Aktéři, struktury a šance v transformaci společnosti

Abstract

The aim of the article is to give a view of the major sociological dilemma of agency versus structure as a prism of the transformation processes in society after the demise of „real socialism“. It concludes that the depth of the systemic transformations sets general theoretical questions in a clearer context. Attention is devoted to the general public, social classes and specific socio-economic strata as the agents of social inertia and change (e.g. with a view to the processes of the legitimisation of intervention in property relations). In this context the article brings together various empirical and conceptual reflections on the one hand, and the instruments or consequences of intervention on Ihe other. It considers the sources and effects of solidarity value orientations, practical limitations in entrepreneurial careers, the process of formation of „proto ownership“ behaviour and also, for example, the differential influence of institutionalised forms of public pressure on the development of what is known as „major“ and „small-scale“ enterprise. The founding acts of the transformations are considered through the optic of the reconstruction of the class structure, and Ihe theoretical sources of the contemporary picture of social organisation are „tested“ especially with regard to questions of structurally instituted responsibility as the counterpart of the (class) conflict that is usually stressed. The conclusion draws attention to the consequences of a certain inconsistency in the social stratification in a real social context (of enterprises, above all) for the transfer of patterns of behaviour and transformation as a whole.