Based on a Ph.D. thesis-Oxford University. / Includes bibliographical references and index.

Thesis (Ph. D.)--Institute of Social Studies, The Hague, The Netherlands, 2001. / Includes bibliographical references (p. [387]-418).

This thesis, called "Jaromír Malý the journalist and regionalist" deals with this remarkable person comming from the southern Bohemia who lived from 1885 to 1955. The thesis describes his life story and focuses on its significance. The thesis is divided into nine chapters. The first of them brings a summary of basic literature dealing with Jaromír Malý and concentrates on particular titles and studies denoted to South Bohemian regionalism. The second chapter focuses on Jaromír Malý´s life story. It depicts his studies as a term of his life and subsequent carrier in Prague, as well as relationship to his family and wife particularly. This chapter includes an analysis of letters sent by Jaromír Malý from concentration camps in Germany, in which he forcibly resided. The third chapter aims to describe his journalistic work and brings an analysis of his work done for Progressive students magazine and Progressive revue. The fourth chapter endeavours to introduce Jaromír Malý´s work in periodicals, especially the work for a local magazine Otavan. The fifth chapter is focused on a local club Prácheň, one of which founders Jaromír Malý was. In the sixth chapter Jaromír Malý´s opinion on a role of the southern Bohemia in the czech countries is given. The seventh chapter brings a description of so called cultural world of Jaromír Malý. On the basis of his archival fund which passed down fortunately, many important persons he met or kept in touch are mentioned. Beside this, the chapter brings a basic summary of his participation in cultural events and membership in various societies. The last but one chapter shows Jaromír Malý´s most favourite interest, i.e. collecting ex libris. The last chapter summarizes significance of Jaromír Malý. At the end of the thesis, there is a list of explored literature and a list of attachements. The attachments are composed of list of articles which Jaromír Malý wrote for respective magazines, list of his studies and papers that were issued separately, list of the most important dates connected to Jaromír Malý and his life, and pictures as well. In these pictures, Jaromír Malý is depicted in various stages of his life. There are also his birth certificate, school reports, invitations to cultural events, ex libris, Jaromír Malý´s death notification and several pieces of correspondence with his friends and family.

The diploma thesis "New Regionalism and Sub-Saharan Africa" deals with the question of economic integration in Africa and its theoretical reflexion. First chapter deals with the question whether different integration theories are applicable to African reality or not. Author subsequently analyzes Pan-Africanism as a specifically African ideology, classical economic integration theories, classical theories of political science on integration and modern theories of political science, with the conclusion that neither of these theories provides explanation of speeding up African integration in recent years. Chapter two deals with the phenomenon of so-called "new regionalism" as a process in world economy, second part deals with different theoretical conceptions and theories trying to describe and theorize about this process. Chapter three briefly describes evolution of African integration from its colonial starts to the newest initiatives connected with the transformation of Organization of African Unity into African Union. Chapter four offers five case studies of integration in different regional organizations. Each case study outlines starting position in 1991 in the sense of creation of organization, its aims and evolution of integration up to signing of the Abuja Treaty creating African Economic...

There was considerable focus on local culture and heritage in the last quarter of the 19th century in the regions with a predominantly German Bohemians population. Regional identity was shaped to a significant extent by publications on local culture and heritage ("Heimatkunde"), often designed for teaching in schools. With the German-speaking population spread out around the periphery of Bohemia, Moravia and Czech Silesia, there was no obvious centre for formation of German Bohemians identity and for a long time there was no uniform character to that identity. It was then manifested most strongly in the various regions. This dissertation is based on analysis and comparison of Heimatkunde publications. I have defined categories for examination of Heimatkunde: landscape (geography), heritage (history), progress (modernity) and people (ethnography), which correspond to the original breakdown of Heimatkunde and are also considered relevant by authors looking at the development of national movements. Definition of group identity is dominated by nationalism, especially as regards the second half of the 19th century and the first third of the 20th century. The focus of this dissertation is comparison of Heimatkunde publications from three neighbouring areas in the Upper Neisse region, differing primarily...

