Svetla Koleva : "The production of sociological knowledge in a totalitarian social world"

How can sociology be practised in a totalitarian mode of social organisation? Is it possible to produce sociological knowledge that has been verified and validated according to the "rules of the method" in a context of the epistemological hegemony of the Marxist paradigm and the epistemic grip of the political, ideological and institutional "truth" of the so-called socialist society? Based on a comparative study of sociological practices in six Central and Eastern European countries marked by different forms of totalitarianism in the period 1945-1989, the conference will argue that, in contrast to normative sociology, the production of sociological knowledge in and about non-democratic societies is possible, provided that sociologists manage to create zones of relative institutional and cognitive autonomy. Various research strategies and modes of knowledge production are examined to demonstrate that, despite the difficulties of sociological practice in societies organised and run by totalitarian forces, the basic principle that has enabled the development of sociological knowledge has been the search for scientific truth in spite of the 'truth' imposed by political authority.