Tiltai

Scientific journal Tiltai / Bridges / Brücken published by Klaipėda University (established in 1991) is devoted to the issues of social sciences, and seeking academic dialogue, also to other human and society functioning-related humanities and biomedical sciences, with expand and interpret different social phenomena and current issues from an interdisciplinary perspective. The publications attempts at analysing and solving actual problems of economy, management, demography, social geography, geopolitics, political sciences, history, education, religious, regional planning and land use, other social problems. Science has no borders. Therefore scientific cooperation is one of the most important elements in the progress of world’s community. Scientists from different countries of the world are kindly invited to write for and contribute to the journal.

Women’s alcohol dependence is a serious concern for the whole of society, negatively affecting not only various important areas of the lives of women themselves, but essentially the mental health of future generations. Researchers have attempted to address the main problems associated with women’s drinking; nevertheless, their findings are still incomplete. Moreover, relatively little scholarly attention has been paid to exploring idiosyncratic alcohol-dependent women identity development processes. This study aims to fill the existing gap in the literature, by conducting an empirical study that would help elucidate the main psycho-social aspects contributing significantly to the identity development of alcohol-dependent women. Ten self-identified alcohol-dependent women participated in the study. Data was collected through life stories and in-depth interviews. The constructivist grounded theory approach (K. Charmaz) was used as a methodological strategy to explore how alcohol-dependent women develop and express their identities in their life stories. In this study, we present internal and external identity development processes, revealing the dilemma of internal detachment by alcohol-dependent women developing an illusory identity. The main aspects of this theoretical structure include compensatory adaptation, power seeking, and avoiding helplessness, which create a vicious triangle, with the need for acceptance and the fear of rejection at its core, all contributing to the development of an illusory identity. Moreover, based on traditional theoretical frameworks, the study builds on the premise that such internal detachment is linked to self-integrity problems, which is further associated with participants’ pursuit of a search for self-meaning in important others. The findings provide new insights about alcohol-dependent identity development processes, discuss the limitations and strengths of the current study, suggest directions for future studies, and highlight the need to see alcohol-dependent women’s problems from the perspective of identity, which is different from traditional psycho-pathological views.

The aim of this paper is to provide a structural review by analysing aspects of the relationship between prudential policy and systemic risk. It addresses the current research challenges associated with a lack of macro-prudential policy formalisation, guidance regarding its implementation and effectiveness measurement. Given the rising levels of interconnectedness between financial markets, the paper addresses the potential contagion or spill-over effects that foster change in systemic risk, especially in the case of market size differences. Finally, the paper discusses challenges associated with macro versus micro-prudential policy implementation, addressing difficulties in the measurement of systemic risk.

A substantial number of young people in Western countries are facing severe difficulties due to wider social, political and economic change. Using a review of the literature and a descriptive approach, this paper explores issues of youth education, training, employment and social capital on the Swedish welfare landscape, as important factors in the education of the social professions, to understand and meet the needs of young vulnerable populations. The research found growing uncertain conditions in young populations, growing socio-economic vulnerability, mental ill-health and insufficient access to the labour market. Furthermore, the results of the paper suggest shortcomings in the social services for disadvantaged young people, and current socio-political programmes seem to reinforce the existing pattern of inequality. The insights generated by this study have the ability to inform international, national and local evidence bases in this area. It may contribute to the support of reflective future practitioners who use research as an integral element of improving their holistic client-centred interventions. The article has been prepared in the frame of the project „Social Professions for Youth Education in the Context of European Solidarity“* with participation of Latvian, Lithuanian, Polish, and Swedish universities that deliver programmes of training social professionals.

