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.
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.
Offers the first history of Czech sociology
Presents illuminating examples of the particularities of the institutionalization of sociology in the Czech Republic
Explores the relationship between Czech sociology and the project of nation building
Analyzes both the institutional and organizational aspects of the development of Czech sociology Presents the development of Czech sociology within the historical context of belonging to the Austrian sphere of influence until 1918 and functioning within a broader Czechoslovak institutional system until 1992
Marek Skovajsa
Czech history Czech nationalism Czech sociology Czech universities History of Sociology Marxist revisionism Marxist sociology Masaryk Czech Sociological Association (MČSS) Normalization (Czechoslovakia) Prague Spring R&D reform in the Czech Republic Tomáš Garrigue Masaryk historical materialism institutionalization of sociology methodological nationalism