Call for papers:
“Social anthropology in/of post-socialist Czechia and Slovakia: state of the
art”
Although more and more scholars in the Czech Republic and Slovakia identify
themselves as ‘social anthropologists’, the scholarship invention is only
limited. The lack of reference to a body of theory seems to be the main
reason of the incapacity to establish social anthropology as a discipline in
both countries some fifteen years after the collapse of the ancien régime.
One can also make the remark that western anthropologists have paid
relatively scarce attention to these two countries in comparison with
research conducted in other countries such as Hungary, Romania, Poland, the
former Soviet Union or the Balkan. This fact alone calls for further
investigation.
In the absence of an established anthropological journal in Czechia and
Slovakia the special issue of Sociologický casopis, the most referenced
local social scientific journal, offers specialists of the region an unusual
opportunity to address a large scholarly public. The present call for papers
should facilitate the intention to provide a picture of the so far scattered
researches in social anthropology about the Czech Republic and Slovakia. The
purpose is to mark a starting point towards the consolidation of
international and local scholarship as congruent research attitudes of
reference and inspiration. This can be done by presenting the many facets
that characterize anthropological and ethnographic research in these two
countries. This is the reason why the present call for papers does not
impose any narrowly defined theme for contributions. We also welcome
contributions drawing on various intellectual traditions, ranging from
classical sociology to postcolonialism, from political to literary theory.
However, we expect that contributors will address pertinent questions of the
anthropology of post-socialism based on the support of empirical data. They
should illustrate how the micro-level insights of the ethnographic method
into various processes of transformation can improve our understanding in
terms of generally valid theories and thus complement the perspectives of
other disciplines and advance the anthropological approach to social
reality.
Anthropological research of post-socialism has already proved fruitful in
dismantling the millenarian vision of the transformations after 1989. If
this vision expected a smooth and continuous restoration of the natural
order of things, the anthropology of post-socialism unearthed what some
authors called “a recalcitrant reality that has affected the vast majority
of the population in the ex-socialist countries”. Hann’s remark that
“anthropology provides the necessary corrective to the deficit of
‘transitology’” resumes at the same time the empirical fecundity and
methodological originality of the anthropological research. It is exactly
the confrontation between the lived experience and the master plans that
contributions should illuminate. The areas where this confrontation takes
place are various and we will mention only those that so far have been
tackled significantly:
1. Contested identities (class, ethnic, gender, regional identities).
2. Property relations
3. Political legitimation
4. Life-styles and consumption
5. Popular and traditional culture
We also welcome any empirically grounded research that will enlarge the
scope of the anthropological knowledge in post-socialist Czechia and
Slovakia by drawing continuity with the intellectual traditions of these
countries.
The deadline for abstracts (in Czech or English) of no more than 400 words
is 16th of May 2005. Authors of selected abstracts will be informed by the
1st of June 2005. The deadline for full-text contributions of no more than
7500 words is the 2nd of September 2005. The journal will ensure
professional translation into Czech. Send abstracts in .rtf or .doc file to
the following address of correspondence: [log in to unmask]
Host editors
Yasar Abu Ghosh (Charles University, Prague and EHESS, Paris)
Jakub Grygar (Charles University, Prague)
David Torselo (Lecce University)
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