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Philosophy and the Labor Market in Romania
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One of the problems the institutional crisis of philosophy is facing in Romania is the difficulty of philosophy graduates to find a suitable place on the complex labor market. The article attempts to elucidate whether philosophy graduates subsequently teach what they study during their university education and to find solutions for a better integration on the labor market of these graduates. An important part of the article is dedicated to analyzing the institutional offer vis-à-vis the challenges that philosophy graduates face once they are attempting to find a job on the labor market. From our analysis we conclude that there is no direct connection between the diversity of jobs among philosophy graduates and the courses that they took during their university studies.
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... Employers tend to often have a negative perception concerning the outputs of the universities' activities -this applies to both research as well as the training of the students whose knowledge and abilities are not considered as relevant in light of the requirements of the labor market. This problem does not concern only public administration graduates (Frunza & Frunza, 2010). ...
The article addresses the topic of higher education reform process in Central and Eastern Europe in general and in Romania in special and focuses on the challenges public administration schools in this geographical area are currently facing. The author groups these challenges into five categories including students, market, community, decision-makers and academic management. The author argues that in order to develop and implement a sound reform of public administration programs one needs to take into consideration both global challenges common to all counties/programs but also features embedded in the regional context from Central and Eastern Europe. In the conclusion section the author refers to the potential competitive advantage PA programs have and to possible solutions from increasing their chances for a sound development in the future independent from other fundamental fields such as law, economics, etc.
... At the same time, the conclusions emphasized by Sandu and Mihaela Frunză are true 33 : there is resistance on the part of professors and decision-makers to renew the educational curricula and syllabi. What is obvious is that in Romania, this resistance is less because of the crisis of humanities -as a matter of fact general in the Western educational system 34 -than because of the bureaucratic character of the Romanian society, politics and education. ...
The analysis aims at showing that the position of philosophy in society depends upon two factors: the real spirit of reform born from philosophy and the appetence of society for reform. The first part of the present study provides a short historical illustration of the genuine character of philosophy as a bearer of reform, while the second part of the work mentions different attitudes toward reform, as well as the problems generated by the intersection of these attitudes with the reforms promoted by philosophy. In addition, the paper intends to contribute to the understanding of the present-day status of philosophy within the Romanian educational system. In this respect, the dialogue of philosophy and religion is considered relevant to the topic. Besides this aspect, the work also mentions the dogmatic imprint of philosophy during the Stalinist epoch and the dogmatic inertia after 1990 - manifested in different and apparently opposed forms. Moreover, the study suggests that the improvement of the prestige of philosophy depends not only upon the self-criticism that Romanian philosophy has to develop but also upon the influence that this spirit of self-criticism could have on decision-makers. Philosophical self-criticism is a precondition and, at the same time, a part of the reform that philosophy initiates in the field of knowledge. Thus, the paper is to underline the importance of philosophy in giving direction and in providing the framework for social reform. From this point of view, the dialogue between philosophy and religion is difficult but possible at university level and in the field of research.
Although the idea of creating internal and external links within and between institutions is a relatively established one, the public relations domain can be considered a new branch of the promotion process, mainly in the public sector in Romania. This paper aims at creating an overview of the profile of public relations departments within public institutions. In this research we aspire to uncover the main elements that characterize the profile of public relations departments within public institutions, from the point of view of their quality and professionalism. Moreover, this research aims to establish whether there are differences concerning the public relations profile between public administration institutions and other specific public institutions.
In Romania the state supports religion. The main reason is claimed to be the fact that religion will improve the shared values (moral, social, economic or political) of our society. Based on the data from the Public Opinion Barometer November 2005 (which included the questions from The World Values Survey 2005) this study explores the relationship between religiosity and work ethic, moral values and tolerance; as well as the ways in which religiosity affects political and gender-based attitudes. Regarding most of the values included a weak but significant relationship was found. A poorer work and general ethic, attitudes towards women and homosexuals or the preference for a more authoritarian regime are the most disquieting findings.
There is a growing understanding that addressing the global crisis facing humanity will require new methods for knowing, understanding, and valuing the world. Narrow, disciplinary, and reductionist perceptions of reality are proving inadequate for addressing the complex, interconnected problems of the current age. The pervasive Cartesian worldview, which is based on the metaphor of the universe as a machine, promotes fragmentation in our thinking and our perception of the cosmos. This divisive, compartmentalized thinking fosters alienation and self-focused behavior. I aim to show in this essay that healing the fragmentation that is at the root of the current world crises requires an integrated epistemology that embraces both the rational knowledge of scientific empiricism and the inner knowledge of spiritual experience. This “deep science” transcends the illusion of separateness to discern the unity, the unbroken wholeness, that underlies the diverse forms of the universe. Our perception of connectedness, of our integral place in the web of life, emerges as an attribute of our connection with the eternal, beatific source of all existence. This awakened spiritual vision “widens our circle of understanding and compassion, to embrace all living creatures in the whole of nature” (Einstein, quoted in Goldstein [1976] 1987). Our behavior, as it emerges naturally out of our perception of the sacredness of the natural world, will naturally embody love and respect for all life forms. This vision promotes the healing of our long-standing alienation from the natural world and offers hope for renewal in the midst of widespread cultural deterioration and environmental destruction.
