The aim of this thesis is to determine what affects cross-national differences in attitudes towards immigrants and immigration in Europe while using mainly theoretical framework of the Ethnic Competition Theory and the Human Capital Theory. We use multilevel models to test the hypotheses based on these theories. We use individual level data from European Social Survey 2014/2015 and country level data from World Bank, Eurostat, and MIPEX. The thesis finds a support for the Human Capital Theory, but does not find a clear support for the Ethnic Competition Theory. Even though economic vulnerability of a person is associated with attitudes towards immigrants, this association can be due to education. It seems in this thesis that people with higher education tend to hold more positive attitudes towards immigration of both skill levels of immigrants, professionals and laborers, than individuals with less years of education. Therefore, we find a support for the Human Capital Theory. On the contextual level, more permissive migrant integration policies seem to have positive effect on attitudes towards immigrants. Further investigation of the association between attitudes towards immigrants and immigration, and education and migrant integration policies is needed.

Far-right parties and their supporters have long been associated with climate skepticism and opposition to climate action. However, all far-right supporters do not share these views, and some even emphasize the importance of caring about the environment. Prior research has not paid much attention to this question; this thesis hence aims to investigate which kinds of far-right supporters are more likely to hold pro-environmental views. The study argues that it is essential to disentangle different eco-friendly attitudes related to the (national) environment on the one hand, and to (global) climate change on the other hand. Using prior research on far-right values and climate change attitudes, the study focuses on regional differences and various individual-level characteristics such as attitudes towards the nation- state, state sovereignty, and individuals’ socio-economic background. The empirical analysis uses the European Social Survey’s data from 2016 and employs multiple linear regression. The results demonstrate that there is indeed a “green divide” between concern for the environment and for the climate among the European far-right, particularly in Eastern Europe. Nationalist attitudes were statistically related to caring for the (national) environment, and not as much to climate responsibility. Female and older far-right supporters care more for the environment, while younger far-right supporters have higher climate responsibility. These results demonstrate the heterogeneity of far-right supporters and their pro-environmental attitudes. They also suggest that certain groups within the far right may be more open to environmentally friendly politics than others, and that an emphasis on the environment instead of on climate may greatly impact polarization in modern environmental politics.

Immigration is a debatable topic, and Sweden offers a unique context due to its long-established liberal immigration policies and recent political shifts, making it an ideal case study for understanding broader European trends. The current study explores changes in public attitudes toward immigrants in Sweden from 2012 to 2020 using data from the final five waves (from 2012 to 2020) of the European Social Survey (ESS). Employing multi-group analysis and structural equation modeling (SEM), this research aims to identify how attitudes have shifted over the study period and to analyze significant demographic (age, gender, domicile) and socioeconomic (income, education) influences on immigration attitudes. The results reveal a shift from generally positive to more negative perceptions, particularly between 2018 and 2020. Older age groups and individuals from rural areas exhibited more negative attitudes, while females generally displayed more positive attitudes than males. Moreover, females with higher education and higher income levels also demonstrate more favorable attitudes. These findings are crucial for policymakers, as they highlight the need for strategies that address demographic influences and suggest specific areas where interventions can help reduce negative views and improve social cohesion.

Petra A n ý ž o v á Doctoral thesis: Cross-Country Comparability of Social Capital and Political Disaffection Attitude Scales in the European Social Survey Abstract The doctoral thesis deals with the methodological perspectives of comparative cross-national research. Currently, in the globalization period, the importance of these perspectives has been increasing. Unfortunately, social scientists analyse attractive international data more and more often without realising the levels of data comparability. Therefore they are not fully aware the best approach to statistical analysis of these data and their convenient comparative interpretation. This thesis introduces the issue of data equivalence as one of the most important quality aspects of cross-national research and focuses especially on attitude scales owing to the fact that their comparability is endangered the most in comparative research. In particular, the subject of the analysis is the international comparability of two of the most frequent robust attitude scales: namely social capital and political disaffection scales as they are measured in the European Social Survey first data set. In sociology and political science, these two social science concepts are very significant and they have been studied both theoretically and empirically as social...

This doctoral thesis focuses on creative online advertising in the context of understanding the value orientation of Czech consumers. By interactions of creative campaigns and national culture of target country aspects businesses can achieve a competitive advantage in the field of digital marketing communications. The main objective of the thesis is to create a concept of creative use of online advertising in the Czech market in relation to the cultural values of Czech consumers as a factor of increasing the competitiveness of Czech companies. The result of the thesis is a design that represents the creative elements of interactive online campaign to Czech national culture, defined as the value orientation by Schwartz according to targeting to defined age group of consumers and it also defines the effective use of online ad formats.

This thesis examined how the association between immigrants’ occupational origin and destination varies in 33 European countries, depending on the opportunities for social mobility in the origin country. For absolute occupational mobility, the result from an LPM regression showed that first-generation female immigrants had an increased probability of upward mobility when the origin country offered more opportunities for social mobility. In contrast, first-generation male immigrants showed an increased probability of immobility when the origin country offered more opportunities for social mobility. For relative occupational mobility, a multivariate OLS regression showed that first-generation male immigrants from countries with more opportunities for social mobility were more immobile compared to origin countries with fewer opportunities. Based on the World Economic Forum’s Global Social Mobility Index, a variable representing the opportunities for social mobility in the origin country was created. The study used four waves of the European Social Survey and the International Socio-Economic Index (ISEI) to measure the mobility patterns in absolute and relative rates over the scores of opportunities for social mobility in the origin country. Second-generation immigrants showed no significant results, and no gender differences could be established. The results were discussed in relation to first-generation immigrants’ Status Loss.

This master thesis illustrates the universality of Schwartz's value theory approach: culture of any group of people may be subject to the research and its value profile has a universal format. Both Czech and Finnish national value profiles and the value profiles of the helping professions in these two countries were calculated, based on data from The European Social Survey in 2012. On national levels, these profiles are representative. On the levels of helping professions, however, the profiles only serve as a model example-no representative data were available. In comparison with their national value profile, Czech model representatives of the helping professions attach more importance to all basic values in Schwartz's theory. In Finland, this is not the case for power, achievement, self-direction and security. This master thesis proposes several recommendations for potential surveys dealing with the impact of national culture on organization culture in health and social facilities. Especially, it highlights the necessity for quality value profiles of the structured helping professions. The reason for doing so is the outlined possibility (and maybe also necessity) to take different positions of individual professions into consideration. It also suggests to search for mathematical relations between...