This thesis deals with the issue of civil society organizations in the Czech Republic. First, it presents a selection of related theories of civil society, civil sector and the sector of NGO's. It also deals with the concept of social economy and related themes. The third chapter explores the current state of the civil sector in the Czech Republic and the definition of its problem areas. Fundamental is the final analysis of the civic association Amelie, which is based on the previous text and applies the theory to specific organization and analyzes its activities and evaluates its functioning.

It remains one of the saddest ironies in the history of conflict in the twentieth century that Yugoslavia, of all those communist states of Eastern Europe which transformed in its penultimate decade, was the one that had demonstrated the greatest degree of liberalization in its social, political, and economic structure and development, yet was the one that disintegrated amid the greatest violence and loss of life.

Spätestens seit der UN-Klimakonferenz COP26 in Glasgow 2021 kön-nen wir für den Zustand der uns umgebenden Welt feststellen: So geht es nicht weiter. Die Geschichte des Designs zeigt viele Überlegungen und Praktiken zur Gestaltung für Nachhaltigkeit, von den Deutschen Werkstätten Hellerau über Victor Papanek bis hin zum Circular Design Guide. Designer:innen gelten als besonders qualifiziert, ganzheitliche Lösungen für komplexe Probleme zu erarbeiten. Die Fähigkeit zum Umgang mit großer Unsicherheit birgt Potenzial, wertvolle Lösungsvor-schläge für die ökologischen, sozialen und ökonomischen Herausforde-rungen zu liefern. Doch blickt man auf die Umbrüche der Gesellschaft im Anthropozän, drängt sich die Frage auf, was Design wirklich zu leisten vermag. Design steht als Disziplin und als Forschungsfeld vor erheblichen Herausforderungen: Wie können wir ressourcenschonend gestalten, ohne dabei eine auf Ungleichheit beruhende Ordnung zu perpetuieren? Oder schließen Design und Nachhaltigkeit einander gar aus? Design scheint also ein ambivalentes Verhältnis zur Nachhal-tigkeit zu haben. So haben sich im Diskurs um Nachhaltigkeit im Design vielfältige Positionen ergeben, die versuchen, Teilhabe, Transparenz und Offenheit mit Blick auf die Folgen von Gestaltung für die Umwelt zu realisieren. Organisationen wie Extinction Rebellion bedienen sich gestalterischer Mittel und fordern auf ihren Demonstrationen zu Kli-magerechtigkeit auf. Partizipation an der Produktion von Konsumgü-tern, wie beispielsweise in der Maker-Bewegung, sollen durch dezentrale Lösungen zur Nachhaltigkeit beitragen. Dies zeigt: Design kann Lösun-gen und Visionen für nachhaltige Zukünfte entwerfen und eine Schnitt-stellenfunktion übernehmen. Gleichwohl gilt es zu bedenken, dass De-sign immer noch einen Zug zum Elitären zu haben scheint. Konzepte wie Zero Waste oder neu gebaute klimaneutrale Stadtviertel scheinen eher auf die Bedürfnisse ohnehin schon Privilegierter zu schauen. Au-ßerdem zeigt die Praxis, dass eine wirklich nachhaltig gestaltete Kon-sumkultur noch in den Kinderschuhen steckt. Wie kann ein Gleichge-wicht zwischen Ressourcen, Wachstum und fair verteiltem Wohlstand gestaltet werden? Welche alternativen Vorschläge können wir entwi-ckeln, um Muster, die zur Aufrechterhaltung von Missständen beitra-gen, zu brechen? Wo liegen die Grenzen dessen, wo Design etwas dazu beitragen kann? Die Jahrestagung 2022 der DGTF beschäftigt sich deshalb mit zentralen Aspekten der Nachhaltigkeit, welche die Arbeitsfelder des Designs berühren. Was und wie kann Design zu nachhaltiger Entwick-lung beitragen? Wie verändert der Nachhaltigkeitsdiskurs Auffassungen von Design, in Theorie und Praxis? Welche Auswirkungen haben An-sätze und Diskurse zu nachhaltiger Entwicklung auf die Designausbil-dung und ‑forschung? Die Jahrestagung der DGTF 2022 ermöglicht einen aktiven Austausch über praktische Ansätze, theoretische Impulse und empirische Erkenntnisse in Form eines Kolloquiums mit Vortrags- und Workshop-Sessions. Die Beiträge beleuchten aktuelle Forschungs- und Studienprojekte sowie explorieren zukünftige Szenarien. Wie kann Nachhaltigkeit in Lehre, Praxis und Forschung adressiert werden, um neue Impulse für gestalterisches Arbeiten zu setzen? Beiträge können dabei unter anderem die folgenden Themen und Fragestellungen umfassen: Materialität — Wie kann für materielle Kreisläufe gestaltet werden? Welche Grenzen und Potenziale liegen in Nischenlösungen der Circular