The Post-communism Between the Theory and Discourse
Author: Lachmann, Filip , filip@lachmann.cz
Department: Sociology
University: Charles University in Prague, Czech Republic
Supervisor: Jan Balon, Ph.D.
Year of completion: In progress
Language of dissertation: Czech
Keywords:
Post-communism
, transition
, social theory
, CDA
Areas of Research:
Social Transformations and Sociology of Development
, History of Sociology
, Political Sociology
Abstract
Although the issue of Post-communism is considered as lost for the social theory, today after twenty years since the fall of Communism we are facing new reflection potentials that can be used even outside of the academic sphere. In this paper, the Post-communism as a product of the downfall of the bipolar world order is seen not only as a part of the wider picture of the “Great Theories” of Globalization or Modernity, but also as a result of action of specific aspects of the local social environment with its own trajectory – in opposition to the simple standardization and routinization of social life. This project addresses the issue of Post-communism in the social theory, its thematization and also the issue of the discourses affecting the discipline itself. It notes the domination of the Western sociological discourse and considers it as a way of statement about the nature of the concepts and interpretations – it assumes a theoretical shift in the interpretations of the Post-communism and seeks to analyze their position in the wider context of the social science, but it is not an attempt at discovering a new theory arising from Post-communism itself. The project aims to discover the rules of the social science discourses pursued in the last two decades and thus develop its own critical approach to the understanding of our own history. It is based on several theoretical scenarios of the fall of the Communism and through the meta-theoretical reflection of related approaches it wants to develop a critical discoursive analysis of Post-communism. This paper does not assume default criteria in the variety of particular theories in terms of their validity and does not aim to evaluate their relevance; it aims to embed them into the compact mosaic which may be creating a prototype for understanding Post-communism. The outcome of this work will be presented by dissertation and it will represent the missing study of this stream in the context of the development of the social theory in the territory of most of former Communist states.
