Sociologický časopis / Czech Sociological Review 2012, 48(2)

Narrative Analysis in Sociological Research: Main Approaches and a Unifying Frame

Martin Hájek, Martin Havlík, Jiří Nekvapil

Sociologický časopis / Czech Sociological Review 2012, 48(2): 199-224 | DOI: 10.13060/00380288.2012.48.2.01  

Against the backdrop of the current popularity of the concept of narrative in the social sciences the authors analyse the uses of narrative analysis in empirical social research and provide a unifying frame based on Paul Ricoeur's notion of narrative mimesis. To begin they situate 'narrative' in the context of the social research tradition. Using both a simple and an elaborated definition of narrative they outline the main approaches to narrative analysis relevant to sociology and categorize them as structuralist, hermeneutic, or interactionist. The crux of the article is a discussion of Ricoeur's integrative model of narrative as threefold mimesis...

The Relative Autonomy of Culture in Alexander's Cultural Sociology

Marek Skovajsa

Sociologický časopis / Czech Sociological Review 2012, 48(2): 225-246 | DOI: 10.13060/00380288.2012.48.2.02  

This article offers a critical discussion of the concept of the 'relative autonomy of culture' that is central to Jeffrey C. Alexander's cultural sociology. It shows that, in Alexander's work, the relative autonomy of culture is conceptualised in two different ways: first, as an analytical autonomy that is part of a multidimensional model of social action, and second, as the formal autonomy of a semiotic system that dominates in the more culturalist strand of Alexander's work. The author claims that Alexander's attempt to move in his work beyond a merely analytical autonomy of culture towards a fuller view of autonomy brings mixed results. Both concepts...

Between Resistance and Adaptation: The Everyday Practices of the Poorest Class

Petr Vašát

Sociologický časopis / Czech Sociological Review 2012, 48(2): 247-282 | DOI: 10.13060/00380288.2012.48.2.03  

The article studies homelessness in the city of Pilsen, but instead of the traditional perspective, which works with the common definition of a 'homeless person', it introduces and defines the relational concept of the poorest class. The advantages of this class concept are that: (1) it does not rule out the possibility of the construction of a notion of home by members of this class; (2) it provides more information about social practices generally; (3) it focuses on the agent-individual, avoiding the reification of a homeless person in the form of a homogeneous group. Using the concepts of active agency and space-time the article aims to describe...

The Local Aspect of Electoral Support for Candidates to the Senate of the Czech Republic

Karolína Malcová

Sociologický časopis / Czech Sociological Review 2012, 48(2): 283-314 | DOI: 10.13060/00380288.2012.48.2.04  

The article focuses on the local aspect of electoral support for candidates to the Senate, the upper house of Parliament of the Czech Republic. Senate elections use a majority run-off system in single-member constituencies. First, the article describes the friends-and-neighbours effect, a process of electoral geography whereby voters prefer their own local candidate (i.e. a resident of the particular municipality or area) to opponents from geographically more distant localities. Second, the article examines the phenomenon of 'local voting' in elections to the Czech Senate. The analysis covers all electoral contests from 1996 to April 2011, including...

The Long-Term Trend in the Timing of Births and Marriages: Does the Individualisation Theory Hold Up in the Light of Demographic Data?

Michaela Bartošová, Petr Pakosta, Petr Fučík

Sociologický časopis / Czech Sociological Review 2012, 48(2): 315-342 | DOI: 10.13060/00380288.2012.48.2.05  

Sociological theories that work with the concept of individualisation assume, among other things, the occurrence of changes in the life course and especially in the timing and incidence of demographic transitions. Although it is not easy to establish a firm definition of individualisation, most researchers studying demographic phenomena work with the concepts of differentiation and de-standardisation. If we understand individualisation as a structural fact and leave aside its subjective component (individualised identity is not necessary linked to structural changes), it must initially emerge on the aggregate level in the form of the differentiation...

Sociologist Jan Mertl: Quisling or a Victim of Circumstances?

Zdeněk R. Nešpor

Sociologický časopis / Czech Sociological Review 2012, 48(2): 343-366 | DOI: 10.13060/00380288.2012.48.2.06  

The article analyses the life and academic contribution of one of the most prominent interwar Czech sociologists, Jan Mertl (1904-1978), whose studies in political sociology studies were highly innovative in his day, in both the Czech and the international context. Mertl was a follower of Max Weber and focused on the comparative historical-sociological analysis of political partisanship and party systems. He also devoted extensive study to changes in the relationship between state administration/bureaucracy and political representation. He enriched the field of (Czech) sociological theory with his concept of the 'self-regularity of social phenomena',...

Ani kolaborant, ani oběť: Mertl jako sociolog politiky

Marek Skovajsa

Sociologický časopis / Czech Sociological Review 2012, 48(2): 367-373  

Jan Mertl: pravdu hájící kolaborant, který nezradil

Dušan Janák

Sociologický časopis / Czech Sociological Review 2012, 48(2): 374-380  

Jan Keller: Nová sociální rizika a proč se jim nevyhneme

Petr Krčál

Sociologický časopis / Czech Sociological Review 2012, 48(2): 381-383  

Lenka Kalinová: Konec nadějím a nová očekávání. K dějinám české společnosti 1969-1993

Zdeněk R. Nešpor

Sociologický časopis / Czech Sociological Review 2012, 48(2): 384-385  

Raymond Boudon: Bída relativismu

Libor Benda

Sociologický časopis / Czech Sociological Review 2012, 48(2): 386-389  

Jan Eichler: Bezpečnostní a strategická kultura USA, EU a ČR

Antonín Rašek

Sociologický časopis / Czech Sociological Review 2012, 48(2): 390-392  

Jiří Trávníček: Čtenáři a internauti. Obyvatelé České republiky a jejich vztah ke čtení (2010)

Marta Svobodová

Sociologický časopis / Czech Sociological Review 2012, 48(2): 393-394  

Guy Standing: The Precariat. The New Dangerous Class

Jiří Navrátil

Sociologický časopis / Czech Sociological Review 2012, 48(2): 395-400  

Úmrtnost, zdraví a náboženství

Emil Paleček

Sociologický časopis / Czech Sociological Review 2012, 48(2): 401