The Structural Problems of Czech Social Science: On the Hybrid Nature of the Czech IR Studies

Abstract

The study assesses the evolution and the current state of the IR studies in the Czech Republic. It starts from a critical stance towards those interpretations that succumb to the simplified backwardness-modernization logic. Instead the study puts forth an analysis that builds on postcolonial and subaltern approaches while showing that modernization can paradoxically reinforce the structural dependence of the discipline. The current Czech IR studies are thus better described as a hybrid discipline based on both the mechanical acceptance of Western theoretical approaches and exclusionary practices than as a successful modernization. The ability to conduct theoretically oriented research is often seen as one of the benefits of the discipline’s integration in the international academic structures. However, what is entirely ignored is the negative impact of the neoliberal disciplining techniques, commodification of research and consequently also the emergence of academic mimicry and the related fragmentation of the entire field.