the everydayness of people with disabilities as being confined by time normatives but also as liberated from these normatives. The project is built on qualitative research methods—in-depth interviews, diaries and focus groups, exploring the everyday temporalities of people with various disabilities. The main contributions are the interconnection of crip temporalities and disability geography, the development of disability studies in the Czech Republic, articulation of hitherto overlooked forms of ableism and the emancipation of ab-normal temporalities. 

GA ČR Standard GA23-05449S: People Like Us? A Reverse Sociology of Migration in Czechia 

• Principal Investigator: doc. Bernadette Nadya Jaworsky, Faculty of Social Studies, Masaryk University
• Principal Co-investigator in PEF MENDELU: Mgr. Radka Klvaňová, Ph.D.
• Project duration: 01/2023-12/2025
• revsocmig.cz/

Abstract

The overarching aim of this study is to make the agency and meaning-making of immigrants more central in migration research, focusing specifically on issues of cultural racism and Othering. We pursue this aim by developing a novel theoretical program, namely, a “reverse sociology of migration.” This program allows us to explore how immigrants negotiate their positioning vis-a-vis the Czech society and how they draw symbolic boundaries in relation to different Others, including both the native born and other immigrants. To explore the perspectives of immigrants living in the city of Brno, we will conduct qualitative interviews with a sample of 40 adults who have come to Czechia from one of the following countries or cultural geographical regions: (1) Slovakia, (2) Ukraine, (3) Vietnam, (4) Middle East, (5) Africa, and who have lived in the city for at least 5 years. In addition, we will interview 10 Ukrainian refugees that have entered Czechia since 2022. To analyze the data, we employ cultural sociological, interpretive methods. 

Project GA ČR: Digitalisation in the Labour Market: Challenges, Opportunities and Inequalities for Older Workers

• Principal Investigator: Mgr. Martin Lakomý, PhD (Mendel University in Brno, FBE)
• Principal Co-investigator: PhDr. Alena Křížková, PhD (Institute of Sociology of the Czech Academy of Sciences)
• Members representing Mendel University: doc. PhDr. Martina Rašticová, PhD, Ing. Jakub Šácha, PhD, Ing. Drahomíra Zajíčková, Mgr. Štěpán Konečný, Ph.D.
• Project duration: 07/2021 - 06/2024

Goals

The project aims to identify the consequences of changes brought by Industry 4.0 for older workers in the multidimensional context of their lives by its focus on socially structured inequalities in later life, including their intersectional nature and accumulation across the life course.

Abstract

The gradual digitalisation of the economy and the inception of Industry 4.0 eliminate routine jobs at the expense of more flexible and creative positions. However, these processes towards the digital economy make new demands on workers, who adapt to the new conditions to a variable degree. This project focuses on older workers and the role of their gender, age, ethnicity, type of job, and life course experience in labour market adaptability. The main objective is to examine how older workers in different types of jobs react to increasing digitalisation and restructuring of the labour market in the European context. The project will address the topic with qualitative and quantitative methods of data collection and analysis, combining existing international data with new data sources collected during our project in the Czech Republic. The main outcome will be a development of the theoretical concepts linked to the working adaptability of older workers to various sources of inequality, a better understanding of the working positions and perception of their situation.

Project GAČR: Disability geography – visually impaired experience with urban space

• Principal Investigator: RNDr. Robert Osman, Ph.D. , Masaryk University
• Principal Co-investigator: PhDr. Mgr. Hana Porkertová, Ph.D., Mendel University in Brno, RNDr. Lucie Pospíšilová, Ph.D., Charles University 
• Project duration: 01/2020 – 12/2022 

