The aim of the Master's thesis is to analyze the growing interest of the global economic system centers in the region of developing countries in sub-Saharan Africa with the account on weakening position of the West in relation to this region. The thesis will be structured into two sections. The first part will focus on the relationship between the West and countries of the African continent and the circumstances allowing not only the access of new challengers, but also alternative development models. In this respect the thesis will use the theoretical works of Adrian Leftwich and Claus Offe dealing with the issues of democratization and economic development and their mutual incompatibility. The second part of the thesis will analyze relations with these emerging, non-western power centers and their alternative development models. The research question of the thesis is formulated whether these alternative centers of the global economic system in the region of sub-Saharan Africa propagate their own conception of development models, with proclaimed respect for local conditions, as a challenger to the Western concept of development policy. The hypothesis assumes a certain degree of autonomy in case of developing countries in choosing "their" partner center. These centers are forced to offer certain...

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Ecological modernization theory - facts and context. Historical perspective, conditions and limits of the neoliberal sustainability koncept Annotation: This diploma thesis deals with the synthesis of ideas of ecological modernization theory, which has been developing since the 80's of the 20th century particularly in Western Europe. The ecological modernization theory wants to explain, interpret and propose environmental reforms in conjunction with continued economical growth, industrial development and globalization. The ecological modernization theory argues that a continuous industrial development does not lead inevitably to environmental degradation, but rather provides the best possible way out of the environmental crisis. Although the ecological modernization theory is a relatively young concept, during the first thirty years of its existence has greatly expanded and diversified, gained countless supporters and opponents, provoked a number of debates and inspired many empirical studies. This development, however, has led not only to new findings but also resulted in a dilution of the ecological modernization theory, which thereby has become confusing, vague and inconsistent. This thesis attempts to give a framework to the ecological modernization theory to specify not only its main ideas and goals,...

The thesis interprets the development of Foucault's thinking and within The Order of Things it subjects the whole concept of economy to critical reflection and defines the structure and dynamics on which the term is built. My work progresses from the abstract issue of Foucault's thinking to specific theories related to the topic. The first part is focused on the key changes and breaks across the author's thinking and work and forms the basis for a comparison of The Order of Things with a broader view of Foucault's thinking. Then I follow with economic theory basis in The Order of Things and define terms such as monetary theory, value theory, wealth analysis and other that are directly connected with economic issues. I focus on authors of economic theories who have influenced Foucault's thinking or are differently connected with my explication, e.g. Adam Smith, David Ricardo or Karl Marx. In the final part of the thesis I compare Foucault's thoughts and conclusions with the philosophy of Louis Althusser in his book Reading Capital which is based on Karl Marx's theories. The focus is mainly on the interpretation of modern episteme which is in The Order of Things directly related to the term of economy. I introduce common and different attributes of Althusser's and Foucault's thinking and present my...

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...

This work presents the personality and work of two thinkers, Bernard Bolzan and Charles Fourier. It focuses on their social ideas, so it looks mainly at their side of social utopians. It compares their views on the ideal organization of human society. It also pays attention to teaching and education in their conception, moreover, with reflection in relation to today. The aim is also to map the initial conditions of each of the thinkers, material, family, ideological, historically contemporary. At the very beginning, the work places all this in the context of historical development and subsequently in social theories. After an overview of developments and social theories, he introduces the topic of social utopianism and introduces two other important utopians - Saint-Simon and Robert Owen. Then the personality and work of Bernard Bolzan, followed by Charles Fourier, are introduced. The following is a comparison of the relevant categories for both thinkers, representing the degree of overlap of their common features. Then there is a chapter focused on education and training with an overlap to the present. The work shows that social utopianism is characterized by ignorance of socio-economic development and insufficient processing of a specific way of implementing the social establishment. These elements also...

Presented work tries to reflect the structure of human world, which is able to create an overman as an artificial intelligence through its self-destructive tendency. It investigates the possibilities of our imagination and if we are able to think about artificial intelligence as a sui generis continuation of human species. Hand in hand it tries to create a tension between particular ethico-political decisions and subsequent binding structure, which they implies.

This research seeks to interpret the academic activism of Academics for Peace in Turkey. It argues that the occurrence of the Academics for Peace results from the intertwinement of neoliberal and authoritarian ideology. The writer of this research suggests that Academics for Peace build networks of solidarity based on resistive critique and truth-telling practices. Solidarity (alternative) academies in Turkey are the seeds of this engagement in solidarity, self- adapting practices, activist truth, and parrhesia, and they appear as phenomena that carry out prefigurative-instituent practices. The research suggests that Solidarity academies can be evaluated as a 'threshold' cultivating our understanding of the 'commons' and 'commoning practices.'

The thesis analyses a dispute of two anarchist movements promoting Anarcho-Capitalism and an automated non-monetary economy. It asks the question whether the dispute can be explained in terms of paradigm conflict and not exclusively in political terms . The goal is to search for signs of scientific paradigm in an apparently ideological dispute. The thesis also examines the reasons why did the debate deteriorate into a personal and moral conflict of the representatives. The method of analysis is Grounded Theory, with reference to authors who interpret Kuhn's paradigm conflict as the consequence of an unconscious language barrier. Paradigm was operationally defined as a hierarchy of concepts with physical reference, theoretical network of the concepts and the scientific field objectives. The field objectives are the only reliable reference points between paradigms. The thesis sums up the debate between Anarcho-Capitalists and proponents of Resource-Based Economy and recovers the scientific answers and field objectives which were demanded yet missing in the debate. The thesis concludes that the debate can legitimately continue and that the ideological differences were mostly caused by a different scope of technical instruments and their describing paradigms, regardless of historical origin and...

This thesis is concerned with identifying and describing the linguistic elements of manipulative strategies of selected political speeches from 1948 till 1957. In the first part the work is focused on the principles of political communication, further persuasion and manipulation with respect to the relationship of these terms. In the next sections we find formal and functional description language means with regard to their pragmatic semantic components, mechanisms of propaganda and political line of reasoning. Knowledge of various aspects of language allows description of specific manipulative tendencies in political speeches and their burden in terms of evident and hidden action to the addressee.