The Gusti Cooperative. Two Decades of Social History Experiments

Abstract This text outlines the journey and achievements of the Gusti Cooperative, a research group with deep roots in the work of Professor Zoltán Rostás in the field of oral history. Established in the early 2000s, the Cooperative emerged from Rostás’s initiative to offer an alternative and complementary history of the Sociological School of Bucharest. Comprising Rostás, his Ph.D. students, and a network of friends, the Cooperative primarily focuses on social history and the history of Romanian sociology. Their work revolves around oral history interviews, documentation, and the publication of otherwise inaccessible documents from the interwar period. Despite maintaining an informal status and lacking a conventional organizational structure, the Cooperative has made significant contributions to the field of Romanian sociological research over the past two decades. Their most notable work involves the retrieval and publication of forgotten pages from the history of Romanian sociology, including anthologies, correspondences, and unpublished documents.