During the year of 2015 and the large migration wave that hit Europe, many unaccompanied young refugees came to Sweden. For this particular group, the challenge is to become integrated to the labour market in order to receive a permanent residency permit in Sweden after they graduate their upper secondary education. Over the past few years, it has become more evident that the state is not able to handle the integration process alone, and that it is time to shed light on contemporary initiatives deriving from other actors, such as civil society organisations. The question is whether these initiatives have been successful in bringing about change, and in what ways. The purpose of this thesis was therefore to analyse the civil society organisation Right To Play that uses sports as a tool for labour market integration, through the theory of Institutional Entrepreneurship by identifying its rationales, resources, and relations that are used to prompt institutional change. Through three semi-structured interviews and one observation, together with secondary data, a narrative analysis of their stories was conducted. The results showed that the organisation manage to mix a set of strong rationales of sports, labour market integration, and youth agency, to transform the youth from being passive receivers of integration to become active agents and important human resources within the organisation, and to connect the youth with other actors in the society through external relations. The study also concluded that the elements of rationales, resources, and relations, that are used to investigate the power of an organisation to prompt institutional change, also helps the organisation to become resilient in times of crises.

Government Organized Non-Governmental Organizations (GONGOs), once common during the Soviet-era, are now increasingly resurfacing under the Putin administration. Once completely abolished from Russia, these deceitful organizations are accompanying various new laws signed by President Putin in the Russian Federation. While Russia does not claim to be a liberal democracy with a free civil society and Putin has described his state as a “managed democracy,” the puzzle still remains why the Putin administration is secretly using organizations to fulfill government ploys. This thesis will analyze the types of GONGOs along with new laws and policies signed into effect under the Putin and Medvedev Administration. I conclude this thesis by partially confirming my hypothesis that president Putin is rationally choosing to create these organizations in an effort to consolidate his power and promote Russian culture.

[pt] Este trabalho tem como principal interesse a perspectiva da sociedade civil sobre o tema da democratização da comunicação no Brasil. Inicialmente, realiza um levantamento bibliográfico sobre o papel da regulação da comunicação na tentativa de garantir pluralidade de diversidade da mídia em regimes democráticos. Depois, faz uma breve recuperação histórica e analítica do quadro jurídico brasileiro concernente ao tema e apresenta uma retrospectiva da atuação de organizações demandantes da democratização da comunicação no país desde a redemocratização. Finalmente, chega-se à análise da campanha Para expressar a liberdade e da Proposta de Lei de Iniciativa Popular da Comunicação Social Eletrônica, iniciativas lideradas Fórum Nacional pela Democratização da Comunicação (FNDC) com o objetivo de regulamentar os artigos 5, 220, 221, 222 e 223 da Constituição de 1988. Argumenta-se que, a despeito da frustração no recolhimento de assinaturas para conseguir que o projeto seja apreciado no Congresso Nacional, a defesa de um novo marco regulatório foi uma estratégia capaz de ampliar o debate sobre a democratização da comunicação na esfera pública. / [en] This work has as main interest the perspective of civil society on the theme of the democratization of communication in Brazil. Initially, it carries out a bibliographical survey on the role of the regulation of the communication in the attempt to guarantee plurality and diversity of media in democratic regimes. Then, it makes a brief historical and analytical recovery of the Brazilian legal framework concerning the subject and presents a retrospective of the performance of organizations demanding the democratization of communication in the country since de period after de dictatorial regime. Finally, we come to the analysis of the campaign Para expresser a liberdade and of the Popular Initiative Project of Electronic Social Media, initiatives led by the National Forum for the Democratization of Communication (FNDC), that has the objective of regulating articles 5, 220, 221, 222 and 223 of the 1988 Constitution. It is argued that, in spite of the frustration in collecting signatures to get the project to be considered in the National Congress, the defense of a new regulatory framework was a strategy capable of broadening the debate on democratization of communication in the public sphere.

Magister Legum - LLM / In many societies, a division between genders exist. This differentiation is attributed to a patriarchal culture which creates gender norms in sexualities.1 A set of cultural practices and expectations exist; these cultural practices and expectations assume that heterosexuality is the cornerstone of social unions - this phenomenon is known as heteronormativity.2 Heteronormativity affords that there are only two sexes with predetermined gender roles,3 creating the homophobia in societies. Human rights infringements on the basis of gender identity and sexual orientation has become noticeable across Africa.4 Homophobia in Africa is linked to the codification of laws that infringed on human rights under colonialism, which still forms part of the current norms around sexuality.5 Homosexuality is prohibited and is unlawful in most of the countries in Africa, South Africa being the only country that allows for the legal union of same-sex couples.6 There have been a number of academic texts debating the importance of culture against the right to equality in the South African context; 7 however, there is an inadequate amount of academic text available about this topic on an African level. Therefore, an ongoing debate about the protection of "sexual minorities" contrasted with the protection of cultural rights exists on an international scale. 8 The rights of sexual minorities are disregarded too often and they are often denied equal and fair access to the law. A large number of African countries believe that homosexuality is un African,9 thus choosing to exclude lesbians and gays from citizen rights. 10 Due to this belief, the practice of homosexuality in Africa is seen one that goes against the morals and values of the majority of society. This creates a stand-off between cultural rights and equality rights of sexual minorities.

