Sociology in the Czech Republic : between East and West /
Marek Skovajsa, Jan Balon.
- London : Palgrave Macmillan, (c)2017.
- 1 online resource.
- Sociology transformed .
Includes bibliographies and index.
Acknowledgements; Contents; List of Figures; List of Tables; Chapter 1 Introduction: An Institutional History of Sociology in the Czech Republic; Abstract ; Sociology in the Czech Republic Remains a Czech Sociology; Institutional Approach; An Outline of the Book; References; Chapter 2 Sociology in Service to Nation-Building: The Legacy of Tomáš Garrigue Masaryk; Abstract ; Masaryk's Sociological Work; Masaryk and Beneš: Public Sociologists, or Politicians?; Laying the Institutional Foundations; Conclusion; References Chapter 3 A False Beginning? The Growth and Destruction of Czech Sociology 1918-1950Abstract ; The Expansion of Sociology at Czech Universities After 1918; The Emergence of Other Disciplinary Institutions; 'Objectivist' Empirical Sociology, Its Proponents and Antagonists; Elimination in Two Stages (1939-1945 and 1945-1950); Conclusion; References; Chapter 4 1950-1969: Becoming a Counselor to the Socialist Prince; Abstract ; 1950-1964: The Existence of a Nonexistent Discipline; The Impossible Happens: Sociology's Second Institutionalization; The Relevance of 1960s Czech Sociology; Conclusion Chapter 7 After 2000: Plugging into the European ContextAbstract ; The Boom... and Its Limits; Under the Surveillance of Administrative Databases; Internationalized, Finally?; Pluralist and Fragmented; Conclusion; References; Index
This book offers the first comprehensive overview in English of the history of sociology in what is today the Czech Republic. Divided into six chapters, it traces the institutional development of the discipline from the late 19th century until the present, with an emphasis on the periods most favorable for sociology's institutionalization: the interwar years, the 1960s and the post-1989 era. The narrative places the institutions, persons and ideas that have been central to the discipline into the broader social and political context. Marek Skovajsa and Jan Balon show that sociology in the Czech Republic has been wedded to the dominant political projects of each successive historical period: nation- and state-building until after WWII, the communist experiment in 1948-1989, liberal democratic reconstruction after 1989, and internationalization after 2000. This work will appeal to social scientists and to a general readership interested in Czech culture and society.