Economy? Was kann aus dem End-of-Life für die Gestal-tung von Produkten und Systemen gelernt werden? Brauchen wir mehr Wenigerdesign – im analogen wie im digitalen Raum? Sind wir in der Lage, auch weniger statt dazu zu entwerfen? Wie wird Wertschöpfung gestaltet, wenn der Einsatz und Verbrauch von Materialien und Res-sourcen minimiert wird? Welche Kompetenzen brauchen in diesem Zusammenhang zukünftige Designer:innen und wie werden diese ver-mittelt? Systeme — Wie wird nachhaltiges Handeln in Systemen wie Netzwerkorganisationen oder Unternehmen gestaltet? Wie sieht Nach-haltigkeit aus, wie kommunizieren wir nachhaltig? Welche Diskurse und Ansätze gestalten die Vermittlung von Design und Nachhaltigkeit? Welchen Einfluss hat die Methodik des Designs auf andere Disziplinen? Welche Rolle kommt Design in interdisziplinären Diskursen zu nach-haltigem Wandel zu? Was können wir aus anderen Disziplinen aufneh-men, welche Schnittstellen gilt es zukünftig weiter zu gestalten? Gerechtigkeit — Nachhaltigkeit kann nicht ohne eine gerech-te Verteilung der Ressourcen gedacht werden. Welche Zukunft möch-ten wir entwerfen und wie kann Gerechtigkeit realisierbar sein? Wie wollen wir in Zukunft leben und arbeiten? Welche sozialen Auswir-kungen hat Gestaltung? Wie kann Design seine Rolle verantwortungs-voll wahrnehmen und nicht nur auf die Bedürfnisse der ohnehin schon Privilegierten schauen? Kann beispielsweise Participatory Design ein Weg sein, eine gerechte Gestaltung für den Klimawandel umzusetzen? Wie kann Design lokal handeln und dabei eine globale Perspektive be-halten? Was sind Wege, die Design außerhalb unserer europäischen Perspektive verorten? Welche Ansätze können aus anderen Systemen, Gesellschaften oder Epochen adaptiert werden und wie können diese heute zu nachhaltiger Entwicklung beitragen? / Since the UN Climate Conference COP26 in Glasgow 2021, we can say: It can't continue like this. The history of design is full of ideas and practices on designing for sustainability, from the Deutsche Werkstätten Hellerau to Victor Papanek to the Circular Design Guide. Designers are seen as experts in developing holistic solutions to complex problems. The ability to deal with uncertainty holds potential to provide valuable solutions to environmental, social and economic challenges. But in view of the upheavals of society in the Anthropocene, the question arises as to what design is really capable of achieving. Design faces considerable challenges as a discipline and as a field of research: How can we design in a way that conserves resources without perpetuating an order based on inequality? Or are design and sustainability even mutually exclusive? Design thus seems to have an ambivalent relationship to sus-tainability. Thus, in the discourse around sustainability in design, a variety of positions have emerged around participation, transparency, and openness with an eye toward the consequences of design for the environment. Organizations like Extinction Rebellion use design means and call for climate justice in their demonstrations. Participation in the production of consumer goods, such as in the Maker movement, aim to contribute to sustainability through decentralized solutions. This shows: Design can create solutions and visions for sustainable futures and take on an interface function. Nevertheless, it is important to keep in mind that design still seems to have a tendency towards elitism. Concepts such as zero waste or newly built climate-neutral city districts seem to address the needs of the already privileged. Moreover, practice shows that a truly sustainably designed consumer culture is still in its infancy. How can a balance between resources, growth and fairly distributed wealth be de-signed? What alternative proposals can we develop to break patterns that contribute to perpetuating grievances? What are the limits of where design can contribute? The 2022 annual conference of the DGTF therefore address-es key aspects of sustainability that connect to design. What and how can design contribute to sustainable development? How does the sustaina-bility discourse change perceptions of design, in theory and practice? What impact do approaches and discourses of sustainable development have on design education and research? The annual conference of DGTF 2022 enables an active ex-change of practical approaches, theoretical impulses and empirical find-ings in presentations and workshop sessions. The contributions highlight current