6. 11. 2021
:::: Cyril Říha, Zdeněk Konopásek & Jindřich Prach: Jak stavět v CHKO [How to build in LPA]
Presentation for the 59th outdoor workshop of CTS, November 5-7, 2021
In Czech only
18. 2. 2021
:::: Zdeněk Konopásek: Náboženství a Latourovy „módy existence“ [Religion and Latour's modes of existence]
Presentation for the online symposium "ANT and religion", organized by the Czech sociological association (Section of sociology of religion), 9:00-10:30, https://cesnet.zoom.us/j/94048729346
In Czech only
11. 11. 2020
:::: Zdeněk Konopásek: Antropocén, ožehavá věc [Anthropocene, a delicate thing]
Presentation for the online seminar of the Sociology Dept, Faculty of Social Sciences, Charles University in Prague
In Czech only
1. 11. 2019
:::: Zdeněk Konopásek: Religion in action: How private apparitions may become true/real
Presentation for the workshop with Tanya Luhrmann, CEFRES Library, Na Florenci 3, Praha 1
When studying mediations by which a fragile and untrustworthy personal experience of two children in Litmanová, 1990, gradually turned into a widely recognized and shared, authentic religious miracle or a true religious phenomenon, one quickly gets somewhat more complicated picture of religiousness than the one offered by Latour in his numerous writings on the topic. On one hand, the apparition in Litmanová was enacted in many ways as making the Blessed Mother present, here and now, to all the worshippers – to Latour’s joy, one would say. On the other hand, equally frequently, the apparitions were articulated, examined and recalled as matter-of-fact historical events, i.e., false or true according to quite different sets of criteria than those imagined by Latour for his religious mode of existence. The two modalities not only co-existed (our interviewees often switched quite smoothly between them in their accounts), but they did their work together, they constituted each other. Nonetheless, Latour’s point about the nature of religion does hold – in a way: it can be observed in our data that while matter-of-fact articulations of the apparition were prevailing and decisive in the beginning of the entire story, their importance decreased as the religious authenticity of the apparition was becoming more and more established. Thus, Latour’s characterization of religion makes sense only if we look at it in its ready-made, accomplished form. If we want to understand religion in the making, however, the picture is much less pure.
30. 11. 2018
:::: Zdeněk Konopásek: Co je translace, sociologicky vzato [What is translation, taken sociologically]
Presentation for the conference of Czech Sociological Association, Hradec Králové, November 28-30. 2018
In Czech only
8. 4. 2016
:::: Zdeněk Konopásek: Konstruktivismus, sociologie plná nedorozumění: pohled zevnitř [Constructivism, a sociology full of misunderstanding]
Presentation for the colloquium "Social constructivism after 50 years", organized by the sociological theory section of the Czech sociological society
(only in Czech)
24. 9. 2015
:::: Zdeněk Konopásek: Co všechno děláme, když "papírujeme" [About the social practice of paperwork]
Presentation for Thursday seminars of CTS - a seminar to celebrate 25th anniversary of CTS, Husova 4, Praha 1, 3rd floor (the seminar room)
(only in Czech)
10. 12. 2014
:::: Art and science: space, or a dialogue between aesthetics, social science, neurology and technology?
Public debate on "research" in art and science, prepared by Dustin Breiting and Milos Vojtechovsky (IIM and Center for audiovisual studies FAMU). Together with Andrej Boleslavský, Mária Jůdová, Magda Stanová, Givan Béla, Pavel Ctibor, Dustin Breiting and Jan Trejbal.
17. 7. 2014
:::: Improvisation from the perspective of current interdisciplinary approach (panel discussion, together with Ivan Palacky, Petr Vrba, Pavel Klusak, Tomas Ruller)
vs.Interpretation Symposium and Festival, NoD, Dlouhá 33, Prague 1
30. 10. 2013
:::: Zdeněk Konopásek: Konstruktivismus, sociologie plná nedorozumění [Constructivism - a sociology replete with misunderstanding]
Lecture open for public, Brno, Faculty of Social Studies, Masaryk University
22. 5. 2013
:::: Zdeněk Konopásek: O sociologickém smyslu actor-network theory: Na čem vlastně Latourovi záleží, když mluví o hybridech, non-humans a sítích? [On the sociological meaning of actor-network theory: Why Latour actually speaks of hybrids, non-humans and networks?]
Presentation for the workshop on "Bruno Latour and his actor-network theory", organised by the section Sociological theory of the Slovak sociological association, Bratislava, Slovensko; 13.30-17.00 in the meeting room of the Institute for philosophy SAV (Klemensova 19, IV. floor, room 94)
30. 4. 2013
:::: Zdeněk Konopásek, Radim Marada & Csaba Szaló: Discussion on "Mravenečci v tajuplném světě symbolů aneb o vztahu ANT a kulturní sociologie (je-li nějaký)"omplexity [Ant(s) in the mysterious world of symbols - or, about the relationships between actor-network theory and cultural sociology]
Discussion organized by "Sociological platform", Faculty of Social Studies, Masaryk University in Brno
30. 11. 2012
:::: Zdeněk Konopásek: Religion in action: When theology meets Latourian science studies (Brno)
In his writings about religion Bruno Latour argues that we should understand religion in its own terms (“religiously”) while seeing it as something “local, objective, visible, mundane, unmiraculous, repetitive, obstinate, and sturdy”. When talking about religion, we should avoid, Latour insists, turning our attention “to the far away, the above, the supernatural, the infinite, the distant, the transcendent, the mysterious, the misty, the sublime, the eternal”. Only then we can reframe the relationship between science and religion in a new, mutually meaningful and acceptable way. In my presentation I will use empirical data on Marian apparitions in Litmanová (Slovakia) to come with a sympathetic critique of such a position. I fully subscribe Latour’s general principles of non-reductionist STS as well as many his specific arguments on religion. I also share Latour’s “political” interest in exploring how to talk about religion in a way that would be meaningful for both agnostics and the faithful. However, I will argue that it is misleading to insist that religion must be understood exclusively in terms of presence-making practices, as Latour does. It will be demonstrated that something like quasi-scientific fact-making is not alien to (true) religious talk. On the contrary, it appears an important element of what Latour himself might call “religion in action” – i.e., religion not ready made and undisputed (as is the case in iconographic analyses of religious art), but uncertain, collectively performed, attempted and more or less achieved. In fact, it will be shown that overall Latourian sensitivity for reality in the making seems deficient in his own work on religion and makes it somewhat puzzling and not quite convincing. And yet: if we rearticulate the relationship between presence-making (of religion) and fact-making (of science) in a more subtle way, Latour’s main point about how to understand the truth of religion can still be kept. Even more it can be made more sound and elaborated, both empirically and theoretically.
18. 5. 2012
:::: Zdeněk Konopásek: O improvizaci v hudbě... a vůbec [On improvisation in music... and in general]
Presentation for the 41th outdoor workshop of CTS, May 18-20, 2012
6. 5. 2011
:::: Zdeněk Konopásek: Hudební improvizace - proč je užitečné zkoušet jí sociologicky porozumět? [Improvisation in music - why it can be of interest for sociologists?]
Presentation for the workshop "Sociologists on music", organised by the section Sociological theory of the Slovak sociological association
