This thesis explores the social changes in Budweis in the 19th and in the beginning of the 20th century from a perspective of local beer brewing and hospitality industry. The principles of economic nationalism are examined on the example of interactions of two local breweries. The second part of this thesis focuses on inns and taprooms in Budweis. These are presented as important locations for social life and consumption. A typology of these establishments is prepared based on multiple factors. The mutual relations between establishments and beer suppliers are also investigated. The locations of both breweries' clients is compared with the local population's character in order to investigate to what degree did nationality determine the preference of a given beer brand. Finally, two case studies present the "dark side" of the hospitality industry and they suggest that nationality was not the main influence on the consumers' relation to a given brand or establishment. Key words: Budweis, brewery, beer brewing, public houses and taprooms, nationalism, economic nationalism, history of consumption

Cycling advocacy has taken a form of a popular worldwide social movement in the beginning of the 21st century. Cyclists demand not only improved conditions for cycling, but also a reform in the way the city is being run in order to be "livable" and saturated with "quality public spaces". This dissertation attempts to put the phenomenon in the context of the theory of risk society and it attempts to incorporate impulses from the theoretical tradition of ANT. The cycling controversy is being read as a re-invention of politics in urban arenas. What is political about the bicycle? More than it may seem. The bicycle has endured a long trajectory of political appropriation by various groups in order to arrive at a point where it began to be conceived as the default starting point of the critique of automobility and Western modernity. As a consequence the bicycle emerges as a loaded political symbol that is being appropriated by cycling advocates in order to problematize the alienated city colonized by cars, appropriated by business interests and neglected by the political representation. The bicycle is being reinvented as a symbol of urban revolution. This dissertation introduces the results of an empirical research undertaken between June 2013 and April 2015 that maps the shape of the cycling controversy in...