Research

RESEARCH AREAS

• Sociology of gendered organisations and organisational change
• Research governance and the transformation of research and higher education
• The combination of professional and private lives
• Launching an academic career: mobility and job precarity
• Gender bias in research assessments and research excellence
• Gender-based violence and sexual harassment in higher education
• Policy analysis of gender equality policies in research and innovation

RESEARCH PROJECTS

Transformation processes after 1989 reflected in changes to industrial chemical research institutes (2018–2020)

Chemical research and developement (R&D) institutes constituted an important part of the research structure of the centrally planned economies and in general important part of Czechoslovak science prior 1989. During the transformation period in the 1990s, most of the industrial R&D institutes were abolished or transformed into (semi) for-profit entities. Goals of the project are:

• To map in detail the standing of industrial R&D institutes in the late normalisation period and after 1989 (using archival and media research to anchor the analysis);
• To establish what happened to the knowledge embodied by the former research employees of the R&D chemical institutes and detect possible gendered consequences of transformation on their careers (using biographical interviews);
• To explore the interpretative frameworks deployed by former employees vis-à-vis the transformation of both science and society at large (using biographical interviews);
• To map the contested process of “environmentalization” of Czechoslovak science prior and after 1989 (all methods mentioned above).

The project will assess the loss/transfer of scientific capacities, human capital and knowledge during the transformation process as well as the impact of the changes on the individual actors from the perspective of interpreting contemporary history through the lens of Science and Technology Studies (STS).

PAST RESEARCH PROJECTS

Analysis of barriers and strategy promoting gender (2017–2018)

The project will analyse the position of women and men researchers in the Czech public research sector and prepare a strategy to advance gender equality in research. The project entails a large-scale research study into problems, challenges and potential of the Czech public research revolving around four pillars:

• A representative survey focused on various aspects of career paths in research and in academia, changing working conditions, impacts of research policies and the gendered outcomes of these changes;
• A qualitative study focused on an in-depth analysis of more subtle aspects of the academic culture, research practice and academic paths in various disciplines and types of research institutions;
• Interviews with stakeholders in decision-making positions in research and innovation and their opinions and attitudes toward advancing gender equality in research and innovation and concrete instruments and actions;
• A study of foreign experience and practices as regards human resources development and gender equality advancement in research at the level of national authorities, key research and innovation stakeholders and institutions, and an analysis of the transferability of these policies and practices in the Czech content.

The project ran between 2017 and 2018 and was funded by the European Union from the European Social Fund, Operational Programme Employment.