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Reflection and Reconstruction of Critical Theory of Sport
Ondráček, Vojtěch ; Hauser, Michael (advisor) ; Růžička, Jiří (referee) ; Numerato, Dino (referee)
This thesis presents the critical theory of sport that emerged in the 1960s in France. It is based on an analysis of the texts of the main representative of this project, Jean-Marie Brohm, from 1964-1978. It analyzes its basic concepts, theoretical background, sources, methodology and political activism. Critical theory of sport is explained as a specific kind of political theory of sport that applies Marxist and psychoanalytic concepts, resulting in a completely original approach to the study of sport. The thesis makes the categorization of this theory by dividing it into political, economic and ideological critiques. Sport is conceived in this theoretical perspective as a repressive tool of the ruling class, which enables its power reproduction and manipulation of the masses. The inner dynamics of sport depend on the logic of capital and the exploitation, alienation and mechanization of athletes. Next object of analysis is also the ideology of sport and its functions. The thesis also includes a presentation of the historical genesis of the critical theory of sport in the context of the events of May '68, which became a defining moment not only for its emergence, but also for its later development, which the thesis also reflects and explains in a broader context. Emphasis is placed on the...
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To bike or not to bike: Cycloactivism in a perspective of actor-network theory
Fendrychová, Kristýna ; Stöckelová, Tereza (advisor) ; Brož, Luděk (referee)
In this diploma thesis I focus on the formation of urban cycling including heterogeneous participating actors - people, discourses, technologies, infrastructures and other materialities. I examine cyclists' relationships with their environment and describe asymmetries connected with the dominant status of automobilism in urban environment, and strategies for contesting this situation. I also focus on cyclo-activist discourse which plays an important role in the empowerment of cyclists in urban traffic. Mobilizing arguments of critical theory and the "right for the city" concept cyclo-advoacy strives to include as many citizens as possible in debate about public space and in this way support pro-cycling developments. From the perspective of actor-network theory (ANT) this strategy has limits due to its operation with stabilized social science categories and I argue that ANT could contribute a more nuanced arguments to cyclo-advocacy with detailed description of connections between cyclists and urban environment, focus on embodiment and emotions and highlighting the role of materialities. It could thereby provide a stronger argument for furthering the pro-cycling development. Key words: urban cycling, automobilism, actor-network theory (ANT), cycloadvocacy, critical theory, materiality
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How to think Architecture in a new way. Late though of Peter Eisenman and his critical theory of architecture
Tourek, Jiří ; Říha, Cyril (advisor) ; Pětová, Marie (referee) ; Zervan, Marian (referee)
Dissertation thesis "How to think Architecture in a new way. Late though of Peter Eisenman and his critical theory of architecture" tries to summarise and analyse the key thoughts of architect and thinker Peter Eisenman in his late oeuvre. The point of departure of his theoretical thinking seems to be refusal of any timeless essence of architecture and a will to "dislocate" architecture from influence of metaphysics. The way to this is "criticality", a notion constituted with three basic terms: interiority (the interiority of architecture defines the discipline, what it is that makes architecture singular), exteriority (external concepts that change architecture by being internalised into the discipline and changing it) and anteriority (anteriority is the sedimented history of architecture; history of interiority). These three terms are according to Eisenman connected in a notion of "undecidability" that serves as a central criterium to criticality and in a "diagram" that is a mean to overcome metaphysical implications of architecture. At the end of the thesis there is a summary of Eisenman's theoretical work and its importance and an attempt is made to set so conceived whole in its entirety to the thought of "end of metaphysics". In this context is Eisenman seen to be in a position similar from...
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The Role and Learning of Women at Work: a Critical view
Švarcová, Michaela ; Kopecký, Martin (advisor) ; Šerák, Michal (referee)
The purpose of this thesis is to analyse various critical theoretical approaches towards women's role and learning at work. My research focuses on education-related gender inequalities at work and in relation to working conditions. This topic is then put into the context of critical approaches and theories. The aspects explored are the feminist views on the subject which differ according to individual movements, as well as the ongoing transformation of work; in this regard, the research deals with concrete phenomena, such as individualization and unequal distribution of social risks, and explores the way they are seen in terms of individual critical approaches. The thesis also describes and analyses the work of Iris Marion Young. An American socialist feminist, Young is the author of the theory of justice. Last but not least, the thesis examines how work, experience and learning are conceptualised in contemporary critical-oriented andragogical research in the area of gender-related issues at work.
