The goal of my diploma thesis is to describe and evaluate relationship of young people in Czech Republic towards brands. In first chapter I describe historical development of marketing approach towards brands, the function of a brand, its elements and the differences between brands and products. I mention and compare two diverse concepts of brand management - Kellers CBBE concept and Roberts Lovemarks concept. In the second chapter I characterize young Czechs at the age between 15 and 30. I do so thanks to information gathered from different sociological studies and from papers about phenomenom of generation Y. Last chapter follows the previous two and is purely about relationship of young pepople towards brands. I used for it facts described in the thesis above and data that I get from particular qualitative research as well as quantitative research that I realised by myself.

The aim of this thesis is to gain a deeper understanding in relation to the construction of a ‘Net Generation’. With regards to the idea of an information society, technologies and young people are given certain positions, which are not in any sense natural but are socially constructed. This thesis explores these socially given meanings and shows what types of meanings are prioritized and legitimized. The exploration is conducted by examining, both externally and internally, given meanings of a generation identity. The external (nominal identification) in this study is understood as the construction of an abstract user and is studied by means of academic texts concerning the ‘Net Generation’. The internal (virtual identification) involves young people’s construction of their generation identity and is studied by means of collage. The collages are used to understand how the young participants position themselves in contemporary society and how they, as concrete users, articulate their relationship with information technologies.   The findings show that the ‘type of behavior’ which is articulated in the signifying practice of the construction of the abstract user, ‘Net Generation’, reduces users and technology to a marketing / economical discourse. In addition the idea of the abstract user implies that all users have the same possibilities to achieve ‘success’ in the information society, by being active ‘prosumers’. The concrete users articulate that they feel stressed and pressured in relation to all the choices that they are expected to make. In this sense, the participants do not articulate the (economical) interests as assumed for the ‘Net Generation’, but, rather articulate interests to play, to have a hobby and be social when using information technologies.   What this thesis thus proposes, is to critically explore the ‘taken for granted’ notions of a technological order in society as pertaining to young people. Only if we understand how socially given meaning is constructed can we break loose from the temporarily prioritized values to which the position of technology and users are fixed.

This diploma thesis deals with the beginnings of the release of culture in the period of political- cultural melting in Czechoslovakia in the late 1950s and early 1960s. Cultural loosening has been evident since the second half of the 1950s and will be demonstrated on the example of Czechoslovak film, in which the dynamics of changes in Czechoslovak culture were very obvious. The main focus of my thesis will be the depiction of the young generation and the way their image is transformed and developed on screen, and I will not forget to mention the social critique and satire in the film, which also plays an irreplaceable role in the process of cultural melting. The aim of the thesis is to show that the power of the young generation has become a driver of cultural change and youth itself became a symbol of cultural melting, which I will demonstrate on selected film examples, which will reach the 1960s. The sixties became a symbol of the rebellion of the young generation and its heyday in the arms of Czechoslovak culture. Keywords The cultural melting, fifties, sixties, the young generation, czechoslovak film, view of youngs, Czechoslovakia

The thesis analyzes and compares the approaches of two authors dealing with phenomena in contemporary society. It focuses mainly on issues of lifestyle and values. The thesis asks questions related to socialization and individualization of society. The thesis is divided into four parts. The first part is about definition of the basic terms (postmodernism, lifestyle, values). The second part is devoted to the concept of Gilles Lipovetsky. The third part focuses on the concept of Michel Maffesoli. In the fourth section, there is a comparison of these two concepts, where we are primarily focused on tracing argumentation clashes and controversies. In the final part, there is the presentation of the main questions and ideas, that come out on the basis of this comparison.