STUDYING &
TEACHING SOCIOLOGY
Aware that Internet is becoming ever more indispensable
electronic studying and teaching
I am therefore publishing on this page and linked internet pages regularly updated first of all the electronically supported sociology courses Introduction to Sociology I,II, Introduction to the Theory of Society, Theories and methods of society research, Sociology of knowledge and Action Research.
I am inviting you to participate in exciting and pioneering work of setting up and developing of above mentioned and other electronically supported interactive courses using the open source software called "Moodle" at:
http://moodle.f.bg.ac.rs/course/category.php?id=3,
http://moodle2.f.bg.ac.rs/course/index.php?categoryid=3 and
http://moodle2.f.bg.ac.rs/course/index.php?categoryid=1.
If you cannot decipher the script, in the "view" section of your internet browser just choose "encoding" and "Unicode (UTF-8)" You should also allowe pop - ups in order to be able to participate in Moodle sites' activities.
My immediate motive for constructing this home page was to be able to individualize my response to the cyber age imperative. It compels practically each contemporary academician to make her/his syllabi, biography and bibliography available on the Internet, available on the Internet, even when the servers of this original home page or of the Belgrade University Faculty of Philosophy Moodle Sociology Courses sites are not available. Such personalization and spreading of internet open source publishing risk is not possible on an official University site.
Another Important medium and long term reason for input of effort in this home page project is the goal to innovatively benefit from the complex use of this visum to the sociologists' cyber society. Firstly, to enrich myself through interactive exchange of information and views, and, secondly to enjoy the fruits of a possible success in the quest for collaborators in the participative research of society among colleagues sharing similar general and concrete research interests.
The brief summary of my official site biography, if it existed, would probably sound like this: "Born in 1951. in Belgrade, Serbia, Yugoslavia. Studies of sociology finished in 1974 at the Department of Sociology, Faculty of Philosophy, University of Belgrade. At the same Department obtained MA degree (1979), Ph.D. degree (1991) and in 1997 the position of the Associate Professor instructing Introduction to Sociology I, II, Introduction to the Theory of Society, Theories and methods of society research, Sociology of knowledge and Action Research. Published a monographs Development, Religion, War, (1995), Transition – Where From and Where To (2012) and numerous contributions to books and essay collections, interactive digitalised textbooks and practicums for electronically supported courses, articles in journals and on the Internet, book reviews and critical comments, papers presented at the world and European conferences of international professional and scientific associations. They are all dealing with sociology of knowledge inspired historic contextualization of sociological theories and corresponding methodologies, and application of findings of longitudinal comparisons and of critical analyses of different local, national, regional and global strategies of social, economic, political and cultural development in mitigation and prevention of socially generated war complex disasters, through participatory action research promotion of stakeholders' democratic and creative participation in strategic decision-making. " Some of the reactions to my writings can be found in the relevant section of the Research gate at https://www.researchgate.net/profile/Vera_Vratusa/stats.
On this home page I would like as well to present an attempt at self-reflexive examination of the interdependence between personal and professional biography in a changing social and historic context.
I hope dear home page visitor and potential Internet communication and research partner, that you will one day read this self-searching autobiography demonstrating the application of my theoretical and methodological credo in the field of my general research interest in sociology of knowledge approach to the study of the history of social theories and their social embodiment within different individual and collective bearers of concepts, strategies and practice of social development. This would give me the opportunity to learn from your reaction, critical comments, sugestions and your own experience.
The fact that my first name means "faith" in Serbian, my mother's tongue, might explain my tendency to express my main standpoint in terms of a firm belief that the farthest we can hope to approach to the ideal of the scientific objectivity, is to attempt to control our subjective biases as much as possible. We should strive to become conscious and explicitly state to others our own inescapably particular and value ridden assumptions, formed by combination of our a) inborn, b) socially determined and c) irreducibly individual characteristics. We should at the least strive that our approach to research of complex social processes that interest us be holistic and comprehensive as well, dialectically synthesizing comparative structural-functional and historic analysis on the macro level from without, and biographical, phenomenological and ethnographic methodology on the micro level from within.
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| ALison - Free Learning |
Please send me your comments and questions to vvratusa@sezampro.rs, vvratusa@f.bg.ac.rs or vera.veritas@gmail.com.
