This thesis investigates how societal change is represented and negotiated in Weimar Republic journals. I advance the idea that journals serve as unique crystallisations of the negotiation of social change within social communities due to their inherent periodicity, polyphony and materiality. I elucidate how these journals function, both as material objects with their own specific identities and within Weimar society more generally. To do so, I examine six selected journals: Die Weltbühne, Kladderadatsch, Simplicissimus, Die Gartenkunst, Sport im Bild and Fürs Haus. Together, these journals cover a wide range of bourgeois communities, exemplifying a multiplicity of strategies in order to negotiate the challenges posed by modernisation to their communal identities as well as to the individual identities of their creators and readers. This thesis thus establishes a history of small steps visible in the continuous development of the journals' content and material form, offering an understanding of history as a continuous development of social practices rather than a history of caesuras and breaks. Accordingly, I propose that journals tell us about culture, their material Eigenlogik setting them apart from newspaper and book alike. I then develop a notion of culture as dynamic and of journal communities as communities of practice. Next, I provide a case study of the Simplicissimus's communal practices materialised in shifts of its editorial content and material form, before generalising these findings to include non-authorial voices in advertisements and letters to the editor. Finally, I investigate the negotiation of modernisation in the form of sport and the "New Woman" in the journals, highlighting the concurrency of discourse and active participation, and the coexistence of rejection and incorporation. Ultimately, Weimar journal communities exhibit a continuity of social practices and identities that span from the Kaiserreich to Nazi Germany, both negotiating and furthering modernisation in the process.

This thesis empirically studies three aspects of marriage pertaining to young women in Egypt using a young people specific Survey of Young People in Egypt 2009. The first essay investigates the determinants of the marriage valuation of young women in Egypt through the value of the jewellery received on marriage. The empirical analysis focuses on the role of circumcision, kinship marriages and the competitiveness in the marriage market in determining the marriage valuation of young women. A Cox proportional hazard model as well as a Heckman-two step model is used to correct for selection into marriage using circumcision as the identifier variable. The analysis allows the computation of the returns to investments in female's human capital in the marriage market and the comparison with the similar returns in the labour market. The overall results show the role of circumcision in the marriage prospects of women rather than the marriage valuation. Kinship marriages, although popular in the Arab region show no impact on the marriage valuation of young women. Marriage market competitiveness, however, significantly determines young women's marriage valuation. The comparison between the returns to female's investments in education in both the marriage market and the labour market show the high degree of substitutability between the two market. The second essay investigates the determinants of young wives' happiness in marriage. The analysis investigates the role of institutions (religiosity and social trust), the time use of the wife, living with in-laws as well as inter-marital discussions using an ordered probit model. The results suggest the significance of the demographic and the economic variables in determining young wives' marital happiness. However, the mutual relationship with the husband and the inter-marital discussions appear to play a more significant role in determining the marital happiness of young wives. Finally, the third essay adds the labour market outcomes of the husband to the ordered probit model of the wives' marital happiness. The analysis investigates the role of the husband's labour market outcomes, the time use of the husband and the social network of the husband on the wife's marital happiness. a heterogeneous impact of husband's annual earnings (in the rural areas) and the time the husband allocates to joint leisure.

Prace charakterizuje tento systém, představuje jeho klady a zápory a srovnavá vybraná data se standardem zemí OECD s důrazem kladeným na srovnání s Českou republikou. V práci je zahrnuta část věnována popisu Chilské republiky

The work deals with trade relations between Czech republic and Russia. The aim is to analyze Russian market, to assess its potential from the point of view of opportunities for Czech products on Russian market and to evaluate the overall market significance for Czech exporters. The researching part of the work begins with an analysis of the economic development of Russia since the Soviet Union collapse to the present. Then the work continues with an analysis of evolution of trade relations between Czech republic and Russia, which determines main directions and areas of cooperation. The next chapter presents an analysis of Czech pro-export policy and its functionality in relation to the Russian market in order to evaluate the significance of Czech pro-export institutions for domestic entrepreneurs. The last part of the work is devoted to analzying the Russian business environment in order to identify opportunities and possible risks of doing business in this market. This work may serve as a useful material for students and teachers of universities and experts of economic institutions.

