Petr Matějů is a Vice-president for Research at the Anglo American College in Prague and a member of the Czech Academy of Sciences affiliated to the Institute of Sociology. In July 2002 he established and currently chairs the Institute for Economic and Social Analysis. 

Since 1991 Matějů has been the head of the Research team on social stratification at the Institute of Sociology of the Academy of Sciences of the Czech Republic. He also serves on the editorial board of the Czech Sociological Review and as a co-editor of the International Journal of Comparative Sociology.

Between 1998 and 2002 he was a member of the Czech Parliament. At the same time he was a member of the Czech delegation to the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe. 
Matějů studied at Charles University in Prague, Faculty of Philosophy (graduation in 1972 in Sociology), at the University of Wisconsin in Madison (1987), and at Masaryk University in Brno, where he obtained his Ph.D. (1996) In 1999, at he same faculty, he habilitated to docent of sociology.