Martin Potůček

Martin Potůček is Czech academic and journalist.

Education Potůček studied philosophy, mathematics, political science, and sociology at 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. in management theory in 1989 from the University of Economics, Prague. He subsequently studied at the London School of Economics, receiving an M.Sc. in European social policy in 1991, and participated in a number of professional fellowship and exchange programs, including with the Eisenhower Exchange Fellowship in the United States (1992), Oxford University (1993–1994), the University of Konstanz (1997–2000), the Institute of Human Sciences in Vienna (1998) and Central European University in Budapest (1998–2000).

Career In 1990 Potůček 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 on the new study program he had co-founded. He served as the director of the Institute of Sociological Studies at the same faculty from 1994 to 2003. He established and has run the Center for Social and Economic Strategies there since 2000.

Potůček 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 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. Since 2008 and from 2004 to 2005 he was a member of Committee for Social Sciences and Humanities, Research and Development Council of the Czech Government.

Potůček ran for Czech president in 2003. He sought the nomination of the Czech Social Democratic Party, but came fourth in the party's presidential primaries and was not nominated.