Proces tzv. normalizace v české sociologii

The so-called “normalization period” (1969–1989) is one of the most tragic chapters in the development of Czechoslovak sociology. The study reconstructs the process in which all the important positions in the structure of the recently (after 1964) renewed sociology were seized by officers loyal to the regime and how they – secured by resolutions of the highest organ of the Communist Party (which were often initiated by themselves) – made dramatic personnel, as well as thematic and structural purge in the field. It was accompanied by persecutions of their predecessors, who had demonstrated their professional ability and scientific objectivity in that brief period of “renaissance of sociology” (1964–1969). The study works with some archival and thus to the public little-known material, it is also based on the contemporary testimonies as well as the author’s personal experience of the particular job at the College of Politics and at the Institute for Philosophy and Sociology of the Czechoslovak Academy of Sciences. The study does not avoid specifically noting those who were the real architects of disaster of the discipline and of which none has ever admitted his complicity. The study is valuable primarily for its non-pathetic and factual perspective, although it cannot avoid the evaluation credentials.