Respondent-driven sampling (RDS) is a survey method used to create samples of populations that are hidden and hard to reach. Even though the method has been used since the 1990s in studies internationally, it has not yet been used in Czech research. The RDS methodology tends to be described presented as a statistical tool that makes it possible to produce unbiased estimates of hidden or hard-to-reach populations, and at the same as a tool with which to effectively recruit respondents from the given populations. The goal of the article is to introduce RDS methodology and its uses and to present and assess its application in a homeless survey conducted in two Czech cities – Prague (N=322) and Pilsen (N=146). We show that as long as certain preconditions are met the method proves to be fact and effective, especially with respect to the speed at which it is possible to sample the homeless population. We compare the outcome of the RDS survey with that of a survey of the homeless population in Prague (2010) and assess whether and how the outcomes of the two samples differ in certain population characteristics. Finally, we offer practical suggestions and observations on using the RDS method for sampling homeless populations.
The study focuses on privacy in online social networks. It presents an empirical analysis of youtubers, a group that has not yet been studied in the Czech social sciences. Using interpretive phenomenological analysis and in-depth interviews, we show that there is a typical ‘career’ trajectory that youtubers proceed along, whose structure is determined by experiences of breach of privacy and by mechanisms of reparation. These mechanisms and practices must be employed in order to resolve a fundamental tension between the demand for self-disclosure, arising out of confessional culture and the ideology of authenticity, and the parallel demand for retaining privacy. Breach of privacy is conceptualised as a violation of the equilibrium of its three constitutive elements: content, border, and context. Such situations are experienced as threats to the identity of the youtubers, who seek to avoid these threats by means of reparation practices, changes in how they perform privacy, and the use of what we call tools of controlled (in)accessibility. Unlike normative critiques that lament the loss of privacy on social networks, this article concludes that youtubers are highly competent guardians of their own performed privacy.
Childcare leave schemes are one of the key measures that affect the ability of women and men to balance their work and family lives. Both the length of the parental leave period and the amount of the benefit have the potential to shape the timing of a subsequent birth. Important changes have been introduced into the Czech parental benefit scheme over the last 10 years in terms of both the scheme’s flexibility and the monthly amount of the benefit, which has provided a unique opportunity for studying the links between the institutional conditions of parenthood and the behaviour of real stakeholders. Using data on births from the Czech Statistical Office and the parity-cohort analytical approach, we investigate changes in the spacing of second and third births among women who had their first or second child between 1986 and 2013. The results revealed an increase in the second- and third-birth rate during the second and third year following a delivery, together with a decrease in the second- and third-birth rate during the fourth year and later among mothers exposed to changes in the parental benefit scheme. These changes in reproductive behaviour noticeably coincided with the incentives that have been provided since 2008 by the increased flexibility of the parental leave scheme and the author argues that the option to increase the monthly amount of the parental benefit together with the flexibility of its use has contributed to the closer spacing of births, most notably among more educated women.