Other topics: conferences, workshops, talks

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11. 4. 2011 ::::

Zdeněk Konopásek: "Opravdu se jim Panna Maria zjevila?": O úloze faktů a faktického pochybování v náboženské víře ["Did Virgin Mary really appear to them?": On fact-building and fact-doubting in religious faith]

Presentation for the Sociological evenings lecture series, Faculty of social sciences Charles University, Hollar, 18:30-20:00

17. 3. 2011 ::::

Zdeněk Konopásek: Ještě jednou ke zjevením Panny Marie v Litmanové: Potýkání s Bruno Latourem a jeho představami o tom, co je skutečně náboženské [Virgin Mary apparitions in Litmanová revisited: A sympathetic polemic with Bruno Latour on the nature of religion]

Presentation for Thursday seminars of CTS, Husova 4, Praha 1, 3rd floor (the seminar room)

16. 3. 2011 ::::

Zdeněk Konopásek: Co je nábožensky skutečné/skutečně náboženské: O zjeveních Panny Marie a latourovské sociologii [What is religiously true/truly religious? On Virgin Mary apparitions and Latourian sociology]

Presentation for the methodology seminar of the Group for historical sociology, Faculty of Humanities, Charles University in Prague, Hůrka bd., Husníkova 2075, 158 00 Praha 13

7. 12. 2010 ::::

Zdeněk Konopásek: V čem spočívá pravda Mariánského zjevení? [What is the truth of a Marian apparition?]

Lecture within the MA sociology course "Science, technology, and politics", Faculty of Social Studies, Masaryk University in Brno

9. 11. 2010 ::::

Zdeněk Konopásek: Teorie sítí-aktérů (Bruno Latour, Michel Callon, John Law) a současná STS [Actor-network theory (Bruno Latour, Michel Callon, John law) and contemporary STS]

Lecture within the MA sociology course "Science, technology, and politics", Faculty of Social Studies, Masaryk University in Brno

3. 11. 2010 ::::

Zdeněk Konopásek: Co znamená "sociální konstrukce"? [The "social construction" - what it means?] (Praha)

Presentation for the set of lectures 20x20 in the Lucerna cinema hall in Prague, part of celebrations of 20th anniversary of the Center for Theoretical Study and of Science Days festival.

Some clarifications of the notion, which causes so many controversies, even now.
12. 10. 2010 ::::

Zdeněk Konopásek: Problém reflexivity [The problem of reflexivity]

Lecture within the MA sociology course "Science, technology, and politics", Faculty of Social Studies, Masaryk University in Brno

5. 10. 2010 ::::

Zdeněk Konopásek: Obrat k jazyku [The linguistic turn]

Lecture within the MA sociology course "Science, technology, and politics", Faculty of Social Studies, Masaryk University in Brno

25. 8. 2010 ::::

Zdeněk Konopásek: Religion in action: When theology and pastoral work meet Latourian science studies (Tokyo)

Presentation at the annual conference of the Society for Social Studies of Science (4S), Tokyo, Japan, August 25-19, 2010

STS arguments about science (as well as about STS approaches and theoretical frameworks) are occasionally developed and “tested” by excursions to some other fields, such as political theory or economics. Among these fields, religion belongs to rather neglected areas – the most important exception being the work of Bruno Latour. Latour, referring mainly to religious icons and talk, challenges traditional thinking about differences between science and religion. He 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 hearing 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 this paper I will critically discuss and perhaps also make more refined these Latour’s arguments. Empirical evidence will be taken from my current ethnographic research on religious apparitions and demonic possessions, inspired by Latourian science studies. A case study on Marian apparitions in Eastern Slovakia (1991-5), for instance, nicely documents how religious practices do not simply aim at establishing some belief in (unwarranted knowledge of) non-present, distant entities; in many respects, these practices rather redirect our attention to what is present, close, and living. Contrary to what Latour seems to suggest, however, I will try to show that the respect toward the local, visible, graspable, mundane and repetitive cannot and, after all, is not (by various participating actors) separated from the interest in or the reality of supernatural, mysterious and transcendent religious phenomena. On the contrary, the two orientations are constitutively connected – and sometimes such a connection is even clearly reflected by priests or worshippers.