The aim of this thesis entitled Czech exporters opportunities in the Indian market is to provide these exporters enough information to evaluate the attractiveness of this market, an overview of the opportunities as well as how to penetrate this market. The first chapter focuses on general information about the Republic of India and demographic characteristics of the country. The next chapter deals with political and economic development of the country. The third chapter is concerned with foreign trade of the Republic of India. The fourth chapter continues with the mutual trade of the Czech Republic and India, and the last chapter is focused on opportunities for Czech exporters in the Indian market as well as the cultural differences of India in relation to successful business meetings with Indian business partners.

This thesis deals with the mutual relations of the Czech Republic with the BRIC countries. Individual members of the group - Brazil, Russia, India and China - have the potential to become in the next years or decades the strongest economies of the world. The aim of the work is to analyze existing business relations between the Czech Republic and these countries and on the basis of this analysis draw some predictions of future cooperation and find opportunities for Czech exporters. The work should provide an objective assessment based on statistical data and practical observations regarding cultural differences and specific business practices. The work should serve as an overview for Czech exporters who are interested in the BRIC countries to export.

Femme des lumières, Françoise de Graffigny (1695-1758) a une culture éclectique et occupe une place singulière dans la société de son temps. Autodidacte, lectrice infatigable, salonnière, auteure entre autres des "Lettres d'une Péruvienne", de "Cénie" et de plusieurs petites pièces, elle est admirée par ses contemporains. Membre de la République des Lettres, elle accueille dans son salon une élite culturelle.Dans une première partie, nous analysons et commentons ses références culturelles et ses lectures privilégiées qui ont pu lui servir de source de formation et/ou d'inspiration. Nous découvrons dans les milliers de pages de la correspondance un manuscrit clandestin, qui semble bien annoncer le "Supplément au Voyage de Bougainville" de Diderot. Dans une deuxième partie, nous déchiffrons et annotons les lettres manuscrites inédites de son correspondant François-Antoine Devaux, complétant ainsi l'analyse de la correspondance de Mme de Graffigny en saisissant sur le vif le débat des deux correspondants sur leurs lectures et sur la vie sociale de leur temps. Enfin, dans une troisième partie, nous étudions les idées maitresses de Françoise de Graffigny, féministe, éducatrice, faisant le procès de la jalousie intellectuelle par le biais du portrait sarcastique de Voltaire. Sa correspondance est néanmoins imprégnée par une part d'ombre, par une angoisse existentielle teintée d'ennui, qu'elle parvient à convertir en une affirmation ardente de la joie de vivre qui anticipe sur les idéaux de Rousseau, et cela par delà le désenchantement qui l'oppresse et les ridicules du monde qui l'entoure, c'est le dernier mot de la sagesse de Françoise de Graffigny. / A woman of the Enlightenments, Françoise de Graffigny (1695-1758) had an eclectic culture and occupied a singular situation in the society of her time. Self-taught, indefatigable reader, "salonnière", author among other works of the "Lettres d'une Péruvienne", "Cénie" and severa small plays. She was admirated by her contemporaries. Member of the Republic of Letters, she welcomed the cultural elite in her salon. In the first part, we analyse and comment upon her cultural references and her favourite authors which could serve as a source of education and/or inspiration. We discover in the thousands of pages of the correspondence a clandestine manuscript wich seems announce the Supplément au Voyage de Bougainville" of Diderot. In the second part, we deciphe the unpublished manuscript letters from her correspondent François-Antoine Devaux, thus completing the analysis of Mme de Graffigny's correspondence by commenting on the frame discussions between the two correspondents on their reading and on the social life of their time.Finally, in the third part, we study Françoise de Graffigny's main ideas, her feminist convictions and pedagogical methids, pleading against intellectual jealousy through the sarcastics portrait of Voltaire. Her correspondence ar nevertheless marked by a shadow, by an existential anxiety tinged with boredom that she succeeds in converting into a burning assertion of the joy of life which anticipates Rousseau's ideals and dominates the opressing disenchantment and ridiculousness of the world around her, this joy is the last word of the wisdom of Françoise de Graffigny.

