<p>My dissertation, "The People's Republic of Capitalism: The Making of the New Middle Class in Post-Socialist China, 1978-Present" draws on a range of visual cultural forms - cinema, documentary, and fashion - to track the cultural dimension of the emergence of the new middle class subject in China's encounter with global capitalism. Through cultural studies methodologies and critical theoretical practices, I explore the massive reorganization of national subjectivity that has accompanied the economic reforms since 1978. How, I ask, has the middle class replaced the proletariat as the dominant subject of Chinese history? What are the competing social forces that contribute to the making of the new middle class subject, and how do they operate? By considering these questions in terms of the cultural cultivation of new sensibilities as much as identities, I trace China's changing social formations through the realm of cultural productions. This project is organized into three parts, each of which attends to a particular constellation of middle class subjectivities and ideologies. In Part I (Introduction and Chapter 1), I explore how the Chinese middle class subject is shaped by historical, political-economic, and cultural forces. I show that the new social actor is structurally dependent on the national and transnational bourgeoisie and the post-socialist party-state. In Part II (Chapters 2-5), I focus on the relationship among fashion, media, and Chinese consumer culture in the socialist and post-socialist eras. By engaging with films such as Xie Tieli's Never Forget (1964), Huang Zumo's Romance on Lushan (1980), Qi Xingjia's Red Dress is in Fashion (1984), and Jia Zhangke's The World (2004) and Useless (2007), I suggest that the representation of fashion and consumption in Chinese cinema, documentary, and new media is a privileged site for deciphering otherwise imperceptible meanings of class, ideology, and history in the formation of the Chinese middle class subject. In Part III (Chapter 6), I attend to the repressed underside of Chinese consumer culture: rubbish. This project reorients our understanding of socialist and post-socialist China, seeing them as underpinned by the contradictions emblematized in the Chinese middle class.</p> / Dissertation

Using data from the Global Entrepreneurship Monitor, this paper examines differences in entrepreneurial perceptions (fear of failure, opportunity perception, self-efficacy, public opinion) between CEE and non-CEE countries, before and after the 2008 recession, as well as the effects of these perceptions on entrepreneurial motivation and overall levels of activity. The results suggest that CEE countries have systematically more pessimistic outlooks in terms of fear of failure and opportunity perception, but no difference from non-CEE countries in self-efficacy and public opinion. Additionally, most of the difference in fear of failure and opportunity perception, along with an increase in necessity-motivated entrepreneurship, comes after the recession, suggesting less durability and resilience of optimistic entrepreneurial perceptions in CEE countries. Finally, there is evidence of a higher threshold for a perceived opportunity to become a business reality in these post-socialist CEE countries.