Abstract

The research project has three main goals – to understand the spatial experience of visually impaired people; critically reflect the prevailing conception of visuality in current geography; to establish disability geography in the Czech context. Visuality has dominated the Western world since ancient times, which leads to devaluing experience that is not based on visual perception. The favoritism of sight has also permeated both natural and social sciences, including both physical and human geography. The results of geographical research often consist of distances, angles, or measures, all of them captured in a visual form like maps, graphs, pictures, photographs etc. The spatial experience of visually impaired people offers a critical reflection of the dominance of visuality in human geography and opens up a question of how to conceptualize this experience geographically. The research draws on the poststructuralist approaches that focus on spatial practices – urban space is not a starting point in which miscellaneous activities are being done, but a result of these activities/practices, from urban planning to living in such a space. The project follows disability geography that focuses on personal experience with space and departs from the conviction that the modern city is configured for able-bodied subjects, and thus neglects other bodies. The research examines comprehending space and its borders in the visually disabled perspective, the effect of the type of assisted movement on experience with space, or studies how visuality is projected into the visually impaired experience.  The research uses qualitative research methods – repeated semistructured interviews and go-along research. 

EEA Grant

• Human capital development. Mobility for partnership between Mendel University and University of Iceland to strengthen inclusive education, equal treatment and respect to human rights.
• Principal Investigator: doc. PhDr. Martina Rašticová Ph.D. (MENDELU)
• Principal Co-investigator: Associate Professor Sigurveig Sigurdardottir (University of Iceland)
• Project duration: 08/2021 – 08/2022
• eeagrants.org

 

Abstract

The aim of the project is to strengthen the cooperation and partnership between Mendel University in Brno and University in Iceland, esp. in terms of inclusive education, equal treatment and respect to human rights. The growing number of students from diverse backgrounds and with various needs is a phenomenon that most of the universities in Europe embrace. Thus, sharing their experience is a crucial part of getting through the process of diversification successfully, with the utmost respect for all students. These priorities are described also in strategic documents of both participating organisations.

 

 

MASUDEM: Master Studies in Sustainable Development and Management (MASUDEM)

• Principal Investigator: prof. Ing. Anetta Čaplánová, Ph.D., The University of Economics in Bratislava
• Members representing Mendel University: doc. PhDr. Martina Rašticová, Ph.D.
• Project duration: 2023 – 2025
• Project number: 101082797 Erasmus+ CBHE (ERASMUS-EDU-2022-CBHE-STRAND-2), European Education and Culture Executive Agency (EACEA)
• masudem.org

 

Enhancing Digital and Soft Skills for Ageing Workforce (EDSAW)

• Principal Investigator: prof. Ing. Anetta Čaplánová, Ph.D., The University of Economics in Bratislava
• Members representing Mendel University: Mgr. Bc. Ondřej Pavelek, Ph.D.
• Project duration: 2024 – 2026
• Project number: 2023-1-SK01-KA220-ADU-000159273, Erasmus+ vzdělávání dospělých, klíčová akce 2 (KA220-ADU)
• edsaw.eu

Projekt č. 24-PKVV-UM-002, Posilování kapacit veřejných vysokých škol na Ukrajině 2024

• Název česky: Posilování rezilience univerzit: Česko-ukrajinské partnerství pro digitální vzdělávání, výzkumnou spolupráci a diverzitní management
• Principal Investigator in FBE MENDELU: doc. PhDr. Martina Rašticová, Ph.D.
• Principal Co-investigator: Nataliia Versal, Ph.D., Taras Ševčenko University, Kiiev, Ukraine
• Project duration: 03/2024 – 12/2024
• Funder: Ministerstvo zahraničních věcí

 

Projekt č. 23-PKVV-UM-008, Posilování kapacit veřejných vysokých škol na Ukrajině 2023

• Název česky: Meziuniverzitní výzkumná a pedagogická spolupráce s důrazem na předávání českého know-how v oblasti managementu vysokého školství, spolupráce v odborné publikační, vědecké a akademické činnosti
• Principal Investigator in FBE MENDELU: doc. PhDr. Martina Rašticová, Ph.D.
• Principal Co-investigator: Nataliia Versal, Ph.D., Taras Ševčenko University, Kiiev, Ukraine
• Project duration: 06/2023 -12/2023
• Funder: Ministerstvo zahraničních věcí
• tak2023.info