research and study projects as well as explore future scenarios. How can sustainability be addressed in teaching, practice and research in order to set new impulses for design work? Contributions may include, but are not limited to, the fol-lowing topics and issues: Materiality — How can we design for material cycles? What are the limits and potentials of niche solutions in the circular economy? What can be learned from end-of-life for the design of products and systems? Should design operate on the principle of “more is less” - in the analog as well as the digital space? How is value creation designed when the use and consumption of materials and resources is minimized? What competencies do future designers need in this context and how will they be taught? Systems — How is sustainable action shaped in systems such as network organizations or companies? What does sustainability look like, how do we communicate sustainably? Which discourses and ap-proaches shape the communication of design and sustainability? What influence does the methodology of design have on other disciplines? What is the role of design in interdisciplinary discourses on sustainable change? What can we take from other disciplines, which interfaces need to be further shaped in the future? Shared Prosperity — Sustainability cannot be thought of without a fair distribution of resources. What kind of future do we want to design and how can justice be realized? Future designs: How do we want to live and work in the future? What are the social implications of design? How can design play its role responsibly and not just look at the needs of the already privileged? For example, can Participatory Design be a way to implement equitable design for climate change? How can design act locally while maintaining a global perspective? What are ways that locate design outside our European perspective? What approaches can be adapted from other systems, societies, or eras, and how can they contribute to sustainable development today?

O esforço principal deste trabalho é realizar uma análise sociológica do processo de expansão das lavouras de soja nas áreas de Cerrado em direção às áreas de Floresta Amazônica, com foco no estado de Mato Grosso, a partir do recorte específico do processo de aquisição de terras, que leva em consideração quatro dimensões analíticas: dimensão econômica, dimensão cultural, dimensão política e dimensão ambiental. A característica diferencial desta proposição é que as dimensões selecionadas não serão trabalhadas, enquanto recursos teórico-metodológicos, de forma isolada, autônoma e independente uma das outras, como tem sido recorrente aos estudos do tema do “desenvolvimento da agricultura”. Contrário a essa perspectiva, propõe-se apreender as diferentes dimensões que dinamizam a expansão da atividade agrícola a partir das relações de interdependência que os agentes estabelecem entre si. O elemento central da análise é deslocado da unidade de cada dimensão (econômico, político, cultural) para o conjunto de relações que as dimensões selecionadas estabelecem entre si, formando um verdadeiro campo de relações de força, aqui definido como configurações sociais do processo de expansão das lavouras de soja. / The main effort of this work is to carry through a sociological analysis of the process of expansion of the soy farming in Savanna areas in direction to the areas of Amazonian Forest, with focus in the state of Mato Grosso, from the specific clipping of the process of acquisition of lands, that takes in consideration four analytical dimensions: economic dimension, cultural dimension, politics dimension and ambient dimension. The distinguishing characteristic of this proposal is that the selected dimensions will not be worked, as resources theoretician-methodology, of isolated form, independent one of the others, as has been recurrent to the studies of the subject of the “development of agriculture”. The opposite to this perspective, is considered to apprehend the different dimensions that dynamisms the expansion of the agricultural activity from the interdependence relations that the agents establish between itself. The central element of the analysis is dislocated from the unit of each dimension (economic, politician, cultural) for the set of relations that the selected dimensions establish between itself, forming a true field of force relations, defined here as social configurations of the process of expansion of the soy farming.

