Civic competence is critical to the successful functioning of pluralistic democracies. Developing the knowledge, skills, and motivations for effective democratic participation is a national and global imperative that many higher education institutions have embraced through the teaching strategies of community-based learning and service-learning. Yet, scant research literature has focused on the relationship between pedagogical approaches and civic competence outcomes. This five-year longitudinal study of 11,000 students in 700 senior-level capstone courses at an urban research university empirically tested a new theoretically constructed model of civic competence development in order to identify epistemological and pedagogical elements that enhance civic competence. Eight epistemological domains embedded within four components of civic competence (knowledge, skills, attitudes, and actions) were analyzed utilizing item and factor analysis. The model was extremely robust (r = .917) for civic competence development and indicated strong effect size for multiple pedagogical elements of course design, teaching strategies, and integration of community service. Significantly, the greatest effect for developing civic competence is pedagogical incorporation of diversity and social justice issues. Thus, the Critical Pedagogy Model of Civic Competence offers faculty a heuristic taxonomy of teaching and learning strategies to utilize diversity of thought and interaction in community-based learning as a catalyst for transforming students into competent democratic participants.

The question of whether or not school makes a difference in preparing students for democratic citizenship has been debated for a long time in political science and curriculum studies. These discussions are mostly based on the results of international surveys measuring students’ political attitudes, values and participation. However, we first need to define what kind of prepared citizens are needed. This article takes on the definition issue and presents new perspectives by exploring how teachers in Social Science (Samhällskunskap) and their students in Sweden reason about engagement when they address complex societal issues such as globalisation. Based on interviews with a number of teachers and students I will argue that in order to understand what is going on in school we need to interpret Social Science teaching in terms of first- and second-order concepts, where the second-order concepts could be seen as "how to think like a social scientist". I will make a case that there is a didactic dilemma for teachers trying to educate students who are both trained in disciplinary thinking and leave school as politically engaged. However, this dilemma is not unsolvable and I will hold a position that it might contain answers to some of the questions that political scientists deal with in terms of engagement.

published_or_final_version / Architecture / Master / Master of Architecture

The thesis focuses on the issue of civic attitudes adopted by students of vocational schools. The author presents an overview of previous Czech research which shows that students of vocational schools are placed at the bottom of international surveys inquiring civic and political knowledge. Moreover, the results reveal that the students of vocational schools express their support for democracy as a way of government the least. The goal of the thesis is to describe civic and political opinions of concrete students and show who influences them and how. It is designed as a multiple case study. Six students of vocational schools from Prague, a smaller town and a village in Central Bohemian Region were chosen to participate in the study. The core of the work is the description of the individual cases in a detailed context including their family, community, school and friends. The findings indicate that the studied students are usually not interested in politics. Their political beliefs are heavily formed by their family and peers. School as an institution does not have any influence, not even through civic education which is compulsory during the first years of high school education. It is most of all caused by fewer opportunities for an open discussion about basic topics in classes. Media have only...

Immigrant incorporation in the United States has been a topic of concern and debate since the founding of the nation. Scholars have studied many aspects of the phenomenon, including economic, political, social, and spatial. The most influential paradigm of immigrant incorporation in the US has been, and continues to be, assimilation, and the most important place in and scale at which incorporation occurs is the neighborhood. This dissertation captures both of these integral aspects of immigrant incorporation through its consideration of three dimensions of assimilation – identity, trust, and civic engagement – among Latin American immigrants and American-born Latinos in Little Havana, a predominantly immigrant neighborhood in Miami, Florida. Data discussed in the dissertation were gathered through surveys and interviews as part of a National Science Foundation-funded study carried out in 2005-2006. The combination of quantitative and qualitative data allows for a nuanced understanding of how immigrant incorporation is occurring locally during the first decade of the twentieth century. Findings reveal that overall Latin American immigrants and their American-born offspring appear to be becoming American with regard to their ethnic and racial identities quickly, evidenced through the salience and active employment of panethnic labels, while at the same time they are actively reshaping the identificational structure. The Latino population, however, is not monolithic and is cleaved by diversity within the group, including country of origin and socioeconomic status. These same factors impede group cohesion in terms of trust and its correlate, community. Nevertheless, the historically dominant ancestry group in Little Havana – Cubans – has been able to reach notable levels of trust and build and conserve a more solid sense of community than non-Cuban residents. With respect to civic engagement, neighborhood residents generally participate at rates lower than the overall US population and ethnic subpopulations. This is not the case for political engagement, however, where self-reported voting registration and turnout in Little Havana surpasses that of most benchmarked populations. The empirical evidence presented in this dissertation on the case of Latinos in Little Havana challenges the ways that identity, trust, and civic engagement are conceptualized and theorized, especially among immigrants to the US.

