Political interest is the basis for an individual's informed and consistent engagement with politics, making it essential to understand its origins. In this article we focus on a largely understudied factor: social involvement, which is conceptualized in terms of social trust and collective identification, both reflecting individuals' attachment to others. The primary aim is to explore the causal mechanisms through which social involvement shapes political interest. We propose three explanatory mechanisms formulated in terms of social empathy, common good, and political efficacy. Drawing on data from the 2017 European Values Survey, our analysis provides robust empirical support for the common good and empathy mechanisms. The findings suggest that social trust and collective identification enhance political interest by reinforcing the perceived value and significance of political involvement. The efficacy argument, however, received no support. Overall, the results underscore the significant role of trust in unfamiliar others and cosmopolitan identification.

Although leadership theory recognises the importance of leaders in a team, research has mostly focused on various personal characteristics of leaders or leadership style, while less attention has been paid to the social relationships in which leaders are embedded. We therefore examine both internal and external social ties of leaders with the aim of identifying variations in the network patterns of team leaders. We hypothesise that leaders' relationship patterns lead to different network structures, which in turn create differences in leadership roles. By examining the social networks of team leaders from Slovenian and Finnish organisations between 2009 and 2012, we empirically identify variations in leaders' social networks. The results suggest four distinct social structures within which team leaders perform their leadership roles. We have shown that leadership roles can be distinguished from teams and team leaders based on the characteristics of social networks.

Abstract. In the article, we discuss how the political communication and interpersonal influence found in discussion networks add to fragmentation of the political space and the strengthening of political parties at the extremes of the political continuum. To this end, we analyse the mobilisation potential held by discussion networks of people who position themselves on the margins of the left–right political spectrum and compare them with the networks of those positioned in the centre and those who do not align themselves politically. The analysis focuses on four features of discussion networks: size, homogeneity, frequency of political discussion, and frequency of trying to persuade others. The results of the analysis show the most extensive mobilisation potential is found among people in the centre of the political continuum, while people on the far right and far left have networks that are the basis of intense political communication with people holding different political views but lack opportunities for the broad network dissemination of their political views and attitudes. Keywords: discussion networks, political communication, left-right political orientation

Abstract. Since 2015, the residential neighbourhood ofRožna dolina has experienced intense building activitythat has been supported by the city of Ljubljana, but hasbeen met with resistance from the local inhabitants, thusbecoming the most visible local expression of the universalcapitalist conflict between the use and exchangevalue of space. The article main aim is to analyse theconcrete manifestation of this conflict by looking at theoperations of the local state, investors and inhabitantsin the production of space in Rožna dolina. The analysisshows that the conflict is influenced by the specificlocal state’s dependency on economic actors, by specificsof local real estate market and workings of developersand by the composition of inhabitants of Rožna dolina.Keywords: Ljubljana, spatial conflicts, appropriation ofrent, local state, real estate development

How did the economic crisis impact social capital in European societies? The empirical studies conducted so far provide contradictory conclusions about the strength and direction of its influence. We argue that to better understand the effects of the economic crisis on social capital (social trust, formal and informal networks) it is crucial to examine both its impact on people’s economic situation and the way it reshaped the relationship between individuals and political institutions and altered key political factors (political trust, the welfare state, political activism). Our analysis of European Social Survey data between 2006 and 2012 shows that changes in social trust were smaller than in formal and informal social networks. It also confirms that political factors played an important mediating role in producing these changes: changes in social trust and formal networks can especially be explained by the impact of the political factors, while variations in informal networks are mainly due to the changing economy. Moreover, the analyses show that while the economic crisis generally lowered social capital, some mechanisms such as a sense of togetherness and left-wing political activism, enhanced social capital.