O esforço principal deste trabalho é realizar uma análise sociológica do processo de expansão das lavouras de soja nas áreas de Cerrado em direção às áreas de Floresta Amazônica, com foco no estado de Mato Grosso, a partir do recorte específico do processo de aquisição de terras, que leva em consideração quatro dimensões analíticas: dimensão econômica, dimensão cultural, dimensão política e dimensão ambiental. A característica diferencial desta proposição é que as dimensões selecionadas não serão trabalhadas, enquanto recursos teórico-metodológicos, de forma isolada, autônoma e independente uma das outras, como tem sido recorrente aos estudos do tema do “desenvolvimento da agricultura”. Contrário a essa perspectiva, propõe-se apreender as diferentes dimensões que dinamizam a expansão da atividade agrícola a partir das relações de interdependência que os agentes estabelecem entre si. O elemento central da análise é deslocado da unidade de cada dimensão (econômico, político, cultural) para o conjunto de relações que as dimensões selecionadas estabelecem entre si, formando um verdadeiro campo de relações de força, aqui definido como configurações sociais do processo de expansão das lavouras de soja. / The main effort of this work is to carry through a sociological analysis of the process of expansion of the soy farming in Savanna areas in direction to the areas of Amazonian Forest, with focus in the state of Mato Grosso, from the specific clipping of the process of acquisition of lands, that takes in consideration four analytical dimensions: economic dimension, cultural dimension, politics dimension and ambient dimension. The distinguishing characteristic of this proposal is that the selected dimensions will not be worked, as resources theoretician-methodology, of isolated form, independent one of the others, as has been recurrent to the studies of the subject of the “development of agriculture”. The opposite to this perspective, is considered to apprehend the different dimensions that dynamisms the expansion of the agricultural activity from the interdependence relations that the agents establish between itself. The central element of the analysis is dislocated from the unit of each dimension (economic, politician, cultural) for the set of relations that the selected dimensions establish between itself, forming a true field of force relations, defined here as social configurations of the process of expansion of the soy farming.

O esforço principal deste trabalho é realizar uma análise sociológica do processo de expansão das lavouras de soja nas áreas de Cerrado em direção às áreas de Floresta Amazônica, com foco no estado de Mato Grosso, a partir do recorte específico do processo de aquisição de terras, que leva em consideração quatro dimensões analíticas: dimensão econômica, dimensão cultural, dimensão política e dimensão ambiental. A característica diferencial desta proposição é que as dimensões selecionadas não serão trabalhadas, enquanto recursos teórico-metodológicos, de forma isolada, autônoma e independente uma das outras, como tem sido recorrente aos estudos do tema do “desenvolvimento da agricultura”. Contrário a essa perspectiva, propõe-se apreender as diferentes dimensões que dinamizam a expansão da atividade agrícola a partir das relações de interdependência que os agentes estabelecem entre si. O elemento central da análise é deslocado da unidade de cada dimensão (econômico, político, cultural) para o conjunto de relações que as dimensões selecionadas estabelecem entre si, formando um verdadeiro campo de relações de força, aqui definido como configurações sociais do processo de expansão das lavouras de soja. / The main effort of this work is to carry through a sociological analysis of the process of expansion of the soy farming in Savanna areas in direction to the areas of Amazonian Forest, with focus in the state of Mato Grosso, from the specific clipping of the process of acquisition of lands, that takes in consideration four analytical dimensions: economic dimension, cultural dimension, politics dimension and ambient dimension. The distinguishing characteristic of this proposal is that the selected dimensions will not be worked, as resources theoretician-methodology, of isolated form, independent one of the others, as has been recurrent to the studies of the subject of the “development of agriculture”. The opposite to this perspective, is considered to apprehend the different dimensions that dynamisms the expansion of the agricultural activity from the interdependence relations that the agents establish between itself. The central element of the analysis is dislocated from the unit of each dimension (economic, politician, cultural) for the set of relations that the selected dimensions establish between itself, forming a true field of force relations, defined here as social configurations of the process of expansion of the soy farming.

This study explores models for the reform of higher education in Egypt, and warns of potential consequences arising from the adoption of models based exclusively on the requirements of the knowledge economy and which fail to take account of the public role of national universities, socio-cultural realities and local as well as global pressures. The overall aim of the research is to identify the prerequisites for higher education reform in Egypt and the characteristics of a tailor-made reform model. It explores the role of higher education in Egypt, within the context of international organisations’ reform models for less-developed countries, and identifies the remits of the knowledge economy and knowledge society as frameworks for reforming higher education. This research has sought to answer questions on current conceptions of the role of higher education in Egypt and how these are being challenged by stakeholders. An exploratory study was designed using mixed methods. The research aim and objectives are achieved through a five-stage research process. The findings showed a general discontent among students and academics with higher education, and a near unanimity on the need for reform, particularly in the areas of teaching methods, curricula and university staff. The findings demonstrated that cultural issues deeply rooted in Egyptian society are preventing reform from being effective. The reform of higher education in Egypt should not only be part of an economic development vision, but a wider strategic vision for societal and cultural reform too. Reforming higher education in Egypt is a challenge, which will require consistent methodological rigour and a transformation of the current corrupted education culture prior to implementing the proposed OECD recommendations, or at the very least concurrent with any implementation.