The accession process of Albania into the European Union is defined by the gradual fulfilling of the Copenhagen criteria. With the aim of promoting democratization reforms in candidate countries and improvement in the Copenhagen political criteria, the European Union has exerted pressure into domestic political structures in Albania through a series of Europeanization Mechanisms. This dissertation uses qualitative analysis to examine the impact of the Europeanization Mechanisms in the democratization process of Albania after the signing of the Stabilization and Association agreement. The theoretical domain of the research falls within Europeanization and Quality Democracy theory. The data gathered in the form of document analysis and interviews serve to test the hypothesis of the direct relationship of Europeanization an input in democratization in the case of Albania. The results suggest that both the conception and practical application of the Europeanization mechanisms with regards to the democratization process are faced with a series of challenges. Democratization is a process that combines structures, policies, and norms. In their current formulation, Europeanization mechanisms are able to affect only the first two. In terms of practical application, extreme polarization of Albania's...

The diploma thesis "Football Supporters as a Part of Civil Society" deals with the phenomenon of football supporterism from the perspective of the relationship between fan groupings and civil society. After the introduction and the aims of the thesis, where the main aim is the basic description and classification of various forms of grouping of football fans, follows the theoretical part focusing on three main topics: civil society, social movements and subcultures and the world of football supporters. In the empirical part the author presents the results of her qualitative research using particularly methods of participant as well as non- participant observation, informal interviews and the study of documents. The author introduces her own typology of fan groups and organizations and describes their activities within the civil society. In the final part she summarizes the answers to the research questions. The thesis is supplied with a summary, a list of sources, an index, a glossary and three appendices.

This thesis deals with the status of civil society in the Sudetenland. The issue of living in the borderlands is examined in the context of historical events and is related with political, cultural and social transformations. Theoretical work is focused both on defining the problem of the Sudetenland and the traditions of thought to grasp the concept of civil society on the basis of which is derived the current definition of civil society and its other prerequisites. The first part of the theoretical work maps the development of civil sector and the importance of community life in the context of Czech historical events, the second discusses the development of Czech-German coexistence with emphasis on the interwar and postwar events and developement. The practical part, which carries a crucial part of field research, is based on interviews with local natives, new immigrants and cottagers. The work involves presentation of NGO's, which is operating in the lokality as an important indicator of the state of civil society. Conclusion of the work presents the results of the analysis of interviews that have interpretive value of the current state of civil society in the Sudetenland. Key words Civil society, the Sudetenland, settlement, borderland, Czech-German coexistence, community activities

Diploma thesis "The support of Czech nonprofit sector by Dutch foundations and organizations" deals with a help and support of transforming society in 1989. It describes the civil sector in 1989, forms of financing non-profit organizations and deals with the role of foreign aid. Theoretical part contains a chapter about the Netherlands, the history of relations with this country as well as a focus on Dutch development assistance and its evaluation. The list of Dutch foundations and organizations that supported Czech civil sector is included. The research focuses on the MATRA/KAP program. The aim of research was to find out, which organizations were supported and what criteria have been established for obtaining support. I was also interested about experiences of donor and supported organizations.

The goal of this thesis is to assess the usefulness of study visits organised by Czech civil society organisations as a form of international cooperation in the period 2006 - 2010 and to map out the possibilities for making study visits for Belarusian participants in the Czech Republic more effective. An additional goal of this study is to identify potential opportunities for increasing the impact of study visits and long-term cooperation with the Belarusian non- governmental sector. This thesis also describes the phenomena of democracy assistance the whole and its positive and negative aspects in Belarus. Besides that, this paper focuses on the notion of democracy assistance in the context of the Czech Republic. Key words: democracy assistance, transition promotion, civil society, Belarus, study visits

The thesis 'Social environment and specifics of Turkish civil society' focuses on the possibilities of the environment in which is civil society in Turkey embedded. The thesis summarizes the main theoretical factors, present social phenomena and historical conditions, since these influence the foundations from which civil society arises and in which civil activities are conducted. Different approaches contemplating usage of the civil society concept in countries without stable democracy are thus compared. The thesis further considers social and political factors influencing possibilities of civil activity since the time Turkey was established. Additionally, the actual legal situation and civil society classification is described. The acting and motivation of civil society organizations is further considered with the help of their internet presentations. The appearing and repeating data in the organizations' own explanations are sorted out using content and discourse analysis. This way, their own definitions, descriptions of activity and the way of informing about their activities is assessed. The way of self-presenting and the previously defined theoretical motivation for acting is compared.