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This PhD thesis discusses the ethnic revitalization movement of a small minority group of Aromanians in Bulgaria. Based on long-term ethnographic research, it describes and analyzes the processes of mobilization of Bulgarian Aromanians, framed by the actors in terms of ethnicity. The main focus is on their identity politics and revitalization strategies, shaped and negotiated in transnational activist networks and contexts. Epistemologically and methodologically this work adheres to the tradition of ethnography (Atkinson, Coffey, Delamont, Lofland & Lofland 2001); theoretically it works primarily with the concepts of politics of memory, identity and framing (Benford & Snow, 2000; Vermeersch 2006, 2011). Theoretical and methodological background, presented at the beginning of the thesis, is followed by a critical outline of the history and historiography of the Aromanians in Southeast Europe, which represent an important meaning-making context of the revitalization process. The core of the analysis focuses on the key issues identified in the (ethno)mobilization project of the Bulgarian Aromanians: actors and their representations of "the Aromanianness"; revitalization strategies; international networks; intersection of lay and expert knowledge. The conclusion outlines potential answers to the question of...

The popularity of the minimalist lifestyle has been growing rapidly since 2008, especially in the American context. In recent years, this phenomenon has also been noticeable in the Czech Republic, manifesting itself in a critical revision of consumer society, to which it responds and defines itself in new forms of (anti)consumption. This thesis aims to examine minimalist consumption practices and to analyse minimalism mainly through the lens of material culture studies. With the help of ethnographic practices, I focus on selected aspects of the minimalist lifestyle, including its connection to environmental and anti-consumerist attitudes, attitudes towards material objects as such, or the position of minimalist actors in the social field. Keywords: ethnography, minimalism, material culture, consumer practices, consumer society

In my thesis I am using ethnographic research methodology to study ways of communication and production of knowledge about the climate crisis in the Czech climate movement. The thesis focuses on four activist groups known for their use of direct action - Extinction Rebellion, Greenpeace, Limity jsme my (We are the Limits) and "Stop Dirty Money", an activist coalition group. I examine the process of making of their communication and who their communication is aimed at. Emphasis is placed on their use of direct action and emotional framing of climate crisis. The thesis analyzes how each group's views on social change are reflected in their communication and production of knowledge.

In my master's thesis I deal with zero waste lifestyle, which aims to reduce the amount of waste in everyday life. I explore various levels which concern zero waste, in particular, I focus on "packaging-free" life, an effort to cut out single-use packaging. In my research, I focus on four packaging-free shops in a large city in the Czech Republic. I use the ethnographic method to investigate the material framework and practices of zero waste lifestyle. I identify fundamental practices of waste prevention, such as proactive reusing of things and selection of specific materials. In addition, I explore some other aspects of "packaging-free" life with the emphasis on what consumption without packaging looks like and for whom is this type of consumption accessible. I also look into the matter of ideas and values on which zero waste lifestyle stands and how the proenvironmental stance projects into participants' consumer choices. I find out that zero waste is a lifestyle of a certain social class that is firmly linked with the concept of green consumerism.

This master thesis addresses issues reflecting the socio-natural aspects of draught, one of the devastating consequences of climate change which increasingly affects the Czech Republic. This work uses a field research facility located around reservoirs Nové Mlýny and views it within the waterworlds concept, a term established by authors Kristen Hastrup and Fridy Hastrup. Ethnographic research shows the impact of water and its scarcity on the landscape, local inhabitants and their relationships and practices. A particular focus is given to wine growers and their understanding of draught, climate change and ways for adopting good practices in an area which is gradually drying out. Furthermore, it captures the transformation of practices related to the maintenance of a vineyard and maps individuals affected by the problems of draught in that area. Key words: Ethnography, draught, climate change, waterworlds, water, reservoirs Nové Mlýny, viniculture

PRENATAL AND PERINATAL LOSS ENTANGLED IN CZECH INSTITUTIONS Marie Hintnausová ABSTRACT An ethnographic research among women who experienced a loss of child during pregnancy or postpartum aims to expose contexts and backgrounds in which prenatal and perinatal loss emerges in the Czech Republic. This life event is delineated not only by unique biographies of affected mothers, but also by the societal understanding of prenatal life and institutional definitions of human reproduction. This thesis highlights various notions and meanings entangled in the event of prenatal and perinatal death and shows which trajectories women follow in the terrain of societal expectations and governmental and biomedical institutions when they lose a promised assurance of raising a new child.

