The European Union (EU) has been continuously rethinking its global position amidst emerging economic and geopolitical challenges and attempting to formulate strategies to increase its competitiveness. However, its long-standing policy implementation deficit is also recognized for its grand strategies, including the initially ambitious Lisbon Strategy. Is Europe 2020 set to fail as well? In this paper, we are arguing that strategic steering is essentially a discursive practice influenced by both semiotic and extra-semiotic factors. Hence, success or failure of a strategy essentially depends on ability to steer the discourse. Niklas Luhmann's social systems theory offers a theoretical framework against which limitations and potentials of strategic steering at the EU level can be analysed. While high levels of rationality and reflection capacities can improve strategic steering, it is limited by the increasing complexity. Recognizing limitations of direct and centralized interventions, we look for analytical and strategic solutions in sophisticated mechanisms of contextual steering: variation, selection and retention of strategic discourses. These mechanisms are integral to the "cultural political economy" approach. In the final part of the paper, we show how cultural political economy can explain the implementation shortcomings of the EU strategies.

The rise of digital media contributes to fake news and disinformation being circulated on a larger scale and pace. The central aim of the work is to consider the potentials of individuals to actively respond to disinformation and fake news. In that regard, the authors rely on Archer’s theoretical framework of reflexivity and its modes. It is argued that a specific mode of reflexivity, namely meta-reflexivity, can enable people to take a critical distance towards media messaging. The method involves the Reflexivity Measurement Tool (RMT) to provide an approximate assessment of one’s reflexivity in terms of quantitative scores. The survey has been conducted in Slovenia on a representative national sample and path analysis is applied to identify the relationship between demographic features, media exposure, reflexivity and fact-checking. The results show how age and education affect media preferences, in terms of how frequently an individual is exposed to a particular type of media. Younger people, women and persons with tertiary education are more meta-reflexive, which contributes to their active response to disinformation. It is concluded that meta-reflexivity is essential but not sufficient to produce an active response of individuals to disinformation. Need for professional fact-checking-services and media education is discussed. El avance digital contribuye a que las noticias falsas y la desinformación aumenten en número y ritmo. El objetivo central de este trabajo es considerar el poder de las personas para responder activamente a la desinformación y noticias falsas. Para ello, los autores se basan en Archer, específicamente su propuesta teórica relacionada con la reflexividad y sus modos. Argumentamos que un modo específico de reflexividad, la meta-reflexividad, permite distanciarse críticamente de los mensajes de los medios de comunicación. El método consiste en el uso de la Herramienta de Medición de la Reflexividad (HMR) para proporcionar una evaluación aproximada de la propia reflexividad en términos de puntuaciones cuantitativas. La encuesta se ha realizado en Eslovenia sobre una muestra nacional representativa y se ha aplicado un análisis de la trayectoria para determinar la relación entre las características demográficas, la exposición a los medios de comunicación, la reflexividad y la verificación de los hechos. Los resultados muestran que la edad y la educación afectan las preferencias relacionadas con los medios, medidos en base a la frecuencia de exposición a un tipo particular de medio. Los jóvenes, las mujeres y las personas con educación terciaria son más meta-reflexivos, lo cual contribuye a que tengan una respuesta activa a la desinformación. Se concluye que la meta-reflexividad es necesaria pero no suficiente para producir una respuesta activa de los sujetos a los mensajes de los medios de comunicación. Finalmente se menciona la necesidad de tener servicios profesionales de verificación, además de programas de educación mediática.

The article seeks to develop and apply new quantitative measurement instruments capable of significantly improving understanding of the relationship between the transnational mobility and transnational social ties of students, along with their reflexive capacities. With a focus on students building their personal networks, educational and professional activities that extend beyond the nation's borders and organising their day-today routines in transnational social spaces, we analyse the role of mobility in their reflexive capacities. Applying a tool that is line with Archer's theory and indicators to measure reflexivity, and transnational social ties as proposed by Molina et al., we analyse data collected via an on-line survey questionnaire administered to Slovenian students. In addition, students from the Middle East (Lebanon) and the USA (Hawai'i) are added for comparative purposes. The results of path analysis show the Slovenian students' mobility as such implies higher scores for meta reflexivity, combined with lower scores for communicative and fractured reflexivity. Further, social transactions reaching beyond one's physical localities in terms of transnational social ties implies they have higher levels of reflexivity in general.

In this article we make an attempt to examine the relationship between knowledge society and perception of uncertainty both at conceptual as well as empirical level. The discussion is placed in the context of late modernity. The more optimistic views see in the knowledge society the possibility for progress, higher quality and safety of life. Other reflections draw attention also to different crisis-related tendencies and stress the possibility of generating uncertainty as a possible side effect of a developed knowledge society. We observe two trends that appear with the development of a knowledge society: the perception of existing certainty increases, but at the same time we can also see the increase of a desire for and openness to greater uncertainty in a society. Using qualitative comparative analysis we find that developed knowledge society is a sufficient condition for greater openness to uncertainty.

This article examines how reflexivity, as understood by Margaret Archer, is affected by the structural settings in the context of morphogenetic social and cultural transformations. It draws on the Slovenian national case as an example of swift structural and cultural shifts towards late modernity. For that purpose, we apply a new measurement tool developed through our previous research, which upgrades Archer’s existing ICONI model by distinguishing between the intensity and the concurrent practicing of the reflexivity modes within the inner dialogue. Based on a general national sample, we confirm not only the reflexivity changes from the older to the younger generations but also the role of education and gender in reflexivity levels and modes. We refer to the problem of deprivation and the importance of linking fractured reflexivity to the challenges, women are facing nowadays. Thus, the article confirms some of the critics of Archer’s work, demonstrating—despite significant individual differences—the clear impact of the individual’s background and her/his position in the social structure.