Sociology in the Czech Republic

1. Front Matter

   Pages i-xiii

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2. Introduction: An Institutional History of Sociology in the Czech Republic

   • Marek Skovajsa, Jan Balon

   Pages 1-11

3. Sociology in Service to Nation-Building: The Legacy of Tomáš Garrigue Masaryk

   • Marek Skovajsa, Jan Balon

   Pages 13-25

4. A False Beginning? The Growth and Destruction of Czech Sociology 1918–1950

   • Marek Skovajsa, Jan Balon

   Pages 27-47

5. 1950–1969: Becoming a Counselor to the Socialist Prince

   • Marek Skovajsa, Jan Balon

   Pages 49-71

6. 1969–1989: The Long Hour of Party Ideologists

   • Marek Skovajsa, Jan Balon

   Pages 73-95

7. The 1990s: Reconstruction and the Turn to the West

   • Marek Skovajsa, Jan Balon

   Pages 97-117

8. After 2000: Plugging into the European Context

   • Marek Skovajsa, Jan Balon

   Pages 119-142

9. Back Matter

   Pages 143-150

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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. 

• History of Sociology
• Czech history
• institutionalization of sociology
• Czech sociology
• methodological nationalism
• public sociology
• Czech nationalism
• Tomáš Garrigue Masaryk
• Marxist sociology
• Prague Spring
• historical materialism
• Marxist revisionism
• Normalization (Czechoslovakia)
• westernization Czech Republic
• R&D reform in the Czech Republic
• Czech universities
• pluralism
• public engagement of sociologists
• Masaryk Czech Sociological Association (MČSS)

• Faculty of Humanities, Charles University, Prague, Czech Republic

  Marek Skovajsa

• Faculty of Social Sciences, Charles University, Prague, Czech Republic

  Jan Balon

Marek Skovajsa is Associate Professor at the Faculty of Humanities, Charles University, Czech Republic. His research focus is on the history of sociology, social theory, culture and civil society.


Jan Balon is Lecturer at the Institute of Sociological Studies, Charles University and Head of Department and Researcher at Centre for Science, Technology and Society Studies, Czech Academy of Sciences, Czech Republic. His areas of interest include philosophy of science, sociological theory and epistemology.

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