In the thesis I ethnographically study the process of interconnecting and mutual influencing of human and non-human entities in case of the visually impaired persons and the compensation devices based on computer technology. I examine this process, which I call "the technification of blindness", in symmetrical terms. The main theoretical inspiration for the study is the interplay of technology and the health-inconvenienced body and its consequences which are based on the Actor-Network Theory and related material-semiotic tools of social-science research. My aim is to analyse processes which enable/not allow to manage everyday activities to visually impaired persons in the Czech Republic, while they are using computer technologies and their relation with wider processes of accessibility. I trace mutual influencing of human and non-human entities on a specific configuration of visually disabled body with specifically modified personal computer, and with a touch-screen smart-phone. The study shows how the specific form of portable electronic and computer-based devices, which are specially adapted to seeing users, is what excludes blind and visually impaired persons from the interaction with computer technology. Such a cooperation and visual orientation of blind persons is allowed only thanks to...

This thesis deals with the analysis of rhythms (Lefebvre 2004) at Prague's Rašín Embankment (náplavka Rašínova nábřeží). This thesis would also focus on the observation of the spatiotemporal changes of this place in a long term. I carried out qualitative interviews with actors who co-create the rhythms of this place with their managerial and entrepreneurial activities and added them to long-term continual visits and sensory perception of the place, along with the study of specialized historical publications. The analysis of the rhythms based on long-term participant observation was followed by an interpretation of what they actually tell us about everyday social reality of this place at specific times and how this space is produced by those rhythms. In this thesis I also used related concepts like chronotope (Crang, 2001; Osman, Mulíček, Seidenglanz, 2010, 2015) and chronopolis (Osman, Mulíček, Seidenglanz 2011, 2017). This thesis shows that nowadays the eurhythmia of this place is created by non- disruptive movement of local visitors such as walkers, runners and cyclists along the embankment, by regularly organized farmers' market and other events as well as by the flow of the Vltava river and its rhythms, by all means of transport on the local roads, bridges and the Vltava river. From the...

The submitted thesis analyses cultural politics of Prague 7 municipal district, based on a pilot strategical project of culture planning Art District 7 starting in 2016. The study conducts Charles Landry's concept of Creative Cities and its application in the Czech cities; critically evolve Richard Florida's theory about Creative Classes; and understanding of authenticity by Sharon Zukin. The research methodology uncovers, by comparative analysis, implementation of the project Art District 7 in reality and differences of cultural practices of municipality and the actors themselves. Each chapter of the analytical part is a category of critical viewpoint to cultural politics at Prague 7 district. Transformation of cultural actor's politics (a theater, a hall, a cafe) within 2 years long research at Dolní Holešovice is clearly characterized in individual parts named Community, Space and ART. The chapter Community follows gradual change of cultural actor's relationships towards local inhabitants of the Dolní Holešovice district and presents actor's understanding of themselves as a distinct community. Second chapter emphasizes spacial changes on the interior level of the objects as well as the outer ones on the level of street and parter. Third chapter ART presents different understanding of art and...

The goal of this thesis is to discuss how unusual delicacies are conceptualized in the perspective of sociocultural anthropology - specifically, in the context of anthropology of food. Unusual delicacies are to be understood as non-traditional, unique, but at the same time, shocking or perceived as "bizarre" meals. The complex description of the individual's experience during the consumption of unusual delicacies will help to analyze what is the overall perception of the experience, its pervasion into self-presentation, as well as what are the main motivations for it. Further, it is discussed what role the unusual delicacies play in the context of exploring foreign countries and whether they possess any cultural and symbolic meaning.

