Ongoing projects
Transformation of the Czech Business: Socialist Enterprises in Market Economy. GA ČR 20-23131S, Michal Kopeček, 2020–2022
The Czech economy in the 1990s was marked by a radical transition from a centrally planned to a market economy. The proposed project looks at changes in the corporate sector with a focus on the privatization process. Research and analysis of that period still suffers from a number of blank spots, some of which often stir emotions, such as the role of privatization funds in the voucher privatization. This project aims to determine the position of companies in that period with an emphasis on these blank spots. Any research into the 1990s generally faces numerous problems, among others imperfections in datasets, which limit the use of standard economic methods. In order to overcome these objective obstacles, we have decided to apply an interdisciplinary approach. It is based on the combination of historiographic research methods (oral history – interviews and archival research) and economic methods (experimental economics and econometrics). More information…
Czechoslovak political and cultural life in exile, 1948-1989. GAČR 20-11867S, Jiří Suk, 2020–2022
The aim is systematically to make available for study primary sources on Czechoslovak political and cultural life in exile in the period 1948 to 1989, as this phenomenon developed in the democratic countries of Europe, South and North America, and Australia, all against the background of the Cold War and in correlation with the development of the Communist system in Czechoslovakia. It also aims to establish multidisciplinary research into the émigré institutions, groups and communities, which changed together with international events and with the political situation in Czechoslovakia. At the forefront of attention will be the activities of the émigrés, regarding both the international public ( including émigré groups from other Communist countries ) and their support for independent political, cultural and religious activity at home as it sought to resist the totalitarian regime in Czechoslovakia; attention will also be paid to the diverse activity of the Communist intelligence agencies. More information…
Breaching the walls. We do need education! Education, Audiovisual and Culture Executive Agency, Lenka Krátká, 2019–2021
The fall of the Berlin Wall is one of the most important and significant event in Twentieth-Century Europe. Above all, it is the symbol of the re-appropriation of individual rights and freedoms by the former Soviet bloc citizens who were struggling to get more democracy in their own countries. Based on an entangled perspective and an oral history approach, the project aims, on the one hand, to investigate personal and national-based memories of the fall of the Berlin wall and of the democratic claims in the former Eastern bloc countries. On the other one, the project aims to actively involve young generations in a critical and pro-active reflection about the modern basis of European societies that can help them to better understand today’s European political dynamics and to face new barriers that are increasingly crossing the field of social and civil rights. Approaching the multifaceted relationship between memory, European values and today’s European challenges, participants will be more aware of the importance of collecting memories and transmitting them to new generations, more conscious of the founding principles of modern European citizenship (representative democracy, civil rights, welfare state, peace) and more open to international and intercultural exchanges. Project is solved by Fondazione Gramsci Emilia-Romana Onlus (Bologna, Italy) in cooperation with Municipality of Tirana (Tirana, Albania), Past/Not Past Paris (Paris, France), The History Meeting House (Warsaw, Poland) and University of Bielefeld (Bielefeld, Germany). More information…
Genocide, Postwar Migration and Social Mobility: Entangled Experiences of Roma and Jews. GA ČR EXPRO 19-26638X, Kateřina Čapková, 2019–2023
Engaging with debates in Holocaust and genocide studies and social anthropology of marginality, the project approaches the histories of Jewish and Romani communities on the territory of the pre-war Czechoslovakia in comparative perspective. Nazi genocidal policies altered the culture, social makeup, religious outlook, and geography of both victim groups, creating a rupture that fundamentally influenced the subsequent geographic and social mobility of both groups. Only an interdisciplinary approach—bringing together sociology, anthropology and history—can help us create an integrated account of Romani and Jewish experiences in twentieth and twenty-first century Central Europe. A team of multidisciplinary scholars with expertise in Jewish and Romani studies will focus on Jewish and Romani entangled experiences during the war, its aftermath and its current resonances. More information…
Business trips abroad from Czechoslovakia in the years 1945–1989. GA ČR 19-09594S, Lenka Krátká, 2019–2021