A obra platônica pode ser dividida em três fases distintas que agrupam diálogos com características comuns. No entanto, alguns diálogos são de difícil colocação, pois possuem características comuns a mais de uma fase. O Górgias é um desses diálogos, por um lado, possui argumentos característicos dos primeiros diálogos, e, por outro, demonstra uma maturidade temática e uma postura dogmática de Sócrates que mais se aproxima da República, portanto, da segunda fase. Entender quais são as possibilidades de agrupamento dos diálogos de Platão é fundamental para se propor o deslocamento do Górgias dos diálogos socráticos para a segunda fase, ou seja, aproxima-lo do mesmo ambiente conceitual da República, e, a partir disto, começar a enxergar no texto elementos filosóficos relevantes ao desenvolvimento da filosofia moral e política de Platão. / The platonic work can be divided into three distinct phases which form groups of dialogues with common characteristics. Nevertheless, some dialogues are hard to be placed because have characteristics which are commons to more tan one phase. The Górgias is one of these dialogues, from one side, has arguments characteristically from the first dialogues and, from the other, demonstrate thematic maturity and a dogmatic posture from Sócrates which approximates more to the Republic, therefore, the second phase. To understand which are the possibilities of grouping the Plato dialogues is fundamental to propose shifting Górgias from the socratic dialogues to the second phase, therefore approaching it to the same environmental concept of Republic, and, from this point, start seeing in the text philosophical elements relevant to the development of the moral and political philosophy of Plato.

Researchers and policy makers largely focus on gender-based violence (GBV) in eastern Congo’s conflict zones, leaving the remainder of the vast country understudied. Few in-depth studies exist regarding the nature and dynamics of gender-based violence that occurs in non-conflict zones in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) or on a regular basis within households of eastern DRC. This study uses the 2014 DRC Demographic Health Survey (DHS) data to explore the key factors that are associated with all forms of violence against women and girls in the DRC and takes a more refined look at the association between conflict and GBV than any other empirical study to date. By using a multilevel modeling approach, the research examines key risk factors at the individual, community and province level that influence a woman’s exposure or not to physical and sexual violence in the DRC. By developing and including variables that quantify social norms and attitudes as well as spatially joining data from the Armed Conflict Location and Event Database, the study analyzes the role of individual and contextual factors and the relationship between gender-based violence and conflict. Findings highlight that a woman’s experience of intergenerational violence and patriarchal norms at the individual and community levels are among the strongest predictors of GBV in the DRC, and that intimate partner violence (IPV) is the most prevalent form of GBV, even in areas of conflict. Surprising results show that a woman is less likely to experience GBV in areas of higher armed conflict – even when considering non-husband violence. The results do not show higher levels of IPV in areas that experience higher instances of violent conflict, contradicting studies conducted in other contexts. One of the most striking results of this study is the significant and consistent role that community-level variables play in the models -- demonstrating the valuable contribution of multilevel analysis and use of contextual variables. This study underscores how critical the use of “neighborhood” variables is to understanding GBV risks and validates the use of the ecological theoretical framework, moving beyond only individual risk factors to explain GBV in the DRC context. / 1 / Monica Carlson

In December 1972 the Australian government recognised the government of the People's Republic of China (PRC) at the cost of breaking off all official contacts with Taiwan. Despite the initial shock to Australia-Taiwan relations of derecognition, trade contacts between Australia and Taiwan have continued to flourish, and in recent years, political relations between the two have also been improving. This thesis examines reasons behind the recent improvements in Australia-Taiwan relations and ways in which such improvements have been implemented - given the constraints that Australia has no official contacts with Taiwan. With its main focus as trade, this thesis shows that Taiwan's importance to Australia has been slowly evolving such that Taiwan is at present a more important and reliable trading partner to Australia than is the PRC. Improvements have been occurring in Australia-Taiwan political relations, therefore, primarily as a consequence of Taiwan's growing importanée in the Australian marketplace.