Sylabus
Classes' topics:
Introduction to the course
Modernization theory in sociology
National emancipation in the 19th century
Economic and political emancipation in the 19th and 20th centuries
Liberal capitalism and its critics
Marxism and Marxist schisms
Technocratic approach to modernization
Totalitarianism and modernity
Transitions from Communism
Postmodernity and late capitalism
Conclusion: modernization of the Czech lands in European context
Course readings
Course readings can be downloaded from the course's Moodle pages (https://dl1.cuni.cz/course/view.php?id=7682).
Recommended further readings:
Agnew, Hugh, The Czechs and the Lands of the Bohemian Crown, Hoover Institution Press 2004.
Pánek, Jaroslav and Oldřich Tůma (eds.), A History of the Czech Lands, Prague: Charles University Press 2009.
Kohák, Erazim, Hearth and Horizon: Culture Identity and Global Humanity in Czech Philosophy, Prague: Filosofia 2013.
Voříšek, Michael, The Reform Generation: 1960s Czechoslovak Sociology From a Comparative Perspective, Prague: Kalich 2012.
Anotace
This seminar provides an insight into select theories of moderanization. In parallel, it offers an overview of the process of modernization of European societies.
It outlines the role that social sciences played in the process as both a reflexion and a normative guidance for social action. In the seminar, Czech lands will serve as an example of interconnection between social sciences and moderniztion.
Upon completing this course, the students will be have basic understanidng of the changes that Czech society underwent in the 18th to 21st centruries. They will also have an idea about how Czech social scientists reflected and reacted to these changes.
They will be able to connect this knowledge to the history of modernization of European societies, and contextualize it in the history of modern social sciences.