Theoretic part of this thesis describes terms like civil society, non-profit sector and non-profit organizations. Then is described activity of fundraising as a main theme of this thesis. Practical part of this thesis contains methodical instruction of asking for financial resources from structural funds of European Union through the program SROP.

The objective of this theses is to explore the development of gift-giving in Czech Republic after the velvet revolution in 1989. First part of the theses deals with the theoretical basis of altruism and philanthropy. The gift-giving explored in the theses is viewed as a specific case when the beneficient does not know the beneficiary. This specific case is then discussed with the theoretical aspect of altruism and philanthropy. Further on the civil society and its connection to the gift-giving is observed and the role of the foundations in czech society reflected. The analysis of the gift-giving is provided in the second part of the theses, based on the financial history of four czech foundations. A clear cut trend is not obvious, thus some other aspects coming out of the analysis are accented.

Presented thesis focuses on civil society within the context of ongoing processes of globalization. The core of disputed issues lies in creation of relationships between the actors of civil society (with stress on alter-globalization movement) and institutions of international governance (with accent on multilateral economic institutions -- WB, IMF, WTO). The thesis analyzes concepts of (global) civil society and functions which civil society fulfills in relations to centres of political power -- traditionally towards the state, currently also towards international governance institutions. It deals also with preconditions of creation and existence of global civil society (post-material middle-class, cosmopolitism and the role of the internet). Theoretical chapters are supported by empirical datas which are analysed especially regarding alter-globalist discourse, self-definition of the actors and current state of relationships between civil society and WB, IMF and WTO. Applied research shows that these institutions open themselves to the control of public and civil society (although with different pace) in levels of transparency, accountability and access, and thus civil society contributes to their democratization.

In connection with recent passing of the Strategy of Integration of the Roma minority 2014-2020, the topic of integration of the Roma minority is again under debate of experts and general public. The aim of the Strategy is to support integration of Roma community emphasising areas such as education, housing, employment and others. The diploma thesis focuses on the topic of integration of the Roma people in the Czech Republic. Referring to the integration theory created by Birch and its modified version by Barša, the topic is divided into cultural, social economic and civil political levels. The main goal of the thesis is to analyse the role of state and civil society in the integration process of the Roma minority. The presentation of various integration theories is followed by an outline of the role of state in the integration process with putting emphasis on the crucial principals in a creation of minority politics. Subsequently, the defined principals are applied on integration strategical documents of government in the Czech Republic in order to describe the changes in a time perspective. Thesis is concluded by the dimension of civil society which has very important role because of daily contact with the Roma people.

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.

This dissertation investigates three questions: First, what conditions make dissident collective action such as protest, revolt, rebellion, or civil war more likely to happen in a country? Second, what conditions make citizens more likely to join in dissident collective action? Third, does Internet use play a role in dissident collective action, and if so, why? I argue that motives and resources are necessary rather than sufficient conditions for dissident collective action. I develop an analytical framework integrating motives and resources. Specifically, I theorize that state repression is an important motive, and that civil society is critical in providing resources. Four statistical analyses are conducted to test the hypotheses. Using aggregate level data on countries over time, I find that civil war is more likely to occur in countries where both state repression and civil society are strong. Moreover, the effect of civil society on civil war onset increases as the repression level rises. at the individual level using 2008 Latin American Public Opinion Project surveys from 23 Latin American and Caribbean countries, I find individuals more likely to join in protest when they experience both more repression and greater civic engagement. Moreover, civic engagement’s effect on protest participation increases as people experience more repression. I further find that Internet use constitutes a kind of civic engagement and has effects similar to voluntary group involvement. the effect of Internet use on protest participation decreases as a person’s civic engagement increases. Finally, an individual is more likely to join in protest when experiencing more repression and using the Internet more frequently. Moreover, the effect of Internet use on protest participation increases as a person experiences more repression.

