June 23, 2021 - Youth Work in Flux Conference held in Rijeka mid-June saw scholars, researchers, scientists, and professionals discuss and present their work in the domain of youth work.

With more and more concern invested in youth in Croatia (both academically and professionally), June 15-17 saw Rijeka as the host of the conference titled „Youth work in flux: an academic point of view on youth work training and education“.

The conference was organized by the Institute for Social Research in Zagreb and partners: University of Rijeka and Slovenian University of Ljubljana held as part of the Erasmus + project Supporting Evidence-based Education of Youth Workers.

„Our aim is to strengthen the epistemic community of scholars and researchers in the domain of youth work, while instigating an academic debate on existing knowledge in the domain, defining further topics that need to be explored, and investigating the possibilities of co-creating the knowledge with actors from the community“, said the official website of the Institute for Social Research in Zagreb as the page was inviting „all interested scholars, researchers, and doctoral students to submit their abstracts and contribute to shedding light on this proliferating topic“.

Among such researchers, Dr. Marko Mustapić and Dino Vukušić from the Ivo Pilar Social Research Institute stood out. The two researchers presented results of the research „Youth Activism and Sport: Legacy of Dražen Petrović and ‘heritage in the making’“. Their ethnographic research investigated „Mi smo Cibona“ (We Are Cibona) association, centered around Cibona, a famous Zagreb basketball club, and how the youth in that association respond to the famous Croatian sportsman Dražen Petrović – how they perceive, interpret, or reinterpret Petrović's material and symbolic heritage and how they feel about basketball club today and what is the future of the association's activism.

The research was done as part of a project called CHIEF - Cultural Heritage and Identities of European Future done in the Horizont2020 frame.

As Ivo Pilar Social Research Institute informs, CHIEF started on May 1, 2018, with a budget of 4,58 million euros. The concept was split into 10 working packages challenging both in theory and in practice, but with a goal to conduct field research on the population 14-25 years of age, to see what we can perceive about Europe's identity in the future as these new generations develop into social and political participants.

With such conferences and various projects that aim to empower youth to stay in Croatia, it is evident that the importance of youth is finally recognized in the country. But, will that be enough to engage politicians to offer more things for the youth and stop the exodus of young Croatians from the country is yet to be revealed by future events.

When it comes to youth, learn more about what Croatia can offer to kids and families on our TC page.

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March 18, 2021 - Is the post-pandemic world a bad picture or a good opportunity? How will labor relations work when the pandemic subsides? At the 4th Communication Management Forum (CMF), which is taking place online from 19 to 20 March, scientists and experts will try to answer those and many more burning questions.

The pandemic has left a huge blow to almost all segments of society. Economic activities have experienced major declines, interpersonal patterns of behavior have changed, and private and business life has shifted to the digital environment. Therefore, this year's Communication Management Forum, an international scientific conference, will discuss the topic "The Post-Pandemic World: A Bad Picture or a Good Opportunity?"

The two-day scientific conference's main event is the roundtable, organized by Jeremy Sampson, Executive director of the Travel Foundation, a leading international NGO in the travel and tourism sector, and famous Slovenian anthropologist Assoc. dr. Sc. Dan Podjed. Edward Bernays University College, in cooperation with the Institute for Social Research in Zagreb and the Institute of Tourism, organizes the event.

In addition to the lectures by eminent scientists and researchers, the 4th Communication Management Forum will seek to offer concrete guidelines for further social, economic, and tourism recovery and development. Also, as tourism is the industry most affected by the coronavirus pandemic, scientists will present the results of the latest research on tourism. There will be research by the Institute for Tourism and the Institute for Social Research in Zagreb, the conference's co-organizers.

"Communication Management Forum is an event that has contributed to the conclusions from the communication and tourism aspect. We are organizing this year's edition in the pandemic circumstances that impact communications and tourism. Still, on society as a whole, cooperation with two scientific institutes will certainly contribute to conclusions about returning to normal. We are witnessing several changes that have taken place. As a result of the pandemic, it will be exciting to hear scientists think about how we, overall looking, as a society, reacted to all that," notes doc. dr. sc. Lana Ciboci, co-chair Organizing Committee of the Communication Management Forum and Vice Dean for Science and Management quality Edward Bernays University College.

In recent years, the CMF has gathered over 500 scientists and experts from Croatia and worldwide. The best papers and research will be found in three scientific journals - Tourism, Sociology, and Space and Media research, indexed in scientific databases, SCOPUS, and Web of Science Core Collection - ESCI. Peer-reviewed papers will be available in the new issue of the scientific journal Communication Management Review.

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