Sociology in Post-Transition Transformations of Croatian Society
Jasminka Lažnjak
Abstract
The objective of this analysis is to explore the possible role of sociology in post-transition transformations of Croatian society in terms of scientific and professional expertise production that would influence or shape the dominant transition discourses that have been insignificant in Croatian sociology. The analysis draws on the institutional perspective using the concept of path dependency in disciplinary development and cultural political economy.
After a short historical outline of the development of sociology, the role of sociology in several phases of development is explored from the analyses based on content analysis of sociological publications and publicly financed research projects. Some examples of post-transitional studies and their possible impact on dominant discourses are given. The marginal position of sociology in post-transition is explained as the result of a series of specific social and historical circumstances in which it developed. The legacy of the previous period marked sociology in transition as a leftist, Marxist science, but also as insufficiently nationally oriented, resulting in its marginal position in terms of political and social power. After a first decade of crisis, sociology has been transformed from a parochial, poorly financed discipline to a more methodologically and theoretically mature and more internationally oriented in research project and publications.
Keywords: sociology; post-transition transformation; dominant social discourses; Croatia.