This thesis evaluates why the implementation of a tree plantation project in Chiapas, Mexico, called Scolel Te failed in its attempt to participate in the CDMs scheme. The Scolel Te project brings together farmers and local organisations into a network of exchange of resources that aims at producing an outcome that is only possible through the co-ordination and co-operation of all participants: the emission of carbon certificates. This thesis studies the co-ordination problems that local actors face at the moment of establishing the carbon projects by identifying how formal and informal mechanisms such as contracts, economic incentives, trust, and reputation, create or solve co-ordination problems in the Scolel Te network. The thesis also describes how changes in the distribution of power among actors affect the functioning of the network and how individual's interests and strategic alliances have the potential of derailing the aims of the environmental project. For such purposes, this thesis analyses the exchange relationships among actors at the micro level and identifies how exchange relationships evolve over time. Then an overall picture of the exchange relationships is presented (macro level) with focus in understanding how and why power in the network is exerted. Findings suggest that relying on economic incentives as the main mechanism to generate commitment among communities has failed to create stable exchange relationships in the long term. Trust and reputation are stronger mechanisms to achieve commitment. Moreover, we find that the ability to generate commitment depends highly on the generation of interdependencies between tree plantation projects and the main economic activities of local actors. However, type of land tenure, main economic activity, and pre-existing power relationships embedded at local level are also the principal factors that determine the dynamism of the social exchange relationships and commitment in the long-run. This thesis considers that co-ordination failure occurs because a lack of knowledge about the real dependencies between local actors and their natural resources in the design of CDMs. At macro level, this thesis found that the lack of accountability of the unregulated local carbon market at local level has created unintended incentives for actors to adopt less environmentally responsible strategies and disincentive participation in the CDMs.

Following the financial crisis that began in 2007, various groups and individuals demanded an ecologically diverse banking sector to help spread risk in the banking industry and to more effectively cater to customer needs. To date, however, measures to change retail banking have been limited to modest structural and incentive adjustments to boost competition and modify the banking culture which prompts an investigation about the nature of the ethical banking sector and its ability to grow and thrive. The lack of progress in reforming banking in the UK raises questions of whether and how we could encourage and sustain ethical, social and non-profit alternatives to current high street banks. Because prior academic research in ethical has been limited, the research aims to fill gaps with regards to understanding the network established between ethical banks their business models and to identify the type of intervention needed to promote ethical banking as an alternative to established mainstream retail banking.The research presented in this thesis investigates how the ethical banking sector is embedded in the UK financial services industry and draws out political-economic dynamics that facilitate as well as hinder the development of the sector. To this end, the thesis develops a conceptual framework that draws on literatures on industrial districts and embeddedness. The thesis also models and analyses the ethical banking network using social network analysis, before developing an understanding of ethical banks’ business models and how the sector is organised within the banking industry. Data on the banks’ relationships with other organisations were gathered through questionnaires, and interviews were conducted with respondent firms to explore ethical banking as a sector from the perspective of ethical banks themselves. In addition, company, industry and legislative publications have been analysed to add context and validate findings.At the broadest level, the results draw a picture of ethical banking as a diverse but disorganised subsector which is dominated by two players and lacks prospects to develop into an alternative banking sector that could compete with the full banking services offered by high street competition. Only if the sector manages to reorganise itself internally with support from external players could it form a more coherent and centralised subsector with a clear and shared understanding as to what its ambitions are. Thus the research highlights the potential of ethical banking which is expanding rapidly, but, at the same time, the research also raises the difficulties in developing ethical banking as a sector which retains its distinctiveness from high street banks. In sum, the research findings are in line with current ambitions to develop and promote a more diverse and sustainable UK banking industry: ethical banks should receive more attention from policy makers as they are a set of diverse actors that has grown significantly since the beginning of the financial crisis and, could if strengthened, contribute to developing a stronger retail banking sector more responsive to customer needs. Government efforts to reorganise banking should include developing ethical banking as an alternative to Plc retail banks which would change competition by increasing consumer choice instead of creating yet more large scale banks.

