Information, State Security and Modern Bureaucracy: The Possibilities and Limits of Research in the Czech Lands 1938-1953
Abstract
In the paper I would like to present the theoretical and methodological balances of a research project focused on the reconstruction of social practice connected with the phenomenon of censorship in the society of the Czech lands from 1938 to 1953, which aims, among other things, to deepen the scientific knowledge of the functioning of the power domination of the Nazi and Communist dictatorships. Abduction represents, on the one hand, the elaboration of a theme of classical social history, related to a specific, boundary social group - the sufferers, and defined by concrete social action - by reference.
On the other hand, however, it has, to a greater or lesser extent, interfered with all components of Czech society - in terms of the distribution of resources, power and prestige - and allows it to capture its deep transformations in one of the most dramatic periods of two modern dictatorships seeking total control. As a specific social practice and state security information practice associated with it, I define udavačství as the subject of two research fields between state and society.
On the first one, I would like to uncover the relations between the various actors - the so-called controlling and controlling, the mechanisms of censorship in everyday life and the mutual communication as intentional negotiations with uncertain outcome. The mechanisms of information retrieval and, as a matter of fact, information, presumably or genuinely classified and perceived as a potential state security risk, represent a framework for research in the field of the other.