This master thesis deals with the availability of civic infrastructure in Prague agglomeration areas which were affected by residential suburbanization. Suburbanization process but also the demography of the population affected dynamically growing population which caused many municipalities lack the capacity of civic amenities. The aim of this master thesis is to describe and assess the impact of suburbanization on the scope and availability of civic amenities in the villages located near the capital city of Prague. This paper summarizes the situation in the suburbanized areas of the Czech Republic. However, important parts of the paper are also the theories that address the issue of suburbanization and their influence in other countries. Moreover, case studies that were conducted in two selected villages of the district of Prague-West, in Libčice nad Vltavou and in Horoměřice are included. The analysis show that the inadequate infrastructural facilities are being experienced in large part suburbanized municipalities. Data from available statistical databases and from personal interviews that were conducted with representatives from selected communities were used to compose this paper.

Tato diplomová práce analyzuje právní základy a užití občanského zákoníku, majetkových zákonů, občanského soudního řádu a exekuční řádu v obchodu s nemovitostmi. Skrze případové studie se snaží poukázat na kritická místa a proveditelnost jednotlivých investic do exekucí zasažených či jinak právně znehodnocených nemovitostí. Závěrečná část hledá standardizované postupy, které nachází optimální mix rizika a profitability.

The aim of the thesis is to study personal identity development of the participants who move from active civic engagement within the civil society to active political participation within the political sphere at the reginal level. The thesis focuses on personal identity and the method of its construction through life stories. The theoretical part of the thesis deals with terms such as civic engagement, political participation and concepts based on narative identity. The second part contains a research methodology. Specifically is presented which presents the narrative approach with the use of narrative interview as a research method. The third part is based on deals with the research itself. The research works with a specific case based on political and socio-historical context of the city of Usti nad Labem. The data is obtained in the form of narrative interviews with local policiticians. The results of the research have shown that there are three different ways in which the actors are self- presenting their identity in relation to the environment. It was the identity of the politician, the identity of the activist / active citizen and the identity of the politician joined with the identity of the activist. Personal identity has completely changed in the case of one person, one person has changed...

The main topic of this thesis is the support of youth participation in the Czech Republic and related national youth policy, as defined in the National Youth Strategy for the years 2014- 2020. The aim of this thesis is to analyze and evaluate the process of creation, implementation and evaluation of this Strategy. Furthermore, the fulfillment of the strategic goal SC8, which focuses on the support of active involvement of young people, is evaluated. The thesis also includes an analysis of key actors, an informalized analysis of discourses related to youth policy and international comparison. Aims of the Strategy 2014-2020 were fulfilled through several implementation tools. The main tools were state grant programs for work with children and youth for NGOs, subsidy programs at the regional level, the Erasmus + program and cooperation with the NN LAG Czech Republic. The analysis of the Strategy evaluation process showed that the real process differed in some respects from the original plan. Monitoring of the fulfillment of strategic goals of the Strategy 2014-2020 should be provided by thematic groups, which, however, disintegrated during the validity of the Strategy. The deadline for the overall evaluation of the Strategy was postponed to June 2021. The biggest problem of the Strategy 2014-2020 was...

This thesis focuses on civic associations operating in social sphere in the Czech Republic. Social sphere is in regard to the used methodology in the thesis delimited by the social service definition specified in Act No. 108/2006 Coll. The aim of the thesis is to analyze services provided to civic associations in the social sphere, to map the range of provided services, and to highlight the position of civic associations as social enterprises in the social sphere. The theoretical part deals with terms related to civil society, civil society organizations, social enterprises, and social services. The empirical part is then based on data earned from Register of Social Service Providers and provides comprehensive overview of the size and spheres the civic associations as social services providers operate in.