Functional local community in Lithuanian villages and towns

The dissertation was prepared in 2000–2004 at the Vilnius Pedagogical University and in 2004-2007 at Mykolas Romeris University, The dissertation is defend without PhD studies Scientific supervisor: Prof. Habil. Dr. Stasys Puškorius (Mykolas Romeris University, Social Sciences, Management and Administration, 03S). The doctoral dissertation will be defended at the Management and Administration Research Council of Mykolas Romeris University: Chairman of the Council: Prof. Habil. Dr. Adolfas Kaziliūnas (Mykolas Romeris University, Social Sciences, Management and Administration, 03S) Members: Prof. Dr. Eugenijus Chlivickas (Vilnius Gediminas Technical University, Social Sciences, Management and Administration, 03S) Assoc. Prof. Dr. Jolanta Palidauskaitė (Kaunass University of Technology, Social Science, Sociology 05S) Prof. Dr. Alvydas Pumputis (Mykolas Romeris University, Social Sciences, Law 01S) Prof. Habil. Dr. Stasys Puškorius (Mykolas Romeris University, Social Sciences, Management and Administration 03S) Opponents: Prof. Habil. Dr. Borisas Melnikas (Vilnius Gediminas Technical University, Social Sciences, Management and Administration 03S) Prof. Habil. Dr. Vygantas K. Paulikas (Mykolas Romeris University, Social Sciences, Management and Administration 03S) The public defence of the doctoral dissertation will take place at Management and Administration Research Council on 28th December, 2007 at 10 a.m. in the Senate Hall of Mykolas Romeris University (Room C-230). Address: Ateities str. 20, LT-08303 Vilnius, Lithuania The summary of the doctoral dissertation was sent out on 20th November, 2007. The doctoral dissertation is available at the library of the Mykolas Romeris University and Lithuanian National Library of Martynas Mazvydas (Gedimino Av. 51, Vilnius). Introduction In the modern world the mindset of people as well as self-organization factors of various social groups change. Traditional ideologies that used to reflect the thinking of the majority of people in the past are now losing their popularity, and new ideas appear as unlimited pluralism settles in. Sometimes these ideas are old ones that have come from the past. An example would be the idea of communitarianism – some followers claim that this idea should already be called an ideology. <...> When analysing communitarian ideas, most of them may be found in the ideologies of conservatives, Christian democrats, and social utopians or even anarchists–communists.” Therefore it is necessary for contemporary man to choose from many strong or weaker ideological attitudes and to solve the dual problem: to identify new values that are often related with one of the segments of the “new public management” – participation of citizens and communities. So one of the traditional values, closely related with the “new public management” when reforming the public sector (especially when talking about self-governance), is considered more often in the Western democratic states nowadays – this value is sociality. Sociality in the democratic world in the context of public administration was and still is considered to be a special value that defines the quality of social organizations, and therefore it is promoted in various ways in the context of creating civil society, and it is one of the factors of modernisation of the public sector. Analysis of local communities from the managerial point of view may be based on the term of subsidiarity (discretion, additionality) that states that what may be done better by a community should not be done by the state. But where the forces of one man or a community are not enough, society and the state should support their efforts according to means. According to the classical definition of subsidiarity, matters that can be handled by individuals on their own should not be taken from them and assigned to the society as in this way justice would be offended. Scientific novelty of the dissertation may be defined by the following statements: • There are no dissertations in the area of public administration that would analyse especially the functionality of local communities, so this attempt to define and analyse the functionality of non-formal local communities of villages and towns allows to expect polemic with works of other authors that analyse the problem of sociality on the whole; • Factors that influence the functionality of contemporary local community have not been grouped and analysed till now; • The definition of factors and actions of local community functionality will enable to expect a faster realisation and implementation of these principles in practice for Lithuania that is developing state and self-governance local administration based on the principles of de-centralisation and subsidiarity; • The problems and