Biography
Born in Prague on September 2nd, 1948, he studied philosophy, mathematics, political science, and sociology at the Masaryk University in Brno. He worked as a researcher at the Department of Complex Modelling, Sportpropag, and later in the Institute of Social Medicine and Organisation of Health Services in Prague, until 1989. He received his Ph.D. degree in Management Theory in 1989 from the University of Economics, Prague. Than he studied at the London School of Economics and Political Science (receiving a M.Sc. in European Social Policy, 1991) and took part in numerous professional fellowship and exchange programs, including Eisenhower Exchange Fellowships in the U.S. (1992), at the Oxford University (1993-1994), at the University of Konstanz (1997-2000), at the Institute of Human Sciences in Vienna (1998) and at the CEU in Budapest (1998-2000).
In 1990 he joined the newly established Faculty of Social Sciences at the Charles University in Prague. He habilitated there in 1992 as Associate Professor of Sociology. In 1999, he became Full Professor of Public and Social Policy at the new study program he had co-founded. He served as the Director of the Institute of Sociological Studies at the same Faculty (1994-2003). He established and runs the Center for Social and Economic Strategies there (2000-present). He is a member of several scientific and editorial boards. He was elected Chairman of the Masaryk Czech Sociological Association in 1995 (Vice-Chairman, 1994 and 1996) and member of the Steering Committee of the Network of Institutes and Schools of Public Administration in Central and Eastern Europe (NISPAcee) in 1997. In 2000-2002, he acted as the elected President of this international nonprofit association. He served as the First Vice-Chairman of the Research and Development Council of the Government of the Czech Republic (1999-2004). He acted as a Permanent Guest Professor at the University of Konstanz, Germany (2002-2008). He served as an advisor to Ministers of Labour and Social Affairs (1998-2006) and to the Prime Minister of the Czech Republic (2002-2004). He has been awarded the Sri Chinmoy International Honour "Lifting Up the World with a Oneness-Heart" (2003) and the NISPAcee Alena Brunovska Award (2004) for teaching excellence in public administration. He was a member of Committee for Social Sciences; Research and Development Council of the Czech Government (2004-2005) and a member of Committee for Social Sciences and Humanities; Research, Development and Innovation Council of the Czech Government (2008-2010).
In the past, he studied the teleonomic qualities of differentiated social actors, processes of cultivating and utilising human potential, and factors influencing health and health policy. At present, his research concentrates on the processes of public policy formulation and implementation in the Czech Republic (and particularly the regulatory functions of the market, the government, and the civic sector), on the problems of public administration reform, on European integration processes, and on the development of visions and strategies for the Czech state. As an author/co-author and editor/co-editor, he published 23 scientific books and three textbooks (in four cases as their single author), ca 70 articles in scientific journals, and more than 90 research papers and policy project reports until the end of 2009.