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Contribution of Frankfurt School to Critical Marketing Studies
Plíhalová, Eliška ; Rosenfeldová, Jana (advisor) ; Schneiderová, Soňa (referee)
The objective of this thesis is to uncover the basics of the contribution of Frankfurt School to critical marketing scholarship. Three questions were set down to meet this objective: Do the critical marketing scholars refer to the work of Frankfurt School? How do they view their theory, do they take it as a basis for their work or do they contest it instead? And are they exploring similar topics? The method of this thesis is a literature review, employed not only as a mere data gathering tool detecting articles that have elaborated Frankfurt School's ideas, but also applied to provide the reader with meaning-making, analysing understanding, interpretation and comparison. Therefore, a convenience sampling was used. While the descriptive part concerns Frankfurt School and presents selected writings, the analytical part juxtaposes these ideas with articles of critical marketing scholars. The analytical portion was sorted into following thematic areas, based on keywords derived from Tadajewski (2010): adopting critical view, materialism, consumer culture, consumer sovereignty, hegemonic role of the market and research assumptions. Clear analogies between approaches, topics and overall ethos have been detected between both disciplines and are emphasised throughout the paper.
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Critical Theory and Dialectics of Contemporary Economics
Maialeh, Robin ; Chytil, Zdeněk (advisor) ; Pavlík, Ján (referee) ; Valenčík, Radim (referee) ; Yagan, Danny (referee)
The subject of this dissertation thesis is a confrontation of contemporary economic thought with critical theory. Based on the holistic critique of the production process, the author deals with elementary principles of wealth creation and allocation, mirroring themselves in the issue of economic inequality. An applied transdisciplinary approach leads to dialectical understanding of market mechanism which accentuates an antagonistic character of its actors´ aims and reveals its non-empirical causalities. These abstract connections then become a viable explanatory complement to already advanced empirical apparatus of economic inequality. The goal of the thesis is to formulate an economic model that takes into consideration both empirical findings of contemporary studies on economic inequality and reflection of the critical theory. The value added lies in the fact that the economic model presents an interaction of economic agents and through probabilistic drive towards deepening economic inequalities exposes market mechanism as the diverging factor of social reproduction. Further, the model shows that Pareto-optimization, a frequently used analytically-normative tool of contemporary economics, principally does not suffice in grasping market-based inequalities. The contribution of the thesis is researching particular economic phenomena from the unique perspective which has not been yet fully accomplished in the context of modern economics.
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To bike or not to bike: Cycloactivism in a perspective of actor-network theory
Fendrychová, Kristýna ; Stöckelová, Tereza (advisor) ; Brož, Luděk (referee)
In this diploma thesis I focus on the formation of urban cycling including heterogeneous participating actors - people, discourses, technologies, infrastructures and other materialities. I examine cyclists' relationships with their environment and describe asymmetries connected with the dominant status of automobilism in urban environment, and strategies for contesting this situation. I also focus on cyclo-activist discourse which plays an important role in the empowerment of cyclists in urban traffic. Mobilizing arguments of critical theory and the "right for the city" concept cyclo-advoacy strives to include as many citizens as possible in debate about public space and in this way support pro-cycling developments. From the perspective of actor-network theory (ANT) this strategy has limits due to its operation with stabilized social science categories and I argue that ANT could contribute a more nuanced arguments to cyclo-advocacy with detailed description of connections between cyclists and urban environment, focus on embodiment and emotions and highlighting the role of materialities. It could thereby provide a stronger argument for furthering the pro-cycling development. Key words: urban cycling, automobilism, actor-network theory (ANT), cycloadvocacy, critical theory, materiality
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The Politics of Bio(in)security: science, experts and the dilemma of dual use
Rychnovská, Dagmar ; Karásek, Tomáš (advisor) ; Leander, Anna (referee) ; Lupták, Ľubomír (referee)
This thesis explores the politics of biosecurity and the governance of dual-use research. It focuses on life sciences, whose rapid development brings together the issues of biological weapons, terrorism, and the dangers of scientific innovations. The thesis has three goals: first, to situate the dilemma of dual-use research historically and conceptually, second, to analyse how the attempts to govern biosecurity and regulate dual-use research in life sciences affect the relations between science and security, and third, to discuss what implications this science-security nexus has for the politics of (in)security. Approaching the subject from critical security studies, the thesis looks at how the nexus between science and security is constructed. It does so, first, by exploring the dominant political and expert discourses on biosecurity and by looking at two distinct empirical sites, which exemplify how a regime of biosecurity governance evolves at a boundary of science and security in a 'global' and 'local' context: the international biological weapons regime and the Czech system of biosecurity management. The thesis finds that the attempts to govern dual-use research in life sciences focus not only on materials and technologies but also on scientific knowledge. It conceptualizes dual-use as a problem of...
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