directions of creation, development and expansion of local community functionality were analysed thoroughly and systematically, and theoretical and practical recommendations for solving these problems were prepared for the first time in Lithuania; • The concept that defines a functional local community has not been formed. Practical advantage of the dissertation. The actions intended by the author if performed by institutions existing in local communities will enable politicians, public officials and active citizens to draw attention to certain factors that influence the functionality of local communities and to choose certain managerial actions when creating functional local communities. When defining functional local community the author based himself on theoretical material as well as on personal experience because, having worked as a mayor of a regional municipality for five years, he had set the stimulation of mustering people in local communities as one of his strategic goals. From this point of view the dissertation will be useful for praticians because, according to Richard Fenn, the analysis of all subjects, especially the phenomenon of society, requires the researcher to indulge into institutional details – to experience institutions’ habits, day-to-day life, successes and misfortunes, as they are experienced by all who live [169, p. 31]. Scientific problem. Lately sociality has been discussed a lot, but there has been no discussion about what it is in local communities, and only one its active form is acknowledged – the existence of a formalised community centre (registered community centres are counted). No attempt is made for local communities in villages and towns to be functional (while that is the basis of self-governance), and no analysis is performed about what its functionality as well as the efficiency of self-governance depends on. The research emphasizes that: • As traditional values of public life are vanishing, the appearing niche is being filled by negative phenomena that make public life more problematic (empirical data collected on alcoholism, neglect of children, criminality); there is discussion about whether this may be resisted by organising citizens into self-organization groups (cultural, charity, youth groups were researched) thus making local communities functional so that they may contribute to the efficiency of public life; • The functionality of villages and towns (that we call local communities) of contemporary Lithuania has withered or manifests itself episodically, while the re-creation of functionality is one of the activity criteria of public institutions and dimensional expression of democratic (real self-governance) management; • It has been noticed that social capital in Western countries is constantly rebuilding itself thus strengthening administrative structures – local government (municipality, eldership) and local institutions (the church, school, cultural institutions, etc.), citizen initiatives, so it should be discussed if functional local community could be one of such links since full-fledged social capital is not functioning yet in our country? The aim of the dissertation is to indicate that systematic managerial actions performed in certain factors may create functional local communities in Lithuanian villages and towns. Goals of the dissertation: 1. to determine factors that influence local community; 2. to define functional local community; 3. to determine the possibilities of institutions existing in local communities to form a functional local community; 4. to plan specific actions and functions of institutions when creating functional local communities; 5. to prepare practical recommendations for interested government institutions, formal and non-formal citizen groups what priority actions should be performed when creating functional local communities. Research object is non-formal local communities of Lithuanian villages and towns, the institution system that creates functional communities. Research subject is functional local communities. Hypotheses: 1. It is presumable that certain factors have a bigger influence on the creation of functional local community. 2. It is presumable that functional local community will start appearing if a system of factors that influence sociality will be formed in institutions of local self-governance (eldership, school, cultural institutions), parishes, and when organising social and physical security in villages and towns. CONTENTS OF THE DOCTORAL DISSERTATION Introduction Chapter 1. Analysis of Functionality of Local Communities in the Works of Western and Lithuanian Scientists and in EU Documents. 1.1. Works of Western Scientists and EU Documents about Functionality of Local Communities. 1.2. Works of Lithuanian Scientists on the Functionality of Local Communities. 1.3. Concepts Related to Local Community. 1.4. Conclusions. Chapter 2. Development of Local Communities in Lithuania in the 20th Century. 2.1. Local Communities in Lithuania before World War II. 2.2. The Soviet Period – Interrupted Tradition of Sociality. 2.3. Local Community in Lithuania after the Restoration of Ind

