How to do Sociology from Scratch? Research Agendas, Academic Profiles and Political Connotations in Hungarian Sociology Between 1963-1973

Following a period of official ban and clandestine existence, sociology as a valid approach within Marxist social science gradually regained ground in Eastern European countries during the early 1960s. Its institutional forms consisting of research groups, departments and institutes, along with its research and publication possibilities, were reestablished. This talk aims at providing an outline and analysis of some of the most decisive aspects of the development of the Hungarian sociology from the mid-1960s to the mid-1970s. We will discuss aspects of empirical and theoretical work, the academic profiles of some of the principal scholars, and the modes by which professional, institutional, and political aspects of sociological work could play formative roles in the emergence of social critical approaches to state socialism.