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Cycling advocates: reinventing politics in the era of late modernity
Fiala, Šimon ; Kabele, Jiří (advisor) ; Kotík, Michal (referee)
Cycling advocacy has taken a form of a popular worldwide social movement in the beginning of the 21st century. Cyclists demand not only improved conditions for cycling, but also a reform in the way the city is being run in order to be "livable" and saturated with "quality public spaces". This dissertation attempts to put the phenomenon in the context of the theory of risk society and it attempts to incorporate impulses from the theoretical tradition of ANT. The cycling controversy is being read as a re-invention of politics in urban arenas. What is political about the bicycle? More than it may seem. The bicycle has endured a long trajectory of political appropriation by various groups in order to arrive at a point where it began to be conceived as the default starting point of the critique of automobility and Western modernity. As a consequence the bicycle emerges as a loaded political symbol that is being appropriated by cycling advocates in order to problematize the alienated city colonized by cars, appropriated by business interests and neglected by the political representation. The bicycle is being reinvented as a symbol of urban revolution. This dissertation introduces the results of an empirical research undertaken between June 2013 and April 2015 that maps the shape of the cycling controversy in...
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Stigmatization of patients with mental illness
Vitásková, Lucie ; Balon, Jan (advisor) ; Fiala, Šimon (referee)
This bachelor's work looks into stigma as a mark of difference. It is specifically targeted on stigmatization of mentally ill people. The aim of this work is to find out which factors affect position of mentally ill people in Czech society and also to find out in what amount is the stigmatization present. Theoretical part of the work contains basic information about mental illnesses and stigmatization in connection with them. It discusses summary of history and describes creation of negative stereotypes, prejudices and discrimination in connection with stigmatization. Next issue of this work is sorting of stigmatization by several criterions. Practical part of the work is a way to get answers to research questions whose target is to find out, how certain individual with mental defect or illness perceive position of mentally ill people and their potential stigmatization. Analysis of six half-constructed interviews is inseparable part of this work and it provided crucial information to this study. In the last part we are given answers to the research questions. Stigmatization of people with mental illness is present in today's society, according to the respondents. However, they feel stigmatization is being eliminated recently. How much is the mentally ill person affected by the stigmatization is...
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Dance of Witches: Analysis of selected Aspects of Contemporary Magic
Tesárek, Jan ; Spalová, Barbora (advisor) ; Fiala, Šimon (referee)
This thesis deals with research of magic in contemporary Czech society. Although magic in contemporary society is practiced across different religious currents, this research has shown that it is possible to analytically grasp it through its epistemological dimension. In this sense, magic is a set of specific ways of knowing that produce a particular knowledge of the world. These are the epistemic processes: clairvoyance, ritual visions, oracles and interpretation of physical sensations. These processes have a symbolic nature and they are structured through symbolic meanings, which are based on spiritual ground of adept's practising of magic. Acquired "magical" knowledge is then negotiated as real and rational through different narrative strategies: through science legitimization, legitimization effect and through psychological reductionism. This knowledge also affects the social world and identity in the lives of informants of my research. The magic in them becomes a commission that is accepted or rejected. However it creates a specific network of relationships with human and non-human actors around the informant which forms his identity.
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Cycling advocates: reinventing politics in the era of late modernity
Fiala, Šimon ; Kabele, Jiří (advisor) ; Kotík, Michal (referee)
Cycling advocacy has taken a form of a popular worldwide social movement in the beginning of the 21st century. Cyclists demand not only improved conditions for cycling, but also a reform in the way the city is being run in order to be "livable" and saturated with "quality public spaces". This dissertation attempts to put the phenomenon in the context of the theory of risk society and it attempts to incorporate impulses from the theoretical tradition of ANT. The cycling controversy is being read as a re-invention of politics in urban arenas. What is political about the bicycle? More than it may seem. The bicycle has endured a long trajectory of political appropriation by various groups in order to arrive at a point where it began to be conceived as the default starting point of the critique of automobility and Western modernity. As a consequence the bicycle emerges as a loaded political symbol that is being appropriated by cycling advocates in order to problematize the alienated city colonized by cars, appropriated by business interests and neglected by the political representation. The bicycle is being reinvented as a symbol of urban revolution. This dissertation introduces the results of an empirical research undertaken between June 2013 and April 2015 that maps the shape of the cycling controversy in...
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Corruption as Narrative
Fiala, Šimon ; Kotík, Michal (advisor) ; Volek, Martin (referee)
FIALA, Šimon. Political corruption as a narrative. Prague, 2012. Undergraduate thesis (BA). Charles University in Prague, Faculty of social sciences, Institute of social studies. Dept. of Sociology. p. 59. Supervised by Mgr. Michal Kotík. Abstract Political corruption became one of the most pressing problems of our time. We may say that corruption replaced repression as the main threat to the rule of law. This work attempts to articulate the role of corruption in relation to system legitimacy, assuming Czech Republic and the CEE countries as a model. This work approaches corruption as a narrative, which is being mobilized by the public as a critique of the way the system works. Conventionally, corruption is thought of as a pathology, which damages democracy, quality of governance and economic growth. It will be argued that it also makes sense to think about corruption the other way around - as an interpretive structure which allows introducing sense into the complex organization of society and particularly its negative outcomes. Corruption is a narrative, which allows the public to relate to problems stemming from the workings of the system. This work identifies several dimensions of the problem. It argues that corruption has a notable social dimension, which addresses inequality and injustice in general....
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