Migration is a continuous process in an increasingly globalized world and African migrants have for a long time migrated to Europe mostly for economic reasons. Due to biased reporting of life in Europe by both western and African media as well as half-truths by Africans living in Europe who seldom tell the whole story of their lives abroad; a lot of African migrants arrive in Europe with a very idealistic image. African migrants thereby risk a lot in pursuit of a better life in Europe. When they finally arrive, a lot of their idealistic expectations are not met, forcing them to be filled with regret and the wish that they had known the full truth before migrating. This study examines an online platform (Surprising Europe’s website), that connects African migrants by inviting them to share stories about their migration experiences in an effort to better inform those intending to migrate. The use of interviews of the producers to better understand the project as well as their intentions, and a narrative analysis of all the 30 articles on the website are analysed. The results indicate that the danger of telling one sided stories contribute to the existing narrative of a western idealistic image of “gold lying on the streets”; as well as an illustration of the authors exhibiting a transformation from people who were formerly Surprising Europe’s audience, now constructing narratives in a collaborative way with the producers. The website therefore demonstrates how an online platform for mediated communication can be used to offer fragmented identities as well as a sense of belonging, offering a voice to the previously voiceless despite their migration status.

We address empirically the factors affecting the dynamics of income inequality among industrialized economies. Using a panel for 32 developed countries spanning the last four decades, our results indicate that the predictions of the Stolper-Samuelson theorem concerning the effects of international trade on income inequality find support in the data if we concentrate on imports from developing countries as a trade measure, as theory would imply. We find that democratization, the interaction of technology and education and changes in the relative power of labour unions affect inequality dynamics robustly.

1 UNIVERZITA KARLOVA V PRAZE FILOZOFICKÁ FAKULTA KATEDRA ANDRAGOGIKY A PERSONÁLNÍHO ŘÍZENÍ magisterské prezenční studium 2008-2011 Bc. Marie Mesteková Řízení expatriantů Managing of Expatriates DIPLOMOVÁ PRÁCE Praha 2011 Vedoucí práce: PhDr. Renata Kocianová, Ph.D. 2 ABSTRACT This diploma thesis is focused on expatriation, which means people who are sent to a foreign country for a limited time to work in local branch of their company. The objectives of this thesis were to identify current best practices in expatriation, conduct a benchmarking exercise against the DP DHL model and propose a set of recommended improvements. The thesis starts with introduction to globalization and international companies, including a summary of the history and different types of international organizations. The next section relates to international human resources management and describes the reasons and phases of developing this. The paper also includes a list of differences between local and international human resources. The following section is dedicated to expatriates themselves and the individual steps of their expatriation, included is the critical phases and problematic situations. An introduction to DP DHL as a company is contained in next section including how they deal with expatriates and introduces the process of...

Anotace: Diplomová práce je rozdělena do tří kapitol. První část je věnována úvodu do problematiky a snahy o uchopení tématu, které je velmi obšírné. Svoji pozornost jsem zaměřila především na názory odborníků z různých oblastí na problematiku globalizace. Dále pak na historický vývoj globalizace a její etapizaci a hlavní faktory ovlivňující globalizační procesy. Taktéž jsem se zmínila o vztahu globalizace, regionalismu a světové ekonomiky. V druhé části jsem přiblížila tři oblasti dopadů globalizačních procesů - oblast ekonomickou, ekologickou a sociální. V závěrečné části se již blíže věnuji vybraným důsledkům. Mým cílem bylo prokázat, nakolik globalizace ovlivňuje vybrané problémy a postihnout jak pozitivní, tak i negativní dopady. Abstract: The diploma thesis is divided into three chapters. The first part is devoted to an introduction to the problem and attempts to grasp a subject that is very wide. I focused my attention primarily on the views of experts from various scientific fields on the issue of globalization. Furthermore, the historical development of globalization and its phasing and the main factors influencing the processes of globalization. I also mentioned the relationship between globalization, regionalism and the global economy. In the second part, I approached the three areas of the...

Resume The main concern of the thesis is about institution of school as a scope of changeover domain of episthemical, ethical and economic/political/power discourse. The methodological approach based on the Michel Foucault's theory of the power and knowledge concurrence is used. Further, several perceptions of critical economics, sociology and political studies are also utilised. The hypothesis is that the institution of school have been methamorphosed coherently to the discourses and within of contexts of transfiguration of social-economic conditions in the course of human events, specifically in 19th , 20th and 21st centuries. The school is considered a power. The institution of school is changing its contents and functions during the history, however, the power has been kept as its proper characteristic in any case. And as the thesis demonstrates that power is even becoming a softer and subtle one while being accordant with the current claims of global capitalism. That can be expressed by the concept of so-called "knowledge society".

