18. 11. 2024
:::: Zdeněk Konopásek: Analytic software as a "research tool": Revisiting epistemology of qualitative social sciences
Presentation for the workshop Thinking Technical Objects as Epistemological Details, Paris, November 18-19, 2024
3. 6. 2022
:::: Zdeněk Konopásek: Mezi přírodou a kulturou, minulostí a přítomností, detailem a celkem, předpisem a praxí: Regulace stavění v CHKO [Between nature and culture, past and present, detail and whole, regulation and practice: Building regulation in PLA]
Presentation for the 24th workshop of the Biograf journal, Kněžice, June 3-5 2022
In Czech only
5. 6. 2021
:::: Zdeněk Konopásek: Diskusní příspěvek k presentaci Niny Fárové, Martina Hájka, Radima Hladíka a Michala Škvrňáka "Posílení reprodukovatelnosti kvalitativní analýzy dat prostřednictvím softwarové opory" [Discussion of the presentation by Nina Fárová, Martin Hájek, Radim Hladík and Michal Škvrňák "Strenthening the reproducibility of computer assisted qualitative data analysis""]
Presentation for the 23th workshop of the Biograf journal, Kněžice, June 4-6 2021
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.
28. 1. 2019
:::: Ivo Čermák, Zdeněk Konopásek, Hedvika Novotná & Klára Šeďová: Rozprava o kvalitativní metodologii [A round table on qualitative methodology]
Presentation for the QAK Conference, České Budějovice, January 28-29, 2019
25. 7. 2018
:::: Zdeněk Konopásek, Michal Synek & Radek Carboch: Making clients to decide for themselves: turning people with learning difficulties into "modern subjects"
Presentation for the EASST conference "Meetings – Making Science, Technology and Society together" in Lancaster (UK), July 25-28, 2018
In our study of social services for people with learning difficulties we focus on efforts aiming at their emancipation, i.e. at making them as independent on institutions and professionals as possible. Emphasis is being put on what is called "autonomous decision-making" about one's life - what to do, what to buy, where to go and when. These decisions are to be based on authentic and unrestricted expression of clients' desires and passions. Professionals are instructed and trained to move from making decisions on behalf of their (passive) clients to providing sensitive support for the activity of decision-making, performed preferably by the clients themselves. But how to make clients to "decide for themselves", co-creating a world for them, which would resemble the world of all other people? How to de-attach them from professional assistance? Sometimes it may seem that a simple redistribution of passivity and activity among professionals and their clients suffices. Even the official instructions and guides often imply that the less support from the others is offered, the more free and autonomous ("normal") decision is made by the client - an ideal, desirable, but not always achievable situation. However, a closer look at the emancipating practices reveal that: (a) a lot of carefully orchestrated professional action, including enormous amount of paperwork, is mobilized to make one do things; (b) it is the quality of particular attachments - and not a reversal of activity/passivity - what makes a desirable difference. Misunderstandings about this may bring about perverted results.
6. 10. 2016
:::: Zdeněk Konopásek: Latour o “modech existence” [Latour on modes of existence]
Presentation for Thursday seminars of CTS, Husova 4, Praha 1, 3rd floor (the seminar room)
(only in Czech)
17. 3. 2016
:::: Debate on approaches to research on normalisation
Discussion meeeting organised by The Institute for the Study of Totalitarian Regimes, with participation of Petr Bílek (FFUK), Irena Reifová (FSV UK) and others. Praha, FF UK, Náměstní Jana Palacha 2, 17.30, room 201
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
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
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
21. 6. 2009
:::: Zdeněk Konopásek: Jak je to s jedinečností v kvalitativním výzkumu [Reflections on uniqueness in qualitative research] (Hoješín near Seč)
Presentation for the 11th conference of Biograf, June 19-21 2009, Hoješín near Seč (Chrudim)
11. 5. 2009
:::: Zdeněk Konopásek: K čemu je vlastně dobrý symetrický přístup? Metodologické poznámky ze sociologického výzkumu náboženských zjevení a démonických posedlostí [What is symmetrical approach good for? Notes from a sociological study of apparitions and demonic possessions] (Bratislava, Slovakia)
Invited lecture for the methodological section of the Slovak sociological association, Bratislava (Slovakia), Philosophical institute of the Slovak Academy of Sciences, 2pm
2. 4. 2009
:::: Zdeněk Konopásek: "This is for the first time when it is for the second time": Reflections on uniqueness in sociological descriptions and explanations (Praha)
Presentation at the joint CTS (Praha) and IGPP (Freiburg) workshop on "The challenge of uniqueness", Center for theoretical study, April 2-4 2009 (Husova 4, Praha 1, CTS seminar room)
The problem of uniqueness in sociology is often seen as a problem of methodology. It refers to research configurations in which we deal only with a few cases or even with a single case so that it becomes impossible using standardized statistical tools and generalizing our findings to cover some wider population. In such situations, we mobilize “qualitative methods”. I will briefly comment on their practical relevance and on the nature of knowledge they bring about. Uniqueness, however, can also be taken as a substantive sociological issue. There are sociologists (including myself) who consider uniqueness as an omnipresent and irreducible feature of social reality – a feature that should be taken seriously. This implies a radical redefinition of the sociological perspective and of basic sociological questions. The redefinition is often misunderstood though. While we must understand and deeply respect that everything happens only once, and at one place, it is equally serious that we take account of things made durable, repeatable, and standardized or generalized on a mass scale and daily basis. It is not a paradox: the former should be taken as a theoretical-methodological precondition of the latter.
20. 1. 2009
:::: Zdeněk Konopásek & Jan Paleček: Princip symetrie z hlediska respondentů: Posedlost, zjevení a duševní nemoc ve výzkumných rozhovorech s duchovními
[The principle of symmetry from the respondents‘ perspective: Possession, apparition and mental illness in research interviews with clerics] (Olomouc)
Presentation at the conference Qualitative approaches for practice (VIIIth Czech-Slovak conference on qualitative research and methods in the human sciences), January 19-20 2009, Olomouc
We study how experiences such as hearing the voice of the Lord or having a vision of Virgin Mary are dealt with in psychiatry and catholic pastoral practice. How the status of these phenomena is negotiated by the participants? Under what conditions they become an instance of legitimate religious experience or, alternatively, symptoms of mental illness? We approach the study of these issues “symmetrically” - we do not prefer a priori medical or spiritual explanations. Some time ago, we demonstrated and explained such an approach (which is common, e.g., in contemporary sociology of science), and its relevance for our research, in an analytic paper on the movie “The exorcism of Emily Rose” (2005). The paper discusses a highly ambiguous relationship, pictured in the film, between medical and spiritual interpretation of the story of a young girl who was considered possessed by demons and who died after unsuccessful exorcism (Konopásek & Paleček 2006). Now, the question is: can such a symmetrical approach be of any relevance also for people we are studying? In an attempt to give an answer, we have interviewed four catholic priests on this issue. The priests had been asked to watch the movie on Emily Rose and read our paper on it in preparation for the interview. Based on these discussions, we would like to shed some light on whether and in what ways our specific epistemic perspective coheres with the views and positions of our respondents; and also, how this reflexive research experiment contributed to our own understanding of the role of the symmetry principle in our current research project.
