Totalitarian experience and knowledge production : : sociology in Central and Eastern Europe 1945-1989 / / by Svetla Koleva ; translated by Vladimir Vladov.

• Author: Koleva, Svetla.
• Place / Publishing House: Leiden ;, Boston : : Brill,, [2018]
• Year of Publication: 2018
• Language: English; Russian
• Series: Post-Western Social Sciences and Global Knowledge 2.
• Physical Description: 1 online resource (xvii, 298 pages).

Totalitarian Experience and Knowledge Production examines, in a comparative perspective, sociology as practiced in six European Communist countries marked by various forms of totalitarianism in the period 1945-1989. In contrast to normative sociology’s view that such coexistence is essentially impossible, the author argues that sociology could function in these undemocratic societies insofar as sociologists succeeded in establishing relatively autonomous institutional and cognitive zones. Based on the self-reflection of scholars who had practiced their profession during that period, the book reveals the tribulations of the scientific identity of sociology under the specific social-political conditions of totalitarian societies. It becomes evident that the basic principle that made sociological knowledge possible was freedom of thought in search for scientific truth despite the ‘truth’ imposed by political authority.

Table of Contents

Front Matter -- Copyright Page -- Epigraphs -- Preface -- Acknowledgments -- Introduction -- Methodological Notes -- Following the Traces of the Past: The Methodological Pitfalls of Time -- The Object of Sociology vs. Sociology as an Object of Research: The Theoretical Pitfalls of the Conception of Totalitarianism -- Sociology Grappling With Itself: The Conceptual Pitfalls of the Single-variant Disciplinary Self-referentiality -- Conceptual Framework of the Analysis -- Institutional Cycles of Sociology in Central and Eastern Europe, 1945–1989 -- From Historical Chronology to Institutional Cyclicity -- Institutional Reanimation of Sociology: 1944–1948/49 -- Institutional Mimicry i: 1948/49–1956 -- Institutional Expansion i: 1956–1968 -- Institutional Mimicry ii: 1968–1980 -- Institutional Expansion ii: 1980–1989 -- Institutional Cycles: General Conclusion -- Disciplinary Construction of Sociology: Processes and Modalities -- A New Context, a New Object of Research: What Kind of Sociology? -- From a New Deontological to a New Epistemological Model of Social Science Cognition -- Multifaceted Sociology: Modalities of Knowledge Production -- Summing-up. Production of Scientific Knowledge about the ‘Socialist Society’: Surmounting the Paradoxes -- Conclusion: “A Legacy Without a Testament” -- Back Matter -- Appendix -- Bibliography.