With the collapse of the Soviet Union, humanitarian intervention became an important pillar in the emerging new world order. From 1989 to 1995, 96 violent civil confrontations have occurred, but 91 of them did not result in humanitarian interventions. Here comes the question: Why? Why there were interventions in Iraq, Bosnia, and Kosovo and not in Rwanda, the Sudan, and Tajikistan? These are the main questions that the following study aims to answer. Particularly, the issue of American humanitarian intervention is scrutinized. The casual factors of interventions are examined to explain the selectivity of American Humanitarianism. Furthermore, a theory building is initiated to outline a model of variables which will allow to explain the combination of which casual factors leads to which form of intervention or non-intervention.

Health care systems in many countries around the world have been subject to major reform initiatives since 1980s and 1990s. The main rationale for reform was an increasing need to control costs in health care as the countries struggled to adapt to the global economic conjuncture and deal with their financial problems. The movement to reform health care arose in that context and spread amongst health care experts and policy makers. The aim of this study is to understand how reforms were initiated and what forces drove them. This topic is addressed through the case studies of change in health care policies in Turkey and the Czech Republic, both of which having experienced the influence of global economic trends, yet are defined by fundamentally different economic, political and social conditions. The findings of the study support that health policy ideas were diffused to the two countries via international policy networks; domestic contexts facilitated the diffusion. Interest groups were important actors in both countries, but the role played by various groups differed in the two countries. Finally, the countries appear to have tendency to converge to a certain degree with regard to their health financing system. Key words: Health care reform, policy diffusion, globalization, Czech Republic, Turkey.

Information and communication technology is rapidly transforming the world of business. It in particular has played a significant role in globalisation, the ramifications of which South Africa can ill afford to ignore. A key facet of emerging innovative technologies and globalisation is the environmental uncertainty, complexity and turbulence it has engendered. Traditional strategic management paradigms and practice are largely founded on the assumption of environmental predictability, a reality that is rapidly being eroded. This thesis attempts to determine to what degree strategic management theory still correlates with contemporary strategic management practice. Various levels of environmental uncertainty are defined in order to gain clarity as to strategic management processes that are best suited for dealing therewith. Three key determinants are identified as having a significant impact on the strategic realignment of business institutions within a global business environment, namely information and communication technology, business systems, and change management. A central tenet that emerges from the study is the need for a framework to integrate the first two mentioned determinants at strategic and operational levels, while taking due cognisance of the human resources implications involved. Human emotions, feelings, relationships, fears, values, beliefs and aspirations collectively assume relevance as dimensions that can either inhibit or facilitate the strategic realignment process. These dimensions are analysed with reference to the concepts “emotional intelligence” and “organisational culture” in order to gain a greater understanding of the role they play in strategy formulation and implementation. Leadership is also identified as being business critical in managing strategic realignment. The findings of this study serve as a source of reference for researchers and practitioners who are attempting to formulate and implement strategy within contexts that are best described as being uncertain, complex and subject to discontinuous change. / Prof. N. Lessing

This study examines the marketing strategies employed by vendors at the Westwego shrimp lot in Westwego, Louisiana. Given the fluctuating market conditions and rising costs of seafood production, seafood vendors in the Gulf Coast region must look continuously for new ways to market their product as a cultural commodity. This thesis argues that shrimp becomes a cultural commodity at the Westwego shrimp lot, and that through marketing strategies, vendors at the Westwego shrimp lot both resist and accept certain aspects of globalization. The presence of imports, a presence that emerges in the context of globalization, poses a large threat to the industry‟s survival. Vendors both consciously and unconsciously market shrimp as food and symbol. An analysis of their efforts may contribute to understanding the process of cultural commodification.

In the last twenty years, Saudi Arabia has been modernizing much faster and in a shorter period than in the majority of the world’s countries. This study seeks to examine factors that influence the diet of Saudi Arabians. Aside from language, one of the principal manifestations of culture is a country’s cuisine. I sought to determine whether factors, such as exposure to other countries, an income increase, or simply the desire to diversify the palette have led to a change in diet. This mixed-methods study employed 148 surveys looking at attitudes towards the United States and other countries, travel abroad, age, religiousness, and the influence of television and the Internet. These variables were correlated against where food is bought and dining preference. Fifteen in-depth interviews looked at longitudinal changes in traditional vegetable and meat markets since the arrival of the hypermarket. Findings indicated that the recent introduction of a multitude of foreign restaurants and foods into Saudi Arabia is not a new story, but only a new chapter in a book written by Saudi merchants. The Gulf Arabs are known, and have been known for millennia, as traders. I put forward that Saudi businessmen are the agents of change not multinational corporations. The presence of these restaurants and hypermarkets is due largely to pull, not push factors. If their culture is dramatically changing, then it is at the behest of Saudi Arabians themselves.