Abstract
For some time, scholars have devoted attention to the history of sociology, often within national boundaries and especially in the series “Sociology Transformed,” where therespective developments in Portugal, Sweden, Ireland, Australia, and America have been published so far. In the same series, in 2016, Christian Fleck published a book on Sociology in Austria since 1945, an important contribution in particular for English readers on the developments in the discipline in this country. The history of sociology in Austria is a long-time research focus of Fleck, associate professor of sociology at the University of Graz in Austria.
Sociology in Austria provides a detailed historical account of developments since the late nineteenth century but especially after 1945, advancing our understanding of the discipline’s history in this specific national context. The book is a text for students and scholars alike as well as anyone else interested in the history of sociology in Austria. The author’s organization of the text makes it an easy read as the book is chronologically structured into eight short chapters with a few subchapters each. In addition, the useful index at the end of the book facilitates the search for specific topics.
After the introduction, the individual chapters deal with the eras from the late nineteenth century to 1938, from the end of the Second World War to the 1950s, from 1959 to 1963, and from the late 1960s to the 1980s. Following this, two chapters focus on academic recruiting and extramural sociological research from the 1970s onward. In the concluding chapter, Fleck addresses the issue of the impact of sociological research and its increasing importance more broadly. Overall, the book is dedicated to the questions of how and why it could happen that an increasing institutionalization of this relatively young discipline would lead to less recognition and excellence in Austria. In light of its national history, Fleck thinks we should appreciate deinstitutionalization efforts in sociology.
Fleck begins the book by laying out a framework that emphasizes the long-term effects of history, especially the twentieth century, on the development of sociology in Austria. The Habsburg Empire and two consecutive dictatorships, he points out, meant first a neglect of academia and later the expulsion and imprisonment of researchers. The legacy of these developments was conformity and favoritism even after 1945, when the Second Republic was reestablished. The author argues that adaptation to political regimes was a strong pattern in the national higher education system for a long time.
The period from the late nineteenth century, when the social sciences were not as differentiated as they are today, until the start of the Nazi era in 1938 is portrayed as a golden era of sociology in Austria. Important works (classics) were written by researchers well-known today such as Ludwig Gumplowicz, Joseph A. Schumpeter, Alfred Schütz, Otto Neurath, and Felix Kaufmann, as well as Marie Jahoda and Paul F. Lazarsfeld. The conditions under which research was realized at that time were, however, very unfavorable since the universities did not support innovative research and restricted Jews and Leftists from career advancement.
Fleck highlights the fact that the development of sociology in Austria was interrupted by the Second World War, which was followed by stagnation due to the general societal circumstances. The Austrian Sociological Society was founded in 1950 but remained largely inactive. Important steps toward institutionalization were then taken in the 1960s, when the Institute for Advanced Studies was established in 1963. Three years later, in 1966, it was for the first time possible to study sociology at two Austrian universities with around ten new professorships. This development was related to higher education reform following pressure from the OECD. As the author points out, the introduction of several journals since the late 1960s—such as the Austrian Journal of Sociology and SWS-Rundschau—also contributed to the institutionalization and visibility of the discipline.
Regarding the funding of social research in Austria, Fleck notes the turnaround of the government in the early 2000s. Although the Social Democratic governments had primarily supported external research institutes since the 1970s, these budgets were cut from the 1990s onward. Many of the independent institutes started depending on funding from the EC and later the EU. While there was a general austerity policy in the early 2010s, the government decided to start supporting the university system again. The author mentions that, despite the difficult conditions, sociology in Austria managed to expand into offering its study at five universities.
According to Fleck, academia in Austria has always been strongly hierarchical, and the fact that the sociological “scene” is rather small in this small country has reinforced the effects of certain recruitment patterns. In a rather discontented tone the author devotes one chapter to the complexities of academic recruitment procedures and different problems related to these, such as the habilitation as a “humiliating exam” (p. 68). This is not the only point where the author’s writing style lets his discontentment with the system and certain developments show through rather clearly.
Fleck concludes his book by arguing that while sociologists in Austria are relatively present in mass media and seem to have some influence on policy, they have less academic recognition and visibility than other groups of sociologists. With his “own small evaluation project” (p. 83) based on information provided by Google Scholar, the author aims to show that expatriates and classics (as mentioned above) perform better in terms of h-index, papers, and citations than researchers who remained in Austria.
Throughout the book, Fleck supports his argument with some empirical data (four figures and two tables). At several points, he laments the lack of data on different issues that would be interesting in this context. Consequently, the inclusion of more primary data could have been interesting. While the literature and empirical data Fleck draws on, such as publicly available CVs, university sources, and Google Scholar, provide interesting information, to widen the perspective it could also be worthwhile to generate primary data—for example, through interviews (with both established researchers and newcomers) or a survey concerning the more recent developments. Some of the figures cause confusion, for instance the figure on professors of sociology at departments of sociology in Austria over time (p.50). Since the only professors included in the figure are those who are/were professors according to a certain law, it looks as if there were many fewer professors of sociology than there actually are/were researchers who indeed carry the title in Austria.
For future publications it would also be interesting to have stronger comparative elements for putting national developments into perspective with what was happening in other countries (not only but especially neighboring countries) at the same time in the field of sociology. Given the national focus of the series, as mentioned in the beginning, it could be worthwhile for the editors to think about a comparative perspective, taking into account parallel and global developments such as transnational (research, study, and other professional) networks and activities of the actors involved in making the history of sociology. In addition, it would be interesting to know more about developments in the areas of curricula and teaching as well as aspects concerning the students (for example, the activities of associations), instead of only focusing on the researchers and the system at large.
In sum, because of its key strengths and in spite of some limitations, this monograph is a welcome and relevant contribution to the analysis of the history of sociology in Austria. Fleck’s book, which shows the power of historical analysis, is also important because it provides a thorough overview and introduction on sociology in Austria for the (English-speaking) global scientific community.