Abstract
This paper draws on sociological concepts of "the stranger" (as postulated in different periods of 20th century by Simmel, Schutz and Bauman) and applies them to the period of the so-called transformation of the Czech Republic (i.e. post-1989). Strangers are said to hold a unique social position of uninvolved observers, both inside and outside of their social group.
Their vantage point is free of the cultural and historical baggage born by the natives, and as such should enable them to produce a more "objective" opinion on the matters surrounding them. That makes it especially valuable in times of radical social change - revolutions, wars, or indeed the transformation of the post-socialist countries in 1990s.
By building on oral-history interviews with Western expatriates who settled in the Czech Republic in early 1990s, this paper examines their views on the so-called transformation of the country, including the breakup of Czechoslovakia. The peculiar position of these "strangers" was enhanced by the ambition of Czechs to belong to the Western world, to "catch up" and adopt liberal democracy and capitalism without really knowing (unlike the narrators) what that entails.
The paper addresses the following questions: What were these strangers' views on the development of the transformation? How do they evaluate it today? And to what extent do they fulfill the archetypal social role of a stranger?