Un/Preparedness of the Czech Society for the Future: Development of the Czechia after 1989, Formation of Social Structure and Challenges of Climate Change and Automatization
Abstract
The lecture analyzes the Czech development of the social system from the point of view of Czech readiness for the future: climate change in general and particularly automatization in the sphere of work. My lecture has three parts.
Firstly, it will focus on the Velvet Revolution (1989), the fundamental turning point of Czech history in the last 30 years. This transition to a capitalist economy was marked by the emergence of new social classes: the new middle class, the new capitalists, and primarily the new elites or oligarchs.
Secondly, it will focus on a critical evaluation of the current condition of the Czech social structure. In this context, it will stress problematic extremes of social hierarchy (poverty and elites).
Finally, the third part questions the preparedness of Czech society for contemporary challenges: automatization (and additional changes in the sphere of work) and climate change. This paper implies severe problems connected with these processes in the Czech case and suggests possible solutions.