Other topics: research projects and other activities

The aim of the project is to incorporate into the scientific curriculum of Czech upper secondary schools, elements of hitherto mainly academic Philosophy of Science and Science Studies (sociology, anthropology and history of science). In order to promote the concept of science literacy, we will build on the emphasis these disciplines put on the description and interpretation of the real course of scientific activity. Scientific literacy will thus acquire a natural connection to the issue of citizens’ public engagement as a precondition of social resilience. Our collaboration with selected secondary schools will allow us to design and test specific educational innovations (in physics, chemistry and biology). The project will result in concrete proposals for RVP G and RVP DG amendments.

The project aimes at improving the regulation of construction activities in protected landscape areas (with emphasis on PLAs Křivoklátsko and Český kras as model areas). We want to examine what this regulation is, how it comes into being and what its effects are, and propose recommendations on how to make it more effective and more politically legitimate. We will use the long-term experience of transdisciplinary work at our institute, combining competencies in the fields of architecture and urban planning, sociology and ecology (landscape protection).

Research framework programme of the Center for Theoretical Study (Charles University in Prague and Academy of Sciences of the Czech Republic) and Dept. of philosophy and history of natural sciences, Faculty of Sciences (Charles University in Prague), headed by David Storch.

The research framework programme gathers collaborators from various disciplines: physics (Roman Kotecký, Bedřich Velický, František Slanina); mathematics (Petr Kůrka, Kateřina Trlifajová, Bohuslav Balcar); macro-ecology (David Storch, Arnošt L. Šizling); biology (Anton Markoš, Karel Kleisner); sociology of science (Zdeněk Konopásek, Jan Paleček); and philosophy (Ivan M. Havel, Zdeněk Kratochvíl).

Applied sociological study for the Archa Theatre in Prague (http://www.archatheatre.cz); Zdeněk Konopásek - principal researcher, coordinator; Majda Rajčanová - research collaborator.

The research was focused on the current situation of the institution - on its public image, its audiences and artistic orientation. The final report was submitted to the director of the Archa Theatre in October 2005.

NGO promoting online technologies in social sciences research, publication and teaching.

This non-profit organization was established and sponsored by Josef Alan. I was member of board of trustees and also participated in a number of particular projects of the Virtual institute. The Institute was publisher of the scholarly journal Biograf (of which I was editor-in-chief), coordinated experimental online courses for BA and MA social science students in the Czech Republic and Slovakia (I tought some of them), organized trainings and lectures, supported some research projects and established and run the archive of qualitative data Medard (currently under the roof of Institute of sociology, Czech Academy of Sciences).

My PhD research project in sociology.

My PhD thesis was originally following my interest in social policies and my analytical contributions to the Czech social reform. However, as time went on, other motives gained weight as well: the problem of post/modernity, the analysis of institutions and institutionalization, the sociology of science and technology, and, above all, the problem of representation. A revised and extended version of the PhD thesis was published as Estetika welfare state: o krizi reprezentace (nejen) v sociálním zabezpečení [The welfare state aesthetics: On the crisis of representation (not only) in social security] (Praha: GplusG, 1998) - it is in Czech, but a draft of detailed summary in English is available.