Interview with Irena Križman1 (original) (raw)

Slovenia and the Census: From the 20. Century Yugoslav Counts to the Register-based Census of 2011

Contemporary Southeastern Europe, 2015

The article critically examines censuses in the Republic of Slovenia. Owing to its Yugoslav past, the censuses after 1945 have been closely scrutinized, and the common Yugoslav census methodology had a strong influence on the 1991 and 2002 censuses. The 1991 enumeration was carried out within the Yugoslav state; however the data processing and result publishing was done under the newly independent Slovenian state. The 2002 census was the last census to be carried out using classic door-to-door enumeration, since the 2011 census was completely register-based. The paper explores censuses in Slovenia since 1991, noting numerous changes and controversies. In 2002, in contrast to 1991, the applied definition of the resident population left out some 35,000 people working temporarily abroad. In addition, the 2002 census witnessed the highest ever number of ethnically non-affiliated respondents. An even bigger controversy was related to the erasure of some 30,000 people from the register of permanent residents for failing to apply for Slovenian citizenship after the break-up of Yugoslavia. The article also briefly reviews the difficulty in addressing the status of the constitutional national minorities and other unrecognized former Yugoslav nations in a situation in which specific data on their number, social and economic structure are no longer collected.

NATIONAL REPORT FROM SLOVENIA

1.0 Setting the scene: the national educational system In past, the educational system in Slovenia was always connected to larger state systems to which the country belonged: to Austrian Monarchy until 1918, to the Kingdom of Yugoslavia until 1941 (yet, between 1918 and 1943 quite a part of the country belonged to Italy) and to Socialist Federal Republic of Yugoslavia (1945 – 1991). Since its independence of 1991, Slovenia has been developing its own comprehensive system of education, based on positive traditions as well as on contemporary good practices from other – mostly European – countries. Main aims of the educational renewal of the 1990s have been quality and inclusive education for all as basis for entering the knowledge society. A systemic renewal of education took place during the 1990s. Soon after independence, some changes in organisation and financing of education were made. In 1993, the Higher Education Act was approved giving legislative basis for modernisation of ter...

Growing Up Slovenia in the Nineties

It is difficult to determine the nature of young people in the 1990s in Slovenia, since this population seems to be socially, culturally and stylistically unformed. The 1960s and the 1970s were years of rapid ascent and qualitative growth for youth movements in Slovenia, along side a higher level of youth emancipation and self-confidence. The 1980s were years of expansion and the breaking up of youth subcultures into the various alternative scenes. The 1990s, in contrast, have been marked by the regression of youth movements, the increased social anomie of youth, and the destruction of alternative youth cultures. The redirection of dealing with society to dealing with oneself is characteristic of the young in Slovenia in the 1990s. Young people deal mostly with themselves now and try to achieve as painless and risk free a path to the future as possible. The problems which they encounter, they do not displace onto society, but deal with them alone. * Mirjana Ule is a Professor of Social Psychology at the Faculty of Social Sciences of the University of Ljubljana and director of the Center for Social Psychology -Youth Studies. Tanja Rener is a Professor at the Faculty of Social Sciences of the University of Ljubljana, teaching family sociology, women studies and the sociology of everyday life. Both are currently working on a study of Youth at risk -indicators of vulnerability.

Nationalities of Slovenia ? changing ethnic structures in Central Europe

GeoJournal, 1993

The ethnic structure of Slovenia has in recent decades changed dramatically due to the geo-political rearrangements in Central Europe and due to the socioeconomic developments in former Yugoslavia. The mixed, dark-age based ethnic pattern was at first eliminated to be replaced by a similar level of multi-ethnicity of a different origin recently. Ethnic groups of mostly Slavic (Croat, Muslim, Serb) origin have in the past couple of decades migrated to urban centers of Slovenia, thus replacing there former German and Italian minority population. Problems of attitudinal, cultural, social and linguistic nature emerge and impact the poli-structured cultural landscape of the independent nation-state. Slovenia claimed to be the only ethnically single-nation entity of the 20th century Yugoslavia. As divisions ripped Yugoslavia apart in 1991, even experts stated that Slovenia might manage a "clean cut" from the Balkan motherhood because of its pure, one-nation Slavonic character. But, the census of 1991 presented some disturbing evidences. Among 1,965,986 residents of the now independent nation-state 238,968 or 12,2% were of non-Slovenian origin. This figure does not include seasonal workers from former Yugoslav republics with no Slovenian citizenship (40,987 persons), refugees from the war torn areas of the Balkans (74,432 persons) and "tourists" with no sightseeings in mind (estimated: 54,000 persons) (Hojnik 1993). Ethnic mixture is most visible in cities where 76,4% of all immigrants reside. In many of them, like in Jesenice (370/0 are ethnically allochthonous), Metlika (390/0), Piran/ Pirano (38%) and Ljubljana (270/0), the average of 18% has been already surpassed. Some non-Slovenes have important positions in politics and economy. As the Slovenian National Party (SNS) claims, 350/0 of the territorial defence force and 25% of the state police remains to be in hands of people with no Slovenian heritage (Brilej & Kova~ & Mekina 1992). The Evolution of the Ethnic Structure Slovenes have 13 centuries ago settled the eastern Alpine provinces of the disintegrating Roman Empire. Own statehood was formed. The entity Karantanija, with its core in todays Austrian Carinthia, lasted a couple of centuries. The territory occupied by Slavonic Slovenes became soon part of the Christian Holy Roman Empire and was for more than a half of the last millennium ruled by the Austrian House of Habsburg. After WW I was the Austro-Hungarian Empire partitioned into different states, among which, for the first time in modern history, a unification of South Slavic peoples took place. Yugoslavia, as a Kingdom between both wars, and as a "socialist federative republic" ruled by the strong hands of the communist leader Josip Broz-Tito, after WW II, was not successful in attempts to bring people and economies of the area together. A Lutheran, Primo~ Trubar, translated in 1575 the Christian Bible into the local language. Since then have Slovenes identified themselves with the Slovenian nationality of the modern times. Their language and culture was suppressed most of the times under Austria,