The diploma thesis deals with the motivation of users of Polaroid and Instagram, under the assumption that both media have nearly immediate result and may have a very similar visual stylization. The theoretical part of this thesis is devoted to a brief summary of the history of photography and philosophical opinions on that topic. It introduces Polaroid and Instagram and outlines the possible motivations of their users, using both the scientific literature, as well as personal blogs, articles and interviews. The practical part of the thesis describes the design and process of the original research, which consists of a standardized questionnaire, and its results. With its help we confirm or disprove our hypothesis.

The diploma thesis deals with the motivation of users of Polaroid and Instagram, under the assumption that both media have nearly immediate result and may have a very similar visual stylization. The theoretical part of this thesis is devoted to a brief summary of the history of photography and philosophical opinions on that topic. It introduces Polaroid and Instagram and outlines the possible motivations of their users, using both the scientific literature, as well as personal blogs, articles and interviews. The practical part of the thesis describes the design and process of the original research, which consists of a standardized questionnaire, and its results. With its help we confirm or disprove our hypothesis.

This master's thesis deals with the British political Conservative discourse on Global Britain in the years 2016-2020 and the United Kingdom's place in the post-Brexit world. After the unexpected results of the EU referendum, the British government introduced the concept of Global Britain as their new foreign policy orientation. This paper assumes that the idea of the UK opened to the whole world and embracing old friends and new allies alike is built upon the imperial nostalgia and the idealisation of their past. It focuses on the various ways in which nostalgia manifests itself in the Conservative discourse of 2016-2020, specifically in the public speeches of its key representatives and election programs. In the theoretical part, this paper explores the academic debate on Global Britain and the role of history in the post-Brexit world. It uses the memory studies and operationalisation of the concept of nostalgia as a framework for the source analysis. The empirical chapter presents the research results in two ways - based on the thematic categories and individual speakers. The former follows the various ways in which the nostalgic manifestations are used to create a vision of a post-Brexit global Britain, while the latter focuses on the individual approaches in the efforts to communicate that image.

La présente étude est une ethnographie du boulevard Saint-Laurent qui a duré 11 mois et au cours de laquelle j’ai intégré ce que l’on qualifie aujourd’hui le « cœur » du boulevard, la portion allant de la rue Sherbrooke à l’avenue Mont-Royal. Me basant sur des observations, des entretiens avec des résident.es et des commerçant.es, des brochures touristiques et les installations éducatives longeant l’artère, j’entreprends une entreprise de démystification : comprendre la réalité du boulevard contemporain en la substituant à l’aura énigmatique et mystérieuse que l’on retrouve dans les écrits historiques et les discours populaires. En menant des entretiens, je dénote une « nostalgie moderne » chez les résident.es et les commerçant.es de l’artère et montre leur utilisation différenciée de qualificatifs comme « gentrification » et « effervescence ». Par mes observations de tableaux éducatifs longeant les trottoirs, je fais l’expérience d’une « nostalgie post-moderne » et révèle les intérêts des sociétés de développement quant à la transformation commerciale du boulevard. Je perçois que les sens attribués à l’imaginaire du boulevard contemporain se définissent selon un rapport temporel et critique. Ma méthode d’enquête est à la fois phénoménologique, dans la mesure où elle reprend la figure du flâneur de Walter Benjamin comme posture d’observation, et « empirique », notamment par l’utilisation du feuilleton sociologique inspiré de Siegfried Kracauer, approche qui insiste sur la matérialité du quotidien, les discours et les observations. / The current study is an ethnography of Saint-Laurent Boulevard, which lasted 11 months and during which I integrated what is now called the “heart” of the boulevard, the portion between Sherbrooke street to Mont-Royal avenue. Based on observations, interviews with residents and shop owners, tourist brochures, and historical posters installed along the boulevard, I undertake an enterprise of demystification: to understand concretely the reality of the contemporary boulevard by going beyond an enigmatic and mysterious aura perpetuated in historical writings and popular discourses. In conducting interviews, I note a “modern nostalgia” among residents and shop owners of the boulevard and show their differentiated uses of words like “gentrification” and “effervescence”. Through my observations of historical boards lining the sidewalks, I experience a “post-modern nostalgia” and reveal the interests of development associations in the commercial transformation of the boulevard. I perceive that the meanings attributed to the imagination of the contemporary boulevard are defined according to a temporal and critical relation. My method of inquiry is both phenomenological, as it takes up Walter Benjamin’s figure of the flâneur as a posture of observation, and “empirical”, in particular through the use of sociological feuilletons inspired by Siegfried Kracauer, an approach which stresses the importance of the materiality of everyday life, discourses and observations.

