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Construction of European Identity by European Union Documents
Plešr, Dominik ; Balon, Jan (advisor) ; Honová, Petra Alexandra (referee)
This bachelory thesis is research of theme about "Construction of European identity by European Union documents". Thesis focus with theory of constructivism on construction of European identity by European Union documents, according to studying of theme and literature research. The main aim of this thesis is to find answer on research question "How European Union constructs European identity by its documents?" Firstly, thesis defines the formalization of identity in relationship with existence of European Union and its functioning. Afterwards is ilustrativly described process of European integration, due to close connection with European documents. After that come defining of, and content analyses of selected documents of European Union and foregoing organisations. During content analysis were used indicators "principle/principles/values", "identity", "European identity". Finnal part is situated as wide consideration about new facts, which describe how European Union and foregoing organisations construct European identity, and about reflexion this new facts against the selected researches. Pursuant to this consideration is definitely answered research question.
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Social Network from the Perspective of Surveillance Theory
Janda, Martin ; Balon, Jan (advisor) ; Fišer, Josef (referee)
The paper concentrates on the general trend of extending the surveillance as it is nicely captured in the case of online social network Facebook. The text emphasized the omnipresence and hidden techniques used for mining of personal data, as depicted on the phenomenon of consumer surveillance. Data kept in the in databases create a virtual image of an individual that subsequently replaces him in the cyberspace, which leads to discrimination of the individual due to an unequal access to products and information. On introducing the surveillant assemblage the paper shows how the modern surveillance has multiple sources and its object can be anyone who is browsing the internet. Main source for the analysis are the works of Surveillance Studies, most prominently the Canadian sociologist David Lyon. The work centers on defining what part of social sciences field in the age of IT technologies occupies the panopticon - the key concept of surveillance studies - and what new aspects of surveillance are appearing in the society thanks to the development of internet and especially the social networks.
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Changes in Thinking About Science: Parallels of M. Foucault's Concept of Episteme and T.S. Kuhn's Concept of Paradigm
Řeháček, Pavel ; Balon, Jan (advisor) ; Janas, Martin (referee)
This work is focused on introduction of two science theorists Michel Foucault and Thomas S. Kuhn and their concepts of science itself. The crucial concept of Michel Foucaults work is the episteme which can be understood as epistemological field which knowledge is enabled. Foucault puts this concept into the field of archaeology of knowledge which is a methodological tool for his research. Further in the work the term discourse is explained which is used as an information value of certain epoch. This work also structures Foucaults three historical times of episteme which are interdivided by discontinuities. In Thomas S. Kuhn perception the paradigm is the key concept. This concept is the pattern of scientific research of particular historical period and represents values and approaches to research. Paradigm works in normal science as a cycle in which the cumulation of problems - anomaly - is present. When the science reaches the point where explanation of anomalies is impossible the revolution of science takes place and the whole cycle starts again. The last part of this work compares these two crucial concepts.
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Nostalgia in a Sociological Perspective
Šotola, Petr ; Balon, Jan (advisor) ; Kotík, Michal (referee)
The aim of this paper is to introduce nostalgia in sociological perspective that means to show its important social aspects. The historical evolution of the term nostalgia and some theoretical conceptualizations, which show various dimensions of the phenomenon nostalgia are presented in this work. Nostalgia is also introduced in the context of modernity and memory. Special attention is dedicated to the relationship between nostalgia and the idea of progress. This paper further point to presence of the nostalgic paradigm in social theory.
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Critical-realist Philosophy of Science, its Consequences and Merit for the Methodology of Social Sciences
Zich, Jakub ; Balon, Jan (advisor) ; Hlaváček, Karel (referee)
Critical realism acknowledges epistemic relativism, which means faith, that our knowledge is not definite, complete and that it's not pure mirror of reality. It however refuses critical relativism, which claims, that we cannot choose more adequate description of reality between two or more competing descriptions. In order to reflect an extent and character of our knowledge, first we have to reveal ontological status of things, which are subject of our investigation - in case of natural science as well as in social science - which implies fundamental refuse of the thesis about correspondence between descriptions of things and their substantial existence. In order to approach knowledge about real essence of things, we cannot confine on our experiences of events, which are products of co-operation of particular generative mechanisms and causal relations. For that reason higher degree of abstraction and theory-grounded knowledge is necessary. Our theories about generative mechanisms can be than on the basis of empirical investigation temporarily verified, partly falsified or modified; but always with recognition, that our experience is only an experience of variable manifest appearances, which are conditioned with higher structural ordering. Foregoing thesis represents connection between natural and...
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The (Social) Construction of Scientific Fact
Jedlička, Petr ; Balon, Jan (advisor) ; Kandert, Josef (referee)
The thesis draws from the examples of the knowledge of two time periods - the Middle Ages and the Early Modern Era - to discuss the claims of the constructivist school of the sociology of knowledge. The first part provides a detailed account of the views of the key constructivist figures Ludwik Fleck, David Bloor, and the anthropologist of knowledge Yehuda Elkana. The following chapter examines the main characteristics and dynamics of the medieval religious discourse with the use of Elkana's concept of images of knowledge. The next chapter provides an account of the key period of Early Modern science and shows the rise of the empirical and rational paradigm and the introduction of scientific methods, as well as the broader social context of this process. The changes in the hierarchy of knowledge are primarily demonstrated with the examples of the English natural philosophers and society during the Age of Restoration. Special attention is devoted to sources of knowledge and the methods of their legitimization and verification during both periods, in addition to an examination, based on the Strong program, of the societal roots and factors determining or influencing that knowledge. Are the tenets of the Bloor's thesis, which put forward the idea of a strong social component of knowledge, valid? Is...