With the decreasing importance of national borders and rise of regions as main actors in economic activity, regional disparities are one of the pressing issues faced by many governments. The objective of this thesis is to look at the case study of trends of Mexican regional disparities. The paper draws from the New Economic Geography, which stresses importance of human and physical capital for economic growth, and Porter's theory of clusters which finds the importance of export for regional development. The paper divides Mexico into three regions: the North; the Centre and the South and uses the SWOT analysis for evaluation of each region. The thesis finds that the North is the region with highest economic performance which is the result of its export-based manufacturing industry. It benefits from its closeness to the US, but it lacks technological research connected to its products, as that takes place in the US. The Centre has been also experiencing growth. Most of its economic activity is located around Mexico City but various clusters have been created in other areas as well. Lastly, the South is the poorest and most diverse region. Its economy is based on oil, tourism and agriculture and it consists of well-performing states as well as of states in viscous cycles of poverty. The paper offers a...

This thesis treats the subject of French language policy for regional languages. Even though the position of French as the only official language of French state is undeniable the question of regional languages and its support is still a topical problem of French society. The evolution of French language policy for regional languages is the main subject of this thesis as well as all elements that have been influencing it. One part of this language policy is the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages, which France signed in 1999 but remains unratified. Despite the flexibility of commitments deriving from the Charter ratification of this document remains to be seen as a menace for the roots of the French republic . Therefore France can't/doesn't want to ratify the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages. This thesis analyses main obstacles for ratification of the treaty which is especially important for its strong symbolic meaning. These obstacles are defined as juridical, ideological and political.

Diploma thesis "The role of regional political parties within the Spanish political scene in the period of 1993-2010" presents an analysis of the role of Spanish regional political parties, which play within the national political scene since 1993. The preliminary chapter of this thesis provides a brief description of the contemporary Spanish political system, the regional organization of Spain and the Spanish electoral system, which has considerable influence especially on the party system. I consider this general introduction relevant and important for a better understanding of the whole issue. The next section is devoted to the Spanish party system, its development, the typology and the main national political parties. Here I come to the conclusion that due to the specific configuration of the electoral system in Spain happens relatively complicated interpenetration of the national party system with the regional party systems. The final and the most important chapter deals with the regional political parties, which after 1993 came to the Spanish parliament, and especially about those that have influence on the government formation and the government policy. At the beginning of this chapter I define the regional political party, the regionalist and the nationalist political party and I try to...

This thesis deals with the interregional relations between the European Union and Mercosur. It is approached as a single case study where the examined case is defined as "the strategic partnership between the European Union and Mercosur in the context of new regionalism". The thesis consists of three main chapters. The first chapter explains the phenomenon of new regionalism and interregionalism and deals with two theoretical approaches to regional integration - neofunctionalist and intergovernmental. The subject of the second chapter is the development of regional integration within Mercosur and the analysis of the relations between the EU and Mercosur from the early 1990's till present. The current negotiations between the two regions are aimed at the conclusion of the Association Agreement creating free trade area and consisting of three pillars: political dialogue, cooperation and trade. The negotiations were officially launched in 1999, later suspended in 2004 and re-launched at Madrid Summit in 2010. The thesis seeks to find out how the EU and Mercosur are motivated to sign the agreement and what are the main obstacles blocking the successful conclusion of the negotiation process. To this end, the third chapter analyzes the three pillars of the Association agreement under negotiation paying...

(in English) In this diploma thesis we will focus on the current possibilities of using the region as a motive and an instrument of poetic narration on the Czech - polish example. In recent years, regional literature has represented widely discussed, yet still semantically and conceptually ambiguous field in the area of literary theory. First part of thesis represents the basic concepts for research of regionalism in literature and also works with selected theories of Czech and Polish literary theorists. Second part presents interpretative chapters, which are concentrated on a concrete schemes of region in poems collections by Czech and Polish poets.