A importância em compreender e fortalecer espaços coletivos de construção de conhecimento e desenvolvimento de ações ambientais para a participação popular e exercício da cidadania, nos levou a escolher como tema de pesquisa as relações entre educação ambiental e organizações da sociedade civil no processo de discussão e ação no campo ambiental. O trabalho de investigação envolveu duas fases: uma aberta e uma focalizada. A fase aberta se deu durante minha inserção como pesquisadora-educadora em um projeto sócio-ambiental, o Água Quente. Este, desenvolve-se desde 2005, por duas associações civis junto a outras organizações da sociedade civil que atuam na bacia hidrográfica do córrego Água Quente, região sul da cidade de São Carlos. Os objetivos foram: fortalecimento de organizações comunitárias locais, formação e capacitação de agentes comunitários e recuperação ambiental. Nesta fase, foi realizada a observação participante e a consulta a materiais produzidos pelo projeto Água Quente, a fim de iniciar um processo de aproximação e compreensão do contexto da ação sócio-educativa, bem como formular perguntas de pesquisa. Consequentemente, a segunda fase buscou respostas para as seguintes indagações: Que questões estão relacionadas à apropriação da temática ambiental por organizações da sociedade civil? Qual o papel da educação ambiental na construção e no fortalecimento da atuação de organizações da sociedade civil em relação ao ambiente local? Os objetivos específicos da fase focalizada foram: conhecer e apresentar a atuação de diferentes organizações da sociedade civil da bacia hidrográfica do córrego Água Quente, cujos representantes participaram do processo sócio-educativo realizado pelo projeto Água Quente; levantar as atividades e discussões sobre meio ambiente já desenvolvidas ou vislumbradas por essas organizações e identificar que relações existem ou podem ser estabelecidas entre a atuação da organização e a temática ambiental; identificar aspectos das ações sócio-educativas realizadas pelas organizações que indiquem aproximações e distanciamentos do campo teórico da educação ambiental. Para isso realizamos com 5 organizações, 2 encontros com cada uma, num total de 10 grupos focais além de consultas a materiais produzidos pelas organizações e pela equipe do projeto Água Quente. A análise dos dados foi feita com base em princípios da análise da conversação. Como resultado, destacamos que a temática ambiental está inserida nas ações sócio-educativas que as organizações desenvolvem. Contudo, a intencionalidade, no que tange às questões ambientais, se mostra pouco presente em algumas ações. A identificação com o campo da educação ambiental não é explicitada, porém há aproximações aos princípios envolvidos nas ações desenvolvidas pelas organizações nesse campo. Por outro lado, há também distanciamentos, especialmente com relação ao que vem sendo produzido, discutido e posto em ação no contexto da América Latina. Sendo assim, consideramos fundamental uma maior aproximação ao campo crítico da Educação Ambiental, para que a apropriação da temática ambiental pelas organizações da sociedade civil se dê de maneira crítica e reflexiva. / The importance of understanding and empower collective spaces of knowledge creation and the development of environmental actions for popular participation and an active citizenship have led us to choose \"the relations between environmental education and civil organizations in discussing process and environmental action\" as a theme for this research. The investigation work involved two stages: a general one and another one more specific. The first stage was during my participation as an educator-researcher in a social and environmental project called \"Água Quente\"(which means \"Hot Water\"). Such project has been developed since 2005 by two civil associations and two civil society organizations which work on Água Quente stream bay, south of São Carlos city. Our goals were: enhancing the power of local communities organizations, focusing on communitarian agents formation and qualification and also on environment recovery. During this stage was done the observation in a participant way and the Água Quente project\'s produced material research, in order to start a process of approach and understanding the social-educational context, and also to formulate research questions. Consequently, the second stage tried to answer the following questions: \"what are the points related to the use of the environmental theme by some civil organizations?\" or \"What is the environmental education role concerning the creation and strengthening of civil society organizations\' action related to local environment?\". Specific goals for the second stage were: recognizing and presenting the action of different civil society organizations at Água Quente stream bay and which participants took part in social and educational process developd by Água Quente project; rising activities and discussions about the environment that had already been developed or thought by these organizations; identifying which relations were there or could be established between the organization action and the environmental subject; identifying the aspects of social and educational actions taken by organizations that reveal approaches or distances to environmental education theoretical field. It took us to have 2 meetings with each one of the 5 organizations, totalizing a work of 10 focal groups, besides some researches concerning the material developed by the organizations and the project team. The data analysis was done based on the analysis of conversations according to some guiding principles. The result is our statement that the environmental theme is inserted in social and educational actions developed by organizations. However, the intentions related to the environmental issues are rarely present in some actions. The environmental field identification is not clear, but there are some approaches to the principles involved in the actions developed by the organizations in this field. On the other hand, there are also some distances from it, especially regarding to what has been produced, discussed and practiced in Latin American context. Therefore, we consider that a better approach to the critical field of Environmental Education is extremely important for the reflexive and critical appropriation of the environmental discussion by civil society organizations.

