In Brief

Marie Dohnalová graduated from the University of Economics and her further educational background is in sociology.  In 2000 she prepared the Civil Sector Studies master’s program, the only such program in the CR and founded the Department of Civil Society Studies at the Faculty of Humanities, Charles University which she led for nine years. She is the guarantor of the program. She has supervised dozens of diploma theses and prepared the Civil Sector Studies Ph.D. program for accreditation.

She is a member of the Science Council at the Faculty of Humanities, Charles University and the Research Institute for Labour and Social Affairs Council.

Her focus lies in organized civil society and social-economy themes. She is a leading Czech expert in social economy and social enterprising. Dohnalová wrote five monographs (Sociální ekonomika v evropském kontextu, Sociální ekonomika—vybrané otázky, Sociální plánování a rozvoj ekonomiky, Ekonomie pro každý den and Antropologie občanské společnosti) and co-authored other texts (Občanská společnost, Občanský sektor, Sociální ekonomika etc.), studies and articles.

She was the principle investigator or coinvestigator of Czech Science Foundation and University Development Fund projects as well as projects funded by the European Social Fund, the Ministry of Education, Youth and Sports and Josef Hlávka National Economy Institute. She is the principle investigator of the Human Rights in the Civil Sector topic under the corresponding research project at the Faculty of Humanities, Charles University.

Dohnalová is a member of the Government Council for Nongovernmental Nonprofit Organizations, Ph.D. study boards at the Faculty of Humanities and Faculty of Social Sciences, Charles University, and the working group of the MEYS accreditation committee.  She is also a member of the Editorial Board of International Journal of Pluralism and Economics Education and Fórum Sociální Politiky, the VeRBuM publishing house, and a member of the Association for Social Economics, International Society for Third-Sector Research. She used to serve as a Vice Chair of a foundation Administrative Board and a public-benefit corporation and she also founded a citizen’s association.

What is the significance of Civic Sector Studies?

“Study of the civil sector allows us to not just recognize but also to understand activities that unfold in the public space. I’m aware of many themes which are only rarely discussed in the society and that students at our department may focus on. Recently, I’ve been focusing on social-economic aspects of civil society organizations, opportunities to be economically active and increase one’s role on the local scale. Social marketing and corporate social responsibility is a new theme to be addressed.”