Cette thèse porte sur les rôles sociaux des réjouissances populaires dans les communautés rurales francophones de l’Amérique du Nord entre les années 1770 et 1870. Elle aborde le sujet de la fête en dirigeant plus précisément son regard sur la festivité. L’objectif principal est de mettre en lumière comment les festivités, que nous appelons réjouissances populaires, influencent le fonctionnement des sociétés francophones nord-américaines. Quels rôles les réjouissances populaires jouent-elles dans la vie sociale des habitants de ces sociétés? Quels impacts ont-elles sur les identités individuelles et collectives? Conservent-elles les mêmes caractéristiques d’une société à l’autre ou s’adaptent-elles à des environnements et à des contextes différents? Comment se développent-elles et évoluent-elles au fil du temps? Quels sont les éléments qui influencent leur évolution? Afin de répondre à ces questions, l’accent est mis sur l’étude de certaines réjouissances populaires au sein de quatre populations rurales d’origine française, c’est-à-dire les habitants de la vallée du Saint-Laurent, de la région de Détroit, du Pays des Illinois et de la Louisiane (plus précisément les habitants d’origine acadienne). En se fondant sur des monographies publiées, des manuscrits personnels, de la correspondance ecclésiastique, de la littérature de fiction et des travaux de folkloristes, chacun des cinq chapitres représente une étude de cas qui permet de montrer comment les réjouissances populaires sont influencées par le contexte dans lequel les habitants vivent et comment la sociabilité festive intervient dans la construction de différentes identités sociales, c’est-à-dire des identités de race, de genre et de classe. Dans le premier chapitre, le regard porté sur les noces des Canadiens et des Louisianais d’origine acadienne à la fin du XVIIIe siècle et au milieu du XIXe siècle fait ressortir que la nourriture, la boisson, la musique et la danse sont très présentes, mais surtout que ces festivités sont le théâtre de nombreux rites de passage s’adressant au nouveau couple, et souvent plus particulièrement à l’épouse, qui permettent à la communauté de contrôler la reconnaissance et l’officialisation de leur union sociale et sexuelle. Dans le deuxième et le troisième chapitre, l’analyse de la guignolée, de l’Épiphanie et surtout du carnaval au Canada, à Détroit ainsi que dans les villages du Pays des Illinois permet de montrer que cette période festive est influencée par le climat hivernal des colonies nordiques et qu’elle demeure un moment fort de la vie sociale des habitants. Elle est, entre autres, synonyme, dans les trois régions, de rencontres, de soupers et de bals au cours desquels les habitants déterminent ceux qui ont le droit de se fréquenter, c’est-à-dire des jeunes issus du même rang social, et ceux qui font partie intégrante de leur communauté et ceux qui en sont exclus, c’est-à-dire des habitants plus démunis (vallée du Saint-Laurent) ou des Noirs et des Autochtones (Pays des Illinois). Dans le quatrième chapitre, l’étude de l’évolution de la culture dominicale des Louisianais d’origine acadienne met en lumière comment, malgré le succès, au fil du temps, de l’Église catholique dans ses tentatives d’imposer la sanctification de cette journée, les bals de maison perdurent, en étant transférés au samedi, et participent à la construction de l’identité raciale de cette population. Dans le dernier chapitre, l’examen de l’évolution des réjouissances de la plantation du mai expose l’efficacité des rapports de réciprocité pour solidifier et renforcer la hiérarchie sociale dans les campagnes canadiennes, c’est-à-dire entre les habitants et un membre de l’élite locale (seigneur ou capitaine de milice). Cette thèse contribue à enrichir l’historiographie de la fête en Amérique française qui aborde très peu le sujet des réjouissances populaires rurales sous l’angle de la sociabilité festive. Elle montre que ces réjouissances sont intimement liées aux aspects contextuels de chacune des quatre régions étudiées, c’est-à-dire la démographie, la présence d’autres groupes ethniques, le climat, la géographie, les rapports genrés, l’économie, la situation politique et la hiérarchie sociale. Les habitants francophones des milieux ruraux adaptent leurs réjouissances populaires aux particularités de leur société, mais elles préservent tout de même, parfois jusqu’aux années 1870, leurs fonctions régulatrices de reproduction des hiérarchies sociales, économiques, genrées et raciales. En d’autres mots, elles sont un outil