This dissertation takes a step towards providing a better understanding of post-socialist welfare state development from a theoretical as well as an empirical perspective. The overall analytical goal of this thesis has been to critically assess the development of social policies in Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania using them as illustrative examples of post-socialist welfare state development in the light of the theories, approaches and typologies that have been developed to study affluent capitalist democracies. The four studies included in this dissertation aspire to a common aim in a number of specific ways. The first study tries to place the ideal-typical welfare state models of the Baltic States within the well-known welfare state typologies. At the same time, it provides a rich overview of the main social security institutions in the three countries by comparing them with each other and with the previous structures of the Soviet period. It examines the social insurance institutions of the Baltic States (old-age pensions, unemployment insurance, short-term benefits, sickness, maternity and parental insurance and family benefits) with respect to conditions of eligibility, replacement rates, financing and contributions. The findings of this study indicate that the Latvian social security system can generally be labelled as a mix of the basic security and corporatist models. The Estonian social security system can generally also be characterised as a mix of the basic security and corporatist models, even if there are some weak elements of the targeted model in it. It appears that the institutional changes developing in the social security system of Lithuania have led to a combination of the basic security and targeted models of the welfare state. Nevertheless, as the example of the three Baltic States shows, there is diversity in how these countries solve problems within the field of social policy. In studying the social security schemes in detail, some common features were found that could be attributed to all three countries. Therefore, the critical analysis of the main social security institutions of the Baltic States in this study gave strong supporting evidence in favour of identifying the post-socialist regime type that is already gaining acceptance within comparative welfare state research. Study Two compares the system of social maintenance and insurance in the Soviet Union, which was in force in the three Baltic countries before their independence, with the currently existing social security systems. The aim of the essay is to highlight the forces that have influenced the transformation of the social policy from its former highly universal, albeit authoritarian, form, to the less universal, social insurance-based systems of present-day Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania. This study demonstrates that the welfare–economy nexus is not the only important factor in the development of social programs. The results of this analysis revealed that people's attitudes towards distributive justice and the developmental level of civil society also play an important part in shaping social policies. The shift to individualism in people’s mentality and the decline of the labour movement, or, to be more precise, the decline in trade union membership and influence, does nothing to promote the development of social rights in the Baltic countries and hinders the expansion of social policies. The legacy of the past has been another important factor in shaping social programs. It can be concluded that social policy should be studied as if embedded not only in the welfare-economy nexus, but also in the societal, historical and cultural nexus of a given society. Study Three discusses the views of the state elites on family policy within a wider theoretical setting covering family policy and social policy in a broader sense and attempts to expand this analytical framework to include other post-socialist countries. The aim of this essay is to explore the various views of the state elites in the Baltics concerning family policy and, in particular, family benefits as one of the possible explanations for the observed policy differences. The qualitative analyses indicate that the Baltic States differ significantly with regard to the motives behind their family policies. Lithuanian decision-makers seek to reduce poverty among families with children and enhance the parents’ responsibility for bringing up their children. Latvian policy-makers act so as to increase the birth rate and create equal opportunities for children from all families. Estonian policy-makers seek to create equal opportunities for all children and the desire to enhance gender equality is more visible in the case of Estonia in comparison with the other two countries. It is strongly arguable that there is a link between the underlying motives and the kinds of family benefits in a given country. This study, thus, indicates how intimately the attitudes of the state bureaucrats, policy-makers, political elite and researchers shape social policy. It confirms that family policy is a product of the prevailing ideology within a country, while the potential influence of globalisation and Europeanisation is detectable too. The final essay takes into account the opinions of welfare users and examines the performances of the institutionalised family benefits by relying on the recipients’ opinions regarding these benefits. The opinions of the populations as a whole regarding government efforts to help families are compared with those of the welfare users. Various family benefits are evaluated according to the recipients' satisfaction with those benefits as well as the contemporaneous levels of subjective satisfaction with the welfare programs related to the absolute level of expenditure on each program. The findings of this paper indicate that, in Latvia, people experience a lower level of success regarding state-run family insurance institutions, as compared to those in Lithuania and Estonia. This is deemed to be because the cash benefits for families and children in Latvia are, on average, seen as marginally influencing the overall financial situation of the families concerned. In Lithuania and Estonia, the overwhelming majority think that the family benefit systems improve the financial situation of families. It appears that recipients evaluated universal family benefits as less positive than targeted benefits. Some universal benefits negatively influenced the level of general satisfaction with the family benefits system provided in the countries being researched. This study puts forward a discussion about whether universalism is always more legitimate than targeting. In transitional economies, in which resources are highly constrained, some forms of universal benefits could turn out to be very expensive in relative terms, without being seen as useful or legitimate forms of help to families. In sum, by closely examining the different aspects of social policy, this dissertation goes beyond the over-generalisation of Eastern European welfare state development and, instead, takes a more detailed look at what is really going on in these countries through the examples of Lithuania, Latvia and Estonia. In addition, another important contribution made by this study is that it revives ‘western’ theoretical knowledge through ‘eastern’ empirical evidence and provides the opportunity to expand the theoretical framework for post-socialist societies.

<p>U disertaciji su detaljno istraženi uzroci, tok, dinamika i posledice<br />transformacija društvene i prostorne strukture Novog Sada u periodu<br />tranzicije. Kroz multidisciplinarni pristup analizi kompleksnih<br />urbanih fenomena, uspostavljene su korelacije i definisane kauzalne<br />veze između složenih političkih, ekonomskih, institucionalnih i<br />društvenih reformi i urbanih promena, dajući naučni doprinos<br />razumevanju specifičnog konteksta razgradnje socijalističkog i geneze<br />postsocijalističkog grada u okolnostima kašnjenja tranzicionih procesa.<br />Istraživanje predstavlja osnovu za utvrđivanje teorijskih, metodoloških<br />i formalnih principa i smernica za dugoročno planiranje budućih<br />intervencija u gradkom prostoru, kao i teorijsku i analitičku bazu za<br />osmišljavanje određenih segmenata politike urbanog razvoja.</p> / <p>The thesis encompasses а detailed investigation of the causes, course<br />dynamics and outcomes of social and spatial restructuring conducted in Novi<br />Sad during the transitional period. Through a multidisciplinary approach to the<br />analysis of complex urban phenomena, it establishes correlations and defines<br />causal relationships between complex political, economic, institutional and<br />social reforms and urban changes, providing a scientific contribution to<br />understanding mechanisms of context-specific deconstruction of socialist urban<br />matrix and post-socialist city genesis in the circumstances of delay in<br />transitional processes. The thesis provides an insight needed for further<br />investigation of theoretical, methodological and formal principles and guidelines<br />for long-term planning of future interventions in urban space, as well as a<br />theoretical and analytical basis for developing certain segments of urban<br />development policy.</p>