Cette thèse étudie la perception de la marque vieille par les consommateurs selon une perspective anthropomorphique de la marque (perception et stéréotypes des personnes âgées). La marque perçue vieille est appréhendée en fonction des caractéristiques qui lui sont associées. Elle est multidimensionnelle et ambivalente (positive ou négative). Cinq études sont menées dans cette recherche. Une étude qualitative exploratoire (étude 1), nous conceptualisons et définissons la marque perçue vieillie, identifions ses dimensions, ses conséquences et ses modérateurs. Trois études quantitatives (études 2, 3 et 4), nous construisons un outil de mesure composé de quatre dimensions : expertise, déclin, intemporalité et entretien. Une étude quantitative (étude 5), nous testons un modèle intégrateur et les hypothèses de la recherche. Les dimensions de la marque perçue vieille ont des effets significatifs sur la nostalgie du consommateur, l’attachement à la marque et la confiance dans la marque. Ces relations sont modérées par l’orientation temporelle vers le passé et l’âge du consommateur, ainsi que le type de vieillissement de la marque (positif versus négatif) / This doctoral dissertation examines the perception of the old brand by consumers from an anthropomorphic perspective of the brand (perception and stereotypes of the elderly). The brand perceived as old is apprehended according to the characteristics associated with it. It is multidimensional and ambivalent (positive or negative). Five studies are conducted in this research. In study 1 which is an exploratory qualitative study (study 1), we conceptualized and defined brand perceived oldness, identified its dimensions, its consequences and moderators. Following that, three quantitative studies (studies 2, 3 and 4) were carried out in which we built a measurement scale consisting of four dimensions: expertise, decline, timelessness and maintenance. Finally, a quantitative study (study 5) was executed to test an integrative model and research hypothesis. The brand perceived oldness dimensions have significant effects on consumer’s nostalgia, brand attachment, and brand trust. These relationships are moderated by consumer’ temporal orientation towards the past and age, and by the type of brand oldness (positive versus negative)

Egaré dans l’histoire, dans un devenir horizontal qui le condamne à s’autodétruire pour s’affirmer, l’homme de Cioran s’ouvre par moments à un devenir vertical, soit en s’élevant à travers l’extase qui le transfigure, soit en tombant à travers l’ennui qui le défigure. En envisageant la pensée de Cioran comme une « course thérapeutique en sens cosmique » ou comme une errance infinie issue d’une « théologie sentimentale où l’absolu se construit avec les éléments du désir », cette thèse, consacrée à la fois à l’œuvre française et à l’œuvre roumaine, s’attache à l’évolution de l’auteur de l’une à l’autre tout en dénonçant le mythe de la césure entre les deux. En posant le nihilisme à la fois comme un poison et comme un remède, comme l’horizon d’une fin ou d’un nouveau commencement, l’étude se propose d’analyser les processus et les expériences à travers lesquels le nihilisme est vaincu par lui-même. Le diagnostic du « héros de la rétractation » est interprété à partir de ses tentations et de ses inconséquences ; son exploration des impasses, son évasion dans le virtuel, ses hésitations entre une carrière métaphysique et un rôle historique, sa lutte avec le temps et ses expériences extatiques, sont analysées à partir d’une double tentation d’un même passage : « du néant vers le monde » et « du monde vers le néant ». / Going astray in History, in a horizontal becoming which condemns him to self-destruct to assert himself, Cioran’s man opens at times to a vertical becoming either in rising through the ecstasy that transfigures, either by falling through boredom which disfigures. Considering Cioran’s thought as a « therapeutic run in a cosmic sense » or as an endless wandering stemming from « a sentimental theology, in which the Absolute is built with the elements of desire », this study, devoted both to the French and Romanian works, focuses on the evolution of the author from one to the other by denouncing the myth of the caesura between the two works. Assuming both nihilism as a poison and as a remedy, as the horizon of an end or of a new beginning, the study aims to analyse the processes and experiences through which nihilism is defeated by itself. The diagnosis of the « hero of the withdrawal » is interpreted from his temptations and his inconsistencies ; his exploration of the impasses, his escape into the virtual, his hesitation between a metaphysical career and a historic role, his struggle with time and ecstatic experiences, are analyzed from a double temptation of a same passage : « from nothingness to the world » and « from the world towards nothingness ».

This thesis deals with three selected current trends related to consumer behavior -- onslaught of retro products and retro marketing generally, changes in behavior related to electronic marketplace, and stricter demands for flawlessly designed products and services. Each trend is described and attention is given to driving forces of these trends, the ways they can affect consumers' lives and how they can be observed. The knowledge of the trends is then applied to determine how different groups of Czech consumers can be affected by those trends, thus giving businesses hints on how to incorporate the trends in the approach to their customers and monetize on them.

The Russian food stores in the Czech Republic can be considered representations of the food practices for the Russian-speaking immigrant community. Despite the common notion that financial gain is a primary focus, I would like to argue that these food stores are the public spaces that link the immigrant's past and present surroundings and plays the role of the communicative bridge with their native's social network. The thesis studies the Russian food stores in Prague as a way of public space that is crucial for maintaining their cultural identity and presents as a medium during the cultural shock for the Russian-speaking immigrants represented by a common theme - nostalgia. By employing an ethnographic approach along with the discourse analysis, I attempt to demonstrate the ways of the mentioned public space being a part of the food practices for this community. The findings should contribute to the understanding of the processes and ways of assimilation in Russian-speaking immigrants, along with their national identification. Furthermore, the thesis opens a discussion regarding the accessible tools of cultural and social involvement of immigrants into the Czech community.

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.

The aim of this musical anthropology thesis focuses on "medieval music" as practiced by fans of historical fencing in the form of living history on the example of two Czech bands - Subulcus and Medieval Open Band as part of project Prácheňská manství. In my thesis I focus not only on sound and musical instruments, but also on the behavior of actors and their conceptualization of the Middle Ages, according to the concepts of music as culture of Allan Merriam, resp. of music as social life of Thomas Turino. I combine here the basic ideas of ethnomusicology with the ideas of musical memory in connection with the contemporary concepts of social memory and, last but not least, with the concepts of "golden age", nostalgia, staged authenticity and invented traditions. The point of this work is to bring about the origin and form of music that the actors understand as medieval, although not always comes the repertoire from the Middle Ages.