permettant à ces francophones, non seulement d’affirmer leur identité d’origine française, mais aussi d’identifier clairement les personnes qui peuvent ou qui ne peuvent pas se réclamer de cette identité et les inégalités qui sont produites à l’intérieur de ce processus. / This thesis focuses on the social roles of popular celebrations in rural French-speaking communities of North America between 1770 and 1870. It approaches the subject of festivals by looking more precisely at the festivity. The main objective is to highlight how the festivities, which we call popular celebrations, influence the functioning of North American francophone societies. What roles do popular celebrations play in the social life of the inhabitants of these societies? What impacts do they have on individual and collective identities? Do they retain the same characteristics from one society to another or do they adapt to different environments and contexts? How do they develop and evolve over time? What are the elements that influence their evolution? In order to answer these questions, the focus is on studying certain popular celebrations among four rural populations of French origin, namely the inhabitants of the St. Lawrence Valley, the Detroit region, the Illinois Country and Louisiana (more specifically, the inhabitants of Acadian origin). Based on published monographs, personal manuscripts, church correspondence, fictional literature and the work of folklorists, each of the five chapters represents a case study that shows how popular celebrations are influenced by the context in which people live and how festive sociability is involved in the construction of different social identities, such as those relating to race, gender and class. In the first chapter, a look at the weddings of Canadians and Louisianans of Acadian origin in the late 18th and mid-19th centuries reveals that food, drink, music and dance are very much in evidence, but above all that these festivities are the scene of many rites of passage for the new couple, and often more particularly for the wife, allowing the community to control the recognition and formalization of their social and sexual union. In the second and third chapters, the analysis of the guignolée, Epiphany and especially the carnival in Canada, Detroit and the villages of the Illinois Country shows that this festive period is influenced by the winter climate of the northern colonies and that it remains a key moment in the social life of the inhabitants. Among other things, it is synonymous in all three regions with meetings, dinners and balls during which residents determine who has the right to court with whom, that is, young people of the same social rank, and those who are an integral part of their community and those who are excluded from it, that is, poorer residents (St. Lawrence Valley) or Blacks and Indigenous people (Illinois Country). In the fourth chapter, the study of the evolution of the Sunday culture of Louisianans of Acadian origin highlights how, despite the success, over time, of the Catholic Church in its attempts to impose the sanctification of this day, house balls persist, being transferred to Saturdays, and contribute to the construction of this population’s racial identity. In the last chapter, an examination of the evolution of the May Day celebrations shows the effectiveness of reciprocal relationships in reinforcing and strengthening the social hierarchy in rural Canada, that is, between country people and a member of the local elite (seigneur or militia captain). This thesis enriches the existing historiography of festival in French America, which hardly addresses the subject of rural popular celebrations from the perspective of festive sociability. It shows that these celebrations are closely linked to the contextual aspects of each of the four regions studied, i.e. the demography, the presence of other ethnic groups, the climate, the geography, the gender relations, the economy, the political situation and the social hierarchy. Francophone inhabitants of rural areas adapt their popular celebrations to the particularities of their society, but those celebrations still preserve, sometimes until the 1870s, their regulatory functions of reproducing social, economic, gender and racial hierarchies. In other words, they are a tool that allows these Francophones not only to affirm their identity of French origin, but also to clearly identify the people who can or cannot claim this identity and the inequalities that are produced within this process.

