Class Actions Abstract This thesis deals with class actions. These are currently (and rightly so) a much-discussed topic. On March 6, 2020, the government submitted a government bill on collective proceedings, which is controversial, primarily due to its inspiration in the American class action lawsuit. The main thorn in the side of the bill's critics is that the government proposal includes the opt-out proceedings, i.e. the type of proceedings that forces the class members to deregister. It is present in the current proposal along with the opt-in proceedings, which are guided by the opposite principle. This thesis examined, in particular, the appropriateness of adopting collective proceedings into the Czech legal order and the potential problems that the proposed arrangement may cause. Regulations on collective redress in the US (which has been an original idea source for the government bill) and the Netherlands (which shares some aspects with the current version of the bill after its January amendment) were also examined. From the methodological point of view, analytical, normative, comparative, and synthetic approaches were mainly used in this thesis. First, an analysis of legislation, literature and case law was performed. The current government bill on collective proceedings was extensively commented...

Global food supply chains have drastically changed over the last decades. Whereas some international firms embedded in the international markets are on the cutting edge of food production processes and technology, small-scale producers do not always experience the same opportunity in accessing such global value chains. According to FAO, those small-scale producers worldwide are in charge of providing about one-third of the world’s food demand, yet they find an immense challenge in just keeping their production marketable. This way, one of the most likely consequences of poorly designed policies to support those producers is rural poverty. However, not only physical dimensions such as food security and nutrition, education, living standards, rural livelihoods and resources, and risks as presented by FAO impose pressure on small-scale producers, but also the inability to experience a better quality of life also seems to play a key role in how producers plan and manages their crops. This research explores the role and preferences of small-scale farmers in São Paulo, Brazil, through the lens of the Amartya Sen’s capabilities approach. To operationalize this research, a case study was conducted based on semi-structured interviews in addition to a desk study. The findings suggests that although those farmers have no clear idea regarding the academic concept of capabilities, they do acknowledge a lack of freedom to make decisions according to their preferences. In addition, they seems to be squeezed in the middle of the government policies directed for the agribusiness and the most vulnerable rural households who lives under the poverty line, when it comes specifically to the Brazilian case.

This thesis investigates the continuance of the MeToo movement in the Swedish context via the digitalplatform Instagram, collective action and feminist organizations that are engaged to end sexual violence.It illuminates how the sisterhood impacted by the practice of challenging the rape script a conceptused to describe the discourse on how sexual violence should be like, and how victim-survivors should behave, how the engagement is made among the activists that engage to challenge the rape script and lastly, how since the MeToo movement started a discourse of rightlessness have been exposed through the sharing of experiences that the MeToo movement initiated. The ethnographic study is based on participant observation of feminist actions in real life and on Instagram as well as interviews with 13 activists from feminist organizations and with background as organisers of collective actions. It is found that the MeToo movement in Sweden is commonly practiced through an engagement in Feminist organizations that serve to keep the movement alive through continuous work to keep sexual violence on the agenda by keeping it visible, and that the engagement is driven by an experience of anger towards the societal discourse that sets the discourse on rape which affects the possibility to be recognized by the legal system. The thesis will overall suggest that there is a sisterhood built on a collective identity, and that the shared identity and oppression between non-men with an aspiration to support one another in the experience of oppression as well as organize safety nets for those who are sentenced for defamation as a consequence of speaking out.

In this work, we deal with theories of collective action. To categorize the researchers used information from the functionalist approach. The aim is to provide an overview of sociologists concerned with theories of collective action, i. e. various forms of collective action. Mainly for this work is the concept of function and its distribution eufunction and dysfunction as two poles. Researchers are closer to those poles. The inclusion of researchers in these poles are still dealing with other characteristics that unite and differentiate. In the first chapters of the thesis deals with the functionalist concepts and theories of collective action. The next chapter is already engaged functionalist categorization and other characteristics researchers. The chapter is divided into two parts, which correspond to two functionalist terms, i. e. eufunction and dysfunction. Keywords functionalism, collective action, eufunction, dysfunction, crowds, social movements, revolutions, R. K. Merton, T. Parsons

Networking of civil society organizations has been occurring in the Czech civic sector for several years. Since the nineties a number of new networks has emerged or extended their membership base. Networks can be examined diversely. This work is focused principally on the network internal operations. The aim of this work is to show the forms of organizational structure and collective action on the example of the Czech Forum for Development Cooperation (FoRS). The operational objective is to determine whether the examined internal form of network has an effect on the achievement of its objectives. The hypothesis that the centralised and hierarchical forms of network achieve more likely their objectives was confirmed in this case. The analysis also revealed that the network FoRS acts as a "consensus- based organization". This type of structure has typically sparse network of interactions, weakly shared collective identity and the absence of conflicting orientation towards a defined enemy.

