This master thesis introduces a form of volunteering which is not well known to the public, so-called puppy raising of guide dogs for the visually impaired. This phenomenon is introduced on the background of a comparison of two civil society service organizations, one based in the Czech Republic and the other in the United States of America. These organizations both come from a different type of civil society but have many similarities as well. At the end of this thesis, the results found through qualitative research are presented, where these data were gained through interviews, documents, but also by participatory observation directly in the respective organizations.

This diploma thesis is focused on engaged art in the Prague public space after 2000. The theoretical part deals with the characteristics of engaged art and artivism and places them in the context of civil society. It describes the participants dealing with engaged art in Prague after 2000, the topics of the participant's interventions and the tactics they use for their implementation. The empirical part offers, based on biographical research and ethnography, an perspective of the participants. It describes their motivations leading to the creation of interventions, their relationship to public space and to the audience. Work deals with the goals of their activities and focuses on their own concept of success. Last but not least, the thesis is focused on the political orientation of the participants. The thesis thus provides a comprehensive view of contemporary engaged art and pursues on its important role in our society.

The topic of the present diploma work is the representation of the civil conflict in Lebanese cinema. The work is divided into two parts. The first one provides an overview of the historical and discursive contexts of the last two civil wars in Lebanon (1958 and 1975-1991) and describes how these events are reflected in the work of Lebanese filmmakers. The second part of the diploma work focuses on the war period cinematography, generally less known due to the long public unavailability of a large part of the film production of that time. Four feature fictions made between 1975 and 1985 are selected for a more detailed analysis, more precisely by those filmmakers that are considered to be the pioneers of a new auteur cinema in Lebanon: Mārūn Baġdādī, Burhān ˁAlawīya and Jocelyne Ṣaˁb. The chosen method is the semiotic analysis focusing on characterisation features of the film characters and on conflicting oppositions present in the films. Key words: civil war, civil conflict, Lebanese cinema, fiction film, semiotic analysis, connotation.

This thesis aims to analyze the relationship between the Muslim community and the civil society. The community is narrowed down to practicing Muslims and three organizations in which Muslims unite. Churches and religious societies have a special status within the civil society due to their missionary work and the content of their religious activities. Do the religious organizations of the Muslim community stand on the verge of the civil society or do they strive for cooperation with the major public within the frame of common activities? Czech society fears this minority due to a negative media picture of Muslims. Are those fears well-founded and can the religious community change this way of perceiving them? This negative perception can relate to an insufficient integration process which I also target in my thesis. Muslims founded their first religious organizations on Czech territory during the First Republic, but it lost its legal validity after 1989. This thesis also deals with the legislative aspects of functioning of the selected organizations, mainly the Islamic foundation based in Prague and Brno.

The mass character of political mobilization is not the only measure for the strength of civil society. It turns out that, in post-communist countries including the Czech Republic, transaction capacity became the characteristic of protest movements and initiatives. It referrs to the ability to cooperate, take advantage of inter-organizational network and share resources and know how. These transactions, to a certain extent, compensate for poor mobilization capacity, which is typical for new transactional activism and civic self-organizations. The contrast between "old" social movements, episodic mass mobilisations, new transactional activism, along with civil self-organization, illustrated that even without mass mobilization a mature structure of civil society and advocacy organizations can emerge and operate. The year 1998 brought the beginning of favorable conditions for political activism. It turns out that the activity of the "old" activism decreases with the number of members of trade unions, which is typical for this mode. At the same time, people prefer forms of direct action and direct public protest. Using five selected case studies we described the nature of episodic mass mobilization, civil ad hoc and informal self-organization and new transactional activism,whose repertoire is besides petitions...

The main aim of this thesis is to look at school as a place where children learn values con-nected with civil society. It tries to answer the question "How can schools prepare their students for participation in civil society with regard to values". This answer will be an-swered by studying of literature focused on this issue and by a research at chosen elemen-tary school. Design of research is taken from study of Klaassen and Huwae (2006) which has been done recently at Netherland elementary schools. There is no study like that in the Czech Republic and this thesis should bring basic information about this issue.

This master thesis is based on the presumption that efforts to build a European civil society will lead to a more efficient solution of problems on the European level. It aims to draw the importance of the European foundation project presented by the European Commission in the context of the development of a European civil society. This topic is very interesting due to its up-to-dateness because during the process of elaborating this thesis the proposal of the statute is being discussed on the European level and its adoption is expected in a short time. Potential benefits of this proposal are, however, to be seen already now and they reflect the expectations of the interested subjects, i.e. both the European institutions and civil society organizations. Key words: European Union, civil society, European foundation

In the Czech Republic little attention has been given to the research of civil society in rural areas. One of the fundamental preconditions for the development of civil society is engagement of citizens. The aim of this work is to explore social engagement, which is an important part of civic engagement, in two villages. The research was conducted in the north of the Czech republic, in the specific area of the former Sudetenland. Promoting social engagement may be one of the factors influencing the development of the Czech countryside, which is struggling with a long- term depopulation. Through in-depth interviews and document analysis the study argues about what are the main factors for social engagement and how social engagement contributes to the development of social capital.

The study aims to describe comprehensively the lobbing strategy of student's nongovernmental organization called Inventura demokracie. The first part determinates basic terms. The second part examines the theory of lobbing, civil society, and state. The third part analyses lobbing of Inventura demokracie in practice. Finally, the fourth part brings us conclusions and recommendations. Powered by TCPDF (www.tcpdf.org)

This diploma thesis deals with civil society in three chosen parts of Prague, the capital city of the Czech Republic. It deals also with civic involvement and political participation of its Citizen and their motivation for that. Thesis aims to show that civil society is not so weak as it is always supposed for post-communist states and it shows that Citizen of Prague are able for mobilization and political participation. The thesis presents the overview of the development of voter turnout in the Czech Republic in different types of elections, in the rate of voter participation and civic activities and citizenship initiatives. Civic and political involvement and motivation are identified through interview made with district councilors in three chosen parts of Prague.