Most studies of 'cohesion' between urban residents focus separately on either social network structure or ideations with very little attention given to the intersection between spatial, structural and ideational dimensions of networks. This is problematic on two levels: firstly because attitudes and practices are formed in the context of personal social networks; and secondly because social interactions between residents are physically embodied and therefore spatially constrained. This thesis explores empirically the relationship between spatial cohesion (the extent to which a network is geographically localised or dispersed), structural cohesion (the extent to which a network is tight-knit or fragmented) and ideational cohesion (the extent to which residents have similar attitudes and practices). The social networks, attitudes and practices of white-British residents living in deprived urban localities of North Manchester are studied (survey, n=409; interview, n=53). Variances in forms of cohesion were found to have consequences for residents and localities. At the individual level, the spatial and structural shape of a resident's network was linked to their attitudes and behaviours. Attitudes and practices were 'framed' in the context of personal network structure exhibited through a set of resident 'roles'. This matters for urban cohesion because a person's social network structure influenced whether they liked their neighbourhood, trusted other residents, felt a sense of community or had found jobs through contacts. Previous studies have argued that contemporary urban networks have become fluid, dynamic and spatially dispersed. Yet this research found that although some people had networks that were geographically spread, most resident networks were made of localised, tight-knit, stable, long-term relations. Moreover, people with these cohesive, localised networks framed their experiences of urban cohesion differently to those with geographically spread and/or disconnected social networks. Particularly because the attitudes and practices of residents with localised, cohesive networks were very often habitual and socially reproduced. Social networks focus people's activities in such a way that not only constrains or enables current attitudes and practices but can also affect an individual's ability to change their future behaviour. At the locality level, the type of 'deprived' locality seemed to influence network structure. The structural, spatial and ideational distribution of cohesion at locality level provided neighbourhoods with different portfolios of social capital. Qualitative differences were observed between homogeneous-deprived (very low income, white areas) and socially mixed-deprived (white deprived areas with some class/ethnic mix) localities. People living in deprived-homogenous localities concentrated their networks within the local area and had few ties to residents of bordering areas, a sign of social distance. Conversely, residents of socially mixed-deprived localities had more potential to bridge ties to other neighbourhoods because their networks were not overly focused within the local area. Given that attitudes and practices are framed in the context of social network structure, it was argued that residents of deprived-homogeneous and socially mixed-deprived areas may experience and interpret urban cohesion differently and this has implications for universal policies of cohesion in deprived neighbourhoods. The thesis illustrates the interplay between spatial, structural and ideational forms of cohesion and highlights consequences for individual action and the generation of neighbourhood social capital. The originality of analysis and data synthesis are used to advance a relational and contextualised theory of urban cohesion and contribute to wider academic and policy debates on urban social networks and neighbourhood deprivation.

This study examines the potential for the Internet, or more specifically the World Wide Web, to enhance local democracy and local governance by providing a networked public sphere. It is located in post-industrial theories of social and political transformation, which see a new, uncertain and complex society emerging which may transform the political significance of the 'local'. Whilst a number of causes are identified as culpable in this process, it is the ICT revolution and the development of the Web in particular, that is seen as possessing a democratising potential that, if realised, may bring greater resilience to geographic localities. The potential of the Web to provide a new networked public sphere is based upon contested views that its topography, its hyperlinked structure, can enable the ordinary citizen's voice to be heard above those that traditionally dominate political discourse. However, there has been no attention paid to this potential being realised at a local governance level within which, this study argues, a favourable environment should exist for a local online networked public sphere to prosper. Accordingly, this prospect is empirically explored here through a case study of the use made of the Web by a variety of local civic, political and institutional actors during a 2008 local (Manchester, UK) referendum on introducing the largest traffic congestion charging scheme in the country. This research applies a distinctive mixed method approach within a conceptually defined internet mediated domain of local governance. Relational Hyperlink Analysis is used to analyse the structural significance of the captured congestion charge. This analysis uses Social Network Analysis (SNA) and an associated statistical technique, Exponential Random Graph Modelling (ERGM) to render the network visible and understandable. To further illuminate how the network was used by local civic and institutional actors involved in the referendum the research draws upon a network ethnography approach which uses SNA to identify subjects for qualitative investigation. The study offers some evidence of the Web providing 'just enough' links in this local context to suggest the structural existence of a networked public sphere. However, further evidence from the narratives and the statistical model paint an alternative picture. This suggests that, in the main, hyperlinking behaviour and use made of the network corresponds to a 'politics as usual' scenario where cliques are more likely to proliferate and powerful economic and media interests dominate online as they do offline. If the ordinary citizen's voice is to be heard in this context then there is a requirement for policy intervention to establish a trusted local networked public sphere or online civic space, independent of vested interests but linked to the local governance decision making process. In addition to this there is a requirement for greater education, particularly aimed at senior local governance policy makers, in the culture of online engagement.

