Science and Research

Research Profiles

The Department of Sociology is an academic unit with a long-standing and strong tradition of social science research. At the same time, it seeks to integrate research activities with teaching. The founder of sociology in Brno, Innocenc Arnošt Bláha, established a research focus that remains relevant to this day, addressing issues of social cohesion, social inequalities, and social stratification. Since the 1960s, family research (Ivo Možný) has become a major area of research at the Department, followed later by population studies (Ladislav Rabušic), as well as research in sociological theory (Jaroslav Střítecký) and historical sociology (Jan Keller). Since the 1990s, the range of the Department’s research interests has continued to expand.

Today, research teams at the Department of Sociology work primarily in the areas of public space, rural areas, and climate change (Pavel Pospěch); migration (Adéla Souralová, Nadya Bernadette Jaworsky); gender studies (Kateřina Nedbálková, Iva Šmídová); cultural sociology (Csaba Szaló, Pavel Pospěch, Werner Binder, Alice Synek Rétiová); ageing (Lucie Vidovićová, Marcela Petrová Kafková); the anthropology of technology and science and technology studies (STS)/sociology of technology (Eva Šlesingerová, Tomáš Doseděl); and medicine, health, and illness (Iva Šmídová, Eva Šlesingerová). Other areas include the anthropology of education, poverty, and environmental anthropology (Irena Kašparová, Kateřina Čanigová, Eva Kotašková), the anthropology of care (Adéla Souralová), and political protest (Jiří Navrátil). The Department’s longstanding focus on social stratification is currently pursued by Tomáš Katrňák and Tomáš Doseděl. Family sociology and population studies are represented by Ladislav Rabušic, Martin Kreidl, and Beatrice Chromková Manea.

The Department of Sociology’s current research profile is centred primarily on the following areas of research interest:

• gender studies
• collective action, political protest, and social networks
• cultural sociology (identities, collective memory, ethnicity)
• migration and transnationalism
• medicine, health, and illness
• social inequalities (mobility, social class, education)
• the social context of climate change
• ageing, ageism, and discrimination
• science and technology studies (biomedicine, biotechnology, robots and society)
• family and population change (partnerships, fertility, the life course, ageing, intergenerational relationships, care)

Links to the websites of currently ongoing projects can be found here.

A list of all current and past projects, together with more detailed information about them, can be found here.

Long-Term International Projects

The Department of Sociology coordinates two major international empirical research projects in the Czech Republic: the Generations and Gender Programme and the European Values Study.

The Generations and Gender Programme (GGP) is a large-scale research infrastructure in the social sciences. It provides extensive data that serve as an important source of information for social science research and social policy in Europe and beyond. For more information, visit the project’s Czech and international websites. The project at the Faculty of Social Studies is led by Prof. Martin Kreidl.

The European Values Study (EVS) is a long-term international research project that monitors changes in value orientations across Europe (EVS – European Values Study) and around the world (WVS – World Values Survey). The project dates back to 1980, with the Czech Republic participating since 1991. At the core of the project are regular large-scale sample surveys of populations in participating European and other countries. For more information, visit the project’s Czech and international websites. The project at the Faculty of Social Studies is coordinated by Prof. Ladislav Rabušic and Beatrice Elena Chromková Manea, M.A., Ph.D..

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PRINS – Opportunities and Risks of Individualisation

The PRINS project examines how individualisation is transforming Czech society. Taking an interdisciplinary approach, it brings together fields such as psychology, sociology, and computer science to better understand the impact of individualisation on family relationships, mental health, social cohesion, and research methodology. The project seeks to address current challenges such as social polarisation, the digitalisation of mental health care, and innovative approaches to high-quality data collection.

The project brings together leading Czech researchers from five major institutions: Masaryk University, Charles University, the Czech Academy of Sciences, Brno University of Technology, and Mendel University in Brno. Through close collaboration among internationally recognised experts, the project generates new knowledge and tools with applications in policy and practice. More information is available on the project website.

Membership in Professional Organisations

In addition to contributing to the work of numerous leading international professional organisations and networks, such as the European Sociological Association and the International Sociological Association, the Department itself is an institutional member of the International Research Association of Institutions of Advanced Gender Studies (RINGS) https://ringsgender.org/.

Social Studies Jorunal

Sociální Studia /Social Studies , founded in 2004, is a peer-reviewed academic journal published quarterly by Masaryk University. Its primary focus is sociological, but it also publishes sociologically relevant contributions from other social science and humanities disciplines, including anthropology, ethnology, history, philosophy, and political science. The journal is available online and is indexed in international databases, including SCOPUS and ERIH PLUS. The current Editor-in-Chief is Assoc. Prof. Pavel Pospěch. The journal’s editorial team is drawn from members of the Department of Sociology.

Applied Research

Our research primarily focuses on social inequalities, family and population change, as well as cultural sociology, migration studies, urban studies, gender studies, the sociology of medicine, and science and technology studies.

We have applied our expertise in these areas in a range of collaborative projects. For example, in cooperation with Škoda Auto, we have conducted research on the relationship between population ageing and mobility. For the non-profit sector, we have used qualitative research to explore the experiences and needs of kinship foster carers in socially excluded localities. For the International Clinical Research Center at St. Anne’s University Hospital in Brno, we provided methodological support for the evaluation of the HOBIT project (Biology for Life). Our activities also include cooperation with secondary school teachers and the co-development of teaching materials for secondary schools. An important part of the application of our research is our involvement in projects funded by the Technology Agency of the Czech Republic (TAČR/ÉTA programme), including research on human–robot interaction in the care of older people.

If you are interested in collaboration, please contact the Applied Research Coordinator, Dr Petr Fučík.