Principal Investigator: Professor Ivan Tchalakov

Department: Department of Sociology

Key areas of expertise/ interest: sociology of knowledge, science and technology studies and historical sociology of socialist and post-socialist countries; transformation of the research and innovation systems in post-socialist countries; information and communication technologies; “indirect network analysis” method; the study of economic and social dynamics of late-socialist and 1990-s society in Bulgaria; graph theory and homogeneity analysis.

Summary: Ivan Tchalakov has completed his PhD in 1988 at the Institute of Sociology, BAS with thesis on classical sociology of knowledge. He is working in the field of science and technology studies and historical sociology of socialism and post-socialism. Between 1993-1997 he has carried out an ethnographic study of a holographic laboratory (CLOSPI) at BAS, where he developed the notion of heterogeneous micro-community, comprising limited number of human and non-human actors.  Since mid 1990s Ivan Tchalakov has also extensively studied the transformation of the research and innovation systems in post-socialist countries. Between 1998-2001 he was scientific coordinator of TACTICS project – a comparative study of the development of information & communication technologies in Bulgaria, Macedonia and Romania (INCO-Copernicus IV Program). In this project together with Donka Keskinova they worked with Michel Callon from CSI, Ecole des Mines de Paris in developing the method of so-called ‘indirect network analysis”, using simultaneously cluster and multiple correspondence analysis to identify group of companies with similar patterns of relationships with other economic and social actors and then applied network visualization software (Reseau Lu) to map these patterns. Although the study relied on static data, the authors were able to identify emerging patterns of relationships, which later were confirmed by case studies and other qualitative methods. (Relevant publications given in attached CVs).
In these studies a dynamic social ontology was conceived, much in tradition of actor-network theory. During the last several years it was used by Ivan Tchalakov in the study of economic and social dynamics of late-socialist and 1990-s society in Bulgaria.
Since the establishment of the new Faculty of Philosophy and History at Plovdiv University in 2004, Dr. Ivan Tchalakov was appointed as permanent Associate Professor, and since April 2005 headed the new Department of Sociology at the same Faculty.

Publications (recent):

Tchalakov I., (2007). "Technology and the Models of Post-Socialist Economic Transition: Some Evidences from the Bulgarian experience", in: Governing Sociotechnical Change in Southeastern Europe: Contributions from A Science & Technology Studies Perspective, East-West Publishers, Sofia, pp.169-201

Tchalakov I., (2006). "Socialism as Society of Networks and the Problem of Technological Innovations", in: Sociological Problems, Special Issue 2006, BAS Academic Publishers, Sofia, pp.343-371

Tchalakov, I (2005) - "The History of Holographic Optical Storage at The Both Sides of The Iron Curtain - 1969-1989", ICON - The Journal of the International Committee for the History of Technology, vol.11

Tchalakov, I. and Georgi Kapriev (2005) - "The Limits of Causal Action Actor-Network Theory Notion of Translation and Aristotle’s Notion of Action", in: 2005 - Yearbook of the IAS-STS, Edited by Arno Bammé, Günter Getzinger, and Bernhard Wieser, Graz, Austria, München,  Profil, 35 pages

Tchalakov, I. (2004) - "Language and Perception in the Coupling Between Human and Non-human Actors", in: 2004 - Yearbook of the Institute for Advanced Studies on Science, Technologies & Society, Edited by Arno Bammé, Günter Getzinger, and Bernhard Wieser, Graz, Austria.

Tchalakov, I. (2004) - "The Object and the Other in Holographic Research - Approaching Passivity and Responsibility of Human Actors", in: Science, Technology & Human Values, vol.29 No.1

Tchalakov, I. (2003) -  "Joseph Schumpeter rethought: the classic ideas on the innovations in no-exchange economy at the light of some resent studies of the communist economy", in: Theorie V_dy / Theory of Science, Vol.: XII/XXV/2003, No.3, Prague

Tchalakov I., (2002). "Multiple Correspondence Analysis and its Application in Studying Relationships between Social Actors", in: Sociological Problems, No.1-2, pp.206-225 (in co-authorship with Donka Keskinova)

Tchalakov I., (2001). "Cluster Analysis and its Application as Preliminary Step to the Use of Multiple Correspondence Analysis in Sociology", in: Sociological Problems, No.3-4, pp.174-198 (in co-authorship with Donka Keskinova)