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WHY THE
HOME PAGE OF All updates of this page after December 2010 see here VRATUŠA ( - ŽUNJIĆ) UNIVERSITY OF BELGRADE FACULTY OF PHILOSOPHY, Department of Sociology © 2002 + UN SECURITY COUNCIL To: france-presse@un.int ; rusun@un.int ; un@fmprc.gov.cn ; uk@un.int ; bulgaria@un.int ; info@cameroonmission.org ; guinea@un.int ; mexico@un.int ; syria@un.int ; ang-un@angolamissionun.org ; chile@un.int ; contact@germany-un.org ; spain@spainun.org ; Pakistan@un.int Sent: Monday, March 24, 2003 2:44 PM Subject: Thank you so far, and please continue to exercise responsibly your duty Dear UN Security Council Members, Thank you for not having succumbed so far to the enormous pressure of the representatives of the oil and war industry capital interests and refused to be the accomplice of the cold blooded mass murder. I am pleading with you like millions of people in the world today to continue to realize responsibly your duty according to the UN Charter and to order without delay the immediate stop to this criminal war of aggression. Today is the fourth anniversary since the same main perpetrators of the crime against peace, began the bombing of Yugoslavia under the pretext of bringing peace and security to everybody living in Kosovo and Metohija. The results are devastating. Under the cover of UN mission and in drastic violation of the Resolution 1244, people of all ethnic affiliations, but mostly Serbs, are being killed and abducted (more than 3000), driven out of their homes (more than 250 000), daily attacked and intimidated. Entire population is falling ill and dying from cancer (more than doubled incidence rate) and other diseases, caused by remains of radioactive and toxic depleted uranium dust and poverty. Entire economy is ruined, centuries old cultural monuments and cemeteries are being destroyed, but arms, drug and slave trafficking are thriving, while the active and former representatives of UN administration participate in illegal privatization of state, social, church and even private property for the benefit of transnational corporations with headquarters in their home countries. The newest evidence of utmost failure of this UN mission is closing down of US and British representatives' bureaus in Pristina out of fear that this time they will be the victims of the same or new terrorists whom they previously supported and presented as freedom fighters. The consequences of aggression on Afghanistan are also catastrophic and getting worse by day. Please listen therefore to the outcry of humanity. Demand the immediate stop to the present bombing. Put finally an end to the ordeal of the Iraq people who had been suffering the longest under the genocidal bombs and UN sanctions, that so far took the lives of more than one million children. Then proceed to return all UN missions to the right track of real peace keeping instead of crime and plunder condoning or even promoting. I am imploring you to courageously live up to your responsibilities defined in the Charter of the UN. The survival of humanity, including your own children, depends on it. professor of sociology Beograd, Srbia, former Yugoslavia
Act permanently in defense of humanity against imperialist apologists of "humanitarian intervention"
Video "There is no humanitarian war" made at the occasion of the tenth anniversary of NATO bombing can be seen here Above imploration to the members of the UN Security Council has proven to be in vain. The people of Bosna and Hercegovina, AP Kosovo and Metohija, Iraq, Afghanistan are still suffering the effects of crimes against peace performed by US led NATO imperialistic forces through radioactive bombing assaults from the sky and/or the terrorist attacks by their regular and proxy paramilitary forces on the ground, complemented by the "protectorate" institutions impoverishing and terrorising local population. In the context of global accumulation of capital crisis, the domination over oil and other strategic resources hungry financial oligarchy is attempting to recolonize former Second and Third world through execution or preparation of new terrorist aggressions under a humanitarian and anti terrorism pretext in Lebanon, Gaza, Iran, Syria... Ideological apologists of NATO "humanitarian interventions", in fact genocide caused by bombings with radioactive projectiles, like Michael Walzer , together with ad hoc Tribunals paid for by NATO member states' financial oligarchy, continue brain washing aggression by redefining as genocide, as a rule contrary to forensic evidence , exclusively war crimes perpetrated by one side in the civil wars that financial oligarchy encourages around the world according to the age old imperial tactics to easier attain its occupation and exploitation aims. As in the worst days of the League of Nations, present representatives of the United Nations' member states are watching silently its Charter being violated. How many people more have to die, be maimed and contaminated, or driven out of their homes before the more responsible representatives of the world nations resolutely stop further aggression of the would be rulers of the world?!
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LIVING IN &
RESEARCHING SOCIETY
‡
This page will serve
its purpose if it becomes the meeting point of colleagues
sharing common concrete Interest in
the participatory research
of social causes of war complex disaster and their prevention instead
of their apology
through transformation of dominant social relations in direction
of democratic and creative participation in strategic decision making.
In order to enable and promote communication, debate and partnership networking between students, experts and all affected social actors worldwide concerned with the participatory research of social participation, I have begun to realize the idea of interactive Internet forum construction on this and other themes. Join the International Sociological’s Associations Research Committee 10 Internet Forum and post at http://moodle2.f.bg.ac.rs/course/view.php?id=47 your opinions, knowledge and action plans concerning participation, organizational democracy and self-management as theory, research method, social institution and social development strategy, its history, present state, perspectives...and react to postings of others.
Presently I am attempting to bring together colleagues co-members of the Institute for the Sociological Research as well as all other colleagues that might be interested in the proposition to build a common research instrument and collaborate in multi-national research projects and funding competitions. It would enable us to systematically collect, through a form of participative research, comparable and longitudinal data on attitudes toward the actually dominant forms of social production of complex disasters, and on the preferred forms of the organization of ownership and participation in decision-making social relations in the future.
The concern for
this subject matter motivated me to become more active member of the International
Sociological Association's
Research Committee
10 on participation, organizational democracy and self management
and one of the founding members of the European Sociological Association's
Disaster, Conflict & Social Crisis Research Network
in contrast to predominantly observing membership in more theoretically
minded research groups. I warmly recommend them to you if you have at
the moment similar research focus.
Please send me your comments and questions to vera.veritas@gmail.comor write them in the discussion part of the electronically supported sociology courses Introduction to Sociology I,II, Introduction to the Theory of Society, Theories and methods of society research, Sociology of knowledge, and Action Research.