The project proposal corresponds with the growing interest in exploring social and cultural aspects of life in the era of former communist regimes in Central and Eastern Europe. From this broad framework the project aims at the topic of business trips made from the former Czechoslovakia abroad. The historical research with interdisciplinary overlaps will contribute to extension of the exploration on the character of the Czech and Czechoslovak society in the period after World War II. The project outcomes will deepen understanding of the business trips topic, including its integration into the contemporary framework of political, economic, social and cultural history. The research results will also be confronted with relevant foreign works and reflected in an international context. Besides primary research (especially archival exploration and oral history interviews) and publication outputs – two monographs, scholarly studies – the attention will be paid to methodological and theoretical issues and problems of research and popularization-teaching activities. More information…
Between Stalinism and Global Infrastructuralism: Impact of Global Cold War Science on Czechoslovak Science and International Policy (1945-1989) GA ČR 19-04546S, Doubravka Olšáková, 2019–2021
The aim of the project is to analyse the impact of global research projects and large infrastructures on the evolution of science and international policy in Czechoslovakia, including their shaping of expert culture before 1989. Large research infrastructures and access to data and information had been very often object of diplomatic talks; Cold War period is probably the best example to study the social impact of science and how much it shaped the democratization process in Communist/totalitarian states. We will analyse the International Geophysical Year (1957-58), the International Biological Programme (1964-74), the International Hydrological Decade (1964-74) and following long-term programmes Man and Biosphere (1975 until now) and International Hydrological Programme (1975-2021). Research questions focus on the access to data, scientific knowledge and methods. How much they influenced the evolution of science and international policy and how much it influenced the shaping of independent expert cultures? More information…
Army as an instrument of socialization: Reflection of the phenomenon of compulsury military service in the Czech lands (1968-2004). GA ČR 19-19311S, Jiří Hlaváček, 2019–2021
The project focuses at the phenomena of compulsory military service within Czech lands between 1968-2004. The research hypothesis is based on premise that the institute of compulsory military service represents one of key instruments for those in power to discipline and indoctrinate citizens in order to uphold the status quo. Therefore, the primary research will concentrate on discursive transformations of legitimization and narrative strategies, which were applied in this manner and also their impact at several generations of Czech men, including the wider sociocultural meaning of compulsory military service. The project is grounded theoretically in Lynn cultural model of military history and also makes use of research methods of traditional military historiography, historical anthropology and ethnology. More information…
Evolutionalism, Nationalism and Racism in Czech and Slovak Science (1882-1948). A Dialogue between Social Science and Biology. GA ČR 19-03474S, Milan Ducháček, 2019–2021
The project will focus on the mapping of interdisciplinary cooperation, communication networks and public response of Czech and Czechoslovak cultural and biological science, with an emphasis on the situation in physical anthropology, ethnology and history during the years 1882- 1948. The Czechoslovak science can prove itself with one neglected primacy: the first European protest against scientifically asserted racism. In 1934, with the support of Czech- American Anthropologist Aleš Hrdlička´s Foundation, the book The Equality of European Human Races and the Ways to Their Betterment was published, with contribution by physical anthropologists, ethnologists, archaeologists and literary historians. The aim of the interdisciplinary research team will be to interconnect the up to now prevalently isolated mapping of the history of natural and cultural disciplines and to put the transformation of the aformentioned disciplines into mutual and broader context on the basis of the current methodology of the history of science. The result will appear in a series of studies and in two monographs. More information…
Movable boundaries of dictatorship in the light of complaints and anonymous letters of Czechoslovak citizens between 1948 and 1989. GA ČR 19-02794S, Tomáš Vilímek, 2019–2021
The project is focused on examining, analysing and interpreting a specific segment of communication and interaction between the society and the regime from 1948 to 1989, namely tens of thousands of complaints, requests and denunciations of citizens addressed to state, party, trade union or other structures of the regime. Their content and forms, as well as reactions of power structures were changing and depended on political developments both at home and abroad. Using them, it is possible not only to reconstruct and understand the changing boundaries and forms of the space where the specific interactions between the regime and citizens were taking place, but also to shed light on forms and possibilities of promoting individual and collective interests and needs. They can be used to explain how citizens were perceiving and what they were expecting from the regime and to monitor the regime´s reactions ranging from the absolute usurpation of power enforced by repressions to having to take into account authentic social interests and to adopt its strategy accordingly. More information…
