Aim: The course is concerned with changing values orientations of people in current societies which are caused since the Second World War by intergenerational cultural changes that have shaped values, worldviews and attitudes of people particularly in European post-industrial knowledge societies in higher-income countries and have led to feelings of people of increasing existential security. The course considers a variety of effects which the changing values orientations and worldviews of people have upon their perceptions and understandings of various risk processes in current societal and natural environments. High levels of existential security of people in post-industrial knowledge societies are relatively recent and preceded necessary institutional changes which have contributed to necessary development of natural environment-considering policy-making and climate change policies at the European Union, national, regional and local levels. The course contributes to understanding of various risk processes in the evolution of geographical systems in both societal and natural environments. Competencies (students will be able to): - define and explain the concepts central to the value orientation theory (i.e. values, existential security, secularization index) - describe the structure and data availability of the World Value Survey and its limits in comparative research compared to European Social Survey and Eurobarometer datasets - characterize the intergenerational value orientation shifts in selected region and their relevance to the current selected international policies Content: - value orientation theory: key concepts indices and data - Inglehart-Welzel's cultural map of the world and intergenerational value orientation shifts - empirical evidence for value orientation, its analyses and limits of interpretation
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