Presented diploma thesis is based on seven-months fieldwork in the Danish commune of Christiania. It sustains a heritage of utopian ideas of a contraculture of the 60s on which it has been created. The thesis examines which aspects of utopia are presented here and asks about the character of these utopian visions. It focuses on the question how the dream, that locals wanted to implement, is still presented in their minds, and how they perceive its realization. I used examples of street art, that is plentifully presented here, as a mediator of ideological background of this community. Its symbolism allowed me to approach values, ideas and world-views of people who already have been living in this area for almost forty years. I used the principles of visual anthropology to reveal meanings contained in visual manifestations in a public space. My research is focused only on people who moved to Christiania in 70s that means those who were present here in the times of forming this community, and who were a part of revolting atmosphere of the 60s and of its ideals. Methods used during my fieldwork are a nonparticipant observation, informal, semi-structural and photographic interviews

The thesis aims to explore the artistic personality of Hunter S. Thompson, one of the most distinctive cultural figures of post-war America, and his genesis as an author, journalist, and a counterculture idol of the 1960s. The era is now widely regarded as a turning point in contemporary American history as its deep-rooted values and norms were, over the course of a decade, gradually transformed by the young generation of social and political activists toward allegedly a more tolerant and liberal kind of community. Crucial in such an endeavor was the role of the countercultural movement that produced some of the most capable intellectual minds of the time, including Thompson. The paper thus analyzes the role and nature of the alternative culture in America as perceived by one of its most observant participants. Also, the thesis focuses on the author's role in establishing a new genre called New Journalism which can be linked with the era's countercultural efforts as well. In general, Thompson, in his texts, examines various phenomena surrounding the counterculture and provides us with a distinctive portrayal of the era's zeitgeist. However, unlike some of his contemporaries, he also remembers to examine numerous flaws and fallacies existing within contemporary American society, the American Dream...

The 1960s counterculture had a huge impact on American society and questioned many of the American values in order to replace them with their own ideas. Even thought the first trace of youth's revolt against the older generation appeared in the 1950s, it was in the 1960s when the young generation fully rose up and started to fight for their goals. The 1960s counterculture can be divided into two parts, the New Left and the hippies, which both comprised of many different groups and organizations, among them for example the Black Panthers, the Weatherman, Students for a Democratic Society or Vietnam Veterans Against the War. These organizations engaged in many different issues like a civil rights movement or an antiwar movement. The tool for spreading countercultural values was an art - until nowadays countercultural impact is still visible especially in music. Even thought the countercultural movement gradually became radical and in the end of the 1960s split up, its impact on American society is undeniable in some issues such as drug use, perception of sexuality or questioning authorities.

The master thesis titled Ideologization and fragmentation of Skinhead subculture deals with historical background of Skinhead subculture genesis and with cleavages, that determinated its ideologization and fragmentation. Simultaneously it pays close attention to analysis of various branches of the Skinhead subculture. The first chapter of the thesis builds theoretical foundations of the research. In this chapter the terms culture, subculture and counterculture are explained. Accentutation is placed on common denominators as well as on differences in the definition of these terms. The second chapter of the master thesis deals equally with historical background of Skinhead subculture genesis and with subcultures with a significant impact on the formation of the Skinhead subculture. In this chapter the attention is focused on historical facts of political development in Great Britain after The Second World War, on subcultures popular at that time and on foundation of the Skinhead subculture. The third chapter of this thesis analyzes infiltration of the political ideologies inside the subculture and the following fragmentation of Skinheads. Research in this chapter is focused on the spread of extreme right-wing elements, foundation of the racist branch of the subculture and sequentially on the reaction...

Dissertation Abstract Paper Agora: The Samizdat Periodical Vokno and the Provincial Czech Underground in Historical and Social Perspective Martin Tharp, Department of Historical Sociology. The present work takes as its central subject a Czech samizdat publication, the magazine Vokno, primarily during its years of illegal operation, i.e. from 1979 until 1990, considered within the wider context of civil and cultural resistance to the oppressive social order of European state socialism. It treats Vokno as an instance of social action amid state forces inimical towards it, discussing the interplay and interaction of oppositional practice and the forces it opposes, both of state authority and more subtle ones of state cultural hegemony. It is argued that Vokno formed an attempt at a "counterculture" in the late 20th-century sense of an impulsive critique of a regimented modernity, yet within its immediate conditions was necessitated to assume three specific forms: as an aesthetic sub/counterculture, as a social network with differing levels of involvement and connections (whether to established intellectual dissent or to other social strata), and finally as a conscious oppositional social movement.

This thesis describes the phenomenon of alternative culture in public policy. The first part seeks to define what alternative culture means and builds on the research mainly from sociology and cultural studies. Very useful are then specific theory of social deviance, the theory of subcultures and postsubcultures. At the same time, the paper looks into the past, before 1989, when the alternative culture phenomenon was clearly defined, standing outside the mainstream culture and the alternative culture was illegal. Through the analysis of some events and political cases from the recent past, there could be seen both differences between alternative culture and an attitude to it before 1989, but also some important parallels with the current situation of alternative culture. Alternative culture is later specified by current alternative underground subcultures: freetekno - DIY, squatting and street art. In the case of these three controversial subcultures, the paper deals with an attitude of public policy to these subcultures through the extremism policy. The next part the paper deals with the contemporary cultural politics in the country. Briefly, it describes and outlines the current situation and possible areas for innovation in the context of alternative culture. In the last phase this thesis deals...