A decade of backwardness

pp. 22-31

in: Christian Fleck, Sociology in Austria, Basingstoke, Palgrave Macmillan, 2016

Abstract

This chapter gives an overview of the history of sociology in Austria in the decades after the end of WWII. To understand the stagnation of this period one has to recognize the broader situation in society and the universities. Due to consecutive regime changes conformism dominated the behavior of academics. Sociology could not prosper in the 1950s because the ministry did not like its Western appeal and former Austrians were not called back. In 1950 an Austrian Sociological Society had been established, but it did nothing. The topics university sociologists debated at some length included the nature of the authoritarian regime from 1934–38 and Natural Law doctrines held in high esteem by the Roman Catholic Church.