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Intersexuality from the perspective of expert knowledge in the Czech republic
Lindnerová, Adéla ; Benešovská, Barbora (advisor) ; Wirthová, Jitka (referee)
This bachelor thesis deals with intersexuality from the perspective of expert knowledge in the Czech Republic. Its focus is on how experts approach bodies and sex, which they break down into parts that must eventually form a unified whole that can be assigned to one of the sex categories of male or female. This paper explores how expert knowledge approaches the concept of normality of bodies and sex and how it connects it to health. It shows the way in which sex binaries are shaped in medical discourse and how this binarity is socio-culturally conditioned. The research is based on qualitative analysis of 5 semi-structured interviews with representatives of Czech expert knowledge. The findings of the paper present that since experts treat intersex bodies as unhealthy and therefore not conforming to the social norm, medicine is proceeding with interventions to bring them closer to normality. The reasons for treating intersex diagnoses are rooted in society and are related not only to socialization and social order, but also to the setting of the Czech state. The binary sex division is legitimized by expert knowledge not only because of its naturalness but also because of its historical grounding.
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Health myths Promoted by Online Media
Jeníková, Anna ; Vochocová, Lenka (advisor) ; Zezulková, Markéta (referee)
The diploma thesis deals with current media myths about health and the human body. Dissemination of myths among the general public has been facilitated by the emergence of new media that allow a multi-layered debate across social groups. Online content offers a quick source and a wide range of answers or inspiration on health and human body issues, usually without the need to indicate where the information comes from. I will focus on the discussion about detoxification of the human body in life-style online media for women. Contemporary discussions on this topic show that easy access to information has prompted a wave of so-called "self-healing" described as a situation in which people consult their health problems primarily with online content, and then, if at all, with their GP or with another expert. Although some myths have been scientifically refuted, they still have their "proponents" who can represent legitimate knowledge. The very word "myth" or "half-truth" or "superstition" is discursively specific, burdened and represents an ideology. In many health and human body issues, there are many arguments of both parties (both mainstream and alternative medicine). I will observe this extreme polarization in the diploma thesis that is neither a defense of expert votes nor "experts by...
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Contemporary Educational Legitimation Ecology: positions, knowledge, and critique
Wirthová, Jitka ; Balon, Jan (advisor) ; Veselý, Arnošt (referee) ; Fučík, Petr (referee)
This dissertation focuses on the current Czech space of legitimation practices in education as a variable sphere of justification and critique of educational goals rooted in global transformations of educational institutions, autonomies of the nation states and transnational comparative data. Since the debate on educational reform (2004), the Czech legitimation educational ecology has been diversified by different types of knowledge and actors (state, non- profit, private sector). In this work, I argue that legitimation as a critical action is today, in various ways and processes (knowledge regimes, patterns of actorship) derived from traditional jurisdictions (state and professional structures) and moves to more flexible structures, which I call topologies. In jurisdictions, mostly passive audiences remain. New legitimation topologies connect values and data and, in many ways, replace dysfunctional state structures, using specific disconnections, but also question the public nature of negotiating educational goals. Based on relational ontology and sociological topological studies and through a qualitative relational analysis of legitimation practices in three fields (published normative documents, public debates and semi-structured interviews with state and non-state actors) I show in the period...
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Health myths Promoted by Online Media
Jeníková, Anna ; Vochocová, Lenka (advisor) ; Zezulková, Markéta (referee)
The diploma thesis deals with current media myths about health and the human body. Dissemination of myths among the general public has been facilitated by the emergence of new media that allow a multi-layered debate across social groups. Online content offers a quick source and a wide range of answers or inspiration on health and human body issues, usually without the need to indicate where the information comes from. I will focus on the discussion about detoxification of the human body in life-style online media for women. Contemporary discussions on this topic show that easy access to information has prompted a wave of so-called "self-healing" described as a situation in which people consult their health problems primarily with online content, and then, if at all, with their GP or with another expert. Although some myths have been scientifically refuted, they still have their "proponents" who can represent legitimate knowledge. The very word "myth" or "half-truth" or "superstition" is discursively specific, burdened and represents an ideology. In many health and human body issues, there are many arguments of both parties (both mainstream and alternative medicine). I will observe this extreme polarization in the diploma thesis that is neither a defense of expert votes nor "experts by...
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