This article examines the effects of macro-level processes – economic recession, growth of the service economy, and deindustrialisation – on the social support networks of residents of Slovenia in the period between 1987 and 2018. Before the transition, Slovenia enjoyed highly functional social support networks. The economic downturns of the early 1990s and late 2000s increased the probability of insufficient social support. The growth of the service economy saw the importance grow of formal sources of support. Socio-demographic changes captured by the notion of the post-industrialisation of society brought various effects: the increased educational level and diminished size of households impacted the growing presence of formal sources and mixed social ties in support networks, while the ageing population contributed to the increased presence of networks with insufficient social support. We conclude that Slovenian social support networks have experienced a distinct transformation over the last three decades.

Although research collaboration has been studied extensively, we still lack understanding regarding the factors stimulating researchers to collaborate with different kinds of research partners including members of the same research center or group, researchers from the same organization, researchers from other academic and non-academic organizations as well as international partners. Here, we provide an explanation of the emergence of diverse collaborative ties. The theoretical framework used for understanding research collaboration couples scientific and technical human capital embodied in the individual with the social organization and cognitive characteristics of the research field. We analyze survey data collected from Slovenian scientists in four scientific disciplines: mathematics; physics; biotechnology; and sociology. The results show that while individual characteristics and resources are among the strongest predictors of collaboration, very different mechanisms underlie collaboration with different kinds of partners. International collaboration is particularly important for the researchers in small national science systems. Collaboration with colleagues from various domestic organizations presents a vehicle for resource mobilization. Within organizations collaboration reflects the elaborated division of labor in the laboratories and high level of competition between different research groups. These results hold practical implications for policymakers interested in promoting quality research.

The article discusses the social sources of collective identification. The main goal is to assess the relevance of three different sociological theories of collective identification, namely the theory of collectively possessed knowledge (Shils, 1991), the theory of nested identities (Calhoun, 1994) and the theory of ultimate community (Deutsch, 1966), for understanding the contemporary processes of European identity formation. In accordance with different theoretical frameworks, the empirical analysis of sources of European identification include the variables of social capital as measures of social integration, institutional trust and mobilisation through political networks, and cognitive competence. The results of the study confirm the importance of social networks for the strength of collective identification, and the role of political mobilisation through political parties, movements and discussion networks for selective identification with either immediate or distant collectivities. Cognitive competence theory does not seem to play a role in explaining the variations in the strength of European identification.

The economic crisis is bringing uncertainty, change, worries and distress into the everyday lives of people, which has an effect on the level and form of social capital. The literature offers two opposing arguments regarding the impact of shocks and material uncertainty on social capital. The first one emphasises the instrumental nature of interpersonal relations and claims that the increased need for mutual help and support that arises during crisis periods strengthens social networks. In contrast, the second argument brings forward the problem of a social networks overload, which threatens to break them up during crises. More importantly, interpersonal dependence can lead to the closing off of social responsibility and solidarity into narrow family networks, thus reducing social capital among social groups and in society in general. In this paper, we empirically confront these two arguments in the context of the econo- mic crisis of 2008 in Slovenia. We compare the characteristics of social networks and interpersonal trust before the crisis with those measured several years after it began.

The article addresses some issues related to the definition and analysis of scientific collaboration. Starting with a general presentation of studies on Slovenian co-authorship networks of researchers in four different disciplines, the article seeks to ascertain if there are any differences between disciplines that are more committed to the "Mode 1" production of knowledge and disciplines more committed to the "Mode 2" production of knowledge. The research is based on a bibliometric analysis of co-authorship networks, a quantitative web survey among scientists and qualitative interviews among a small group of leading representatives of the scientific community and R&D policy institutions in Slovenia.

In the debate on social capital, it is usually assumed that membership in voluntary associations is highly beneficial for the formation of civic values among the association's affiliates. Despite these theoretical expectations, comparative studies have so far found only a weak statistical relationship between associational involvement and tolerance in Western democracies and a nonsignificant or even negative relationship in the case of Eastern and Central European countries. In this article, the author further investigates the negative relationship between associational involvement and attitudes of social and political tolerance, the "dark side" of social capital. The author shows that when members of voluntary associations build particularized trust rather than generalized trust, this decreases their already low levels of social tolerance. Such situations are especially common in the countries of Eastern and Central Europe. Associational involvement also has negative effects on political tolerance. Associations are social contexts within which processes of interpersonal influence and political mobilization take place. This results in the reinforcement of civic as well as uncivic orientations of associational members.