Identification and permanent documentation of cultural landscape and settlement memory: case study of abandoned settlements of Moravia and Silesia. MK-NAKI II, DG18P02OVV070, David Kovařík, 2018–2022
The aim of the project is – to build a database of settlements which were abandoned post World War II within Moravia and Silesia, – to recreate visualization of selected settlements on historical and geographical evidences – to create an interactive map of the Czech Republic featuring all settlements along with visual and statistical data, – detail visualization of the settlement and landscape structure changes in selected micro-regions (creation of maps with specialized content), – selection of representative areas for the identification and permanent documentation of the landscape image immediately before, during the demise of the seat and subsequent development of the landscape in the form of the so-called Modern Chronicle of the village, including 3D visualization, – creation of a web-based application (software) Modern chronicle of the municipality with universal use for all municipalities (including instructions), – creation of certified methodology focused on the presentation of extinct settlements in the Czech borderland in exhibition and museum expositions, – presentation/popularization of results and created backgrounds in regions and in teaching, – evaluation of local collections and archive sources stored in regional museums, district archives, etc., and their connection with newly acquired knowledge. More information…
Legal, historical and social aspects of new and traditional minorities in the Czech Republic. MK-NAKI II, DG18P02OVV064, Oldřich Tůma, 2018–2021
The project will be based on both central and regional activities, which are closely linked together. The aspects of the project concerned with the governmental and central level are mainly legal, social, cultural and historical including comparative studies. Such aspects will be covered mainly by the researchers of the Law faculty in cooperation with all institutions of the project. Various legal, social, historical and cultural fields regarding minority issues will be covered. The key issue of the project is the legal, social and historical aspect of the so called new minorities (including the discussion on the term minority itself) within Czech society compared with the postition of traditional minorities. The central level of research is closely interlinked with regional. Regional aspects are represented by historical and social aspects of development of ethnic groups in selected regions of North-western Bohemia, Silesia and Central Bohemia, from 1945 and especially after 1989 until the present time. The historical development will be confronted with the topical social and legal problems. The creation of „new“ minorities continues until present time including the problem of migration. More information…
Historylab: using technology to foster historical literacy. TA ČR, TL01000046, Matěj Spurný, 2018–2021
The aim of the project is to develop and apply an innovative set of software for history education, that makes the attainment of educational goals set by relevant curricula documents more effective. The resulting multimedia environment features connectivity with all commonly used Learning management systems and improves the efficiency of teacher-student communication. The environment includes learning objects organized by metadata architecture, which itself implements current didactic principles. In line with modern didactics and history, a user is guided using scaffolding method to adopt skills critical to work with primary sources. The use of the guidance of the user improves the implementation of this innovative method for the target groups. More information…
Media of the cultural opposition in Czechoslovakia. MSM/LT, LTC18040, Michal Kopeček, 2018–2021
The project strives to initiate a new, paradigm breaking stage in the research of cultural dissent and establish an inter-connected, supra-national and multidisciplinary research, including an emphasis on effective dissemination of research results and co-operation with relevant experts from the practice fields (archive workers, curators, education lectors). In its framework, an emphasis will be laid on the research of intellectual history especially during the period of so-called normalization in Czechoslovakia. Research and interpretation of independent literary, cultural and intellectual activities in their changes, forms and various interactions both mutual as well as regarding changing political situation, official discourse and prevailing ideology will be its prime focus. An interdisciplinary co-operation of various disciplines within the field of social sciences as well as mutual enrichment between Czech and other European participants of the COST Action will bring forward new valuable impulses into the research on cultural opposition. At the same time, it will contribute to deeper expert assessment of the dissent phenomenon, which to some extent is still limited to one-dimensional reflections in the domestic context, on a wider pan-European scale. More information…