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This paper aims to analyze an important series of events in the history of marketing in socialist Europe and the internationalization of marketing thought and practice. Examining the reception of the marketing concept in communist Czechoslovakia, the study shows the effective blockage of the implementation of marketing approaches by orthodox communist authorities. The paper demonstrates the distinctiveness and importance of the Czechoslovak case and provides a basis for integrating that experience into the larger history of marketing under socialism.

The paper is based on an extensive review of the most relevant Czech and Slovak primary sources including trade journals, manuals and textbooks in marketing and related fields, party and government documents and statements on commercial issues, and other important professional literature on domestic commerce.

The paper provides insights into the use of communist political power to suppress the use of marketing as contrary to the social and ideological goals of socialism. It identifies the rise of marketing approaches during a brief “marketing moment” following market-oriented economic reforms in 1965 and lasting through the “Prague Spring” of 1968. Following the restoration of orthodox communist control, new policies of “normalization” dictated the decline of marketing, which returned to its earlier status of near-invisibility. The suppression of marketing thought and practice lasted until the end of communist rule in 1989.

This paper analyzes an unexamined case of marketing in a socialist society and places the case in broader comparative context.

The purpose of this paper is to examine Czech traditions of outdoor games and sports, turistika activities and education in nature programmes, which have continued to develop during periods of oppression and provided opportunities to preserve the Czech culture.

A review of the historical, cultural and political context of education in nature traditions in Czech was proposed.

Late 19th century organisations such as the Turistický klub and Sokol were instrumental in developing a range of indigenous turistika activities involving active movement. The early 20th century influences were the Czech scouting movement, summer camps and Woodcraft. Charles University provided the first tertiary outdoor educational programmes in Prague in the 1950s. Their foundation course “Turistika and Outdoor Sports” is still compulsory for all students studying physical education and sport. Turistika activities and outdoor sports and games continued to be developed throughout the liberalization of the socialist regime in the 1960s.

Following the Prague Spring in 1968, and under the guise of the Socialist Youth Union organization, new experimental forms of outdoor education emerged.

Since the Velvet Revolution in 1989 organisations have reconnected with Czech outdoor traditions that flourished before 1948 and other organisations have developed education in nature programs. The commercial sphere, which did not exist before 1989, has now been established in the outdoor area. However, traditional participation in turistika activities has been impacted by other external motivations as a broader range of opportunities have become available and accepted, and tourism outside of Czech and Europe has become increasingly popular and accessible.

The originality of this paper is to provide an overview of Czech political and cultural history and how it has shaped people's relationship, particularly children and youth, with the outdoors.

During the last years of his life, the mathematician Karl Menger worked on a biography of his father, the economist and founder of the Austrian School of Economics, Carl Menger. The younger Menger never finished the work. While working in the Menger collections at Duke University’s David M. Rubenstein Rare Book and Manuscript Library, we discovered draft chapters of the biography, a valuable source of information given that relatively little is known about Carl Menger’s life nearly a hundred years after his death. The unfinished biography covers Carl Menger’s family background and his life through early 1889. In this chapter, the authors discuss the biography and the most valuable new insights it provides into Carl Menger’s life, including Carl Menger’s family, his childhood, his student years, his time working as a journalist and newspaper editor, his early scientific career, and his relationship with Crown Prince Rudolf.

Bulgaria, at the height of what history judges, with the benefit of hindsight, as the cold war, was one of the most loyal of the Warsaw Pact nations. Yugoslavia's schism with the Soviet Union and her formation of the non‐aligned bloc, the Hungarian uprising of 1956, the Prague Spring of 1968 — all these left Bulgaria comparatively unmoved in her unshakeable loyalty.