Today's information society is changing dramatically along with the evolution of technology, which influences our perception of every aspect related to ICT greatly. New wave of social networks changes not only the nature our perception of the internet, but also the very basics of social interaction. Some of these phenomena were described in Norbert Wiener's definition of information ethics in 1954. Another phenomenon, very actual for researched field, is described in Alienation Theories by sociocybernetics expert R. F. Geyer. The objective of this study is to analyze sociocybernetics and its possible impacts on fileds of sociology and psychology, as well as digestedly compile fragments of interactive media and social networks, which can be directly linked to negative sociological and psychological effects. The study involves the overview, comparison and issues of rating systems as well as their application in countries of EU. The study also involves trends related to ICT and the internet in czech environment. This section is based on combination of results of long-term sociological study created by Doc. PhDr. Petra Saka CSc., and results of own research.

This thesis focuses on the issue of social networks. Social networks are one of the many types of social media, which are defined in the introduction of this thesis and described their characteristics. The thesis focuses on the options of two social networks in marketing and on the internet marketing in general. There are three criteria for the use of social net-works in companies -- sales promotion, publicity and communication. They are first de-scribed theoretically, analyzed in the environment of a particular company, the company Student Agency, and ultimately within these criteria suggested solutions to improve the use of social networks in the company. The aim of thesis is to define the possibilities of using social networks in companies to promote competitiveness, describe the options on real company and suggest possible improvements.

The goal of this work is to design principles of implementation and operation of the social network for a particular non-profit organization. The structure of this work is divided into several steps. The first part is applied to the theory of social network I focus on social network which are used in the Czech Republic and users of social networks. In the next part I describe the nongovernmental organizations, their environment and the ways of getting resources. The most important part is the analysis of the technological environment, where are mentioned the reasons for the implementation of the social networks for the nongovernmental organizations. Other important parts are the principles of fundraising, a principle that nongovernmental organizations should follow when contacting potentional donors. Another part is applied to the analysis of the activities of five selected nongovernmental organizations or their program on social networks. It also includes evaluation of communication nongovernmental organization on social networks with a potentional donor or volunteer. In the following section I analyze in detail the work program of the Hestia and their activities on the social network. In the chapter is also analysis of the main account on the social network Facebook. The last part is the design of social network for program of the non-profit organization. This part is very inspired by the work of the previous chapters.

This master's thesis deals with the characteristics of online political communication, characteristics of major social networking sites and Internet communication comparisons Czech political parties. The methods used in this work are observation, self-analysis, comparison and evaluation of own research. The thesis aims to describe the specifics of political communication, subjectively evaluated according to established criteria the individual components of Internet communication Czech political parties, compare their activity on social networks and on the basis of own research to evaluate the influence of declared political online communication in the country. As well as by continuing to map out its own research, as political parties proceed when manage online tools of communication.

This thesis deals with the analysis of the recruitment process in a company, specialized in IT. The theoretical part deals in detail with each step of the recruitment process, and the practical part compares them. There are descriptions of the individual steps of the process in IT companies, and suggestions on how to increase the effectiveness of the recruitment. It also introduces an entirely new strategy for using social networks like LinkedIn. HR staff and employees throughout the company are familiar with this new strategy thanks to a manual and a company profile in this network. The HR department establishes the steps of the recruitment of new staff. The aim is to determine whether the proposed method is effective for the company and if it can continue to be applied.

This diploma thesis deals with tools for social networks and internet marketing and their application to real case reviewing and news website Mobilenet.cz. The content of the document is divided into two separate parts. The goal of the first of them is to establish a theoretical framework for the second part. Theoretical part describes tools and options in general. There are listed both instruments that relate to internet marketing itself and instruments related directly to social networks. The second part includes theoretical knowledge applied to a specific case, web Mobilenet.cz and its defined competitors. First of all is analyzed Mobilenet.cz on its own, then it is compared to the competition. Analysis also includes websites check, from which are deduced imperfections in the quality of websites. The final part is created a practical demonstration, which aims to increase traffic on website Mobilenet.cz. At the very end of the document are applied results from the analysis of the second part to propose the strategy for web Mobilenet.cz. The main benefits of my work are analysis of Mobilenet.cz website and its competitors. As part of this work is also formed practical demonstration, which aims to increase traffic on this website. Another important contribution is the design solution for the future operations of the website Mobilenet.cz.