Sociální studia (Apr 2018)
Analýza české institucionální kultury. Proměny hranic mezi soukromou a veřejnou sférou v podmínkách každodennosti a svátečnosti od poloviny 19. století do současnosti
Abstract
The aim of this article is to propose an interpretation and a critical assessment of institutional culture and its transformation in the Czech historical context. The framework of the analysis covers four succeeding nation-forming periods, from the mid-19th century up until the present day. It draws upon a sociological interpretation of the visual fact depicting a memorial of statehood, which was erected in 1919 in the village of Dolní Černošice. The analysis is further based on seven semistructured interviews with local councillors (from Černošice), on the quantitative questioner, and on participant observation. Silhouetted against the interpretation of the statehood memorial, the article attempts to answer questions regarding the main determinants of the transformation of institutional culture by drawing upon the dynamics of the relationships between the public and private spheres, their configurations and implications. The article contends that historically rooted asymmetries between the public and private spheres, which were embedded in the emancipation process of modern Czech society, have been greatly strengthened by the Communist period. In the post-communist period, institutional culture in the Czech Republic has been characterised by a high degree of institutional distrust and public stigmatisation of politics, as well as by a weakly developed virtue of (cognitive and political) opposition which is imbued with a discernible disrespect for discursive civic culture. A system of civic education is urgently needed if Czechs want to overcome the ominous deficits of their institutional culture.
