The thesis models interactions in the system of states. Fundamental research question asked what consequences for success of strategies and prospects of cooperative behavior have particular settings and properties of the system. Thesis includes two features peculiar to international relations that did not appear anywhere else before: (i) determination of interaction occurrence with help of distance and power; and (ii) emergence of (dis)trust out of the previous interactions. The model is based on three elements: agents, environment, and rules. Players interacted in the Hobbesian Prisoner's Dilemma environment as described by realists, but thanks to payoff shift representing emergence of (dis)trust I also formalized constructivist argument of different cultures of anarchy and of mutually constitutive agent-structure relationship. Multi-agent computer simulations set within the abductive reasoning framework were chosen because lack of heterogeneous enough data and impossibility of experiments made this data generating method a necessity. The source code is written in C#. I translated 62 Axelrod's behavioral rules and then added several others that seemed promising. Three new strategies mirroring usual behavior of states were proposed too. To secure robustness of the results, application was run...

The dissertation focuses on the impact of authority and grotesque in the U.S. literature of the 1960s. The key theoretical approaches used for the analysis were: Bakhtinian theory concerning popular carnival culture and Vizenor's theory concerning tricksters, Deleuzian notion of repetition and schizoanalysis and the theory of Foucault concerning power and anti- authority struggles. The main task of the analysis was to trace the common and differentiating features which were demonstrated in the novels in the form of anti-authority struggles and forms of madness, which is viewed as a deliberating force. The authors were chosen for their challenging attitudes toward the forms of power exercised over the American society and for the usage of the grotesque as a tool to convey a subversive message. The analysed authors were John Kennedy Toole and his A Confederacy of Dunces, Kurt Vonnegut Jr. and his Slaughterhouse 5 and Ken Kesey's One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest.

The Abstract The meaning of this dissertation thesis is to find out whether we can regard Francisco Suárez as a representative of the social-contracting theories developing in the period from 16th until 18th century. Suárez, who is more likely known for his metaphysical disputations, gives a really sophisticated formulation about the origin of the common society and the political power, where the key point is the word of the social consent. At the first time it seems that Suárez can be without difficulty considered as a modern period humanist like Thomas Hobbes, John Locke or lately Jean-Jacques Rousseau. As well as they, Suárez thinks that the independent human will has its unsubstitutable part in the origin of the political society. Nevertheless there is a large difference. While according to the mentioned humanists, the independent will is the only principle of the political power, Suárez thinks that this will is just the necessary condition meeting the human nature created by the God, that it is the true principle of the whole political power. Suarez's meaning of the social consent is then situated in the theological framework and is closely associated with the words of the nature and the transcendence. The result is that Suárez understands the state as a natural and moral organization and not as a...

Jarmila Jelínková - Self-devotion women motive showed on the "Breaking the waves" scenerply Abstract The article analyzes the character of Bess in the script of Lars von Trier and Vivian Nielsen's drama Breaking the Waves. The portrayal of Bess' behavior, life, and relationships to her husband, the church and God are interpreted from the perspective of feminist theology as introduced by Isabel Carter Heyward. The main message of the play is the parallel to Jesus' sacrifice of pure altruism leading towards physical self-destruction; other possible interpretations offered in the article are the images of self-sacrifice as a type of mystical obsession or as a type of internalized manipulation conveyed by means of discursive power. Keywords: faith in God, self-sacrifice, power, freedom, feminist theology, Lars vor Trier, Vivian Nielsen.

Concept "value-action gap" is most often mentioned in frame of behavioral studies of individial approach to ecological issues. Its meaning lies in description of a gap that opens between values claimed by respondents and their consequent actions (people act in accordance with values which are different than those pro-environmental values that they originally signed up to). There also is a concept of "knowing-doing gap" which stems from a different context and describes different situations. Its authors demonstrate how many corporations/firms/organizations employ disfunctional/ineffective management practices and ways of work organization - and all that in a situation when responsible employees and managers know about better practices. Furthermore, those employees are being continually educated about those more effective practices; corporation/firm also has plans of implementation of those done by hired consultants and all those plans would have had better results, should they be implemented. But despite this knowledge and good experiences of other organizations - managers keep on working using old inefective means. In this text I examined whether it is possible to identify a combination of those two concepts/phenomena in a frame of discourse related to expert knowledge about a state of natural...

