Myths, fakes, amnesia - A critical introduction to the history of the "Gustian School "

ICUB, Debate, Friday, November 15, 2019, 3 pm, "Dimitrie Gusti" Council Hall, Faculty of Sociology and Social Assistance, Scitu Măgureanu Street

The Sociological School in Bucharest, as Gusti's monographers called it themselves, or the Gustian School, as we call it, remains a complex and rather unknown phenomenon to date, despite the recent revival attempts through thematic scientific research. Although we are no longer in the pioneering stage of the discovery of this institutional "archipelago", but rather in the nuances, revisions and deforestation of hidden lands, in the wide academic circuit still persist a lot of myths, falsehoods, misunderstandings or instances of amnesia. Whether these are the product of distortions made by the main actors of the school themselves or whether they are manufactured by posterity, all these distorted receptions show the need for a critical introduction into the history of the Gustian School.

Why an introduction? Because I think that a panoramic presentation of the Gustian School is useful to those who are familiar with the history of sociology or the history of Romanian interwar. But it is also useful to those who come into contact only sporadically with the phenomenon of the school in Bucharest. Also, an introduction because, after a period of research and publishing projects in which the "Gusti Cooperative" team developed a series of "niche" topics (which targeted people, processes, institutions, power relations, transformations, School receptions and "rehabilitations"), the time has come to put together, in a simple and accessible form, some summaries through these contributions.

Why critical? Because we intend to interrogate both the way in which the image of the School was built by its members, the way it was reintegrated into the scientific and cultural circuit during the communist period, and how it is discussed today. So we seek to discuss both what it was and what it is.

Together with our guests, we will seek to address the following topics of reflection:

Was it or was it not a School? ... About the institutions, networks and practices of the "Gustian Workshop".
Monograph - what kind of sociology? Is "social will" essentialism? What does "science of the nation" mean?
Is there a "country project" of the Gustians? Capitalism or leadership? Centralism or regionalism? What about minorities?
A ruralist-pașunist school? About the village, but also the city, for the gustians.
Young monographers and the "Young generation".
Women in the monography. The monographic research of "gustian" women.
Social action, social service - transfer of practices and the invention of a "native software".
Inter-war "heavy topics": legionarism, fascism, communism, Carlism, biopolitics, eugenics ...
When was the Gustian school actually destroyed? From the project of the National Council of Scientific Research to the International Social Institute - Gustian ways of saving sociology.
Gustian sociology at breakdown in the 50s - without Gusti, without sociology.
Rehabilitation of the school during the communist regime. From the "triumphalism" of the 60's to the entry into the shadow cone of the 80's.
Reception of the school in post-communism. Encomiastic falsifications, "critical" falsifications. Why was the vision - essentially minimalizing - established in the 1980s perpetuated? Can the history of Romanian sociology be a constant concern or will it remain an occasional anniversary?

Debate initiated by

Zoltán Rostás

Ionuț Butoi

With the participation of:

Dumitru Sandu

Marian Zulean

Theodora-Eliza Văcărescu

Matei Costinescu

Alina Juravle

Antonio Momoc

Călin Cotoi

Irina Năstată-Matei

Dana Costin

Rucsandra Pop

Myths, fakes, amnesia – A critical introduction to the history of the “Gustian School”

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