The "New Media at School" diploma thesis focuses on the presence of new media at school and on the meanings and practices associated with it. Based on participatory observation in Prague high school, semi-structured interviews and Internet resources analysis, it tries to understand how new media are involved in shaping the space and organization of the school, its teaching and learning organization. It focuses on how the school seeks to cope with the arrival of these expensive facilities for which it is responsible.It alsonotices how the school seeks to cope with the penetration of the different spaces that the new media bring into its hitherto closed environment. At the same time, it points to ways in which the school itself crosses its borders, the time-space of disciplination. Finally, it monitors the impact of new media on relationships within the school, between teachers and pupils, but also within the peer group. Through these meanings and practices, it points to the dilemmas that the emergence of new media has brought to the school environment, and analyzes how new media allows pupils to face this disciplination pressure in the school, and vice versa, in what moments new media themselves take disciplination into their own hands. The new media is not perceived as passive tools, but as actors...

This anthropological research is about people with visual impairment, focusing primarily through the perspective of power and empowerment (Bourdieu, 1986; Foucault, 2000; Chamberlin, 1997), stigmatization (Goffmann, 2003) and standard on ways in which individuals with visual impairment negotiate and redefine their position in different areas of life. Impairment is by the majority perceived as a disease, which is not easy to define. It is a kind of spectrum (Holčík, Koupilová, 2004) and this thesis is based on the premise that the concepts of health, illness and impairment (and disability) are all cultural products that are partly determined by structures and shaped by both economic, social and political factors as well as historical development of the company (Craddock, 2000). For the purposes of this work, there are differentiated areas of family, partnership, interests, work and education. The research sees language as a part of the symbolic power (Bourdieu, 1991) and methods of empowerment (Chamberlin, 1997) of individuals with visual impairment. Mainly with the help of the concept of biopower (Foucault, 2000) and symbolic order and violence (Bourdieu, 2000), it shows the strategies of negotiating the power hierarchy in society. It turns out that a main role in negotiating between a visually...

In my diploma thesis I describe the process, in which some episodes of the radio program Příběhy 20. století are made and with this example I explain, which factors can influence remembering in a medium of the public sphere and how "lieux de mémoire" occur in its broadcasting. I examine the recording of some of the narratives that can possibly be presented in the radio program, how the interviewers handle the interviewees and what motivation do they have to work in a project like this. I focus on how the stories are picked for the radio program, how are they edited, who takes part in the editing and how is it possible that they are in charge of it. My diploma thesis also includes a detailed description of the social position of Post Bellum organisation and its fundamental project Paměť národa, which are both closely connected to radio program Příběhy 20. století. In the conclusion of my thesis I deal with the fact, that this social position is one of the main elements in the process of memory making in public sphere medium, because it has an indirect impact on it. In my thesis I try to answer, what influence can the examined radio program (as part of institutionalized remembering and media communication) have on social memory.

This study focuses on expats, professionals and specialists from English-speaking countries who were sent by their employers to work abroad in Switzerland. They together with their families, were asked to move to a foreign country and start new lives. Although the relocation does bring a change in career and in most cases, a better personal economic situation, it also brings with it, big life changes. The most obvious changes are associated with separation from their ancestral homes and families, and the need for the establishment of new ones. The central point of this study is the question of what helps to create these new homes and what is involved in this sphere. The fieldwork, which was defined by cohabitation with the families, consisted of observation and analysis to determine the social and material practices through which expatriate families relate to their homes - and how it was narratively reflected. Some major points of observation included the universal need for the families to have with them, objects of a material nature that linked their new home to the original and contemporary home, and a tendency to establish social ties with other expats as a substitution of the family support network. Also observed were the aspects of the adaptation of the family members to their new homes and...