Entre 1992 e 2005, representantes de 11.921 organizações não governamentais (ONGs) participaram de conferências realizadas pela Organização das Nações Unidas (ONU) e pela Organização Mundial do Comércio (OMC). Tendo em vista que, tradicionalmente, apenas os representantes dos Estados-membros dessas duas organizações seriam admitidos, a crescente presença de atores não-governamentais nesses eventos foi considerada uma das evidências empíricas do surgimento de uma sociedade civil global. Contudo, alguns críticos afirmam que a sociedade civil não seria global, mas concentrada geograficamente em alguns países. Nosso objetivo é analisar se, de fato, existe tal concentração e quais suas principais características. Com esse objetivo, analisamos a distribuição geográfica das sedes das ONGs credenciadas para esses eventos, discutindo dois dos principais argumentos contrários à idéia de sociedade civil global: o primeiro afirma que a sociedade civil não é global porque seus atores estão concentrados em países do Norte (gerando um desnível Norte-Sul, com predomínio numérico e político de ONGs do Norte sobre as do Sul); o segundo, defende que a concentração das ONGs espelha as atuais constelações de poder em âmbito internacional (pois as ONGs seriam, predominantemente, de países localizados no eixo Europa-América Anglo-Saxônica). Considerando que todos seríamos parte da sociedade civil global, procuramos constatar de onde são as pessoas e organizações que efetivamente têm participado das discussões e decisões a respeito de questões que dizem respeito a todos (os habitantes do planeta). / Between 1992 and 2005, 11921 representatives of nongovernmental organizations (NGOs) participated in conferences held by the United Nations (UN) and the World Trade Organization (WTO). Given that, traditionally, only representatives of Member States of these two organizations would be admitted, the growing presence of \"nongovernmental\" actors in these events was considered one of the empirical evidence of an emerging \"global\" civil society. However, some critics argue that civil society is not global, but geographically concentrated in some countries. Our goal is to examine whether, in fact, exist that concentration and their main characteristics. With this objective, we analyzed the geographic distribution of headquarters of accredited NGOs to conferences, discussing the two main arguments against the idea of global civil society: the first asserts that civil society is not \"global\" because their actors are concentrated in North countries (creating a North-South divide, with numerical and political dominance of NGOs from the North on the South); the second claims that the concentration of NGOs reflects the current constellation of power in the international arena (as the NGOs would be predominantly of countries located in EuropeAmerica Anglo-Saxon). Whereas we would all be part of global civil society, we see where are the people and organizations that have effectively participated in the discussions and decisions about issues that concern all (the inhabitants of the planet).

In recent years, EU’s development policy has undergone wide-ranging reform with the leading principle of responding to the circumstances and demands of the current world, but also for the sake of alignment to the UN 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development. In line with the reasoning that an empowered civil society can help in the exercise of EU’s development policy and in the pursuit of development policy goals, the organisation has formed a strategy of engagement with CSOs in its external relations. This study’s focus is specifically on EU’s performance in Colombia, a Latin American country encompassed by EU’s development policy. Since Colombian CSOs still face numerous barriers hindering their work, it cannot be simply asserted that EU’s strategy has been effective. Hence, this study’s purpose is to critically evaluate EU’s engagement with Colombian CSOs, by taking into account EU’s capabilities as a civilian power to identify both the limits and potentials of the organisation’s approach. The study concludes that it is not the choice of power instruments, but the way the EU uses them that causes the strategy’s ineffectiveness. Although the Union has managed to increase Colombian CSOs’ capacity, the latter cannot be fully utilised due to the unfavourable framework for such organisations. Nevertheless, considering recent improvements made to EU’s strategy, it is argued that symbiosis between the EU and Colombian CSOs is still a realistic prospect, but one that requires increased efforts from the Union.

This dissertation deals with the civil society in Cambodia, according to the democratization of the country. After the turbulent times that were full of bloody conflicts the country in 1991 initially joined the path of democracy, but soon after that the governing regime shifted the orientation of the country toward authoritarianism. This complicated situation in the country after several decades was making the existence of civil society and western type non-profit sector impossible. Also, the situation concerning civil and political freedoms in the country was very controversial. The aim of the thesis is, through a secondary source analysis to describe the structure of civil society and the obstacles that it must deal with, in the background of the democratization process of the country.