20. 6. 2010 ::::

Zdeněk Konopásek: Jak se uskutečňuje zázračné zjevení - pohled z perspektivy latourovských vědních studií [Making the miraculous apparition real - a view form the STS perspective] (Hoješín near Seč)

Presentation for the 11th conference of Biograf, June 18-20 2010, Hoješín near Seč (Chrudim)

30. 4. 2010 ::::

František Slanina & Zdeněk Konopásek: Matematická zkoumání socio-logik internetu [Mathematical inquiries into some socio-logics of online product reviewing

Presentation for the 37th outdoor workshop of CTS, Malá Ská, April 30-May 2, 2010

28. 10. 2009 ::::

Zdeněk Konopásek & Jan Paleček: Explaining the unexplainable: Scientific and religious truths about apparitions

Presentation at the annual conference of the Society for Social Studies of Science (4S), Washington, USA, October 28-November 1, 2009

We are studying how reported phenomena such as having visions of Jesus Christ or seeing and talking to Virgin Mary are practically dealt with – i.e., accounted, doubted, believed, investigated, recognized as true or false… or, as part of all this, translated into something else (for instance, into a psychiatric symptom). Besides analyzing historical material, theological and pastoral literature, thematically related pop-cultural artifacts, contemporary psychiatric cases and respective religious experiences, we conduct an extensive case study of Marian apparitions that took place 1991-95 in Litmanová, Slovakia. Based on this heterogeneous empirical ground, we want to discuss the relationship between religious and scientific approaches to the phenomena: what a how constitutes “the truth” of this or that apparition? Where and when? Although the religious and the scientific are often seen as antagonistic, we offer a more subtle and complex view, in which ambivalence, partiality and practical relevance play important, and often “positive”, affirming roles. The mutual relationship between scientific and religious views of the issue is further complicated by the observation that, for instance, one can identify multiple and often diverging “truths” of apparition within the religious practice. In fact, it is not only us, STS inclined researchers, but religious people themselves (clerics as well as laics), who often appreciate not so much some intrinsic qualities and genuineness of the miraculous events themselves, but rather “all the transformations [the reported encounter] undergo later in the hands of others” (Latour). By focusing on controversial piety and devotionalism “in action”, we try to better understand neglected aspects of contemporary religious life. In this respect, our research can be debated as an(other) application of STS inspired views in the field of religion studies.

6. 10. 2009 ::::

Zdeněk Konopásek: Problém reflexivity [The problem of reflexivity]

Lecture within the MA sociology course "Science, technology, and politics", Faculty of Social Studies, Masaryk University in Brno

29. 9. 2009 ::::

Zdeněk Konopásek: Obrat k jazyku [The linguistic turn]

Lecture within the MA sociology course "Science, technology, and politics", Faculty of Social Studies, Masaryk University in Brno

22. 9. 2009 ::::

Zdeněk Konopásek: Konstruktivismus a dekonstrukce [Constructivism and deconstruction]

Lecture within the MA sociology course "Science, technology, and politics", Faculty of Social Studies, Masaryk University in Brno
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Closest events/performances

10. 9. 2025 -

Jan Maršálek & Zdeněk Konopásek: Suspended or Sacrificed? Has the SSK’s Critical Ambition Undermined its Research Programme?

Presentation at the STS-CH Conference “Holding Things Together? Change, Continuity, Critique?” on 10–12th September, 2025

10. 9. 2025 -

Zdeněk Konopásek & Jan Maršálek: Collins and Latour: Untangling the disappearance of SSK

Presentation at the STS-CH Conference “Holding Things Together? Change, Continuity, Critique?” on 10–12th September, 2025

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Latest publications/recordings

KONOPÁSEK, Z. (2024 - in press): Sbohem příteli, naše cesty se rozešly: O interpretativní analýze, počítačích a programu ATLAS.ti [Farewell, my friend, our paths have parted: On interpretive analysis, computers, and the ATLAS.ti software]. Biograf, (78), Available at http://www.biograf.org/

Discussion paper

KONOPÁSEK, Z. (2024): Ať spolu vědci dál nesouhlasí [Let us not ask the scientists to speak in a single voice]. In: Š. Kučera, ed: Jen další konec světa: 33 rozhovorů o antropocénu, "věku člověka", vedl Štěpán Kučera [Just another end of the world: 33 inteviews about anthropocene, lead by Štěpán Kučera]. Brno: Druhé město. Str. 116-122

book chapter

KONOPÁSEK, Z. & ŘÍHA, C. (2024): Letáčky [Leaflets]. In: E. Fulínová & A. Kvíčalová, ed: Antropocennosti: Malý průvodce světem antropocénu [Matters of Anthropocene: A small guide to the world of Anthropocene]. Praha: Academia. Pp. 73-83

book chapter
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