In this thesis, I attempt to describe and analyse language ideologies relevant in the specific situation of the Sorbian minority in the city of Bautzen (Sorbian: Budyšin) - a city with a clear German majority at the same time considered a cultural, social and political centre of Sorbs - with a special emphasis on links between language and nationalism. Focusing on these links, I also examine the specific role of language for maintainance of Sorbian national identity. I also view Sorbian language ideologies in the broader context of social and political relations in and around Bautzen, whereas I, among other topics, inquire into recently significant hatred of local German radical right towards the Sorbian minority. At the same time, I attempt to capture the power relations between German and Sorbian languages. Apart from the paradigm of language ideologies, I am also informed by works of certain poststructuralist authors, especially due to their emphasis on constructivism regarding identities and language mechanisms. Keywords: language, language ideologies, nationalism, language nationalism, identities, national identity, ethnicity, language and power, Sorbian, German, language and politics, language contact

This thesis focuses on issues of multi-layered identities within a social space. It analyzes ritual (or ceremony) as one of the codified displays of culture within which collective ideas and attitudes regarding identity are manifested, shared, and strengthened. Bosnian Serbs - due to political and social change - were forced to redefine their position in society, as well as their (collective) identities and social ties. Slava is a fundamental ritual seen as an attribute of "Serbianness", and in the context of this study, manifests itself as an indicator of establishment and validity of collective identities. Slava is a traditional celebration practiced by Orthodox believers in Serbia, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Montenegro, Bulgary, Albania, and Macedonia. It is a festivity of either a family, village, or local church patron. At the center of this research will be an individual slava of a family patron saint, krsna slava, or krsno ime. For Bosnian Serbs, krsna slava is currently a revitalized ritual concurring with local tradition and convening with social ambitions of current inhabitants in the region (otherwise it would not be revitalized). The pertinence of this research subject is given by the nature of ritual itself as it is founded on collective sharing and the manifestation of common ideas1 ....

Abctract In my diploma thesis I deal with actions that happen around bulk containers, that are intended to collect larger pieces of domestic waste and that are periodically placed in public space in Prague. I consider the bulk container as an actor, which leads us to particular practices of guarding, disposession and collecting stuff (from the container). I use method of multi-sited ethnography to investigate how the value of disposed objects change according to actions around container and according to change of the context in which it is newly placed. I identify several kinds of value, that are inscribed to wasted objects by their new owners. Waste can become valuable with regard to its economic potencial (as a thing or material that can be sold), with regard to possibility of its further practic use (as a household equipment or material), with regard to its estethic value (as an indicator of taste or as an artefact) or it can gain some specific kind of value in socially engaged context. It is possible to consider the bulk container as an actor of recyclation. I research how various groups of people that are concerned with reusing of waste, interact and how are their interactions, their relationships and their specific practices constitutive for reality of waste in surrounded area of the cotainer and...

The presented work deals with certain aspects of catholic monastic life; it has been elaborated on the basis of a field research carried out in a female monastic community of an active order in the Czech Republic. In the work, I focus primarily on the topic of prayer and I am trying to answer the following questions: what is the nuns' attitude towards prayer like, which activities we can consider a prayer in the monastic community and what is the influence of these activities on actors in this setting? On theoretical level, the thesis is based especially on the concept of total institutions by E. Goffman and on Pierre Bourdieu's conception of habitus. The text consists of four major parts. In the first, introductory part I describe methodological and ethical issues relevant to my research. In the second part, I concern myself briefly with monastic life in general, its origins and development, and also with stages of monastic life of an individual. The following empirical part based on ethnographic data from my field notes is presented as a description of "a common day" in the monastic community. The last part is theoretical and analytical at the same time; here I deal with the main topic of the thesis. Firstly, I present Goffman's concept of total institutions and I explain how according to this...

