Suchergebnisse

Regardless of the role religion plays in the world today, ie despite the significant deprivatization of faith in the sociocultural space & in politics, contemporary Czech sociology of religion is in rather poor shape. The author presents a number of factors to explain this, including the legacy of the communist regime, & low levels of church attendance in the Czech Republic, the latter having been erroneously interpreted as non-religiosity. But the author focuses mainly one other reason: the discordant legacy of Czech pre-communist sociology of religion & the neighboring field of social studies. Two different traditions of the subject are identified - the 'profane' sociology of religion, founded by T. G. Masaryk, & Catholic religious sociology. Although the former legacy declared itself non-religious & even anti-clerical, in the case of many of its followers this claim was only partially true. In the 1930s & 1940s, when they (especially Prague's sociological school, which formed a certain opposition to Masaryk) turned more toward Durkheimian attitudes, they emphasized, for example, their own religious experience as a necessary tool for understanding piety. On the other hand, Catholic religious sociology was closely related to church activism, policy, & contemporary social work, ie, strictly conservative & anti-modern. Its way of understanding modern society was discounted by the former group of scholars, though to at least some degree, the two legacies shared similar methodological approaches. Both certainly seem outdated today, but their theoretical & methodological discussions & their findings remain of importance. Consequently, a re-thinking of these legacies & their theoretical backgrounds is still significant for the sociology of religion today.

Offers four strategies of deconstructing gender symbolism, one of the methods & goals of contemporary feminist theory & practice - politics. (1) Lesbianism denaturalizes the institutions of 'compulsory heterosexuality.' (2) One can question the belief that sexual violence is the natural expression of male aggression, & women are men's victims. A better strategy seems to be to take the violence as a discursive matter that can be redescribed. If the narrative about successful resistance prevails over the narrative of woman as a natural victim, the aggressor's expectations can be changed. (3) Beauty discourses lead women to be weak, unable to resist violence, & susceptible to mental diseases like anorexia. (4) Maternity discourses associate women with maternity & see a woman's body as the subject of necessary control by the psychomedical sciences. They form an idea of woman's nature that is invariable & unchangeable. This notion is questioned by feminism as a serious limit on women's agency.

The author, a Czech social anthropologist who returned home from exile in order to help in the introduction of his discipline, writes a field report in which he describes in relative detail the vicissitudes of Czech social anthropology during the last thirteen postcommunist years. Even though lecturing on social anthropology became common in Czech universities, the institutionalization of the discipline encounters stiff resistance from the conservative academic establishment. Social anthropology gets support in new provincial universities (Pardubice, Plzen) & only very reluctantly in Prague (Charles U). As a result, Czech protagonists of social anthropology are scattered throughout various institutions. Nevertheless, the author concludes, social anthropology has become known in the Czech Republic as a dynamic part of the social sciences. Grant agencies have given support to fieldwork projects on minorities, political culture, & identity problems during the transformation process. If the momentum gained during the recent years were to be sustained, social anthropology has a bright future on the Czech academic scene.

The statute of March 15, 2004, that banned religious symbols in the French schools & State high schools, was the last act of the Headscarf Affair which had been regularly returning to the limelight of the French political scene since 1989. The review of several recent sociological books devoted to the phenomena of islamization helps to buttress the main assumption of the article that the Affair is a symptom of a failing integration of the immigrants from the Muslim countries. These populations are disproportionately hit by social & economic marginalization while, at the same time, summoned to assimilate culturally. Dogmatic republicanism conceives of the assimilation as a necessary precondition for the political integration. In the situation of an increasing social exclusion, however, the push to assimilation adds a cultural offense to an economic injury & incites a contrary reaction: a proud self-assertion of the Muslim identity. The statute banning the headscarves only intensifies this vicious dynamic. The analyses in the reviewed books seem to lead to a different solution: a reasonable response would rather be to tolerate the expressions of religious distinctiveness while, at the same time, trying to integrate people of immigrant origins both economically & politically. This would require, however, a reconstruction of the French republicanism which -- at least in its dogmatic form -- does not distinguish between the cultural & political sides of integration. 9 References. Adapted from the source document.

The widest framework available for the treatment of language problems is offered by sociolinguistics. The author of the article begins by introducing sociolinguistics, & claims that one of its four basic thematic clusters, which he calls 'Sociolinguistics IV,' is fully devoted to language problems. Mainstream Sociolinguistics, a US-based social network that has made a fundamental contribution to sociolinguistics since the 1960s, developed a version of 'Sociolinguistics IV' that is known as Language Planning. It is in confrontation with Language Planning that the theory of Language Management grew in the 1980s & 1990s. This paper briefly discusses the contribution & problems characteristic of Language Planning & outlines the main features of the Language Management theory. Among these, special attention is paid to the process of language management, which develops out of deviations from norms, whereby some of the deviations are noted, some of the noted deviations are evaluated, & certain adjustment plans are considered & implemented. Finally, the paper suggests that the Language Management theory could perhaps make a valid contribution to other social science disciplines, such as sociology or political science.

First, the author examines European & world lessons for the study of Czech transformation. Then, he describes legacies of the (mostly communist) past & the risks of transformation: atomization, demoralization, & materialization. The main topic is the failure of the social sciences, which isolated themselves instead of engaging in the reform process, verbally governed by mainstream neoclassical economics. In particular, sociology failed to show the moral dimension & embeddedness of economic processes in the social structure. Most tasks have thus remained for the future, which will stream transformation research towards (1) multidisciplinarity & complexity, (2) the replacement of unidimensional & static conceptual apparatus with a multidimensional & dynamic one, & (3) the understanding of endogeneity of social research & the explicit acknowledgment of its policy dimension.

