Critical Thinking in Slovakia After Socialism

Jonathan Larson

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Critical Thinking in Slovakia after Socialism interrogates the putative relationship between critical thought and society through an ethnographic study of civic discourse in post-1989 Slovakia. Drawing on original fieldwork as well as on anthropological theories of language and culture, Jonathan Larson uncovers traces of patterned elements of criticism throughout the Slovak political discourse. In addition, he exposes ways that these discursive practices have been misinterpreted and overlooked, and outlines unexpected historical and interactive limitations on criticism. This important volume, bringing together scholarship on East Central Europe, liberalism, education, and the public sphere, gives students of modern history, political science, and economics fresh perspective on an essential civic skill.

Jonathan L. Larson is visiting assistant professor of anthropology at the University of Iowa.

Book Details

Publisher: University of Rochester Press
Publish Date: Apr 15th, 2013
Pages: 260
Language: English
Edition: undefined - undefined
Dimensions: 9.50in - 6.20in - 0.80in - 1.20lb
EAN: 9781580464376
Categories: • Civil Rights• European - Eastern (see also Russian & Soviet)• Eastern Europe - General

About the Author

Larson, Jonathan: - JONATHAN LARSEN is Assistant Professor of Education at Grinnell College, IA.

Praise for this book

In this highly original account, Jonathan Larson interrogates what it means to possess and to lack 'critical thinking, ' a virtue at once central to, and elusive within, the political imaginations of liberalism and socialism. Superbly conceived and realized, Larson's ethnography unpacks how critical thinking became a key subject of desire and dispute in the process of refashioning political subjectivity in postsocialist Slovakia.--Dominic Boyer, Professor of Anthropology, Rice University

[T]his sophisticated and unique work is a great accomplishment . . . Larson's work should be of great interest to scholars in anthropology and beyond.-- "PoLAR"

[A] very valuable account of the development of (il)liberal 'culture' after socialism. It might not only be applied to other post-socialist contexts but also to the analysis of the proliferation of Western understandings of critical liberal thought worldwide.-- "SOCIAL ANTHROPOLOGY"

[A] welcome addition to the scholarship on contemporary Slovakia . . . The book demonstrates that it is possible to think through a concept as slippery and open to interpretation as critical thinking in complex and nuanced ways.-- "SLAVONIC AND EAST EUROPEAN REVIEW"

The author does an engaging job of threading ethnographic interview details [and] observational fieldwork with historic sociopolitical and linguistic references evidenced through narratives, interviews, and articles. . . .-- "JOURNAL OF LINGUISTIC ANTHROPOLOGY"

The book provides an eye-opening and inspiring understanding of critical thinking and civil criticism in post-socialist Slovakia, on the other hand. The ethnographic approach allows Larson . . . to launch a challenge to those who assume that post-1989 Slovakia should uncritically adopt the norms of liberal democratic countries for its public culture without considering how the past saturates the present, and how critical thought has been influenced by interpersonal interaction.-- "DISCOURSE & SOCIETY"

Critical Thinking in Slovakia after Socialism has global relevance for anyone interested in the ways that post-Enlightenment critical thought remains active in the public sphere and the ways that schooling shapes society. Larson meets the challenge of making a book on intellectual and educational institutions relevant to a broader audience.-- "H-NET REVIEWS"