Sociological and musical projects

Sociological research project, supported by the Grant Agency of the Academy of Sciences of the Czech Republic; Jan Paleček - grant holder, Zdeněk Konopásek - research collaborator.

In the proposed two-years research studied how psychiatry encounters the phenomena of hearing voices or having apparitions, i.e., quasi/spiritual and quasi/religious experiences. Using qualitative data from interviews and ethnographical observations in psychiatric facilities, we focused on individual illness trajectories, encounters of patients with psychiatric professionals and practical institutional and material arrangements of the treatment. By revealing how religiosity and mental disease are jointly and practically performed by means of contemporary psychiatry, in our case studies on mental patients we intended to better understand how the spiritual and religious experiences of mental patients are translated into the psychiatric language, what are medical, social and political consequences of these processes and what religiosity, spirituality and mental illness is. We hoped to contribute, by our research, to cultivation of contemporary and future reforms of psychiatry.

Sociological research project, supported by the Grant Agendy of the Czech Republic (403/06/0436); Zdeněk Konopásek - grant holder; Jan Paleček - research collaborator.

In this two-year project we suggested to study the preparation and implementation of the European environmental project NATURA 2000. Inspired by numerous sociological investigations abroad, we focused upon the complex and ambivalent relationships between expertise and democratic decision-making. We made use of mostly qualitative approaches (although not exclusively) to analyze various documents and research interviews. In the resulting detailed case study we paid special attention to how particular social actors continuously “translate” the issue of planned nature reserves into scientific argumentation or, on the other hand, into a political matter. What are the consequences of these translations for the project itself? By answering these questions we perhaps contributed to better understanding of expert/political culture in the Czech Republic (in relation to contemporary European trends).

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).

Alternative rock band: Vladimír Línek - vocals, keyboards (leader); Tomáš Vodňanský - guitar; Jiří Jelínek - sax; Jarda Kašpar - bass; Zdeněk Konopásek - drums.

I joined the group soon after its start in 2002. We played nice songs written by the poet and band leader Vladimír Línek, a big admirer of Oldřich Janota, but also of such diverse artists as Tom Waits or Jon Anderson from Yes. A number of concerts and two demo CD-Rs left behind this band. In 2005 Tomáš Vodňanský left for one year, travelling abroad, and we stopped playing. It was the same time when Kvartet Dr. Konopného [Dr. Konopny Quartet], which I enjoyed very much, started preparation for recording CD.

International research project supported within the Fifth EC Framework Programme.

This research was intended to analyse, at the European national and transnational levels, the relevance of public accountability procedures for achieving publicly legitimate and sustainable ogvernance of socially complex issues. Seven national teams (United Kingdom, Denmark, Latvia, Germany, Portugal, France and Czech Republic) carried out in-depth empirical analyses - through three case studies - of the role of public accountability in the national contexts in relation to the issues of genetically modified food policy, household waste management, and local/regional transport policy. Having this done, they undertook cross-national and cross-thematic comparisons of the research undertaken. The project was headed by Simon Joss from the Center for the Study of Democracy, University of Westminster, London (UK). The Czech part was institutionally covered by the Center for Theoretical Study at the Czech Academy of Sciences and Charles University in Prague. The Czech national team consisted of: Zdenek Konopásek (head), Tereza Stöckelová, Tereza Vajdová and Lenka Zamykalová; in 2001-2 also Zuzana Kusá (SAV Bratislava, Slovakia)

Individual sociological research project supported by the Research Support Scheme (123/1998), a part of Open Society Fund network.

In this research I attempted to explore social resources of durability of the communist regime in the former Czechoslovakia. The inquiry was based on a combination of the biographical approach with an actor-network theory, i.e., with the approach originally developped by some contemporary sociologists of sciences (Michel Callon, Bruno Latour, John Law) and designed for explanations of durability of scientific facts. Inspired by the actor-network theory, I treated the problem of state socialism and communists' power in the same way as the above mentioned sociologists of science had treated the problem of science and of the scientific truth. Instead of explaining the life under communism by references to the power of the communists, I directed my effort in the very opposite way: I tried to explain the communists' power by studying the life under state socialism.

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.

Collaboration with Oldřich Janota, Czech songwriter and musician, minimalist guitarist and poet

In 1989-90 and then in 1996-97 I collaborated with Oldřich Janota. I played drums & percussions as well as trumpets on his two records (Oldřich Janota, Panton 1990; Sešité, Indies Records 1987) and occasonally performed at a couple of concerts with him.

PHARE project (GTAF II/WP2/4A), coordinated by the Ministry of labour and social affairs

The aim of this project was to establish a professional body responsible for minimum standards in the field of social work. Within the project I undertook a small research and elaborated an expert study on employers and employees in the social work sector.