The aim of the dissertation is to examine the production of children’s books for the Latvian-speaking population in Latvia and attempt to illustrate how the post-Soviet transformation has affected the conditions surrounding its development. To this end, the study investigates how the economic, political, and cultural aspects of the transformation are perceived and dealt with by actors active in children’s book production. The concept of the field of the production of children’s books as a subset of the broader field of cultural production is based on the term “literary system” as defined in the sociology of literature and the term “field” as defined in Pierre Bourdieu’s sociology of cultural production. The fundamental theoretical standpoint of the study is based on social constructivist theory. The study also investigates the phenomena in the field from the aspect of sociopsychologist Michael Billig’s concept of “banal nationalism” and sociologist Daina Stukuls Eglitis’ model of “narratives of normality.” The material is based primarily on interviews conducted between 2003 and 2005 in Riga with the actors involved with the production of children’s books in Latvia, but also on data gathered from other sources. The results indicate that the role of the state and the commercial market are perceived and dealt with differently amongst the actors in the studied field, where opposing attitudes towards mass-market products indicate that children’s books can be seen as cultural products by some and as commercial products by others. The material further implies that the opinions of the interviewees about the role of children’s books in post-Soviet Latvia are closely related to their personal visions for the future of this newly-reborn independent nation. It is the various survival strategies adopted by the key actors in the field as a response to the changing conditions in the new era that ultimately constitute the transformation of the field.

Tyrimo objektas - socialinio teisingumo sąvoka nedemokratinėje valstybėje (Baltarusijos pavyzdys), įgyvendinama įvairiose diskursyvinėse praktikose besikeičiančiame instituciniame kontekste 2006-2010 metais. Sąvoka socialinis teisingumas nagrinėjama kaip vienas iš kertinių šalyje egzistuojančio gerovės režimo pagrindų. Darbo naujumą sąlygoja tai, kad tema nėra išgvildenta nei užsienio, nei baltarusių autorių akademiniuose tyrimuose. Tikslas - ištirti pagrindinius (vyraujantį ir alternatyvų) socialinio teisingumo naratyvus Baltarusijoje, išaiškinti ir dinamikoje palyginti jų turinio dedamąsias, o taip pat išanalizuoti jų įtaką viešosios politikos procesui. Darbas susideda iš 6 dalių. Pirmojoje nagrinėjami teoriniai požiūriai į sąvoką socialinis teisingumas ir analizuojama posocialistinės būklės (Fraser, Furs) samprata, kuri svarbi darbo turinio kontekstui. Antroje dalyje aprašyti darbe naudoti metodai. Trečioji dalis skirta Baltarusijos socialinio ir ekonominio konteksto problematikai. Ketvirtojoje dalyje pateikti Baltarusijos politinio lauko ypatumai, įskaitant jo skilimą į valdžios ir opozicinę dalis. Penktojoje dalyje aptariami valdžios subjektų pasisakymai, formuojantys socialinio teisingumo naratyvą. Šeštojoje dalyje analizuojami opozicinių subjektų naratyvai. Analizė leidžia daryti išvadas, kad reikšminį sąvokos socialinis teisingumas užpildymą Baltarusijoje vykdė valdžia ir jis neturėjo jokių reikšmingų alternatyvų. / The subject of research is the concept of social justice in a non-democratic state (here, Belarus) implemented in different discursive practices and changing institutional context in the period of 2006-2010. The concept of social justice is considered to be one of the conceptual foundations of the welfare regime existing in the country. The novelty of the work is determined by the underdeveloped nature of the topic in the academic research of foreign as well as Belarusian authors. The objective is to research the main (governmental one and alternative ones) narratives of social justice in Belarus. The work is divided into six chapters. The first one examines theoretical approaches to the concept of social justice and analyses the concept of post-socialist condition (Fraser). The second chapter informs of the methods applied in the work. The third one is dedicated to the issues of the socio-economic context of Belarus in the period of 2006-2010. The fourth chapter examines the specifics of the political field of Belarus, its breakup into the governmental and oppositional parts. The fifth one analyses their statements comprising the social-justice narrative used as one of conceptual foundations of the welfare regime existing in the country. The sixth chapter investigates the oppositional narrative. One of the main conclusions of the research is that the concept of social justice in Belarus was determined by the authorities and had no alternatives comparable in importance.

