Late sociologist Petrusek receives Havel foundation award

Prague, Oct 5 (CTK) - The 2012 award of the VIZE (Vision) 97 foundation of former Czech president Vaclav Havel (1936-2011) and his widow Dagmar Havlova has been bestowed on late Czech sociologist and university lecturer Miloslav Petrusek.

The award is annually presented on October 5, the day of Havel's birthday. Friday the ceremony will be for the first time held after Havel's death.

Havel, playwright, thinker, former dissident and the last Czechoslovak and the first Czech president (in office in December 1989-March 2003), died in his country house in Hradecek, east Bohemia, on December 18, 2011, aged 75 years.

Professor Petrusek, former dean of the Faculty of Social Sciences of Charles University in Prague, did not live to see the Havel foundation's award as he died on August 19, aged 75.

His grandson Jan Holub will take over the award from Dagmar Havlova at the Prague Crossroads multicultural centre in the former St Anne's Church in the afternoon. A debate will follow.

The foundation has also published a collection of Petrusek's works entitled "The Society and Culture" on this occasion.

Petrusek, born in Zlin, south Moravia, in 1936, studied philosophy and history at Brno's Masaryk University. In the 1990s, he headed the Masaryk Czechoslovak Sociological Society. He also occupied the post of Charles University vice-rector.

He was the author or co-author of a number of sociological studies, textbooks and articles. His most significant works are, for instance, sociological lexicons from the 1960s and 1990s.

Petrusek was also one of the founders of the Vaclav Havel Library and a member of Havel's advisory group.