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This paper focuses on the concept of right to the city and tries to link it to the topic of spatial planning in Prague. It introduces the view on the world of global neoliberalism, which comes from critical social geography and was elaborated especially by David Harvey, but originates from the French philosopher Henri Lefebvre. Through the optics of this approach the paper tries to grasp the complex problems of spatial planning on the example of Prague. Through a qualitative questioning of the representatives of CSO's, the paper attempts to show the relevance of the concept for public participation in decision making in urban development. The thesis presents a fundamental critical frame of theories, which evaluates the condition of society in the stage of late neoliberalism, and also the basic approaches to the city in social theory including the context of post-socialism. From these it continues to the analysis of urban space presenting a belief, which gives to the inhabitants of a city the right to make decisions about its shape instead of the capital. It puts emphasis on demarcation of the role of social movements and also the concept of place attachment, which becomes one of the key determinants for the involvement of inhabitants into the processes of urban development. The paper uses the...

In sociology in general, community is often seen as an expression for something seriously threatened or even destroyed by modernity. In urban sociology, this question has traditionally manifested itself in a ‘search exhibition’ of communal bonds within the city landscape. This analytical approach tends to split up ‘community’ and ‘city’ into two different forms of social experience. By adopting a socio-ontological approach, this study argues that experiences of community cannot be ontologically separated from experiences of the city. The aim of this study is to examine how the interviewees, living in the same neighborhood within a minor city in southern Sweden, create a perception of the city as a whole in relation to their own positioning therein. From this aim, two research questions have been formulated as follows: How is Milltown socio-ontologically constituted as a social space of relations? And: How do the interviewees construct a purified community? In order to examine this, nine in-depth interviews were conducted with residents in a middle class neighborhood (Greenwood), located in a minor city in southern Sweden (Milltown). The material was analyzed using a socio-ontological approach combined with Pierre Bourdieu’s concepts of social space and habitus, and Richard Sennett’s concepts of purified community and collective personality.   The results of this study show how the perceived social complexity of Milltown as a whole is purified into an authentic experience of community. Greenwood is being constituted as a private sphere, which is isolated from the rest of the city. Greenwood represents a simplification of the social environment within the city landscape, where personal feelings and values are projected. It is also shown how interaction between neighbors in Greenwood is almost completely absent, and how the interviewees compensate this absence by constructing a collective personality. This collective personality envisages how they are the same, rather than what they actually do in their relations to each other. The feelings of belonging stem from shared expectations that neighbors have on each other, rather than from interactions. Finally, the results show how this purified community identity is constructed against other neighborhoods in Milltown, which are seen to represent different ways-of-life.   This study contributes to a more complex understanding of how feelings of belonging are constituted in relation to a specific locality, but also how this understanding enables a perception of the city as a whole. Accordingly, insights have been achieved on how recent attempts to ‘redefine’ the community concept in sociology can be used empirically, and to be further built upon theoretically. Further, urban sociology has traditionally been concerned with big cities. This study argues that the urban sociological tradition has exaggerated the differences between minor and larger cities. The argument is that minor cities should be approached as socially complex milieus as well, where people are aware of each other but do not know each other. Gesellschaft relations should therefore not be understood as something exclusive to the metropolis, but rather as a condition of life in modernity in general. Finally, this study also gives an insight about the mechanisms behind voluntary segregation. This is a matter that is often neglected in urban sociological research, which traditionally has worked in paradigm of poverty, thus focusing on stigmatized neighborhoods.

This thesis deals with the comparison of methodological approaches of Czech urban sociology and social geography. The aim of the thesis is to ascertain whether sociologists have maintained their specific view on urban issues different from that of other disciplines. Currently, it is rather difficult to distinguish between purely sociological and socio- geographic research activities. Therefore, the research part of this thesis is focused on the analysis of diploma and dissertation theses. In the case of students, it is clear which discipline their theses represent. The comparison of theses is based on observation of their topics, theoretical assumptions, methods, techniques and the nature of conclusions. The concluding part of the thesis summarizes the results of the research, supplementing them with the comment on the current state of urban sociology in the Czech Republic. Key words: urban sociology, social geography, city, methodology

The thesis is conceived as an empirical probe into the life of the local residents around the north-south artery in the district of Prague 4. Thematically falls within the urban sociology and is also greatly inspired by the field of urbanism and urban planning. The goal is to obtain and bring out basic information about the quality of housing and urban life around the given section of Prague's north-south highway perceived through the eyes of the population. The first part constitutes theoretical background of the empiric survey. It specifies a relation of branch disciplines to the selected topic and outlines the theoretical concepts associated with the main aspects of this problem. The second part presents conducted empirical probe, gives a summary and comments on results of the analysis. Data collection was carried out using a questionnaire survey in the locality. The processing by quantitative techniques were used for data analysis