Informacija apie disertacijos autorių: Saulius Nefas( 8 gruodžio 1960) 1978 baigė Ukmergės raj Taujėnų vidurinę mokyklą, 1978 – 1983 studijavo Vilniaus pedagoginiame institute ir įgijo istorijos mokytojo specialybę. 1997 – 2002 sociologijos studijos Vilniaus pedagoginiame universitete. Darbinė patirtis: 1983 – 1990 istorijos mokytojas Anykščių rajono Viešintų ir Anykščių Antano Vienuolio vidurinėse mokyklose. 1990 – 1995 ir 2000 – 2004 Anykščių Antano Vienuolio gimnazijos direktorius. 1995-2000 - Anykščių rajono meras. 2004 - Lietuvos Respublikos seimo narys. Nuo 2005 metų dirba lektoriumi M. Romerio universiteto Viešojo administravimo fakultete. REZIUMĖ Šiuolaikiniame pasaulyje pastebime, kaip kinta žmonių mąstysena, drauge ir įvairių socialinių grupių saviorganizacijos veiksniai. Tradicinės ideologijos vis mažiau beatspindi daugumos žmonių mąstymą, pastebime, kad įsivyraujant neribotam pliuralizmui išryškėja naujos idėjos. Kartais tai būna atgimusios senos, anksčiau gyvavusios idėjos. Pavyzdys – komunitarizmo idėja, dalies šalininkų įsitikinimu, jau nusipelnanti ideologijos vardo. <...> Nagrinėdami komunitarų idėjas, matome, kad daugelį jų galime rasti ir konservatorių, ir krikščionių demokratų, ir socialistų utopistų ar net anarchistų – komunistų ideologijose“ Todėl šiuolaikiniam žmogui būtina atsirinkti iš daugybės ryškių ir ne tokių ryškių ideologinių nuostatų ir išspręsti dvigubą uždavinį: identifikuoti naujas vertybes dažnai sietinas su vienu „naujosios viešosios vadybos“ segmentu - piliečių, bendruomenių dalyvavimu. Būtent todėl Vakarų demokratinėse valstybėse pastaruoju metu vis labiau atsigręžiama į vieną iš tradicinių, bet labai koreliuojančių su „naujuoju viešuoju valdymu��� reformuojant viešajį sektorių (ypač savivaldos) vertybių – bendruomeniškumą. Vietos bendruomenės analizavimą vadybiniu aspektu galime pagrįsti subsidiarumo (savaveiksmiškumas, papildomumas) terminu, kuris teigia, kad tai, ką geriau gali padaryti bendruomenė, neturi daryti valstybė. Tačiau ten, kur atskiro žmogaus ar bendruomenės jėgų nepakanka, pagal išgales jų pastangas turi paremti visuomenė bei valstybė. Pagal klasikinį subsidiarumo suvokimą tai, ką individas gali pasiekti savo iniciatyva ir savo jėgomis, negali būti atimta iš jo ir priskirta visuomenei, nes taip nusižengiama teisingumui. Šiame darbe nagrinėjama neformali vietos bendruomenė, kuri gali būti funkcionali ir nefunkcionali. Funkcionalią vietos bendruomenę siūlome apibrėžti taip: funkcionali vietos bendruomenė yra grupė žmonių, gyvenančių ir veikiančių apibrėžtoje teritorijoje, susijusių bendru interesu ir vidiniu jausmu, jog jie priklauso tai pačiai žmonių grupei. Tyrimo objektas - Lietuvos kaimų ir miestelių neformalios vietos bendruomenės, funkcionalią bendruomenę kuriančių institutų sistema. Tyrimo dalykas - funkcionalios vietos bendruomenės. Disertacijos tikslas — parodyti, kad tam tikruose faktoriuose atliekami sisteminiai vadybiniai veiksmai gali sukurti Lietuvos kaimų ir miestelių funkcionalias vietos bendruomenes. Disertacijos uždaviniai: 1. nustatyti vietos bendruomenę įtakojančius faktorius; 6. apibrėžti funkcionalią vietos bendruomenę; 7. nustatyti vietos bendruomenėje esančių institucijų galimybes formuoti funkcionalią vietos bendruomenę; 8. numatyti konkrečius institucijų veiksmus ir funkcijas, kuriant funkcionalią vietos bendruomenę; 9. parengti praktines rekomendacijas suinteresuotoms valdžios institucijoms, formalioms ir neformalioms piliečių grupėms, kokius prioritetinius veiksmus reikia atlikti, kuriant funkcionalią vietos bendruomenę. Disertacijos praktinė nauda. Autoriaus numatyti veiksmai, atliekami vietos bendruomenėje esančių institucijų, leis politikams, valstybės tarnautojams ir aktyviems piliečiams atkreipti dėmesį į tam tikrus faktorius lemiančius vietos bendruomenės funkcionalumą ir pasirinkti tam tikrus vadybinius veiksmus kuriant funkcionalią vietos bendruomenę. Autorius, apibrėždamas funkcionalią vietos bendruomenę, rėmėsi ne tik teorine medžiaga, bet ir asmenine patirtimi, kadangi dirbdamas penkerius metus rajono savivaldybės meru, vienu iš strateginių tikslų buvo numatęs skatinimą telktis vietos bendruomenėms. Mokslinės publikacijos disertacijos tema: 1. S. Nefas. Funkcionali vietos bendruomenė kaip pilietinės visuomenės pagrindas. Viešoji politika ir administravimas, 2006.P. 81 – 88. ISSN 1648 – 2603. 2. S. Nefas Savivaldžių (vietos) bendruomenių raida ir perspektyva šiuolaikinėje Lietuvoje. Viešoji politika ir administravimas, 2007. P. 70 – 80. ISSN 1648 – 2603.