Sociology - by Country

Sociology in general has a higher rate of projects acceptance than the RSS in general, 31.2 per cent of all applied projects are accepted in Sociology, and only 24.3 per cent in the RSS. As for the grants, applications, acceptances and acceptance rates for Sociology and for RSS are as follows:

Therefore, the highest acceptance rate in Sociology are Belarus, Latvia, Poland, Estonia and Bulgaria, the lowest are Albania, Macedonia, Moldova, Slovakia and Ukraine. Romania, Hungary and Yugoslavia have the average rates of acceptance.

In absolute numbers, the biggest applicants to the field of Sociology are Russia, Bulgaria and Hungary, each with over 90 cases. These three countries also represent the highest number of the accepted grants.

The country representation of the accepted projects is as follows:

Among the accepted projects, Bulgarian and Latvian representation is clearly well above their general rate within RSS. The over representation of Bulgaria can be partly explained by the more favourable acceptance rate in Sociology, but also by a much greater level of applications in comparison to other countries. This leads one to believe that Bulgarian sociology has something to show and that Bulgarian projects are of good quality. The same conclusion can be stated about Latvia. In contrast, Czech  sociologists are under represented, as are sociologists from Slovakia, Ukraine, Hungary, and Poland, (which in the case of the latter four countries might indicate weak proposals, and in the Czech cases just bringing the representation to a more adequate level).

When one examines the evaluation of the finished projects in Sociology by country, some of the above assumptions about the quality of the projects receive support. Czech and Bulgarian projects are evaluated above the average. Latvian projects have received a very high evaluation as well. A small number of projects with a high final evaluation was submitted by Yugoslavs, Croatians and Slovenes. On the other hand, the quality of the Hungarian projects on average turned out low. It is interesting that Poland, a country with a rather strong sociological tradition, has received below average evaluation. Slovakia, Lithuania and Ukraine similarly present weak final outcomes.

Qualitative analysis brings certain findings to the forefront of attention. Czechs remain loyal to the `problem-solving' tradition of sociology in their country, and can boast of good methodology. It is strange and sad to see nothing on the Velvet Divorce. In general, Czech sociology is empirically strong but without much range. Polish sociology differs somewhat in having a strong representation of theory, as in Smatzka 1994 research on network interaction theory, and a good deal more research in the sociology of religion and in rural sociology. The powerful Polish tradition of stratification is missing because this is easy to fund elsewhere-and because the RSS does not anyway support large data sets. In general, Polish projects were high-powered and imaginative. Hungarian sociology is good on social structure being less interested in social policy: there is a good deal of research on ethnicity, elites and economic sociology. Russian sociologists are effectively still concerned with `the Russian soul': topics in biographical sociology, the study of values, survival strategies for families and children, migration, and diaspora/ethnicity/nationalism dominate. Many of the projects examined were rather weak.. Bulgarian sociology was strong under communism because of its link to social planning. Its excellent rural sociology continues, and quite good work was done on economic institutions and on ethnicity. In general, Bulgarian sociology was a pleasant surprise. Romania has a tradition of community studies and that is still present; other studies concentrate on ethnicity and the media-with street children being a necessary topic. Romanian sociology is by no means as strong as that of Bulgaria. In other countries the study of nationalism stands out, above all in Croatia, Latvia and Yugoslavia. A general comment that can be made is that there is a good deal of continuity of native traditions of research despite tumultuous political change.