The aim of the article is to give a social portrait of Lithuanian youth in the context of youth policy, and to consider such unsettled segments as unemployment, emigration (migration), the attitude towards family, social participation in societal possibilities, and the strengthening of intergenerational solidarity. These problematic segments cause the social exclusion of young people, thus requiring an appropriate strategy for training professionals who work with young people and who can develop models for the positive (skilful) socialisation of young people. The article evaluates Lithuanian and European youth policy guidelines and success in solving problems, as well as the response to public expectations regarding participation in future life. It provides an analysis of existing feasibility studies that reveal the current situation, and insights into the question. The results obtained foster the formulation of a strategy for training social professionals focused on youth work. The article concentrates on a new European Union programme, the ‘European Solidarity Corps’, which aims to give young people opportunities to contribute to local and global problem-solving within the framework of personal and professional career design for youth. It has been prepared within the framework of the project ‘Social Professions for Youth Education in the Context of European Solidarity’*, with the participation of Latvian, Lithuanian, Polish and Swedish universities that deliver programmes for training social professionals.

At the focus of this article, the motivation of a social worker is presented as an important aspect of effective professional functioning, which approaches the human being as a personality able to create and accumulate unique experiences. A holistic in-depth analysis of the process of motivation is employed to search for links between different motivational dimensions, such as the personality of the social worker, and the behavioural and environmental effects on professional identity. The aim to theoretically ground the motivation of a social worker as a prerequisite for an effective professional functioning requires carrying out research into the theoretical construct of motivation in order to explain it on a poly-systemic level and distinguish its components: stimulus, identification of stimulus, adaptation phase of an identified stimulus, action, and action control. The explanation and fixation of active elements of motivation take place in a vertical system of relations, where most attention is paid to causal ties and continuity of the social worker’s professional motivation.

An analysis of Lithuanian legislation has shown that documents regulating the development of teachers’ qualifications provides the teacher with an opportunity to improve personal, institutional and national educational needs for development, and defines requirements for educators and qualification development opportunities. However, research conducted in Lithuania shows that this process is frequently characterised as fragmentary, and that it lacks research on the needs of the development and planning of teachers’ qualifications, the connection with the educational process, and its practical application. In the meantime, teachers commonly disregarding the significance of the subsidiarity principle to the effectiveness of the development of teachers’ qualifications desire direct cooperation and the coordination of the need for the development of personal qualifications with the andragogue organiser, while ignoring the people responsible for it in educational institutions. The perception that the andragogue organiser’s activities must be designed taking into account not only the personal expectations of teachers but also the objectives and priorities of educational institutions and of the development of teachers’ qualifications raises a scientific issue: what type of andragogue organiser’s activity is effective for achieving the main goals (quality) in the development of teachers’ qualifications? The qualitative research conducted revealed the andragogue organiser’s role and the effectiveness of the activity and direction of improvement with respect to the performed functions, activity areas and competences, and justified the fundamental principles of the development of teachers’ qualifications. In the practical approach, empirical data presented in this article can be significant in: 1) seeking the effectiveness and improvement of activity of the andragogue organising teachers’ qualification development services in the Klaipėda district; 2) identifying the roles and responsibilities of the participants’ process in ensuring its quality.

The article discusses the declining juvenile crime rate in Klaipėda between 1995 and 2019. The city of Klaipėda was chosen as an empirical illustration allowing not only to focus on a social phenomenon but also to identify possible directions of wider interpretation and causal links. The authors have already presented a sociological reconstruction of the identities of Klaipėda between 1990 and 2010,* and therefore the dynamics of juvenile crime discussed in the light of new statistical, sociological and especially legal perspectives should be approached as a continuation of the analysis of juvenile crime in Klaipėda. Placing juvenile crime in the context of social problems, the authors see legal changes and programmes in juvenile justice as possible reasons for the declining juvenile crime rate. However, with the conclusions and discussion in the article being based on four hypothetical assumptions for the declining crime rate (delinquency is caused by the process of juvenile biological and social development; a completely opposite hypothesis: with the end of maturation, delinquent behaviour also ceases; links between delinquency and socially vulnerable families; a return to K. Mannheim’s idea of a contract between the elite of society and youth) provoke a continuation of research in the field of youth crime.