IRSA

“Trust in Science” project launch

irsa@institut-irsa.si — Wed, 22 Apr 2026 12:02:53 +0000

March 2026 marks the beginning of IRSA’s project “Trust in Science: Overcoming Misperceptions and Internal Barriers.” The project is led by Maruša Gorišek, PhD, and funded by the Slovenian Research and Innovation Agency (ARIS). We invite you to visit the project website (link TBA), where we will share updates on its activities and achievements throughout its duration.

New publication by Dr. Frane Adam and Dr. Maruša Gorišek

irsa@institut-irsa.si — Fri, 07 Mar 2025 09:14:17 +0000

The article titled Open and Citizen Science in Light of New European Research Policies by Dr. Frane Adam and Dr. Maruša Gorišek was published in the journal Comparative Sociology.

The article discusses the meaning of open science and the concept of citizen science in a broader socio-political and scientific context.

You can access it here.

Dr. Jernej Letnar Černič published a new article

irsa@institut-irsa.si — Mon, 07 Oct 2024 10:10:17 +0000

The article entitled: The Slovenian Constitutional Court and EU Law: Some Aspects and Future Challenges was published in cooperation with dr. Katarino Vatovec in journal European Studies.

The article critically discusses the application of EU law before the Slovenian Constitutional Court. It points out that even though the Slovenian Constitutional Court often not only refers in its decisions to EU law but also bases its decisions on it, there rest some uncertainties regarding the application of the Charter on Fundamental Rights of the EU and direct references to the Court of Justice of the EU through preliminary questions remain few and far between. The article also points out some aspects of the future adjudication of the Slovenian Constitutional Court when applying EU law that need to be further elaborated or reconsidered.

The article is available here.

IRSA attended the conference “Meeting the Challenges of the Online Information Environment: Democratic debate and public health”

irsa@institut-irsa.si — Tue, 16 Jul 2024 09:42:57 +0000

Dr. Maruša Gorišek and Maša Rebernik attended the international conference “Meeting the Challenges of the Online Information Environment: Democratic debate and public health,” which took place on July 4 and 5, 2024, at the Max Planck Institute for Human Development in Berlin. At the conference, Dr. Gorišek presented the paper “The COVID-19 pandemic and vaccine hesitancy in Europe: A cross-national comparative overview,” which is the result of our work on the project Jitsuvax – Jiu Jitsu with misinformation in the age of Covid.

The conference schedule can be viewed here.

IRSA’s International Symposium in Strunjan

irsa@institut-irsa.si — Tue, 14 May 2024 09:18:07 +0000

The IRSA Institute hosted a symposium titled “European Societies in Times of Anomie and Cognitive-Ethical Dissonance” between April 17th and 21st, 2024. The symposium brought together several national and international researchers who presented different aspects and themes related to the changes we are currently witnessing in Europe.

The conference program is available here.

Some of the attendees’ presentations can be viewed below:

1. Prof. Dr. Hans Westlund: Sweden in an age of uncertainty: Risks and opportunities
2. Prof. Dr. Ilja Srubar: The German crisis
3. Prof. Dr. Jernej Letnar Černič: On the dilemmas posed by the rule of law
4. Dr. Martina Plantak: Political frictions in Croatia and their impact on other subsystems and public opinion
5. Prof. Dr. Hans Westlund, Dr. Maruša Gorišek, Dr. Darka Podmenik and Maša Rebernik: The pandemic and counterurbanisation: A comparison of Sweden and Slovenia
6. Prof. Dr. Frane Adam and Dr. Maruša Gorišek: Meritocracy – Between myth, norm and reality; and The Paradoxes of Open Science
7. Dane Podmenik: Analysis of the organic food market in Slovenia

Frane Adam, PhD

kreativa2 — Thu, 11 Apr 2024 11:02:35 +0000

Contact details

Frane Adam, PhD

Director and Head of the Research Centre

He is the (co)author of more than 350 publications (including research reports and popular articles) in domestic and international monographs and magazines. The majority of his scientific articles, which in recent years deal with the phenomenon of populism, with the social role of meritocracy and the importance of experts as well as cognitive mobilization in the context of a pandemic, are published in international (peer-reviewed) journals that are included in the Web of Science or Scopus database.
He currently has 591 pure citations in the Scopus database and 359 in the WoS database. He acts as a reviewer for several international and domestic journals and monographs, as well as a reviewer who evaluates applications for European projects (ERC). As a social commentator and analyst, he is present in public discussions.

Maša Rebernik

irsa@institut-irsa.si — Thu, 11 Apr 2024 10:46:25 +0000

Contact details

Maša Rebernik

Young researcher

Her past research focused on the phenomenology and ethnography of decision-making, as well as the phenomenology of the self and of group synchronizations. She obtained her master’s degree in cognitive science from the Middle-European interdisciplinary program MEi:CogSci and graduated in English studies and Japanology from the University of Ljubljana.

Slovenian Research Database (SICRIS)

IRSA joined international project Jitsuvax

irsa@institut-irsa.si — Tue, 12 Mar 2024 11:10:05 +0000

IRSA joined the European project Jitsuvax – Jiu Jitsu with misinformation in the age of Covid as a 3rd party contributor.

The project, financed by the European Commission (Horizon2020), deals with the problem of vaccine hesitancy and develops different techniques to enhance vaccine uptake and knowledge among healthcare professionals and the public.

Within the project, IRSA focuses on the sociological and cross-country comparison points of view on covid-19 vaccination, especially the notable difference between Eastern and Western Europe.

More information on the project is available here.

Covid-19 pandemic in Slovenia and Spain

irsa@institut-irsa.si — Thu, 05 Oct 2023 13:40:55 +0000

IRSA member Jernej Letnar Černič, PhD, published an interesting article on the covid-19 pandemic in Spain and Slovenia. Article entitled Between two worlds: Personal reflections from Slovenia and Spain on the Covid-19 pandemic was published in International Journal of Constitutional Law (vol. 20, issue 3, 2022).

More information on the following link: https://academic.oup.com/icon/article-abstract/20/3/1378/6831871

IRSA published a new book

irsa@institut-irsa.si — Wed, 14 Jun 2023 10:33:39 +0000

The book, entitled Analysis of effectiveness of management of epidemics in Slovenia – International comparison and interdisciplinary approach, was edited by Frane Adam and was written within the Targeted Research Project with the same name, which took place between 2021 and 2023 at the IRSA Institute.

The volume includes contributions from an interdisciplinary team of project collaborators and aims to reconstruct and reflect on, analyse and explain the course of social, epidemiological, health and political developments during the epidemic. Based on the results obtained, it aims to evaluate the impact of the measures taken to contain the spread of the virus and their consequences, both for the implementers and the affected stakeholders. Starting from a thematic interdisciplinary perspective, the project and the publication are conceived in an international comparative and relational way, which means that they highlight the relationships between key actors in the pandemic – mainly between the (health) experts and politics, but also towards most affected stakeholders, such as the family and young people.

The proceedings include contributions by Dr Frane Adam, Dr Darka Podmenik, Dr Maruša Gorišek, Mitja Vrdelja MSc, Blaž Bajec MSc, and Anja Pogladič MSc.

The proceedings are also accompanied by a discussion of the project team members that took place during the project and provides insight into the research process during the project.