Reflections on the Czech Discipline of IR: A Bourdieuian Perspective

Abstract

This article deals with the Czech discipline of International Relations
addressing its recent historical evolution as well as its current state. It relies
on the concepts of field, capital, doxa and habitus developed by the French
sociologist Pierre Bourdieu. It argues that the discipline was founded in the
late 1950s as a part of the political field, entering the field of science as late
as the 1990s. Therefore, the main dichotomies of the field were defined
politically for most of the time, e.g. reformist communists vs. orthodox
communists or anti-communists vs. communists. Nowadays, the dichotomy
refers to the role of theory, which splits empirical and descriptive research
from theoretically oriented research. This analysis also takes into account
the professional trajectory of the author and his embedded position within
the discipline.