This study examines 2000 and 2010 Census data to determine the resettlement patterns of urban and suburban residents in 23 American metropolitan statistical areas (MSAs). Previous research discusses the development of an affluent suburbia, leaving postindustrial cities in decline. However, recent literature suggests the reurbanization of postindustrial cities by the creative class, a Return to the City movement fueled by middle class entrepreneurs, artists, and technocrats. Alongside reurbanization are increases in poverty, and racial and ethnic enclaves in suburbia. The literature shows these trends as two separate, independent processes. This study investigates the relationship between these processes within MSAs. Consistent with existing literature, this study finds that from 2000 to 2010, there are increases in poverty and racial and ethnic diversity in the suburbs, and increases in middle and upper class white populations within central cities. This study reveals quantitative data concerning the future of American urban and suburban demography.

This dissertation takes a sociological look at the relationship between urbanization and environmental change. While sociological studies on urbanization have long addressed the social dimensions of the built environment, the natural environment has not been treated as a primary concept in urban sociology. Based on an analysis of local land use change across the United States at the beginning of the 21st century, this dissertation brings the built and natural environments together, recognizing both as important dimensions of urbanization. The expansion of the built environment, through deforestation and the covering up of fertile agricultural land, represents a modern form of land use change with direct and indirect impacts on the natural environment, the most severe effects of which are seen in biodiversity loss, disruption of the nitrogen cycle, and climate change. Drawing on literatures and theories in environmental, rural, and urban sociology as well as demography and human ecology, the bulk of the dissertation involves empirical analyses of overall changes in forest cover as well as the loss of forest cover and agricultural land to the built environment (i.e., the impervious structures and surfaces that cover the land), a process I refer to as land use intensification. My dissertation project uses quantitative methods to examine the demographic, economic, and social forces behind this process in contemporary America. Hypotheses are derived from the various literatures mentioned above; to test these hypotheses, I integrate county-level data from US governmental sources with satellite imagery on land cover change from the National Land Cover Database (NLCD). For the years 2001-2006, I use the NLCD data to quantify three dependent variables at the county-level: overall change in the area of forest cover as well as the area of forest cover and agricultural land lost to the built environment. Results from regression analyses demonstrate that urbanization is a multidimensional process that differentially transforms the American landscape. With a focus on land use intensification, this study advances a sociological framework to address connections between urbanization and changes in both the built and natural environments.

Esta tese apresenta uma análise das relações das pessoas de camadas populares com a casa em que moram e os objetos que a compõe para compreender como se dão os processos de construção da identidade para essa camada da população tomando como objeto suas relações com a moradia e seus objetos. A hipótese do trabalho é a de que o espaço da casa expressa processos de construção da identidade. Esta pesquisa entende que os membros de uma mesma casa não se relacionam com o espaço da mesma forma. Na verdade, acredita-se que o espaço da casa seja negociado, renegociado e apreendido, de acordo com os projetos individuais. Para tanto foram pesquisadas quatorze casas cujas famílias moram numa favela da cidade de São Paulo. / This thesis intends to analyze the relationship between working classes with the place where they live as well as the role of the respective objects that make up their homes. The aim of this study is to comprehend the way that the dwellers identities are built taking into consideration their residences and also the respective objects. The main hypothesis of this work is that the space at home expresses the construction process of identity. This research understands that the members of a family have a different ways of interacting with the home. As a matter of fact, it is believed that the space occupation in the houses is subject to negotiation, re-negotiation and then assimilated according to plans of life of each individual . To write this thesis I carried out a research among 14 families that live in a slum area situated in São Paulo.

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There are over a million associations in France dealing with a large variety of issues such as leisure, sports, health, social solidarity or education. Legally defined by the 1901 law, associations are complex structures that require financing and management. They can also be described as promoting ‘cultural expression' and ‘social integration'. Associations are particularly present in the French ‘banlieues' (suburbs) around town and city centers as these areas are often seen as epitomising social fragmentation. Based on ethnographic fieldwork amongst two associations in the Quartiers Nord area of Asnières, a town on the edges of Paris known for its diverse associative life, I explore the positioning, mechanisms and strategies adopted by associations in order to reduce the effects of socio-economic inequalities along territorial lines. My fieldwork mainly consisted of teaching French to newly-arrived migrant children and teenagers as well as helping others with their homework. This allowed me to gain access to a large variety of perspectives, from that of associative leaders and members of the local administration to the views of families living in the Quartiers Nord. To make sense of these multiple angles of approach, I rely strongly on Gerd Baumann's (1996) distinction between dominant and demotic discourses as it underlines the dynamic and contextual nature of interactions between residents and the local and national frameworks in which they evolve. I aim to uncover the processes through which some associations have become intermediate spaces (or interstices) of mediation between local or national administrations and the residents of given neighborhoods labeled as ‘difficult', in other words between center and periphery. By doing so, I add to the debate on the integration of banlieue inhabitants to discourses of French Republicanism.