The Economics of Everyday Life in "New" Socialism

In: History of political economy, Volume 51, Issue S1, p. 52-72

Abstract

The article explores the effort by economists and economic journalists in Czechoslovakia in the 1960s to translate economic knowledge to the political language of reform communism. Czechoslovak economists aimed to cultivate public understanding of economic issues and to disseminate economic knowledge among the nonacademic public, not only through politically engaged writing in the journal Ekonomická revue, but also through research on management to change managers' behavior, habits, and competencies. In this important communication with nonacademic recipients, experts translated their economic knowledge to the specific managerial language of advice and personal self-development. A significant part of management studies literature was concerned with capitalist economies, especially capitalist managerial praxis. It thus contributed to the social academic and journalistic genre of the 1960s that focused on exploring capitalism and the West.