Sociology in the Czech Republic: Between East and West [Hardcover]

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 sociologys 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.?Introduction: An Institutional History of Sociology in the Czech Republic.- 1: Sociology in Service to Nation-Building: The Legacy of Tom?a Garrigue Masaryk.- 2: A False Beginning? The Growth and Destruction of Czech Sociology 1918-1950.- 3: 1950-1969: Becoming a Counsellor to the Socialist Prince.- 4: 1969-1989: The Long Hour of Party Ideologists.- 5: The 1990s: Reconstruction and the Turn to the West.- 6: After 2000: Plugging into the European Context.