跳至主要内容

The Reconstruction of Sociology in Eastern Europe—Expectations and Dilemmas

Read full paper at:
http://www.scirp.org/journal/PaperInformation.aspx?PaperID=50310#.VDXgA1fHRK0

Author(s)    
The article raises two questions: why do sociologists in Western Europe hold expectations of theoretical innovations in sociology in (post-)transitional Eastern European countries, and why is it that sociologists from Eastern Europe do not meet these expectations. The assumption is that these expectations are primarily a response to the theoretical crisis of modern sociology itself, rather than the effect of its knowledge of changes in transitional countries or its willingness to really listen to sociologists from those countries and accept them as equal partners. The attempt to answer the second question involves an analysis of the multilayered reality of sociology in post-socialism, including the loss of the socialist and civil-society utopias which have been replaced by pragmatic endeavors to re-establish a market society and its institutions. Despite the differences between the social situations in the East and West, today’s “Eastern” and “Western” social scientists are confronted by similar global problems and challenges. While the present crisis of the capitalist economy and neo-liberalism certainly has its structural causes, what needs to be questioned here are the very assumptions underlying the world order and the key mechanisms of its functioning.
Cite this paper
Ule, M. (2014) The Reconstruction of Sociology in Eastern Europe—Expectations and Dilemmas. Sociology Mind, 4, 264-271. doi: 10.4236/sm.2014.44027. 
 

[1] Bartelson, J. (2006). Making Sense of Global Civil Society. European Journal of International Relations, 3, 371-395.
http://dx.doi.org/10.1177/1354066106067348
[2] Beck, U., & Beck-Gernsheim, E. (2002). Individualization. Institutionalized Individualism and Its Social and Political Consequences. London: Sage.
[3] Berger, P. (2002). Whatever Happened to Sociology? First Things, 126, 27-29.
[4] Buroway, M. (1999). Afterword. In K. Verdery, & M. Burawoy (Eds.), Uncertain Transition: Ethnographies of Change in the Postsocialist World (pp. 301-312). Lanham: Rowman & Littlefield.
[5] Buroway, M. (2001). Neoclassical Sociology: From the End of Communism to the End of Classes. The American Journal of Sociology, 106, 1099-1120.
http://dx.doi.org/10.1086/320299
[6] Buroway, M. (2009). The Extended Case Method. Four Countries, Four Decades, Four Great Transformations and One Theoretical Tradition. Berkeley: University of California Press.
[7] Cole, S. (2001). Introduction: The Social Construction of Sociology. In S. Cole (Ed.), What’s Wrong with Sociology (pp. 7-36). New Brunswick: Transaction Publ.
[8] Eyal, G., Szelény, I., & Townsley, E. (2001). Making Capitalism without Capitalist. The New Ruling Elites in Eastern Europe. New York: Verso.
[9] Fukuyama, F. (1992). The End of History and the Last Man. New York: The Free Press.
[10] Giddens, A. (2006). A Call to Arms. The Guardian, 26 November 2006.
[11] Howard, M. M. (2003). The Weakness of Civil Society in Post-Communist Europe. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
http://dx.doi.org/10.1017/CBO9780511840012
[12] Keen, M., & Mucha, J. (2004). Sociology in Central and Eastern Europe in the 1990s: A Decade of Reconstruction. European Societies, 6, 123-147.
http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/14616690410001690736
[13] Killingsworth, M. (2012). Civil Society in Communist Eastern Europe. Colchester: ECPR.
[14] Kolko, G. (2006). After Socialism: Reconstructing Critical Social Thought. London: Routledge.
[15] Lengyel, G. (2004). On the Origin and Variety of Problems in Current Central and East-European Sociology (a Reflection on the Article of Keen and Mucha). European Societies, 6, 149-157.
http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/14616690410001690691
[16] Mason, D. S. (1992). Revolution in East-Central Europe: The Rise and Fall of Communism and the Cold War. Boulder, CO: Westview Press.
[17] Stokes, G. (1993). The Walls Came Tumbling Down: The Collapse of Communism in Eastern Europe. New York: Oxford University Press.
[18] Tamás, P. (1999). Woyeuroder Mitgestalter? Die Sozialwissenschaften Ostmitteleuropas in der Systemtransformation. In L. Faltan, M. Kusy, & E. Farkasová (Eds.), Europe: Expectation and Reality. The Challenge for the Social Sciences. Bratislava: Slovak Academy of Sciences, UNESCO.
[19] Tokes, R. L. (2000). “Transitology”: Global Dreams and Post-Communist Realities. Central Europe Review, 2, 10.
http://www.ce-review.org/00/10/tokes10.html
[20] Ule, M. (2004). No Time for Complacency: Sociology after Socialism. European Societies, 6, 159-166.
http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/14616690410001690682
[21] Virtasalo, I. (2006). Status and Developments of Social Science Research in Central and Eastern Europe. Helsinki: ESF, University of Helsinki.
[22] Wallerstein, I. (1998). Utopistics: On Historical Choices of the Twenty-First Century. New York: Free Press. Wallerstein, I. (2001). Unthinking Social Sciences. The Limits of the Ninety-Century Paradigms. Philadelphia, PA: Temple University Press.     eww141009lx                 
标签：

评论

发表评论

此博客中的热门博文

Does Immigration Promote the Investment of the Monopolistic Firm?

In the present paper, we examine the effect of increasing uncertainty of immigrants’ growth on the optimal timing of investment of a firm that has a monopolistic power over the labor market. It is revealed that when the uncertainty of immigrants’ growth is more than a threshold level, increasing uncertainty of immigrants’ growth accelerates the optimal timing of firms’ investment and enhances the economic growth, even if the uncertainty of immigrants’ growth is formulated by the geometric Brownian motion, which is in sharp contrast to the standard result that an increase in the uncertainty postpones the optimal timing. With an increase in the immigrants over the past ten years, workforces in the host countries have been growing significantly to the extent that the immigrants represent 70% of the increase in the workforce in Europe, and 47% in the United States as OECD indicates. In the present paper, we attempted to investigate the effect of increased uncertainty caused by the growi...
发表评论
阅读全文

Education Policy Implementation: A Mechanism for Enhancing Primary Education Development in Zanzibar

Education is one of the fundamental rights of individuals; therefore, the government of a country needs to develop and strengthen educational policy and quality as well as to ensure that everyone has equal access to basic education. The improvement of access and quality of education in the world is becoming as an essential factor in development, whereas the basic education (primary school), is acknowledged as a foundation of the higher educational development for every country. To fulfill this goal, governments introduce several policies and procedures; however, it requires some reforms and participation from the politician, policymakers, and other stakeholders to re-examine educational policy so that it can lead to multiplication and betterment of the reforms. Educational reforms actually focus on accountability. A positive educational development and reform is very challenging and needs more effort and strategy on how to use and utilize the resources effectively as such it can achie...
发表评论
阅读全文