The dissertation focuses on the phenomenon of a new presence of references to traditional folk culture in contemporary Czech and Slovak art. Emphasis is placed on the period from the year 2000 to the present. The core of the work consists of chapters devoted to artists who in this period significantly thematized various aspects of traditional folk culture, either as a partial element of specific projects or in the form of continuous interest in the field. The essence of this part is to show the breadth and heterogeneity of the examined manifestations across the media spectrum. The main purpose of the work is to analyze and place the researched phenomena in a relevant context within the theory and history of art. The reason is their different nature from thematically similar manifestations in the 19th and 20th centuries. In addition, when compared with current trends abroad, a number of connections are shown, such as links to environmental issues, criticism of the state of society and, above all, to new issues related to personal and collective identification. Therefore, I base the analysis of these phenomena on a hybrid interdisciplinary basis using theoretical approaches to identity in the social sciences and humanities. I do so in the introductory theoretical chapters, but the main focus is on the final analytical synthesis. To a large extent, it also builds on data obtained from interviews with artists, the transcripts of which the reader will find in the appendix. Finally, the documentation of curatorial projects and exhibitions realized as a practical part of the dissertation project is attached.

This thesis examines the possibility of passive house standard construction of public buildings in the countryside of the Czech Republic, the possibility of application of natural materials in their construction and in the end set of architectural principles for their design. Examines the situation of expansion of this type of buildings in the surrounding countries as well as in our country, differences in their architectural and technical characteristics and possibilities of natural materials use in their construction so that the newly proposed public buildings meet not only the technical and architectural design principles of passive houses, but at the same time reflect using of traditional local natural materials.

This thesis deals with the phenomenon of social farming; its aim is to describe this phenomenon, understand it and critically discuss it in the context of social economics and social entrepreneurship. The text also proposes other frames of thought - social integration and social work, multifunctional agriculture, the Green Care concept and the social entrepreneurial theory in which social farming can be considered. The thesis also gives insight into foreign and Czech socio-agricultural practice. It uses methodology based on the principles of exploratory and descriptive case studies since it focuses on a small sample of a phenomenon not yet described in which context and content are observed. The study is divided into two sections: a theoretical part and a research part, each of which draw on professional literature, semi-structured in-depth interviews with representatives of social farms, other primary data and documents and secondary sources. The analysis of the research results displays an assessment of Czech social agriculture, which can be described as delayed when compared to western Europe, mainly due to the historical development of agriculture and social arenas of the last seventy years, while also serving as a reaction to certain contemporary social trends. The outputs suggest typology of...

Uppsatsen syfte är att undersöka tillgänglighet vid busshållplatser i Västerås kommun och se om prioritering av tillgänglighet skiljer sig åt mellan stad och landsbygd. Arbetets utgångspunkt är att titta på huruvida Västerås kommun förhåller sig till de nuvarande riktlinjer för en tillgänglig busstrafik som Region Västmanland tagit fram. Studien fokuserar sig främst på fysiska funktionsnedsättningar och bygger på kvantitativa datainsamlings-metoder. För att kunna besvara arbetets syfte och frågeställningar, så tog vi hjälp av insamlad tidigare forskning, empiri och förhållning till Region Västmanlands riktlinjer. Resultatet vart att Västerås kommun prioriterar tillgänglighet i högsta grad i tätorten, medans det råder stora brister på landsbygdstrafiken. / The intention of this essay is to investigate accessibility at bus stops in Västerås municipality and to see whether priority of accessibility differs between the city and countryside. The main point of this study is to see whether Västerås municipality relates to the current guidelines for an accessible bus traffic, as the Region of Västmanland has developed. This study focuses mainly on physical disabilities and is based on quantitative methods. To answer the purpose and questions, we took help from previously collected research, empiricism and relation to Region Västmanland guidelines. The result was that Västerås municipality prioritize accessibility mainly in the city, meanwhile there are major shortcomings in rural traffic.

Diplomová práce Vztah obyvatel k místu 5 Abstract This thesis entitled "Relationship of inhabitants to their home place in Eastern and Western Ore Mountains (Krušné hory)" focuses on the issue of a relationship the current inhabitants have to the area they live in. This relationship is defined on the basis of several distinct theoretical areas. The first portion of the thesis covers the basic terminology key for understanding the relationship of inhabitants to their home place. It deals with the definition of the term "home place", its character and ways in which it may be perceived. It also contemplates the term "settlement" and focuses on "identity" which is further defined as biographical and regional identity. Identity may be studied in the context of a relationship to the countryside, local community and historical awareness. The paper also characterises the Sudetenland region and provides the historical context necessary for a comprehensive outlook at the area researched without marginalizing the issue of nationalism. The practical portion employs qualitative methodology to process eighteen semi-structured interviews with representatives of elites (mayors, businessmen and members of associations) of the selected are of the Eastern and Western Ore Mountains. Subsequent analyses point to identical and...

