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Natural language processing (NLP) methods are designed to automatically process and analyze large amounts of textual data. The integration of this new-generation toolbox into sociology faces many challenges. NLP was institutionalized outside of sociology, while the expertise of sociology has been based on its own methods of research. Another challenge is epistemological: it is related to the validity of digital data and the different viewpoints associated with predictive and causal approaches. In our paper, we discuss the challenges and opportunities of the use of NLP in sociology, offer some potential solutions to the concerns and provide meaningful and diverse examples of its sociological application, most of which are related to research on Eastern European societies. The focus will be on the use of NLP in quantitative text analysis. Solutions are provided concerning how sociological knowledge can be incorporated into the new methods and how the new analytical tools can be evaluated against the principles of traditional quantitative methodology. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Based on a literature review, this paper addresses how political science and sociology incorporate religion in their theories and research. A particular focus is placed on how both sciences theorise the relationship between religion and politics. The paper argues that political science and sociology struggle with incorporating religion into their main theories, which reflect different views on religion's importance and its overall role in contemporary societies. Some key concepts, such as 'politicisation' and 'religionisation', are also discussed. A brief overview of the scholarship of religion in Central and Eastern Europe since the fall of communism is used as an example of how the radically changed social and political context was reflected in the scholarship. The paper's final section summarises current debates on religion, populism and culture in political science and sociology. It shows how a new way of communicating political messages produces complex and contradictory references to religion. While this is captured in the literature by interpreting religion as a cultural identity marker, the argument is that this should not be dissociated from the role of secular actors in imposing cultural features on some religions or political features on others. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This is a study of an action research project conducted in one of the biggest university departments for sociology in a Central Eastern European capital during the first half of the 2000s. The paper shows that researchers' images of society have a strong impact on social scientific methodology, scientific explanations and narratives. I offer an example of how realist approaches to science and technology studies can be used in a field study and discuss the benefits and limitations of such an endeavor, which I define as an interpretive and explanatory social scientific work. The analysis shows ways in which latent knowledge structures influenced the wording of a questionnaire used in the research, the types of data that were gathered, and how the data were interpreted. These knowledge structures include notions concerning local policy discussions, different social policy traditions, and images of a Roma minority struggling with the effects of structural poverty and prejudices. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Many studies have shown that childhood circumstances can have long term consequences that persist until old age. To better understand the transmission of early life circumstances, this paper analyses the effects of health and financial situation during childhood on quality of life after retirement as well as the mediating role of later life health, educational level, and income in this association. Moreover, this study is the first to compare these pathways across European regions. The analyses are based on data of 13,092 retirees aged ≥ 60 and ≤ 85 years from the fifth wave of the Survey of Health, Aging, and Retirement in Europe (SHARE) with full information on childhood and later life measures of health, educational level, financial situation, and quality of life as well as relevant covariates. Five European regions are studied: Central-Western Europe (Austria, Germany), Central-Eastern Europe (Czech Republic, Estonia, Slovenia), Northern Europe (Denmark, Sweden), Southern Europe (Italy, Spain), and Western Europe (Belgium, France, The Netherlands). Path analysis is used to identify the direct and indirect effects of childhood measures on quality of life. We find retirees’ quality of life to be associated with childhood finances and health in all five European regions. While both the direct and indirect effects of childhood health are rather moderate and homogeneous across regions, especially the direct effects of childhood finances on quality of life after retirement display a distinct North-South gradient being strongest in Southern Europe. Potential explanations for the regional variations are differences in the countries’ welfare systems. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article explores problems inherent in Polish postcolonial theory in relation to Central and Eastern Europe. The author puts forward the argument that a specific version of postcolonial theory was created in the Polish academy, characterised by the repetition of certain themes, motifs and ideas (and the omission of others), and recourse to a narrow band of authors. The article outlines the internal contradictions of Polish postcolonial theory in the conservative (Thompson, Skórczewski) and liberal (Janion) varieties. Also discussed is the fragmentary nature of Polish postcolonial research. The author diagnoses the 'Polonocentrism' of Polish postcolonial studies as the most serious problem for both schools of thought. In conclusion, the author discusses possible future directions for postcolonial theory in Poland. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Analyzing the sociology in Central and Eastern Europe before and after the Great Change in 1989, the article aims to present the main epistemological questions that Post-Western sociology raises for the discipline of sociology as a whole. The focus is put on a paradoxical feature in the development of sociology in the countries of Central and Eastern Europe: before 1989, under conditions of Marxist monoparadigmality, relative isolation of scientific cognition, and political and ideological pressure, sociological research in these countries was characterized by methodological rigor and conceptual innovativeness, while after 1989, in the context of institutionalized plurality of paradigms (polyparadigmality), and intensive scientific exchange, the dominant tendency is—for social scientists in the countries in question—to borrow methodologies, theories, and concepts from the Western sociological tradition, without analyzing the epistemic relevance of these loans with regard to the societies in which they are applied. This paradox is examined in terms of sociological production in two research fields: the general sociological theory of society and sociology of youth. Comparing studies and analyses carried out in these two fields in Central and Eastern Europe before and after the Great Change, the article demonstrates that Post-Western sociology is a valid research posture for a wide variety of sociological practices regardless of the concrete national, theoretical, or institutional frameworks in which researchers are working. Sensitivity to the context of research is what permits Post-Western sociology to eliminate cognitive hierarchies and inequalities and restores the epistemic autonomy of each cognitive practice, emphasizing the inevitable cultural variations in the interpretation of one and the same phenomenon and the impact of these variations on methodology. In this sense, Post-Western sociology raises important epistemological problems regarding the relationship between maintaining the disciplinary principles of sociological knowledge on the one hand, and the application of those principles in different epistemic contexts on the other hand. The main question could be formulated as follows: how does Post-Western sociology enrich the deontological and epistemological principles of the discipline and in what way does it contribute to developing its scientific project? [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article offers a discourse analysis of ideas of international brotherhood in Central and Eastern Europe. Taking the example of brotherly ideas centred on the Caucasus in Polish and Serbian media, it examines structures and dynamics of the imagined brotherly connections between these nations. Using the sociology of knowledge approach to discourse (SKAD) and critical geopolitics as a theoretical framework, a three-tier model of circulation of geopolitical imaginations is developed. The analysis interprets the emergence of brotherly ideas as resulting from the elite search for new geopolitical certainties after 1989. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In these pages I will present the results of a project, launched in 2008 by the European Union, the subject of which were the values of Europe. The idea of a Europe built on knowledge, civility, rule of law, inclusiveness, was in our mind, but we understood that this idea of Europe was conflicting with many other ideas about Europe and its destiny. At the end of our search, we have found that the best Europe is the Europe of the Founding Fathers. In 1946, Winston Churchill advocated European integration precisely to prevent the horrors of two world wars from ever happening again. From the beginning, the EU was linked to the USA. European heritage and American heritage are strictly connected. Many scholars, such as and T.G. Ash and J.G.A. Pocock, underline the point. The rebirth of classical Europe is the rebirth of collaboration, alliance, partnership, mutual friendship, common values. Western declinism is the classic self‑fulfilling prophecy, while, actually, however, what continue to exist are reasons for US strength and European eminence, which can be maximized rather than minimized (for those who care about the stability of the international system). The inventor of dynamite and philanthropist, Alfred Nobel is an icon of European ambivalence on science, which can be used in order to build bombs and in order to build peace. At the annual Nobel Prize Award Ceremony, in the Stockholm City Hall, every 10th December, the classical European spirit is alive and kicking even more each year. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]