Scholarship and Power

“Research of the Ukrainian Ethnic Group” – An Academic Project in Slovakia Under the Communist Regime

Bibliographic Data

ID18970239
AuthorsGabriela Kiliánová (0000-0001-7641-6799, CSc., Institute of Ethnology and Social Anthropology , Slovak Academy of Sciences , Klemensova 19, 813 64 Bratislava, corresponding author)
Year2019
Volume67
Issue4
Pages441-462
Publication date2019-12-01
Peer ReviewedYes
Open AccessYes
TypeARTICLE
VenueSlovenský národopis (JOURNAL)
Journal identifiersISSN: 1335-1303 • E-ISSN: 1339-9357
PublisherCentral Library of the Slovak Academy of Sciences (PUBLISHER)
DOI10.2478/se-2019-0026
OpenAlexW2998518222
LanguageEN
Citations received1
References cited13

This paper considers the relations between political power and scholarly activity during the period of the communist regime in Slovakia, then part of Czechoslovakia. Taking the example of a research project on the Ukrainian minority, undertaken by the Slovak Academy of Sciences during the years 1954–70, the paper traces the relationships between scholars and politicians and among academic institutions in the Czech lands and Slovakia, and the interventions by political power in academic work. The author focuses on the following questions: how did the project originate, and what were its aims and results? In what political, economic and social context did scholars undertake the project? How did the power relations between scholars and politicians develop and change in the course of the project? Why did political power intervene in research of the Ukrainian ethnic group? The paper draws upon M. Foucault’s views on the exercise of power, develops questions of the legitimacy of power (R. Barker), conceives scholarly work as an activity of a certain kind (P. Rabinow), and concentrates on the actors in power relationships, their strategies and motivations. Empirical data for the answer to research questions were acquired from archival documents about the project and from interviews with scholars who had participated in its work. The findings from analyses show what the specific possibilities and limits were for scholars functioning in the respective network of power relationships. They furthermore reveal a gamut of successful or unsuccessful strategies which scholars employed to bring about changes in the processes of the exercise of power

Communism · Ethnic group · Geography · Legitimacy · Political science · Politics · Public relations · Scholarship · Social science · Sociology · Ukrainian · Eastern European Communism and Reforms · Historical Gender and Feminism Studies · Historical Geopolitical and Social Dynamics · Law

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