Geoscience Reference
In-Depth Information
to unhampered cooperation between its departments, the university has been able
to adopt a
complex (interdisciplinary) approach
. Several completed projects such
as Jerábek (2006) dealing with spatial aspects, Zich (2006) with an emphasis on
social matters or environmentally oriented, are documenting the wide scope of the
approach.
It is not the intention either to present in this paper profound theoretical analy-
sis or to describe the methodology of our empirical enquiries. The research rather
concentrates on some selected data that mainly concern the general perception and
evaluation of complex living conditions.
10.2 Methodology and Focus
There is a method which enables us to analyse reality quite well and which has been
gaining more and more in importance: the
SWOT analysis
. This method describes
current situations through indications of strengths and weaknesses both at a gen-
eral level and in a broader context with specific focuses on either particular regions
or particular aspects. The situation “inside” (i.e. endogenous potential) is comple-
mented by external factors (agents) which are or will be affecting the development
of the territory in question either positively (opportunities) or negatively (threats).
In this particular case, the author has used the results of several students' diploma
theses which dealt with selected territories and which can be considered as case
studies.
In each
empirical enquiry
, it is absolutely vital to follow an order of logical steps
(for more detail see Jerábek & Andel, 2005), namely the selection of a focus, the
formulation of suitable questions, the definition of a target group, the fieldwork and
finally the evaluation and interpretation of results.
The Geoscape Project in itself, supported by the Grant Agency of the Czech
Republic and the Ministry of Labour and Social Affairs, is quite broadly based upon
results concerned with a relatively wide range of aspects for
sociological surveys
of
population. For comparison, there were asked 12 questions at the national level and
21 questions at the regional level. In this paper, only selected data indicating living
conditions and socio-economic development will be presented.
At the national level, a professional agency was collecting the questionnaires
(September, 2005; 1.045 respondents), and the regional survey was carried out in
NUTS 3 Ústí Region, NUTS 3 Karlovy Vary Region (forming a NUTS 2 region
North-West) and NUTS 3 Liberec Region (hereafter KV-UL-LB) with a total of
153 respondents. In addition, students of our university carried out enquiries in the
Ústí Region in their optional courses and diploma theses (from 2005 till 2007, total
number of 918 respondents in eight different areas). The structure of the respon-
dent groups follows the common structure of the population, so the results can be
considered as representative.
Besides the surveys among the population,
expert interviews with local mayors
(in 2006) were also carried out, the results of which are also used in this paper, but
selected aspects have been considering successes and failures of the settlement in
Search WWH ::
Custom Search