The struggle to end violence against women and girls has long been a priority topic for women’s and feminist movements in Latin America. Lately, since the changes in the new media landscape (Castells 2015; Lievrouw, 2013) with the increased use of information and communication technologies (ICTs), such as social media platforms like Facebook and Twitter, the way women and feminist movements advocate their intentions are changing (Harcourt, 2013; Mathos, 2017). Departing from this reality, the aim is to investigate the role the use of social media activism played for the recent feminist movement, Ni Una Menos (NUM [Not One Less]), in Argentina and Chile while advocating for the end of violence against women. Taking a cross disciplinary approach this research combines theories from the fields of feminist studies, social movement and communication sciences. Through in-depth interviews with core activists from NUM both in Argentina and Chile as research method, it has been possible to identify the role of certain social media platforms for NUM’s tactical repertoire in their strive to advocate for the end of violence against women and girls. The findings also demonstrate the activism on social media platforms by the NUM movement has played an important role to set the topic on the public agenda in these countries, resulting in a generally greater awareness. Regardless off the role social media activism played, the importance seems to lie in a combination of activism on social media and the streets for feminist movements advocating to end violence against women because it assures a broad reach to all people in society. Nevertheless, to end violence against women in these countries much more effort is needed by society at large.

The modern global agrifood system has had significant negative impacts on consumers and producers. This has precipitated the rise of local food systems that are purported to improve the health and livelihoods of consumers and producers. High expectations have led to significant public and private resources dedicated to the development of local food systems. Despite this, there has been little systematic research exploring the social and institutional conditions that facilitate or frustrate local food system development. Using a comparative case study approach, this study explored the ways local structural conditions, collective action, food system policies, and the political context affect the development of local food systems. Findings suggested truly robust local food system development requires either collective action or public policies and are more likely to exist and be successful depending on the political climate and the balance of power between land use interests in the community.