The aim of this paper is to specify the content & institutional structure of Czech (& Czechoslovak) sociology in the 1990s. For this purpose three domains of sociological production were selected: articles in the Sociological Review & the Czech Sociological Review, sociological grant projects funded by the Grant Agency of the Czech Republic, & books published by the Sociological publishing house SLON. These sources, which provide a very good representation of contemporary Czech sociology, are analyzed both from content (the most frequent themes) & institutional (authors & their workplaces) perspectives. This is followed by a synthesis of the partial findings.

This article analyzes the history, development, & continuity of the sociology of law within the context of Czech social & legal science since 1989. The sociology of law is depicted as a branch of both social & legal science that has suffered greatly from different political discontinuities & ideological repression during the communist era. After the 1989 political changes, the weak tradition of the Czech sociology of law had to be reconstituted. This development is mainly typical of the law faculties of different Czech universities, while academics trained in general sociology & social theory rather continue to ignore the importance & social functions of the legal system in the process of the postcommunist transformation of Czech society.

Der Autor untersucht die Aufteilung des europäischen Territoriums nach geomorphologischen, genetisch-ethnischen, ethnisch-nationalen, sprachlichen, kulturgeschichtlichen, religösen, konfessionellen und zivilisatorischen Gesichtspunkten, und zwar zunächst im Rückblick auf die gesamte Geschichte dieses Subkontinents. Anschließend skizziert er die Aufteilung Europas der jüngsten sechzig Jahre nach geographischen, ethnischen, religiösen, ökonomischen und politischen Kriterien. Besondere Aufmerksamkeit widmet er den Beziehungen zwischen Tschechen und Deutschen sowie dem spezifischen Gewicht der Tschechen für die Gestaltung der mitteleuropäischen Zivilisation. (BIOst-Hrs)

This paper discusses the critiques forming the debate on the future of the two major global financial institutions -- the IMF & the WB. The author does not claim what the IMF & the WB really are, but reviews how they are seen by their critics. The article describes & summarizes the multifaceted critical discussion & proposes an elementary scheme formed by four basic positions. These are based on two variables: (1) moderation or radicalism of the critiques; (2) their affiliation with the right or the left side of the political spectrum. As a result, four basic critical positions emerge: right reformers, right radicals, left reformers, & left radicals. This paper characterizes each of them by overviewing the opinions of two representative participants of the discussion. 1 Diagram, 125 References. Adapted from the source document.

Bittere Anklage der Machtpolitik der Kommunistischen Partei der Tschechoslowakei in den ersten vier Nachkriegsjahren. Dokumentiert werden allen voran die vielfältigen religiösen Aktivitäten der katholischen Kirche, Methoden ihrer Einschränkung durch die Staatsmacht, und die meist vergeblichen Versuche hoher katholischer Geistlicher, dem entgegenzuwirken. Abschließend wird die nackte Willkür dargestellt, mit der die kommunistische Führung nach ihrem Sieg im Februar 1948 hohe kirchliche Würdenträger behandelte und die ihrer Häupter beraubte katholische Kirche allseitig gängelte. (BIOst-Dok)

A review essay on a book by Josef Gorny, Entre Auschwitz et Jerusalem. Shoah, sionisme et identite juive (Hansson, Nelly [Tr], Paris, 2003). Are the Jews an ethno-religious group or a nation with the right to self-determination? This was an open issue at the turn of the 19th & 20th century. In the wake of Holocaust & of the establishment of the modern Israel, the answer became much more determinate, even if- due to the split between Israeli & Diaspora Jews -- still not unambiguous. The Eichman abduction & trial in 1960-62 & the victorious war with the Arabs in June 1967 offered new opportunities for the reconstruction of the Jewish identity in view of both the unprecedented catastrophe of the Jewish people & the subsequent resurrection of its statehood. Gorny elaborates two ideal types of the Jewish self-conception that followed from two opposite interpretations of Holocaust & of the foundation of Israel. Post-zionism gives these two events a universalistic reading, neo-zionism (or ultra-zionism) a particularistic one. The two interpretations imply two competing versions of the Jewish identity; one is open towards the world & other peoples, the other focuses exclusively on the Jews. Accordingly, two different approaches towards the Palestinians follow; one seeks to understand their grievances & to find a compromise, the other relies on the brute force & remains intransigent. Even tough the book was published two years before the second Intifada broke out, Gorny's ideal-typical dichotomy still offers the best access to deep sources of the current predicament of the Jewish identity & Israeli politics. 1 Reference. Adapted from the source document.

This article presents a detailed analysis of the Civic Forum as the most important vehicle of changes in the first stage of the development of the Czech party system. It aims at two interrelated goals: first, to describe & adequately elaborate processes within the Civic Forum, which should serve to explain internal divisions in this movement & the emergence of various streams within the Civic Forum as their immediate consequence. Second, it intends to outline ideological positions within the Civic Forum, thus identifying a logic of the future developments in the Czech party system & distribution of its subjects on the left-right scale. Moreover, the article traces back through the history of the Civic Forum influences of ideas of the non-political politics & their permanent clashes with attempts to establish Civic Forum as a hierarchical political party. The article concludes that the Civic Forum significantly contributed both to the establishment of the Czech party system just in the shape it acquired within its further development, & to the emergence of the major Czech parties of the right. 36 References. Adapted from the source document.