This chapter prepares expatriates and businesses to live and work in Central Europe. It draws on intercultural relations, international relations, Central and Eastern European studies, interviews with people who are from or living in the region and the American author's experiences as an international student and expat in Kraków, Poland. It begins by introducing the concept of culture and cautioning that Central European culture is not monolithic but contains variety and layers. Second, it explains that the boundaries of Central Europe are hard to define and warns that the labels Central and Eastern European may carry significant meaning for locals. Third, it argues that history is essential to understanding contemporary life in the region and outlines major trends and patterns that remain relevant. It also suggests ways that outsiders can make sense of the relationship between the past and present, with advice on how to talk to locals and a list of questions they can use to integrate and advance their learning. Fourth, it uses Hofstede Insights' (n.d.) model to explore three key dimensions of Central European culture, including indulgence, power distance and uncertainty avoidance. It also presents additional cultural tips from locals and expats for how outsiders can adapt when they move to the region. It concludes by noting that although expats and businesses may find certain elements of Central European culture challenging, they will also likely find their time here moving and memorable.

Political dissent threads through the history of the Olympic Games. Although the International Olympic Committee (IOC) openly prohibits athletes from injecting politics into the Games, Olympians have nevertheless staged protests, using the Olympics to challenge the predominant power structures and institutions. This chapter analyzes outbursts of athlete activism in the context of wider social movements that make these political paroxysms more viable. Social movements scythe political space for athletes, spark athletes' political imaginary, and provide support and cover. From the early days of the Games, Olympic athletes have expressed dissent, as when Irish track-and-field athlete Peter O'Connor rebelled against British colonialism at the 1906 Olympics in Athens. At the Mexico City 1968 Games, Czech gymnast Vera Čáslavská carried out a politically symbolic acts as did US sprinters John Carlos, Tommie Smith, and Wyomia Tyus. At the 1972 Munich Games, US track medalists Vincent Matthews and Wayne Collett protested in nonchalant fashion on the medal stand. At the 1980 Olympics, Polish Olympian Władysław Kozakiewicz issued politically provocative symbology on the pole vault mat that challenged Soviet hegemony. In the twenty-first century, numerous Olympians have made political statements, despite a rule in the Olympic Charter that forbids such activity. In each case, athlete activists were bolstered by vibrant political movements in their home country. In this chapter, I trace the relationship between political Olympians and social movements as well as the wider dialectic of resistance and restriction that encompasses the interplay between dissident Olympians and the IOC.

Comparative education is deeply embedded in the Czech education tradition. Its development has primarily joined with the effort to improve national education. In every period the state of the field was interdependent with the social situation and political orientation of the country. A revival in the 1990s was challenged by a social and political shift. Now comparative education is a constituted field developing with increasing relevance for educational policy and practice. By descriptions, explorations and interpretations, comparative education helps to understand the substance of the world of education in its diversities and similarities. However, there are some weak points. Comparative education is taught at universities, but it is not a degree specialization. Comparative research is performed in various institutional frameworks primarily designated for other purposes. Contributions to the international community are limited by the Czech language of the most produced publications. To steer activities, to develop the theoretical and methodological discourse, to encourage young scholars to participate in comparative research, and to be more visible internationally are challenges for the future development of Czech comparative education.

This paper analyses expansion strategies of international hotel operators in Eastern Central Europe (ECE) in relation to the changes in tourism supply and demand in ECE. Potential market sectors for the ECE region are explored, with the most promising for Eastern Central Europe being an emphasis on green or nature tourism, cultural tourism, the tourist business market and, finally the rejuvenation of the traditional spas and medicinal tourism of the region. Two groups of International hotel companies are identified. The majority group who are pursuing a follow-the-customer approach for the international business client in Prague, Budapest or Warsaw, and the smaller group who have expressed interest in supplying the budget and mid markets in secondary and tertiary locations.

Describes something of the history and geography of Czechoslovakia before describing, with photographs, some of the most interesting and important buildings in the country. Points to some opportunities (as at 1991) for west European property developers.

The Eastern and Western worlds are diametrically opposed to each other not only politically and militarily but also economically and socially. In the socialist lands the communist one‐party system is dominant; in the West it is political pluralism, in Comecon the planned economy prevails, and in the Common Market and the USA it is the market economy, of course, although not in the form it took in the nineteenth century. From a social point of view the Eastern bloc guarantees full employment at a lower standard of living, in the market economy the higher standard of living is accompanied by structural, cyclical unemployment. Each system claims to be superior to the other.