Our purpose in this article is to study the characteristics of a research group's social capital. We proceed from the theoretical distinctions made in the literature on social capital, such as weak against strong ties, structural holes against cohesion and homogeneity against heterogeneity of a group. We assume that research groups differ systematically with respect to the kind of social capital they possess, which has an impact on the scientific performance of the members of these groups. Social capital of research groups is conceptualized in terms of complete networks. We use the data from the Slovenian study of academic research groups conducted in 2003/2004. Research groups include Ph.D. students, their supervisors, and other researchers. They are representative of the Slovenian research groups, which include Ph.D. students under the "junior researchers" program financed by the Slovenian Ministry of Technology and Higher Education. We explore the variation in research groups' social capital by using a clustering approach. The analysis reveals three types of research group's social capital: weak social capital, strong social capital of a bonding kind, and strong social capital of a bridging type. Research groups with weak social capital are small, and cooperation ties among group members are weak. Bonding social capital is characteristic for small research groups with strong cooperation ties, which are embedded in a dense network structure. Bridging social capital is found in research groups which consist of a larger number of researchers from different institutions connected with one another with ties of a moderate strength. The network structure in the latter case shows structural holes. In the last part of the paper, we ask whether scientific performance of Ph.D. students varies according to the social capital of their research groups. We found that students who are involved in research groups with bridging social capital show significantly better performance than students who are members of the groups with either bonding or weak social capital. The relationship between the strength of ties and performance seems to be non-linear: it is the moderate strength of social ties and moderate group cohesiveness, which comes along the cooperation across different institutions and disciplines, that is the most beneficial for the performance of Ph.D. students.

This article explores the relationship between trust and control by investigating the direct and indirect effects of different types of trust on company performance. A survey of small and medium size firms in Slovenia and Bosnia-Herzegovina is used to demonstrate how the level of trust entrepreneurs have in institutions and business partners influences the choice of governance mechanisms that coordinate economic activities among actors. The article shows that the institutional environment in Slovenia generates more trust, which enables actors to base their business relationships on trust rather than contract. In addition, when actors rely on trust it is usually institutional trust rather than interpersonal trust. In contrast, Bosnia, with a weaker institutional environment, generates less trust, leading actors to base their economic relationships on contract. However, when trust is used in Bosnia as a basis of business relationships it is likely to be centred on interpersonal trust. These results have important implications for the understanding of the process by which trust affects economic performance. The use of institutional trust as a basis for a governance mechanism may lead to increased economic performance of companies due to the inclusive nature of sociability patterns and tie formation since institutions generalize trust beyond a specific set of exchange partners. The use of interpersonal trust may limit economic potential due to its reliance on strong ties embedded within cohesive groups marked with closure.

The article reviews major findings in the studies of social networks and con- tentious politics within the structural approach. By discussing the contribution of struc- turally oriented research over the previous emphases on personal pathology and social disorganization, it also points to the limitations of such approach. The focus on political opportunities, resources and social networks should be supplemented with the analysis of social processes and interactive dynamics that account for the structural (or network based) effects. The problem of the interaction between structural and cultural aspects of the process of political mobilization is discussed in relation with the following topics: repertoire of action, movement emergence, scale shift, and recruitment.