The topic of the thesis are so-called "new ecclesiastical laws" accepted in 1949, that had served as one of the power tools for the oppression of the Churches and the control over the society. Within the chapters in sequence I deal with the description and genesis of these new ecclesiastical laws, received by Czechoslovak communist regime in 1949 and their importance not only for the confessional law of the following period until now. In this context I ask the question what are the extent effects not only for the life of the Churches, esp. the Catholic Church, but also for the mentality of the contemporary Czech society in relationship with the Church. This thesis is concerned with three spheres that are necessarily interconnected: First, the legislation of these laws themselves, second, the social reception of the Church interlinked with these laws, and third sphere is also the projection of these laws into the political rhetoric nowadays. The goal of the thesis is to reveal the deep interconnection and dynamics of the three spheres given, and explore how the way they were manifested in the past, and have consequently been manifested until these days. Keywords Czechoslovakia, 1949, ecclesiastical laws, the power and the law, present time: law, society and politics.

This thesis Power imbalance in caring families dealing with the issue of power in the care situation, where a cherished person is mother and caring is her own daughter. The theoretical part conceptualizes terms, such as the power, the power imbalance or ambivalence. In the practical part own qualitative research of caretakers (mothers of caring daughters) is presented. It was found that ambivalence maternal care situation leads to ambivalence in daughters. The key variables in the model of power imbalances is the mother's acceptance of the need for care and a composition of household. The answers of the respondents indicate that if the household is in addition to the mother and daughters yet another member (for respondents, it was always about her husband), there is much more conflicts, which tend to have very intensive course. Relationships in these families are not described as harmonious and daughters speak to disrupt family cohesion due care. The survey also shows that an imbalance of power could be the right latent variable that was missing in the empirical studies, because it was measured in particular through the manifest variables. Keywords ambivalence, authority, autonomy, coding, the power, the power imbalance, cherished mother, home care, caring daughter

The following text is an ethnographical study of relations in which care is shaped. On the example of care homes with special regime I describe how power is made and how different ideals are enacted in care of people with dementia. Through the analysis of daily activities' micro practice, I introduce two possible ways (modes of ordering) of care for frail elderly with cognitive impairment. The first of the modes is based on an enactment of ideals introduced into the practice by the Social Services Act and related system of quality standards: autonomy, individualisation, activation, and inclusion. It relies on standardisation of procedures, detailed specification of actions and management by objectives. The second mode of ordering, which could be located in the stories from care homes, is founded on an inevitable human dependency and vulnerability, and on general human need of giving and receiving care. In it, relationships and care improvisation here and now play the key role. My ethnographic fieldwork has shown that in everyday practice these two ways of doing good care co-exist - they complement each other, overlap and sometimes clash. People in care homes, striving for the better and the best care, either keep together, or hold apart these different and non-coherent ways of care. In discourse of...

This thesis aims to analyse the similarities and differences in Guy Debords' and Michel Foucaults' approaches to the relationship of vision and power. Its purpose is to show the power of visual discourse and define whether it is possible for society to resist or escape from this power. The thesis is methodologically based on the distincion of political and philosophical thoughts of both authors: according to Debord, society emerges from the power of the spectacle through the non-capitalist class order of society, alternatively, Foucault sees power relations as a set of practices that permeate the entire society and each one of us. These are practices which we are formed by and which we also form ouselves. Therefore, it is impossible for him to overcome or completely eliminate interconnection of power and vision from society. Based on this distinction, the thesis attempts to verify the assumption that Debord's inspiration by Marxism does not allow him to reflect the relationship of vision and power in its whole range in the context of non-capitalist order. Unlike Foucault's concept of surveillance, Debord's theory of spectacle is utopian.

Thesis Selected aspects of the production of embodiment in tv commercials works with an assumption that some tv commercials represent specific modality of discursive mechanisms of sexual representation. This thesis applies the works of M. Foucault and P. Bourdieu to semiotic analysis of chosen advertisements. Assuming that advertisements are using body and sexual motives as one of the instruments of power to affect the target groups. Main focus of this thesis is in introduction of discursive models that are used in advertising. Goal of the theoretical part is to introduce philosophical and sociological ideas and theories relating to perception of physicality, sexuality, power relations and question of subjectivism. The thesis also shows how the role of a body was perceived in different historicals eras and how the ways of use of body and embodiment has gradually developed in terms of power affection. Goal of the practical part is to analyze and interpret the acknowledgments from theoretical part on concrete examples. The aim is, by using semiotical analysis, to reveal discursive practices in advertisements based upon used statements, also to analyze the power affection presented by physicality and sexuality. The thesis presents examples of power affection of advertisements and its specific...