This thesis explores the spatial transformations of the waterfront &amp / #8211 / an urban frontier - of Durr&euml / s port city in Albania, within a predefined timeframe: before, during and after socialism. Within this framework, a special concern of the thesis is the examination of the impact of political, social and economic actors, as well as the morphological and geographic conditions, which occur when transforming the urban space and environment. Thus, the work is constructed on the basis of cause (urban process) &amp / #8211 / effect (physical change) relation, within a particular period of time. The aim of the study is to understand how space was (re)produced, used and transformed in three different and consecutive systems: pre-socialist, socialist and post-socialist one / and the relations set among actors involved in these process, by making a descriptive and comparative spatial analysis utilizing the constituting physical - programmatic elements of the waterfront as the essential tools of the examination. Along with the information on space production process inherent of three political systems, concentrating the attention on the waterfront as an important element of the urban structure / this work will bring some understanding on subjects related to the actual spatial transformations occurring in the city and it social space. Finally, by affirming the waterfront as an edge condition, the notion of &amp / #8216 / edge&amp / #8217 / and its meaning in the socialist and post-socialist city will be elaborated. Keywords: Waterfront, Edge, Urban Frontier, Port-city, Socialist and Post-socialist City, Spatial Transformation

This thesis explores the roles that medicine, human rights discourse, and the arts play in the project to improve the lives of patients suffering from severe forms of mental illness in the context of the post-socialist transformation of the Czech Republic. It is a study of the ways in which social solidarity and social exclusion intersect in the spaces of mental illness in a particular historical setting, and how the responsibility for care is negotiated between families, communities, the medical profession, and the state. The first part of the thesis focuses on the proposed reform of care for patients with severe mental illness that was put forward in the two decades after 1989. I examine the origins and aims of the attempted institutional change – the ‘humanization of psychiatry’ – in the context of the influential Charter 77 movement which demanded respect for the rights of those who are unable to claim them for themselves. I also trace how the re-establishment of a civil society that owed much to the concept of ‘apolitical politics’ and the process of the reintegration of Czech Republic into the European community impacted the attempted reforms. More than twenty years after the revolution, Czech Psychiatry still does not comply with international standards of care and, as I show, despite the explicit disclaimer with the totalitarian past and great hopes for change, there is in fact a clear continuation of many of the practices, ideas, interactions, as well as forms of governance of the preceding decades. These historical legacies, in combination with other factors, such as ideological disagreements within the psychiatric profession, a lack of political interest in this area, and a strong focus on other economic priorities have all contributed to the failure to improve mental health care. The second part of the thesis offers a complementary perspective on these processes – a view from ‘inside’ of the institutions that provide psychiatric care. The origins of institutional care in Central Europe date back to late nineteenth century, when large hospitals were built within parks as self-sufficient complexes surrounded by walls, outside of large cities. My research took place in two contrasting institutions: one a highly specialised clinical and research center for treatment of acute conditions, and the other a hospital for treatment of chronic conditions originally devoted to those with ‘incurable’ conditions. I show how the notion of ‘curability’ is a crucial factor in both the experience of the patients and the social responses to their conditions. In this part I also explore some epistemological issues in psychiatry, including knowledge, practices, and ideology, in the context of a strong scientific materialism where – unlike in many parts of the world – the tradition of psychoanalysis has been absent. Specifically, I examine the role of neurobiological paradigm in various interpretations of psychotic experience, its affect on patient’s self-understanding, and its role in the externalization of agency and responsibility. Finally I address the phenomenon of using ‘unclaimed bodies’ of psychiatric patients for anatomical teaching and research, and interpret this practice through notions of liminality, impurity, and sacrifice. I conclude the thesis by examining the ethical dimension of psychiatric care in the light of the writings by Emmanuel Lévinas.

Foreigners within Karlovy Vary urban region: spatial distribution and influences on local environment Due to exceptional migration characteristics of Czechia among CEE countries and entire EU, foreigners are becoming more and more important component of population of our cities. This fact implies the growing importance of foreign population as an agent in process of shaping the lived space. The aim of this diploma thesis is the presence of foreigners within the urban region and broader environs of Karlovy Vary - which currently is a city with one of the highest proportions of foreign population in entire Czechia. Migration characteristics and mobility of population of area are analysed with emphasis on foreigners. Subsequently patterns of spatial distribution of significant groups of foreigners are explained on various levels, based on unique unpublished data from Czech Foreign police office. Then the core section of empirical part is the analysis of influence of foreign inhabitants on the local environment, which stems from detailed field research carried out by the author. The work varies between urban and migration studies and theoretically is roofed by concepts of socio-spatial differentiation and residential mobility. From methodical point of view, the author claims and affiliation to the...

The aim of the thesis is to find out if then Prague quarter of Karlin has been under the process of gentrification recently. Karlin is an inner city and has been going through dynamic changes in the last thirteen years. This is not only because of post-socialist transformation but the regeneration was also accelerated by dealing with the consequences of the flood in 2002. Different census areas of Karlin are classified into three categories according to the degree of gentrification: gentrified, ungentrified and below average areas. The research is based on the results summarizing a field research which determined physical condition of the houses, the result of analyses of ownership and price levels of Karlin houses and the development of sociodemographic and economic structure. Key words: gentrification, post-socialist transformation, physical environment, sociodemographic and economic structure