In the introduction to this article, from the point of view of the social-historical evolution of counselling, several levels of its development are identified: the fundamental action level, the level of empirical social knowledge, the level of interaction among science, technology, art and religion and the specific level of socio-psycho-pedagogical intervention. The main part of this paper starts from the classification of models of psychological intervention, elaborated by W. Huberto make it easier for us to differentiate psychotherapy, crisis intervention and counselling. Referring to the definition of Gustad with respect to counselling, weelaborated a personal definition of educational counselling, stressing its characteristics in relation to other forms of psycho-social intervention, including theclosest one- psychological counselling. The guide of educational counseling elaborated by Bãban stimulated us to conceptualise the differences betweenpsychological counselling and educational. By studying the model of Enãchescu of interaction between counselling and psychotherapy, we noted the detected areaof existential difficulty and we considered that we should add educational problemsto it depending on age, sex, health of the educational subjects, their social relations, the report results-satisfaction as product of the educational process.The educational reform in Romania after December 1989 focus on: the decentralization of education, education focussed on the subject, a growth of the education's quality, of the performance but also of the satisfaction correlated toall of them. Within this process, educational counselling as circular relation among person-educational problem-significant socio-human context- we consider that it can become a conceptual mechanism but especially instrumental for achieving the educational reform. By noting the larger field of action of educational counselling compared to that of psychological counselling, we identified its components: school counselling, vocational counselling, professional counselling,psycho pedagogical counselling and career counselling. To draw the conclusions of this paper, we reiterated the report among science, technology, art and religion to define the specific features of educational counseling.
Market forces have profoundly affected the contemporary research university's fundamental tasks of creating and disseminating knowledge. They arguably have provided American universities access to greater wealth, better students, and stronger links with the economy. Yet they also have exaggerated inequalities, diminished the university's control over its own activities, and weakened the university's mission of serving the public. Incorporating twenty years of research and new data covering 99 research universities, Knowledge and Money explains this paradox by assessing how market forces have affected universities in four key spheres of activity: finance, undergraduate education, primary research, and participation in regional and national economic development. The book begins by chronicling how universities have enlarged revenues by optimizing tuitions, and how they have managed these funds. It reveals why competition for the best students through selective undergraduate admissions has led to increased student consumerism and weakened university control over learning. The book also explains why research has become an increasingly autonomous activity within the university, expanding faster than class instruction or faculty resources. Finally, it shows how the linkage of research to economic development has engendered closer ties with industry and encouraged the commercialization of knowledge.
The concept of ‘education for citizenship’ contains a number of ambiguities and tensions, related to differing interpretations of the notion of ‘citizenship’. This paper explores some of the philosophical difficulties which arise from the task of trying to offer a substantial notion of ‘education for citizenship’ in the context of the diversity of a pluralistic democratic society. One of the central areas requiring attention by philosophers is an account of the public civic virtues which are ‘thick’ or substantial enough to satisfy the communal demands of citizenship, yet compatible with liberal demands concerning the development of critical rationality by citizens and satisfaction of the demands of justice relating to diversity. It is suggested that a wide ranging debate about these matters at the national level cannot be avoided if ‘education for citizenship’ is to be conducted defensibly and effectively.
If we value religious tolerance and autonomy, we must breach the silence about religion in public schools, and add a comparative religious education to the compulsory curriculum at the high school level. This education would expose students to a variety of religious beliefs in a fair manner by allowing religious denominations themselves to participate in deciding how their beliefs are presented to students. The major obstacle to the implementation of such an education is the objection of religious conservatives and fundamentalists that it would violate neutrality. Not only is a comparative religious education able to survive the criticisms that religious conservatives routinely make against a liberal education, but the inclusion of such an education is the only way to make a liberal education truly neutral. This education would provide the recognition of the importance of religion in general and of conservative religions in particular that religious conservatives complain is lacking from the status quo compulsory curriculum in public schools.Polity (2007) 39, 179–207. doi:10.1057/palgrave.polity.2300053
Wittgensteins conception of philosophy raises two questions about the teaching of philosophy and its place in a liberal arts curriculum. First, Wittgenstein denies that philosophy is a body of doctrine, affirms that it is an activity, and assumes that the two alternatives are incompatible. This implies that teaching a body of content is not teaching philosophy and leaves open the question whether there is any relevant sense of teaching appropriate to the activity. On the other hand, Wittgenstein understands ethics to be an autonomous inquiry, separate from philosophy, into what is most valuable and important. This view suggests that concerns about our human condition and future are beyond the reach of philosophy, and leaves open the question whether insight into them through philosophy is possible at all. I discuss central features of Wittgensteins conception of philosophy to explore answers to these questions and to reject the suggestion that philosophy could turn out to be utterly irrelevant in the education and life of students. I propose that the value of philosophy resides in what we do and take Wittgensteins eloquent metaphor from Philosophical Investigations as a point of reference: what we do is to bring words back from their metaphysical to their everyday uses 1 . Philosophy, therefore, is not something we can teach, even though it is an activity we should encourage.
As a contribution to thinking about the possibility of spiritual education, I examine Pierre Hadot's important distinction between ‘philosophy as theory’, a detached investigation into ‘the natures of things’, and ‘philosophy as a way of life’, practical exercises which Socrates introduced as a means of ‘learning to die’. While most philosophy today amounts to ‘philosophy as theory’, ‘philosophy as a way of life’ remains a respectable and viable tradition and a most exacting education of the spirit. I illustrate it here through an examination of some of its practitioners such as St Bernard of Clairvaux, Ludwig Wittgenstein and Etty Hillesum.