The issue of rural areas in the Czech Republic concerns about 5,800 municipalities, what is 93 % of all municipalities in the CR. These municipalities cover more than three-quarters of the CR territory where live over 3 million inhabitants, more than one third of the total population of the CR. Although there is consensus that the countryside faces a lot of problems which affect the lives of many people on a large territory, the adequate attention to this topic is still not given by official authorities. This confirms the facts that the CR has not adopted a clear definition of rural areas yet and the rural policy is not a priority of programs of political parties. But the urgency of solving problems in recent years stepped up. Quantity of scientific teams that focus on countryside problems increased. They are defined different typologies of rural areas, are seeking methods for dissolve disparities among different areas, there are efforts to measure the development potential of municipalities. This work is in accordance with these initiatives and by mixed research methods defines Development Potential Index (DPI). The DPI consists from 101 individual indicators. Verification of created index was done on data of 18 small villages located in three different regions of the Czech Republic, for which...

Since the 19th century, industrialization has led people from the countryside to the bigger cities, and Sweden is not an exception. Statistics from 2018 show that for the first time in 30 years, there is an increase in the people whom make the decision to move from the cities to the countryside. And from 2015 to 2018 there has been an increase of 11 000 people in the Swedish countryside. With this in mind, our study is going to explore the central driving forces in returnees; people returning home to the smaller towns in the Swedish countryside. We are also going to analyze how these people relate to the urban norm, with the intention of trying to explain how they identify with their role as returnee, as well as their ex-role they had before making the move home. To answer these two central questions, we have performed ten interviews throughout Sweden in smaller towns considered to be in the Swedish countryside. To analyze our empirical data four central concepts that constitute our theoretical framework have been presented. These concepts are turning points, role exit, social capital and the urban norm. Turning points and role exit is a part of Ebaugh’s theory about the role exit-process. Social capital is a broad theory, in which we have decided to apply the work of Robert D. Putnam and his focus on reciprocity and reliability in social networks. Finally, the urban norm is a theory that mainly explores the normative and hierarchical relation between the cities and the countryside, where the cities are always the norm. Our conclusion is that closeness to family and a sense of security is the most frequent driving force for returnees. There is also a duality in the way interviewees approach their roles as returnees and ex-city inhabitants, where they often keep relating to their past roles and have difficulties relating to their current role in their hometown.

While I spent 7 years of study, experience and dedication to this work, the building construction has passed evolution from construction boom to contemporary building crisis. Demand for cheap building construction, materials and family housing increased sharply. Energy prices are rising every year... It seems that we will all have to deal with our essential task today or in the near future . This task is mean to prevent the current rate of degradation and destruction of our planet's climate and our environment. In this point of view, it looks the question of energy-saving construction very topical. By entering the study was to examine the possibilities of environmental friendly housing in rural areas in terms of environmental issues. My hypothesis was if can I determine the suitable candidate for the construction of passive houses themselves by comparing their characteristic of pre-defined construction samples. My objective is to offer builders and designers overview of suitable building systems with the possibility to compare the various factors influencing the decision on the selection of a builder´s construction for a house. The thesis presents the comparison of seven structural systems as a basic element of architecture. In the implementation of energy-efficient house is an architectural form often conditioned by structure. For this reason it is necessary to offer this kind of overview with options and parameters of individual building systems, which can then be used by architect to design a house for the builder - free and easy realization of his own, let´s say DIY (do it yourself). For builders (mean investors) of DIY houses is economy and finance a crucial question, therefore, for this reason I will evaluate suitable building system which is relative performance vs. price in the end. It is necessary to take into account the architecture of the house and especially the space layout and design and the attitude with the context of the rural areas environment. My pupose was to prove that good architectural design can be used with of low-cost, energy-saving and environmental friendly house built in DIY way.

The goal of diploma thesis is urbanism and architecture study of village central part, reconstruction of municipal house and new house of fire department and community center in Kridla. The village itself is located six kilometres far away from Nove Mesto na Morave in Bohemian-Moravian highlands. The design is not trying to enter local structures inappropriately. The major affort is to combine different functions and activities with quality of public space and respect of countryside area. One of the goals is also to provoke discussion about vision for the next 30 years among inhabitants of Kridla.