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Analysis of European Policy as European Identitty in Time
Plešr, Dominik ; Balon, Jan (advisor) ; Honová, Petra Alexandra (referee)
The aim of this thesis was to answer the Question Could we find something in European policy, what should to be the European identity?, through systematic research. Author decided for the mode of research on the basis of the studied literature and last international studies of this theme - thus to find european identity in european policy, not to describe a history of collocation "European identity". According to characteristic of terms "policy" and "identity, author analyses, whatever and how European identity express in European policy, by historic analysis, by analysis of documents - treaties of the European Union and foregoing organisations -, and by analysis of the overview of statistic data - Eurobarometer research. Historic analysis expressed different concepts of european identity - christianity, contradiction with islam, colonialism, science (like an ideology), rule of the law (particularly citizen's law and international law), man - sophist -, than analysis of documents of the Union -representative democracy, liberty, peace, security, human rights, rule of the law, and values, from which these emerged. Moreless, both of the groups of the concepts do not resist each other, because of we can include the concepts from historic analysis to collocation from treaties "…and values, from which...
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The Origins of Totalitarianism Viewed by First Generation of Critical Theorists
Danovská, Krista ; Balon, Jan (advisor) ; Tuček, Milan (referee)
The goal of the thesis is analysis of the origin of the totalitarian system in the work of Theodor Adorno, Erich Fromm, Max Horkheimer, and Herbert Marcuse, as representatives of the theoretical framework of critical theory. The analysis is carried out both in terms of the individual - the text works with the researches of the authors working with the concept of the authoritarian character - and in the analysis of societal factors leading to an undemocratic systém using texts following the philosophy of history. Work explores the overall context of the operating of selected authors, because the situation, during which the first generation of critical theorists formed their works was an important factor which influenced their thinking. The findings from selected studies include the fact that people with lower social status are more susceptible to tend towards a totalitarian system with strong authoritarian elements. Results from two different research one before the war and postwar one show that propensity for undemocratic system is rife. Texts dedicated to the philosophy of history show that modern capitalism and enlightened society elements are leading to totalitarianism. The authors leave this topic after their return to Frankfurt to a renewed Institute for Social Research.
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On the Method's Disappearance: Analysis between philosophies of social contract and classical sociologies. A Study in Epistemology
Maršálek, Jan ; Balon, Jan (advisor) ; Kvasz, Ladislav (referee) ; Karsenti, Bruno (referee)
The Method and its Disappearance: Analysis between philosophies of social contract and classical sociologies. A Study in Epistemology Jan Maršálek Université de Franche-Comté/Charles University in Prague Supervisors: prof. Frédéric Brahami, prof. Miloslav Petrusek (†), dr. Jan Balon. Résumé: In a doubly disloyal continuity with regard to the French epistemological tradition, largely preoccupied with the formation of scientific concepts, the present work addresses the phenomenon of disappearance of 'analytical' method. Nevertheless, the present work does not constitute an historical investigation: its very goal is to show (within the works of T. Hobbes, J.-J. Rousseau, H. Spencer and E. Durkheim) the variation of the epistemological status of the analysis, and thus to set up the concept of an 'epistemological event'. Examining the disappearance of the analysis requires its identification in the theoretical work whereby its leverage remains unacknowledged. Thus, having the status of a method in the philosophies of the social contract of Hobbes and Rousseau, the analysis 'continues' to structure, in a tacit way, the work of Spencer and Durkheim, both of them founders of scientific sociology. Is it possible to claim that, in the 19th century, the analysis manifests itself in the sociology's common recourse to...
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Reading Don DeLillo (Sociological Interpretation of Postmodern Literature)
Stehlík, Martin ; Paulíček, Miroslav (advisor) ; Balon, Jan (referee)
The relation between sociology and literature opens up a broad field for discussion because of their closeness. The diploma thesis pursues a rather uncommon approach to literature that searches for manifestations of sociological thought in literature in order to use them within contexts of thematically similar sociological theories. A considerable attention is paid to definition of this approach, especially in relation to standard methods of sociology of literature, and to subsequent formulation of its methodological starting-points. Sociological reading as introduced in the text interprets a literary work in the perspective of selected sociological theories to which the interpretation is reversely related in the following step. In the thesis the novel White Noise by Don DeLillo, a classical work of American postmodern fiction, is taken as an object of such interpretation. The theme of effects of the mass media in contemporary society marked out widely in the beginning is specified by selected theories of Jean Baudrillard and Niklas Luhmann. In the case of Baudrillard's theory of hyperreality and simulation, changes in relation between reality and representation, respectively disappearance of their traditional opposition, are concerned. Luhmann's social systems theory is used to explore the...
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