Titre : La compensation écologique : du principe de non perte nette de biodiversité à son opérationnalisation – analyse de l’action collectiveMots clés : Compensation écologique, action collective, effets spatio-temporels, Non perte nette de biodiversité.Résumé : En France la compensation écologique des impacts résiduels sur la biodiversité a pour objectif l'atteinte de la non perte nette de biodiversité. Un cadre normatif énonçant une dizaine de principes permet théoriquement d'atteindre cet objectif.Nous étudions donc la mise en œuvre de la compensation écologique à travers trois projets de LGV. Nous analysons le jeu d'acteur autour de cette mise en œuvre grâce aux théories de l'action collective, et notamment grâce au cadre analytique de la Traduction proposé par M. Callon. Cette première analyse nous permet de comprendre en quoi la compensation est un objet socio-technique. Nous mettons en évidence que de nombreux acteurs aux intérêts divergents se mobilisent pour mettre en place la compensation écologique. Nous montrons qu’il y a une tension entre la mobilisation des acteurs et les exigences écologiques, ces deux aspects ne sont pas toujours compatibles. La durée des cahiers de charges et la rétribution des propriétaires fonciers, chargés de la mise en œuvre de la compensation écologique est déterminante à la fois pour la mobilisation des humains et des nons humains (biodiversité). Nous nous interrogeons ensuite sur les effets spatiaux temporels de l’action collective et de sa capacité à tendre vers une non perte nette de biodiversité. Nous montrons que les mesures n’ont pas pu être effectives avant le démarrage des impacts. La gestion du foncier en France semble pour le moment difficilement compatible avec une mise en œuvre de la compensation non anticipée très en amont. Nous montrons que la majorité des sites de mesures de compensation sont de petites tailles, bien que des espaces de grandes tailles semblent davantage vertueux d’un point de vue écologique. Enfin nous montrons que la pérennité des mesures de compensations peut être appréhendée à différents niveaux suivant (i) le type de maîtrise foncière (acquisition, conventionnement); (ii) les contrats de mesures de compensation (durée, contenu de ces derniers – les sanctions en cas de manquement aux obligations influent sur le maintien des mesures) ; (iii) la gestion du renouvellement de ces contrats; (iv) la vocation des propriétaires des sites (une entreprises publique ou privée de construction n’a pas comme rôle au départ de conserver la biodiversité, tandis qu’une association naturaliste en a la vocation) ; (v) la pérennité des structures et les assurances quant au devenir des sites de mesures de compensation en cas de faillite; (vi) le suivi et le contrôle l’application de la compensation. / In France, the objective of ecological compensation for residual impacts on biodiversity is to achieve no net loss of biodiversity. A normative framework setting out about ten principles theoretically makes it possible to achieve this objective.We are therefore studying the implementation of biodiversity offset through three High Speed Railway projects. We analyze the actor's game around this implementation through the theories of collective action, and in particular the analytical framework of Translation proposed by M. Callon. This first analysis allows us to understand how biodiversity offset is a socio-technical object. We highlight that many actors with diverging stakes are mobilizing to implement ecological compensation. We show that there is a tension between the mobilization of actors and ecological requirements, these two aspects are not always compatible. The duration of the environmental services specifications and the associated retribution of landowners, who set-up biodiversity offset specification, is decisive for both human and non-human (biodiversity) mobilization. We then question the temporal spatial effects of collective action and its ability to achieve a net loss of biodiversity. We show that the measures could not be effective before the impacts began. Land management in France seems for the moment to be difficult to reconcile with the implementation of unanticipated biodiversity offset at a very early stage. We show that the majority of biodiversity offset sites are small in size, although larger areas seem more virtuous for biodiversity. Finally, we show that the sustainability of biodiversity offset measures can be assessed at different levels depending on (i) the type of land control (acquisition, agreement); (ii) biodiversity offset contracts (duration, content of the latter - sanctions in the event of failure to comply with obligations influence the maintenance of the measures); (iii) the management of the renewal of these contracts; (iv) the vocation of the owners of the sites (a public or private construction company does not initially have the role of conserving biodiversity, whereas an environmental NGO has the vocation); (v) the sustainability of the structures and assurances as to the future of the biodiversity offset measures sites in the event of bankruptcy; (vi) the monitoring and control of the implementation.

The objective of this proposed research is to test whether interorganizational collaboration contributes to the ability of an organization to bounce back swiftly from disasters. The research questions are examined from the Institutional Collective Action (ICA) perspective. The general argument of this dissertation is that organizational resilience can be explained by interorganizational collaboration. The ICA framework, specifically, identifies two general network structures to explain strategies that can be adopted to minimize collaboration risks: bonding and bridging structures. This dissertation focuses on how governmental and nongovernmental organizations in South Korea collaborated. The data was collected from the southeastern tip of the Korean Peninsula in August of 2012, and January of 2013. The 2012 Typhoons devastated the area after the first data set was collected in August 2012, causing the loss of estimated US$ 730 million and 29 fatalities. Afterward, the second survey was administrated in January of 2013 to gauge respondents’ views on how organizations responded to the disasters. This dissertation consists of three essays. The first essay presents a brief overview and assessment of the current research on resilience. The second essay empirically tests the sources of organization resilience. The third essay examines the dynamic nature of interorganizational ties by employing stochastic actor-based models. The findings show how organizations prefer to not coordinate with other organizations even though this could reduce their strains during a disaster. The findings also suggest that organizations that operate in higher risk areas or participate in joint full-scale exercises before a disaster form interorganizational ties afterward.

Corruption, militarism, and conflict are bedfellows, and their coexistence feeds a vicious circle of violence and instability. Every dollar spent on the military is a dollar not spent on welfare-generating services such as education and healthcare. Yet, military spending makes up a bulk of government spending in several countries, and it is often shrouded from public purview. Rent-seeking behavior fostered within corrupt practices incentivize public officials to accept bribes from military suppliers, while the secrecy surrounding defense procurements allows them to act with perceived impunity. In this paper, I conduct a quantitative study using panel data from 175 countries from 2000 to 2020 to argue that corruption causes a distortion in public expenditure distribution by diverting valuable resources from social spending to military spending. Highly corrupt countries tend to spend a higher percentage of their GDP on the military, freeing up less of the finite resources for investment in education and healthcare. I find that corruption drives up military spending causing a crowding out of social spending.