Thesis Negotiation of "the West" in everyday Life of a Lebanese Family is focusing on the ways of designing the image of "the West" at a chosen Lebanese family, especially those members who do not have any direct "West" experience and their images of it are based on the information obtained from those who live there or from media. Research was conducted in Qalamoun city in northern Lebanon by the method of participant observation and unstructured interview. One of the central moments of the research was reflexivity. The research is based on theories of transnationalism and the concept of social networks. One of the primary identification and classfication of man is in Qalamoun his religion. A person, who believes in nothing is a threat in the sense that he is unpredictible (he has no clear governing rules). Keywords: Lebanon, orientalism, reflexivity, "western" culture

The subject of this thesis deals with the project of restoration of the defunct village Vyklice by society of its former habitants. This project is unique for they are the only former habitants of a commune that had to be liquidated due to the coal mining who are striving to restore it under the same name and on the same place. The answer to the question where has this idea appeared led me to the analysis of their society activism. On the background of their attempts I have identified wider "community of memory" of former friends from Vyklice. These people had been involuntarily displaced from their rural environment and resettled in the nearby housing estate. After that they felt nostalgia for their lost homes and were reflecting that on spontaneously formed reunions. The main subject of their recollections was the former society life in Vyklice. The most active ones in the community have than created a new "society", Society of inhabitants of Vyklice, among others to try to restore the old Vyklice. At first the idea was only one of the means to enhance their memory activities. Gradually, along with the political support of their effort, the project had become the main goal of the society, which still allows the whole community of memory to be continuously reaching their original goal, which was to meet...

Title: 'I'm not a looser that lives only in this pub.' Bar ethnography Keywords: bar, alcohol, meaning, guests, norms, students, ambivalence. Abstract: Goals: to understand the meaning of bar visits and activities that take place in bars. Method: Qualitative research using the methods of participatory observations and semi- structured interviews. Conclusions: A bar is common place in which people choose to spend their free time. It is thought of as a place full of fun, consumption, and social interaction. It forms an important part of free time activities. Alternative free time activities are commonly connected to boredom and loneliness especially by individuals without stable social circles outside of bars. Evenings in bars tend to be stereotypical, especially for frequent visitors. The stereotypical environment is a source of much ambivalence. It carries many positive effects (such as stability, certainty, security, anticipation, and known environment) but can be also perceived negatively (boredom, stagnation). A bar is in the Czech cultural context regarded as an ordinary part of life of people maturing to adulthood. Feelings of inappropriateness can arise in case of a long transition to adulthood. This increases the range of ambivalences towards the bar environment as well as towards the activities...

Presented diploma thesis is based on seven-months fieldwork in the Danish commune of Christiania. It sustains a heritage of utopian ideas of a contraculture of the 60s on which it has been created. The thesis examines which aspects of utopia are presented here and asks about the character of these utopian visions. It focuses on the question how the dream, that locals wanted to implement, is still presented in their minds, and how they perceive its realization. I used examples of street art, that is plentifully presented here, as a mediator of ideological background of this community. Its symbolism allowed me to approach values, ideas and world-views of people who already have been living in this area for almost forty years. I used the principles of visual anthropology to reveal meanings contained in visual manifestations in a public space. My research is focused only on people who moved to Christiania in 70s that means those who were present here in the times of forming this community, and who were a part of revolting atmosphere of the 60s and of its ideals. Methods used during my fieldwork are a nonparticipant observation, informal, semi-structural and photographic interviews

In the late 1940s and 1950s Czechoslovakia accepted nearly 14000 political refugees from Greece. In this paper we examine the Greekness of those who chose to stay in the Czech Republic. We analyse their current sense of ethnic allegiance and how it is manifested, after more than 60 years of co-existence with Czechs. Our analysis is based on cultural elements (language, folklore, music, food, religion), which appear to be important factors of ethnic identification for Greeks in the Czech Republic and Greeks in general. We juxtapose the Greek and the Czech-Greek perception of them. We attempt to illuminate the singularity of the Czech-Greeks and uncover the conditions that led to it. Thus we simultaneously acknowledge the varied Greekness of the Czech-Greeks as legitimate.

This essay deals with jewish identity and keeping rules of kashrut. It is focused on outside manifestation of identity, which means keeping jewish dietetic rules. The object of research was to explore how respondents takes rules of kashrut as they are part of themselfs and how is knowledge of these rules manifested in building community. There is separate section in this essay which deals with influence of keeping kosher on religious role of man and with role of kashrut in process of conversion.