Clanek povzema novejse razprave na temo socialnega kapitala. Predlaga operacionalizacijo socialnega kapitala s pomocjo analize socialnih omrežij, kot alternativo clanstvu v intermediarnih organizacijah in medosebnemu zaupanju. Prednost analize omrežij je, da omogoca razlikovanje med posameznikiin družbami z razlicnimi režimi socialnih omrežij /socialnega kapitala in ne le med tistimi z manj/vec ali prisotnim/odsotnim socialnim kapitalom. Uporabnost operacionalizacije socialnega kapitala kot socialnega omrežja preverjamo na podrocju politicnega vedenja. Na podlagi analize podatkov, zbranih za bivso Jugoslavijo v sredini 1980-ih, pokažemo, da režim socialnih omrežij vpliva na socialno toleranco, na vkljucenost v konvencionalne oblike politicne participacije in na znacaj protestne akcije.

Zajeti so demografski podatki o ocetu in materi respondenta, kot je poklic, narodnost in izobrazba, primerni za analizo socialnega izvora, družbene stratifikacije in mobilnosti. Sledijo podatki o selitvah. Opisana je trenutna opremljenost stanovanja in stanovanjski standard, lastnistvo in karakteristike pogojev bivanja, ter ocenjeno zadovoljstvo s stanovanjskimi razmerami. Poglavje o bivalnem okolju obsega popis dostopnih storitev in ustanov v neposredni bližini; motnje in ekoloski pogoji bivanja. Sledi podrobna sestava gospodinjstva, ocena medosebnih odnosov, stevilo in izvensolske aktivnosti otrok, nacin otroskega varstva, ostareli, ter poklic in izobrazba partnerja. Dodana so vprasanja o opravljanju gospodinjskih del, kot je kuhanje, nakupovanje in pospravljanje, ter vzdrževanje. Podrobna so vprasanja o zdravstvenem pocutju, težavah, boleznih, nezgodah, zdravstvenih navadah, zdravljenju, kvaliteti zdravstvenih uslug, vprasanja o kajenju in pitju alkoholnih pijac. Tema se zakljuci z vprasanji o poznavanju, strahu in staliscih do nacinov preprecevanja bolezni AIDS. Sledi kratek razdelek o vrstah in kolicini prehrane. Naslednje poglavje o delovni karieri sprasuje o napredovanju in osebni zaposlitveni zgodovini, brezposelnosti, iskanju druge zaposlitve. Poleg so vprasanja o zaposlitvi, delovnih pogojih, zaslužku, odnosu do nadrejenih, razporeditvi delovnega casa. Vprasani porocajo o ekonomskem stanju in premoženju lastnega gospodinjstva in o varcevalnih navadah. Prosti cas zajema preživljanje dopusta, pocitnic, popis prostocasnih aktivnosti in zadovoljstvo, ovire pri ukvarjanju z želenimi aktivnostmi, aktivnost v drustvih. Respondenti v poglavju družbeni vpliv porocajo o lastni javni aktivnosti in clanstvu v politicnih in samoupravnih organizacijah. Socialna omrežja so opisana skozi povezave in karakteristike najvec petih za respondenta pomembnih bližnjih oseb in neformalne vire pomoci. Na koncu ocenijo se pogoje življenja nasploh ter izboljsanje v primerjavi s 5-6 let nazaj. Demografska vprasanja vkljucujejo spol, zakonski stan, izobrazbo, poklic, leto rojstva, vernost, velikost kraja in regijo.

Integrated elite structure is the key for regime stability because ‘consensually integrated’ elites are more inclusive of different elite circles and opposing elite factions, thus reducing the possibility of democratic breakdowns. Integration of elites in the national arena, and consequently the consolidation of democracy, depends largely on ability of elite actors to form ties with people in different social and policy circles. Elite integration is thus defined as crosscutting elite circles. In the study of ego-networks of elite actors in Slovenia before and after the transition we found systematic changes in elite structure that confirm the general trend toward elite integration. We found that post-transition networks were larger, more inclusive of weak ties and contacts with dissimilar point of view or sectoral affiliation. This trend of opening-up, and reachingout of post-transition elite actors is consistent with the increasing elite integration. While these findings indicate the trend toward elite integration in Slovenia, the path to consensual unity of elites is still long and uncertain.